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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1917)
. ',tiprgpk(i.-T- The Commoner WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR VOL 17, NO. 8 Lincoln, Nebraska, September, 1917 Whole Number 701 President Wilson's Reply to Pope's Peace Note President Wilson's reply to Pope Benedict's appeal was made public at Washington, August 28. The note was signed by Secretary of State Lansing. The text of the note follows: "To His Holiness, Benedictus XV., Pope: "In acknowledgment of the communication of your holiness to the belligerent peoples, dated August 1, 1917, the President of the United States requests me to transmit the following reply: "Every heart that has not been blinded and hardened by this terrible war must be touched by this moving appeal of his holiness, the pope, must feel the dignity and force of the humane and generous motives which prompted it, and must fervently wish that w'e might take the path of peace he so persuasively points out. But it would be folly to take it if it does not in fact lead to the goal he proposes. FOR STABLE AND ENDURING PEACH "Our response must be based upon the stern facts and upon nothing else. It is not a mere cessation of arms he desires; it is a stable and enduring peace. This agony must not be gone through with again, and it must be a matter of very sober judgment that will insure us against it. "His holiness in substance proposes that we return to the status quo ante bellum, and that then there be a general condonation, disarm ament, and a concert of nations, based upon an acceptance of the principle of arbitration; that by a similar concert freedom of the seas be es tablished; and that the territoral claims of France and Italy, the perplexing problems of the Balkan states, and the restitution of Poland be loft to such conciliatory adjustments as may be possible in the new temper of such a peace, due regard being paid to the aspirations of the peo ples whose political fortunes and affiliations will be involved. "It is manifest that no part of this program It is not wise to "put new wine into old bottles"-- the spirit of democracy into au tocratic governmental forms. Democracy must be ex pressed through a govern mental organization repre sentative of and responsive to the people. can be successfully carried out unless the resti tution of the status quo ante bellum furnishes a firm and satisfactory basis for it. The object of this war is 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 out the plan 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 a whole continent within the tide of blood not the blood of soldiers only, but the blood of innocent women and children also, and of the helpless poor; and noy stands balked, but not defeated, the enemy of four fifths of the world. This power is not the Ger man peoio it is the ruthless master of the German people. It is uu tuntnogq nf nurs how that great people came under its control or sub mitted with temporary zest to the domination of its purpose; but it is our business to see to it that the history of the rest of the world is no longer left to its handling. "To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the plan proposed by his holiness, the pope, would, so fa as we can see, involve a recupera tion of its strength and a renewal of its policy; would make it necessary to create a permanent hostile combination of nations against the Ger man people, who are its instruments; and would result in abandoning the new-born Russia to the intrigue, the manifold subtle interference, and the certain counter revolution which would bo attempted by all the malign influences to which the German government has of late accustomed the world. Can peace be based upon a restitu tion of its power or pon any word of honor it could pledge in a treaty of settlement and ac commodation? AMERICA DESIRES NO REPRISALS "Responsible statesmen must now everywhere see if they never saw before, that no peace can rest securely upon political or economic restric tions meant to benefit some nations and cripple or embarrass others, upon vindictive action of any sort, or any kind of revenge or deliberate injury. The American people have suffered in to erable wrongs at the hands of the imperia 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 believe that peace should rest upon he ghts of peoples, not the rights of gov I the rights of peoples great or small, aai scour. ZT:LVlcZ-STtSn- Oerma pcop.0 o, course included, if they will accept oquallty and not seek domination. "The test, therefore, of every plan of peaco is this: It is based upon tho faith of all the peoples involved or merely upon tho word of an ambi tious and intriguing government, on tho ono hand, and of a group of free pcoplon, on tho other? This is a test which goes to tho root of the matter; and It is tho test which must bo ap plied. PURPOSES KNOWN TO ALL TUB WORLD "The purposes of tho United States in this war are known to the whole world to every peoplo to whom tho truth has been permitted to come. They do not need to be Btatcd again. We seek no material advantage of any kind. We b'ollcvo that the Intolerable wrongs done In this war by the furious and brutal power of the Imperial Ger man government ought to bo repaired, but.not at the expenso of the sovereignty of any people rather a vindication of the sovereignty both of Punitive damages, the dismemberment of em pires, the establishment of selfish and exclusive economic, leagues, we deem inexpedient and in the end worse than futile, no proper basis for a 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. "We can not take tho word of tho present rulers of Germany as a guarantee of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly supported by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German people themselves as the other people of the world would be Justified In accept ing. Without such guarantees, treaties of set tlement, agreements for disarmament, covenants to set up arbitration In tho place of force, terri torial adjustments, reconstitutions of small na tions, if made with the German government no man, no nation could now depend on. We must await some new evidence of the purposes of tho CONTENTS TO PRESIDENT WILSON'S REPLY POPE'S PEACE NOTE POPE'S PEACE APPEAL TO BELLIGER ENTS PROGRESS TOWARD PROHIBITION "MEN OP AFFAIRS" THE DEPENDENT FAMILY THE INDIANA SITUATION RUf SIA'S WEAKENING RAILROAD REGULATION THE FIGHT IN IOWA WHY PROFITEERS KNOCK DANIELS JOHN WORTH KERN PROHIBITION AND THE FARMER THE GREAT ADVANCE RATE CASE II H l m V'l i i Si I 5 fll , ii i'