The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-29
WILSON'S NOTE TO POPE BENEDICT

luton which would be attempted by ali
the malign influences TO which the Ger
man government has OF late accustomed
restitution of its power or upon any word
of honor it could pledge in a treaty OF set
tement and accommodation!
Peace With Peoples Rights.
Irresponsible statesmen must now every
where see, if they never saw before, that
no peace can rest securely upon political
or economic resolutions mean to benefit
some nations and cripple or embarrass
others; upon vindictive action OF any sort
or any kind of revenge or deliberate IN,
jury The American people have SUFFERED
intOlerable wrongs at the hands of the i'm
perial German government but they desire
no reprisal upon the German people, who
have themselves suffered all things in this
war. which they did not choose They be-
lieve that peace should rest upon rights
Of peoples. not the rights OF governments
the right of peoples, great or small, weak
pOwerful-their equal right to freedom
and security and self government and to a
cmic opportunities of the wor.d-the Ger
man people, of course, included, if they
will accept equality and not GEEK domina-
THE test. therefore, of ever: plan of
peace is this; Is it based upon faith of
all the peoples involved or merely upon
word of an ambitious and intriguing gov
ernment on the one hand, and a group
of free peoples on the other This is a test
that goes to the root of the matter: and
it is the test which must be applied.
Purpose of U $. in war
1.-The purposes of the United States in
this war are known to the whole world-to
every people to whom the truth has been
permitted to come. They do not need to
be stated again. We seek no material ad-
vantage of any kind. We believe that the
intolerable wrongs done in this by the
furious and brutal power of the imperial
German government ought to be repaired,
but not at the expense of the sovereignty
of any people-rather a vindication of the
sovereignty, both of those that are weak
and those that are strong. Punitive dam
ages, the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of empires. the
establishment of selfish and exclusive
leagues, we deem ineXpedient and in the
end worse than futile, no proper basis for
peace of any kind. least of all for an
enduring peace. That must be based upon
justice and fairness and the common rights
of mankind.
I'VE cannot take the word of the present
rulers of Germany a guarantee of any
thing that is to endure, unless explicitly
supported by such conclusive evidence of
the will and purpose of the German people
themselves the other peoples of the
world would be justified in accepting.
Without such guarantees. treaties of settle
ment, agreements for disarmament, cove
force, territorial adjustments. reconstitu-
tons of small nations. if made with the
German government, no man. nation
could now depend on. We must await some
new evidence of the purposes of the great
peoples of the central powers. God grant
1t may be given soon and in a way to re-
store the confidence of all peoples every
where in the faith of nations and the pos
sibility of a coyenanted peace.
(Signed) ROBERT LANSING,
Secretary of State of the United States of
America"