regard either to the sacred obligations of treaty or the longestablished practices and long-cherished principles of international action and honor; which chose its own time for the war; delivI ered 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 now stands balked, but not defeated, the enemy of four-fifths of the world.

This power is not the German people. It is the ruthless master of the German people. It is no business of ours how that great people came under its control or submitted 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 far as we can see, involve a recuperation of its strength and a renewal of its policy; would make it necessary to create a permanent hostile combination of nations against the German 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 be attempted by all the malign influences to which the German Government has of late accustomed the world.

Can peace be based upon a restitution of its power or upon any word of honor it could pledge in a treaty of settlement and accommodation?

PEACE MUST REST ON RIGHTS.

Responsible statesmen must now everywhere see, if they never saw before, that no peace can rest securely upon political or economic restrictions 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 intolerable wrongs at the hands of the Imperial 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 the rights of peoples, not the rights of Governments-the rights of peoples, great or small, weak or powerful-their equal right to freedom and security and self-government and to a participation upon fair terms in the economic opportunities of the world, the German people, of course, included, if they will accept equality and not seek domination.

The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this: Is it based upon the faith of all the peoples involved, or merely upon the word of an ambitious and intriguing Government, on the one hand, and a group of free peoples, on the other? This is a test which goes to the root of the matter; and it is the test which must be applied.

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 advantage of any kind. We believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this war 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 of those that are strong. Punitive damages, the dismemberment of empires, 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.

GERMANY'S RULERS CANNOT BE TRUSTED.

We cannot take the word of the 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 peoples of the world would be justified in accepting. Without such guarantees treaties of settlement, agreements for disarmament, covenants to set up arbitration in the place of force, territorial_adjustments, reconstitutions of small nations, if made with the German Government, no, man, no nation, could now depend on.

We must await some new evidence of the purposes of the great peoples of the Central Powers. God grant it may be given soon and in a way to restore the confidence of all peoples everywhere in the faith of nations and the possibility of a covenanted ROBERT LANSING,

peace.

Secretary of State of the United States of America.

COMMENTS ON THE REPLY TO THE POPE.

London Daily Mail: "President Wilson's reply has the spirit and point of view the world has learned during the last six months to look for in all his utterances on the war.'

London Times: "The answer of a practical statesman to the peace dreams of the Vatican."

Daily Telegraph: "It comes like an invigorating wind to' blow away the cobwebs which pacifism and its dupes have been spinning about the central things in this great quarrel."

Morning Post: "Reveals a man who has his eye fixed on realities and his mind resolved unflinchingly on a great purpose. At the end of three years of unspeakable strain and anxiety it is an inestimable service to the Allies to find such leadership as this strong, clear-sighted, inflexible-inspiring new courage and faith, shaming the faint-hearted and silencing the disaffected."

New York World: "That President Wilson . . . spoke for all the Allied Governments admits of no doubt, but what is more important-he spoke for the people of all the Allied Govern

ments.

New York Post: "In his outline of peace terms, Mr. Wilson takes the lead."

has satisfied New York Globe: "President Wilson the conscience of the world that stands steadfast for war until real peace is possible."

New York Tribune: "The final word of western civilization to that system of barbarism which dominates and controls the German Empire. . . Mr. Wilson has demolished every edifice of peace founded upon the idea of preserving any portion of the German purpose and the German idea.”

Evening Standard: "Mr. Wilson puts into plain English what our statesmen clothe in roundabout and unimpressive language." Philadelphia Enquirer: "It ought to clear the atmosphere not only in the United States but in Europe."

New York Herald: "In language that will ring round the world . . speaking for the people of all nations."

Boston Post: "He shows in his most crystalline and effective fashion how futile and evanescent any peace would be backed only by the faith of the Hohenzollerns."

AUGUST 30, 1917-FRENCH BREAK GERMAN LINES NORTH OF VERDUN, ON A FRONT OF 11 MILES.

SEPTEMBER 3, 1917-PRESident Wilson SENDS A MESSAGE TO THE NATIONAL Army.

(The first group (687,000) of the army selected by lot from the 10,000,000 registered June 5th, began to move toward their training stations two days later. The care taken of the army, and the high mental tone of the soldiers, are new in warfare.)

A MESSAGE TO THE NATIONAL ARMY.

To the Soldiers of the National Army:

You are undertaking a great duty. The heart of the whole country is with you.

Everything that you do will be watched with the deepest interest and with the deepest solicitude, not only by those who are near and dear to you, but the whole nation besides. For this great war draws us all together, makes us all comrades and brothers, as all true Americans felt themselves to be when we first made good our national independence.

The eyes of all the world will be on you, because you are in some special sense the soldiers of freedom. Let it be your pride. therefore, to show all men everywhere not only what good soldiers you are, but also what good men you are, keeping yourselves fit and straight in everything and pure and clean through and through.

Let us set for ourselves a standard so high that it will be a glory to live up to it, and then let us live up to it and add a new laurel to the crown of America.

My affectionate confidence goes with you in every battle and every test. God keep and guide you! WOODROW WILSON. SEPTEMBER 8, 1917-SECRETARY LANSING EXPOSES COUNT LUXBURG.

(Count Luxburg, German Minister at the Argentine, had used the Swedish Foreign Office to advise his Government about sinking Argentine ships. He recommended that they be sunk without_trace-"spurlos_versenkt.” This "spurlos versenkt" note, among others, fell into the State Department's hands and was published, creating a new disgust with German methods.) SEPTEMBER 8, 1917-ENGLAND ADOPTS PRESIDENT WILSON'S REPLY TO THE POPE.

SEPTEMBER 12, 1917-THE PRESIDENT Appoints a PERSONAL COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE LABOR RESTLESSNESS AND REPORT. SEPTEMBER 15, 1917-RUSSIA PROCLAIMED a Republic. SEPTEMBER 21, 1917-STATE DEPARTMENT EXPOSES VON BERNSTORFF, FORMER GERMAN Ambassador TO THE U. S. (4 letter was made public showing that von Bernstorff intended and expected to corrupt Congress in favor of Germany,

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