A

CORRESPONDENT of the Havas Agency, an association similar to The American Associated Press, telegraphed the following from Paris on Aug. 17, 1917:

Yesterday evening at nightfall French lines were perceived approaching at places to within a kilometer of the suburbs of St. Quentin. The cathedral was surrounded with smoke. Soon flames burst forth, and the fire increased in intensity. Toward midnight the imposing building, dominating the plain with its lofty mass, disappeared in the flames, the sinister light of which was seen for nearly twenty miles around. It is impossible to ascertain the causes of the fire. The Germans will not be able to assert that the fire was started by French shells, for, since St. Quentin has been in proximity to our lines, not a French projectile has fallen on the town. This afternoon the cathedral is still surrounded with smoke. The whole superstructure which formed the lofty roof has disappeared. The apse has completely fallen in. It appears that the four walls, blackened by the flames, and forming as it were the sinister carcass of what was one of our finest churches, has alone survived, with the towers breached, jagged, and reddened by fire. The conflagration, having devoured everything, is now appeased, but thick smoke still ascends in front of the cathedral, appearing to rise from the town quarter.

The London Post commented on the foregoing by citing an illustration of the German idea of culture, as follows:

In a

The unfortunate city of St. Quentin affords two instances of the character of the German's services to culture. recent number of the Woche, Lieutenant Hofmann describes a museum which has been established by the German army in the fortress town of Maubeuge in France as a place of intellectual repose for German officers far from the excitement of war, and as a witness to Germany's conin sideration for culture the occupied provinces of our ally. This museum, once a third-class shop, the "Pauvre Diable," on the Place du Marché, Maubeuge, consists of the most important works of art taken from St. Quentin and its neighborhood, an enter

prise carried out by Lieutenant Baron de Hadeln, art historian, and Lieutenant Keller, a Berlin architect. The writer gives a very graphic account of the contents of this "place of distraction." From the vestibule to the first floor of the house the walls are covered with tapestry, representing the most brilliant specimens of the best periods of the art of the Beauvais and Gobelins factories. One room, is transformed into an empire salon, and its red damask hangings give the fullest value to Canova's marble bust of Napoleon. There are paintings, bronzes, and furniture from the Goulincourt Castle, and the Louis Philippe salon has splendid French and Oriental carpets, soft and restful, where " the boot of the German rests with joy." The curtains are of yellow silk, chairs are gayly decorated, and the porcelain and pictures are good.

The Cathedral of St. Quentin could not be removed to Maubeuge to save it from the "French artillery," so the Germans themselves have destroyed it by fire. But they first removed from the doomed building a Gothic statue of St. Quentin, the patron of the town, and from the same basilica were taken a charming Madonna " and precious stained glass win

dows.

The most valuable works in the museum at Maubeuge are the wonderful pastels of Quentin La Tour, who was a native of his name town. These portraits of famous French men and women of the eighteenth century were the glory of St. Quentin, and are, as Lieutenant Hofmann says, "the most delicate flowers of a refined art," more than eighty in number, yet, he continues, "I did not experience the least fatigue in contemplating them." Then he goes on eloquently, "these priceless works of art have been placed here [in Maubeuge] safe from the ravages of war. The German spirit and German force ever know how to safeguard the intellectual patrimony common to all nations." But as a Frenchman remarks: "The world would better appreciate this eloquent eulogy of the services Germany renders to 'culture' if it were not recorded every day in the communiqués: La Ville de Reims a reçu 1,600 obus.'" and he could now add, "if we were not aware of the dastardly destruction of the Cathedral of St. Quentin."

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 subtile interference, and the certain counterrevolution 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?

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 reprisals 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 of a group of free peoples on the other? This is the 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.

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 peace.

ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State of the United States of America.

THE

HE reply of the President to the Pope's peace note received enthusiastic approval throughout the United States and was unreservedly indorsed by all the influential newspapers and authorized spokesmen of the allied nations; it produced a profound impression in Germany and Austria, and was sympathetically received by all the elements of the neutral nations except those with pronounced pro-German leanings. Semiofficial news from the Vatican indicated that the Pope was disappointed.

German-Americans Approve

The German-American view was expressed by the New-Yorker StaatsZeitung in a rather favorable comment by the editor in chief in these words:

The President's note to the Pope has met with the hearty approval of all Americans. It appeals to German-Americans particularly because it dispels the mist which has heretofore hung over our participation in the war. It tells the American people plainly what they are contending for, and what they are not contending for-a reply long delayed to a question which we have been waiting to have answered.

And it appeals to those of us who have not forgotten the history hickoryed into us before the sacred right of lying ' was enthroned in the world.

The German-language press in this country was frankly opposed to our entrance into the war-so long as we could honorably keep out of it. Once in the war, however, a determination to support the Government occupied its editorial policies. While others have been snapping at the heels of the Administration-yelping their little seditious words of advice-destroying that unity of mind which is necessary to team work-we have presented a solid front of support. We have spoken forand to-that potential element of the American Nation which springs from Germany -always in the past a friend of America, and now unfortunately compelled to be in arms against her.

We, German-Americans, appreciate the President's note perhaps more fully than others can. We read in it a message from ourselves to our friends across the watersa message which could not have been better indited by a German himself, whose escape from local atmosphere " had made him a citizen of the world. We find

in the President's words an appreciation of the true worth of that great people from which we are descended-a willingness to extend to them the hand of friendship utterly lacking in the tone of our associated statesmen.

The President has at last given the American people a program about which there can be no dissension, no question, and no disagreement.

The German people would be grievously misled if they were made to believe that Americans of German descent would support any but their own Government, carrying out its constitutional duties. They would be grievously misled if by designing intrigants at home or abroad they were to be convinced that Germans abroad are not solicitous that they, too, should participate in the advantages of democracy-a democracy in fact as well as in name, which the latter have come to esteem.

The President has not only left the way open to the German people to peace. He has gone much further. He has leveled away its chief obstacles. He has repudiated the language of Old World spokesmen. He has spoken as the New World would speak.

The appearance of Woodrow Wilson as spokesman of her enemies cannot pass in Germany as a matter of no concern.

What the President said in his reply to his Holiness the Pope as to peace is what the American people would say with one voice, were a nation capable of individual articulation. The President expressed therein what all Americans feel-and especially German-Americans-a hope and a longing that through his words the German Nation may progress to that early and enduring peace which the world so sadly needs.

The English Press

The following were characteristic comments by the leading London newspapers: The Daily News:

If the President's reply is a merciless indictment of the infamies of Prussian militarism, it is equally a passionate appeal to the German people to repudiate the evil system that has enslaved them and uses them to enslave the world. The distinction which Mr. Wilson has insisted on throughout between the people and the system is now stated with matchless force. The London, Post:

At the end of three years of unspeakable strain and anxiety, it is an inesti

mable 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 perverse and the disaffected.

With a directness and a cogency which cannot be too much admired, President Wilson gives to the Pope's peace propɔsals the only answer which lose who are not ready to capitulate to Germany could give.

Certain extremely quoted persons in this country have recently been plaintively demanding to know what we were fighting for. Others have been contending that it is necessary for British delegates to confer with the enemy at Stockholm in order that our aims might be understood. Both claims are sufficiently disposed of in President Wilson's latest note. What we are fighting for is to defeat Germany-the one condition precedent to any tolerable peace.

The London Times:

The theoretical distinction [between the German people and their rulers] is sound enough, but we cannot help thinking that up to the present it has proved to be quite negligible in practice. Wilson is right in a sense when he says that the German people "did not choose the war." They did not choose it, because, under the Bismarckian Constitution, they have no choice at all in such high matters, but they accepted it with enthusiasm. They have given it throughout their active support. Their representatives have voted with unanimity supplies for its continuance.

French Comment

The Paris Temps:

The sentiment which inspires the entire note, just as it inspires the entire French policy, is the conviction that we cannot treat with the German Government at present.

The President of the United States in his patient negotiations regarding submarine warfare had the same experience as France in ten years of discussion of Moroccan questions, and has drawn the same conclusion. Nothing would be gained by signing tomorrow а new scrap of paper." It would not conduce to world peace. It would merely give the Prussian General Staff time to prepare for new aggression.

That surely was not the end which the Pope proposed. He said the fundamental point must be the substitution of the moral force of right for the material force of arms, but Mr. Wilson has seen clearly and explained clearly that negotiation as suggested by the Holy Father would end in an entirely different result. In Germany it would give to the Imperial

Government a renewal of strength. Outside of Germany it would compel persons who desire to remain free to create a permanent league against the German danger. It would result, in fact, in consolidating Prussian militarism and in perpetuating a régime of armed peace.

It is not to achieve this that the United States entered the war. It is not for this that we are fighting. President Wilson wants a real peace, one which will do away with the causes of war. His doctrine is logical from one end to the other. It is because he wants a pacific Germany that he rejects the idea of inclosing it within a wall. It is because he counts upon the opening of the eyes of the German people that he refuses to treat with the Hohenzollern autocracy. He has confidence in the future. He believes his idea can be imposed even on the enemy.

We join the President in this pious hope, but this hope will not be realized unless the United States perseveres indefatigably in the battle for victory of the right. The calmness with which Mr. Wilson contemplates future peace corresponds with the energy with which he will continue to conduct the war. That is the comforting impression left by reading his note. More than ever we have faith in his untiring firmness. L'Humanite, Paris:

President Wilson's language is that of lofty reason, which ignores cupidity and hatred. It may make itself heard by the German people, whom it asks to repair the evil they have done and then to take their place among the other nations without their rights or existence being menaced.

It is to the German people that President Wilson has made reply in answering the Pope. If the Pope has been only the mouthpiece of the Central Powers, President Wilson's reply was the most direct and the wisest it was possible to make. If the German people want peace they know just on what conditions it can be obtained.

Italian Comment

The Tribuna, Rome:

President Wilson has put forward the great struggle between might and right in such a decisive way that it is impossible to wave it away by sleight of hand. That struggle must end in the absolute triumph of right without limitations and reserve, and that triumph cannot be obtained by ambiguous conciliations or subtle compromises with those who habitually violate the rights of others, and who, with their haughtiness not yet tamed by the condemnation of the world and inevitable defeat, continue such violations.