Evening star., 1925-10-26

OF all the utteranceS of President
Wilson, probably the answer to Pope
Benedict XIV, in August, 1917, gave
Page the greatest satisfaction. His
holiness had appealed to the war
ring powers to cease their battles,
to restore the political conditions of
Europe as they had existed before
1914. and to settle outstanding prob.
lens on the basis of arbitration,
general conformation. and Christian
charity. President Wilson, paying
due respect to the source from which
the proposal came, rejected it in words
that sped like lightning through two
hemispheres and put a new spirit into
the effort of the allies.
The object of the war" said the
President, lis to deliver the free
peoples of the world from the menace
and the actual power of a vast
military establishment, controlled by
an irresponsible government, which,
having secretly planned to dominate
the world. proceeded to carry the plan
out without regard either to the sacred
Obligations of treaty or the long estab-
lished practices and long cherished
principles of international action and
honor, which chose its own time for
the war, delivered its blow fiercely and
suddenly, stopped at no barrier, either
of law or of mercy; swept whole
continent within the tide of blood
not the blood of soldiers only, but
the blood of innocent women and of
children also, and of the helpless
poor: and now stands, baked but not
defeated, the enemy of four-tifths of
the world"
1t was an eloquent description of
the origin of the war and the spirit
with which Germany had waged hos
tilities. and one can imagine Pages
pleasure in reading it. Nor would
it have been more than human nature
had he felt a personal qualification.
For the Presidents Interpretation was
precisely the one that Page had been
setting forth for three years. From the
day the Germans invaded Belgium.
the ambassador, in letter after letter.
had described the object of the war,
as the deliverance "of the free peoples
of the world from the menace and
the actual power of a vast military
sponsible government" The neces-
Sary conclusion, in the Presidents
reply-that the United States, in max
ing peace, should have no negotiations
with the Hohenzollern government.
but would insist on dealing only with
the responsible representatives of the
German people-was a plan which
Page would naturally approve.
AS l promptly telegraphed you,"
Page wrote in reference to this mes
sage, and, as, of course, you have
heard through many channels, your
reply to the Pope received a most
enthusiastic welcome here, not only
because 1t meets with universal ap-
proval: there's a deeper reason than
that. 1t expresses definitely the moral
and the deep and clear political rea-
son for the war-the freeing of the
world. including the German people.
from the German military autocracy;
and it expresses this better and with
more force than it has ever been ex.
pressed by anybody on this side of the
world. You have made acceptable
peace terms, clearer, not only to the
enemy, but also to the allies than
they have ever before made known.
All these nations here have so many
relatively unimportant and so many
purely selfish aims that their minds
run on. Here you come setting forth
the one big thing worth fighting for
the one big moral and political aim
no revenge, no mere boundary rec
tifications, no subsidiary thing to con-
fuse the main purpose. This gives
moral leadership to the whole war;
and the British know and feel this"