http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&feed=atom&action=historyXIV THE "LUSITANIA" AND AFTER - Revision history2013-05-24T11:46:45ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.17.2http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6424&oldid=prevHirgen at 05:59, 29 January 20092009-01-29T05:59:31Z<p></p>
<table style="background-color: white; color:black;">
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr valign='top'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">Revision as of 05:59, 29 January 2009</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 207:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 207:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>time of the <I>Trent </I>crisis, when for a fortnight Great Britain</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>time of the <I>Trent </I>crisis, when for a fortnight Great Britain</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>and the United States were living on the brink of war, Adams was</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>and the United States were living on the brink of war, Adams was</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>kept entirely in the dark about the plans of Washington.<ref>"A Cycle of Adams Letters, 1861-1865," edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford. Vol. 1, p. 84.</ref> The letters of John Hay show</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>kept entirely in the dark about the plans of Washington.<ref>"A Cycle of Adams Letters, 1861-1865," edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford. Vol. 1, p. 84.</ref>The letters of John Hay show</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>a similar condition during his brief ambassadorship to Great Britain</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>a similar condition during his brief ambassadorship to Great Britain</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>in 1897-1898.<ref>"The Life and Letters of John Hay," by William Roscoe Thayer. Vol. II, p. 166.</ref></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>in 1897-1898.<ref>"The Life and Letters of John Hay," by William Roscoe Thayer. Vol. II, p. 166.</ref></div></td></tr>
</table>Hirgenhttp://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6358&oldid=prevHirgen at 21:02, 18 January 20092009-01-18T21:02:08Z<p></p>
<a href="http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6358&oldid=6357">Show changes</a>Hirgenhttp://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6357&oldid=prevHirgen at 20:45, 18 January 20092009-01-18T20:45:49Z<p></p>
<a href="http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6357&oldid=6289">Show changes</a>Hirgenhttp://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6289&oldid=prevRdh7 at 18:33, 17 January 20092009-01-17T18:33:49Z<p></p>
<table style="background-color: white; color:black;">
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr valign='top'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">Revision as of 18:33, 17 January 2009</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><p align="right"></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">[[Main Page | WWI Document Archive]] > [[Diaries, Memorials, Personal Reminiscences]] > [[The_Life_and_Letters_of_Walter_H._Page|Walter H. Page]] > '''Chapter XIV'''</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></p><hr></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><center>[[Image: Walter_H._Page_Signature.gif]]</center> <br><br></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><center>[[Image: Walter_H._Page_Signature.gif]]</center> <br><br></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1,640:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1,645:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>   <BLOCKQUOTE></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>   <BLOCKQUOTE></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>     <br><br>PAGE.</BLOCKQUOTE></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>     <br><br>PAGE.</BLOCKQUOTE></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><HR></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><HR></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><p align="right"></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">[[Main Page | WWI Document Archive]] > [[Diaries, Memorials, Personal Reminiscences]] > [[The_Life_and_Letters_of_Walter_H._Page|Walter H. Page]] > '''Chapter XIV'''</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></p><hr></ins></div></td></tr>
</table>Rdh7http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6192&oldid=prevHirgen at 08:12, 9 January 20092009-01-09T08:12:19Z<p></p>
<table style="background-color: white; color:black;">
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr valign='top'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">Revision as of 08:12, 9 January 2009</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><center>[[Image: Walter_H._Page_Signature.gif]]</center> <br><br></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><ins style="color: red; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2" FACE="Times">CHAPTER XIV</FONT><FONT SIZE="+2"></FONT></center><br><br></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2" FACE="Times">CHAPTER XIV</FONT><FONT SIZE="+2"></FONT></center><br><br></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td></tr>
</table>Hirgenhttp://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6191&oldid=prevHirgen at 05:40, 9 January 20092009-01-09T05:40:30Z<p></p>
<table style="background-color: white; color:black;">
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr valign='top'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">Revision as of 05:40, 9 January 2009</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1,638:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1,638:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>   <BLOCKQUOTE></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>   <BLOCKQUOTE></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>     <br><br>PAGE.</BLOCKQUOTE></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>     <br><br>PAGE.</BLOCKQUOTE></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></BLOCKQUOTE></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><HR></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div> </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><P ALIGN=CENTER></del><HR<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div> </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><BLOCKQUOTE></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  <br><br><FONT SIZE="+1"><IMG SRC="thumbnails/2b.gif" WIDTH="25" HEIGHT="24"</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  ALIGN="MIDDLE" BORDER="0" ><A HREF="Page10.htm">Chapter</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  Fifteen</A></FONT></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  <br><br><FONT SIZE="+1"><IMG SRC="thumbnails/2b.gif" WIDTH="25" HEIGHT="24"</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  ALIGN="MIDDLE" BORDER="0" ><A HREF="PageTC.htm#TC">Table</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  of Contents</A></FONT></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></BLOCKQUOTE></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div> </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></BODY></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></HTML</del>></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
</table>Hirgenhttp://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6190&oldid=prevHirgen at 03:20, 9 January 20092009-01-09T03:20:35Z<p></p>
<table style="background-color: white; color:black;">
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr valign='top'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">Revision as of 03:20, 9 January 2009</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2"<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">><IMG SRC</del>="<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">images/sig.gif</del>" <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">WIDTH</del>="<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">288"</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2" <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">FACE</ins>="<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Times</ins>"<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">>CHAPTER XIV</FONT><FONT SIZE</ins>="<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">+2</ins>"></FONT<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">></center><br><br</ins>></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">HEIGHT="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0</del>" ></FONT></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">P ALIGN=</del>CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" FACE="Times</del>"><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">CHAPTER XIV</del></FONT><<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">FONT</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2"><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">THE &quot;LUSITANIA&quot;---AND AFTER</ins></FONT><<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">/center</ins>><<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">br><br</ins>></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"> SIZE="+2"</del>><<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">/FONT</del>></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">P ALIGN=</del>CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2"><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">THE &quot;LUSITANIA&quot;---AND</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2"><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">I</ins></FONT></<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">center</ins>></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">AFTER</del></FONT></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div> </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2">I</del></<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">FONT</del>></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><br><br>THE news of the <I>Lusitania </I>was received at the American</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><br><br>THE news of the <I>Lusitania </I>was received at the American</div></td></tr>
</table>Hirgenhttp://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6189&oldid=prevHirgen at 00:34, 9 January 20092009-01-09T00:34:17Z<p></p>
<table style="background-color: white; color:black;">
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<col class='diff-marker' />
<col class='diff-content' />
<tr valign='top'>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">← Older revision</td>
<td colspan='2' style="background-color: white; color:black;">Revision as of 00:34, 9 January 2009</td>
</tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td>
<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">HTML>  </del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2"><IMG SRC="images/sig.gif" WIDTH="288"</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><head></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div> </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><script></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">//Block Right Clicking - by Blackbox Hosting</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">//Credit must stay intact for use</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div> </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">var isNS = (navigator.appName == "Netscape") ? 1 : 0;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">var EnableRightClick = 0;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">if(isNS) </del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN||Event.MOUSEUP);</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">function mischandler(){</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  if(EnableRightClick==1){ return true; }</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  else {return false; }</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">}</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">function mousehandler(e){</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  if(EnableRightClick==1){ return true; }</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  var myevent = (isNS) ? e : event;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  var eventbutton = (isNS) ? myevent.which : myevent.button;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  if((eventbutton==2)||(eventbutton==3)) return false;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">}</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">function keyhandler(e) {</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  var myevent = (isNS) ? e : window.event;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  if (myevent.keyCode==96)</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">    EnableRightClick = 1;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  return;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">}</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">document.oncontextmenu = mischandler;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">document.onkeypress = keyhandler;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">document.onmousedown = mousehandler;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">document.onmouseup = mousehandler;</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></script></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div> </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">  <TITLE>Burton J. Hendrick. The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page. 1922. Chapter 14.</TITLE></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"></HEAD></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"></del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div> </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="background: #ffa; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline"><P ALIGN=</del>CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2"><IMG SRC="images/sig.gif" WIDTH="288"</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="background: #cfc; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>HEIGHT="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ></FONT></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>HEIGHT="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ></FONT></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"></td></tr>
</table>Hirgenhttp://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=XIV_THE_%22LUSITANIA%22_AND_AFTER&diff=6155&oldid=prevHirgen: New page: <HTML> <head> <script> //Block Right Clicking - by Blackbox Hosting //Credit must stay intact for use var isNS = (navigator.appName == "Netscape") ? 1 : 0; var EnableRightClick = 0; if...2009-01-04T09:48:25Z<p>New page: <HTML> <head> <script> //Block Right Clicking - by Blackbox Hosting //Credit must stay intact for use var isNS = (navigator.appName == "Netscape") ? 1 : 0; var EnableRightClick = 0; if...</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div><HTML> <br />
<head><br />
<br />
<script><br />
//Block Right Clicking - by Blackbox Hosting<br />
//Credit must stay intact for use<br />
<br />
var isNS = (navigator.appName == "Netscape") ? 1 : 0;<br />
var EnableRightClick = 0;<br />
if(isNS) <br />
document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN||Event.MOUSEUP);<br />
function mischandler(){<br />
if(EnableRightClick==1){ return true; }<br />
else {return false; }<br />
}<br />
function mousehandler(e){<br />
if(EnableRightClick==1){ return true; }<br />
var myevent = (isNS) ? e : event;<br />
var eventbutton = (isNS) ? myevent.which : myevent.button;<br />
if((eventbutton==2)||(eventbutton==3)) return false;<br />
}<br />
function keyhandler(e) {<br />
var myevent = (isNS) ? e : window.event;<br />
if (myevent.keyCode==96)<br />
EnableRightClick = 1;<br />
return;<br />
}<br />
document.oncontextmenu = mischandler;<br />
document.onkeypress = keyhandler;<br />
document.onmousedown = mousehandler;<br />
document.onmouseup = mousehandler;<br />
</script><br />
<br />
<TITLE>Burton J. Hendrick. The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page. 1922. Chapter 14.</TITLE><br />
</HEAD><br />
<BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"><br />
<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2"><IMG SRC="images/sig.gif" WIDTH="288"<br />
HEIGHT="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ></FONT><br />
<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2" FACE="Times">CHAPTER XIV</FONT><FONT<br />
SIZE="+2"></FONT><br />
<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2">THE &quot;LUSITANIA&quot;---AND<br />
AFTER</FONT><br />
<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2">I</FONT><br />
<br />
<br><br>THE news of the <I>Lusitania </I>was received at the American<br />
Embassy at four o'clock on the afternoon of May 7, 1915. At that<br />
time preparations were under way for a dinner in honour of Colonel<br />
and Mrs. House; the first <I>Lusitania </I>announcement declared<br />
that only the ship itself had been destroyed and that all the<br />
passengers and members of the crew had been saved; there was,<br />
therefore, no good reason for abandoning this dinner.<br />
<br />
<br><br>At about seven o'clock, the Ambassador came home; his manner<br />
showed that something extraordinary had taken place; there were<br />
no outward signs of emotion, but he was very serious. The first<br />
news, he now informed Mrs. Page, had been a mistake; more than<br />
one thousand men, women, and children had lost their lives, and<br />
more than one hundred of these were American citizens. It was<br />
too late to postpone the dinner but that affair was one of the<br />
most tragic in the social history of London. The Ambassador was<br />
constantly receiving bulletins from his Chancery, and these, as<br />
quickly as they were received, he read to his guests. His voice<br />
was quiet and subdued; there were no indications of excitement<br />
in his manner or in that of his friends, and hardly of suppressed<br />
emotion.<br />
<br />
<br><br>The atmosphere was rather that of dumb stupefaction. The news<br />
seemed to have dulled everyone's capacity for thought and even<br />
for feeling. If any one spoke, it was in whispers. Afterward,<br />
in the drawing room, this same mental state was the prevailing<br />
one; there was little denunciation of Germany and practically<br />
no discussion as to the consequences of the crime; everyone's<br />
thought was engrossed by the harrowing and unbelievable facts<br />
which the Ambassador was reading from the little yellow slips<br />
that were periodically brought in. An irresistible fascination<br />
evidently kept everybody in the room; the guests stayed late,<br />
eager for every new item. When they finally left, one after another,<br />
their manner was still abstracted and they said their good-nights<br />
in low voices. There were two reasons for this behaviour. The<br />
first was that the Ambassador and his guests had received the<br />
details of the greatest infamy which any supposedly civilized<br />
state had perpetrated since the massacre of Saint Bartholomew.<br />
The second was the conviction that the United States would at<br />
once declare war on Germany.<br />
<br />
<br><br>On this latter point several of the guests expressed their<br />
ideas and one of the most shocked and outspoken was Colonel House.<br />
For a month the President's personal representative had been discussing<br />
with British statesmen possible openings for mediation, but all<br />
his hopes in this direction now vanished. That President Wilson<br />
would act with the utmost energy Colonel House took for granted.<br />
This act, he evidently believed, left the United States no option.<br />
&quot;We shall be at war with Germany within a month,&quot; he<br />
declared.<br />
<br />
<br><br>The feeling that prevailed in the Embassy this evening was<br />
the one that existed everywhere in London for several days. Emotionally<br />
the event acted like an an&aelig;sthetic. This was certainly the<br />
condition of all Americans associated with the American Embassy,<br />
especially Page himself. A day or two after the sinking the Ambassador<br />
went to Euston Station, at an early hour in the morning, to receive<br />
the American survivors. The hundred or more men and women who<br />
shambled from the train made a listless and bedraggled gathering.<br />
Their grotesque clothes, torn and unkempt---for practically none<br />
had had the opportunity of obtaining a change of dress---their<br />
expressionless faces, their lustreless eyes, their uncertain and<br />
bewildered walk, faintly reflected an experience such as comes<br />
to few people in this world. The most noticeable thing about these<br />
unfortunates was their lack of interest in their surroundings;<br />
everything had apparently been reduced to a blank; the fact that<br />
practically none made any reference to their ordeal, or could<br />
be induced to discuss it, was a matter of common talk in London.<br />
And something of this disposition now became noticeable in Page<br />
himself. He wrote his dispatches to Washington in an abstracted<br />
mood; he went through his duties almost with the detachment of<br />
a sleep-walker; like the <I>Lusitania </I>survivors, he could<br />
not talk much at that time about the scenes that had taken place<br />
off the coast of Ireland. Yet there were many indications that<br />
he was thinking about them, and his thoughts, as his letters reveal,<br />
were concerned with more things than the tragedy itself. He believed<br />
that his country was now face to face with its destiny. What would<br />
Washington do?<br />
<br />
<br><br>Page had a characteristic way of thinking out his problems.<br />
He performed his routine work at the Chancery in the daytime,<br />
but his really serious thinking he did in his own room at night.<br />
The picture is still a vivid one in the recollection of his family<br />
and his other intimates. Even at this time Page's health was not<br />
good, yet he frequently spent the evening at his office in Grosvenor<br />
Gardens, and when the long day's labours were finished, he would<br />
walk rather wearily to his home at No. 6 Grosvenor Square. He<br />
would enter the house slowly---and his walk became slower and<br />
more tired as the months went by---go up to his room and cross<br />
to the fireplace, so apparently wrapped up in his own thoughts<br />
that he hardly greeted members of his own family. A wood fire<br />
was kept burning for him, winter and summer alike; Page would<br />
put on his dressing gown, drop into a friendly chair, and sit<br />
there, doing nothing, reading nothing, saying nothing ---only<br />
thinking. Sometimes he would stay for an hour; not infrequently<br />
he would remain till two, three, or four o'clock in the morning;<br />
occasions were not unknown when his almost motionless figure would<br />
be in this same place at daybreak. He never slept through these<br />
nights, and he never even dozed; he was wide awake, and his mind<br />
was silently working upon the particular problem that was uppermost<br />
in his thoughts. He never rose until he had solved it or at least<br />
until he had decided upon a course of action. He would then get<br />
up abruptly, go to bed, and sleep like a child. The one thing<br />
that made it possible for a man of his delicate frame, racked<br />
as it was by anxiety and over work, to keep steadily at his task,<br />
was the wonderful gift which he possessed of sleeping.<br />
<br />
<br><br>Page had thought out many problems in this way. The tension<br />
caused by the sailing of the <I>Dacia, </I>in January, 1915, and<br />
the deftness with which the issue had been avoided by substituting<br />
a French for a British cruiser, has already been described. Page<br />
discovered this solution on one of these all-night self-communings.<br />
It was almost two o'clock in the morning that he rose, said to<br />
himself, &quot; I've got it!&quot; and then went contentedly to<br />
bed. And during the anxious months that followed the <I>Lusitania,<br />
</I>the <I>Arabic</I>, and those other outrages which have now<br />
taken their place in history, he spent night after night turning<br />
the matter over in his mind. But he found no way out of the humiliations<br />
presented by the policy of Washington.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;Here we are swung loose in time,&quot; he wrote to his<br />
son Arthur, a few days after the first <I>Lusitania </I>note had<br />
been sent to Germany, nobody knows the day or the week or the<br />
month or the year---and we are caught on this island, with no<br />
chance of escape, while the vast slaughter goes on and seems just<br />
beginning, and the degradation of war goes on week by week; and<br />
we live in hope that the United States will come in, as the only<br />
chance to give us standing and influence when the reorganization<br />
of the world must begin. (Beware of betraying the word 'hope'!)<br />
It has all passed far beyond anybody's power to describe. I simply<br />
go on day by day into unknown experiences and emotions, seeing<br />
nothing before me very clearly and remembering only dimly what<br />
lies behind. I can see only one proper thing: that all the world<br />
should fall to and hunt this wild beast down.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;Two photographs of little Mollie(<A NAME="n114"></A><A<br />
HREF="Pagenotes.htm#114">114</A>) on my mantelpiece recall persons<br />
and scenes and hopes unconnected with the war: few other things<br />
can. Bless the baby, she couldn't guess what a sweet purpose she<br />
serves.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>The sensations of most Americans in London during this crisis<br />
are almost indescribable. Washington's failure promptly to meet<br />
the situation affected them with astonishment and humiliation.<br />
Colonel House was confident that war was impending, and for this<br />
reason he hurried his preparations to leave England; he wished<br />
to be in the United States, at the President's side, when the<br />
declaration was made. With this feeling about Mr. Wilson, Colonel<br />
House received a fearful shock a day or two after the <I>Lusitania<br />
</I>had gone down: while walking in Piccadilly, he caught a glimpse<br />
of one of the famous sandwich men, bearing a poster of an afternoon<br />
newspaper. This glaring broadside bore the following legend: &quot;We<br />
are too proud to fight---Woodrow Wilson.&quot; The sight of that<br />
placard was Colonel House's first intimation that the President<br />
might not act vigorously. He made no attempt to conceal from Page<br />
and other important men at the American Embassy the shock which<br />
it had given him. Soon the whole of England was ringing with these<br />
six words; the newspapers were filled with stinging editorials<br />
and cartoons, and the music halls found in the Wilsonian phrase<br />
materials for their choicest jibes. Even in more serious quarters<br />
America was the subject of the most severe denunciation. No one<br />
felt these strictures more poignantly than President Wilson's<br />
closest confidant. A day or two before sailing home he came into<br />
the Embassy greatly depressed at the prevailing revulsion against<br />
the United States. &quot;I feel,&quot; Colonel House said to Page,<br />
&quot;as though I had been given a kick at every lamp post coming<br />
down Constitution Hill.&quot; A day or two afterward Colonel House<br />
sailed for America.<br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2">II</FONT><br />
<br />
<br><br>And now came the period of distress and of disillusionment.<br />
Three <I>Lusitania </I>notes were sent and were evasively answered,<br />
and Washington still seemed to be marking time. The one event<br />
in this exciting period which gave Page satisfaction was Mr. Bryan's<br />
resignation as Secretary of State. For Mr. Bryan personally Page<br />
had a certain fondness, but as head of the State Department the<br />
Nebraska orator had been a cause of endless vexation. Many of<br />
Page's letters, already printed, bear evidence of<br />
<br />
<br><br>the utter demoralization which existed in this branch of the<br />
Administration and this demoralization became especially glaring<br />
during the <I>Lusitania </I>crisis. No attempt was made even at<br />
this momentous period to keep the London Embassy informed as to<br />
what was taking place in Washington; Page's letters and cablegrams<br />
were, for the most part, unacknowledged and unanswered, and the<br />
American Ambassador was frequently obliged to obtain his information<br />
about the state of feeling in Washington from Sir Edward Grey.<br />
It must be said, in justice to Mr. Bryan, that this carelessness<br />
was nothing particularly new, for it had worried many ambassadors<br />
before Page. Readers of Charles Francis Adams's correspondence<br />
meet with the same complaints during the Civil War; even at the<br />
time of the <I>Trent </I>crisis, when for a fortnight Great Britain<br />
and the United States were living on the brink of war, Adams was<br />
kept entirely in the dark about the plans of Washington.(<A NAME="n115"></A><A<br />
HREF="Pagenotes.htm#115">115</A>) The letters of John Hay show<br />
a similar condition during his brief ambassadorship to Great Britain<br />
in 1897-1898.(<A NAME="n116"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#116">116</A>)<br />
<br />
<br><br>But Mr. Bryan's incumbency was guilty of diplomatic vices which<br />
were peculiarly its own. The &quot;leaks&quot; in the State Department,<br />
to which Page has already referred, were constantly taking place;<br />
the Ambassador would send the most confidential cipher dispatches<br />
to his superior, cautioning the Department that they must be held<br />
inviolably secret, and then he would pick up the London newspapers<br />
the next morning and find that everything had been cabled from<br />
Washington. To most readers, the informal method of conducting<br />
foreign business, as it is disclosed in these letters, probably<br />
comes as something of a shock. Page is here discovered discussing<br />
state matters, not in correspondence with the Secretary of State,<br />
but in private unofficial communications to the President, and<br />
especially to Colonel House---the latter at that time not an official<br />
person at all. All this, of course, was extremely irregular and,<br />
in any properly organized State Department, it would have been<br />
even reprehensible. But the point is that there was no properly<br />
organized State Department at that time, and the impossibility<br />
of conducting business through the regular channels compelled<br />
Page to adopt other means. &quot;There is only one way to reform<br />
the State Department,&quot; he informed Colonel House at this<br />
time. &quot;That is to raze the whole building, with its archives<br />
and papers, to the ground, and begin all over again.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>This state of affairs in Washington explains the curious fact<br />
that the real diplomatic history of the United States and Great<br />
Britain during this great crisis is not to be found in the archives<br />
of the State Department, for the official documents on file there<br />
consist of the most routine telegrams, which are not particularly<br />
informing, but in the Ambassador's personal correspondence with<br />
the President, Colonel House, and a few other intimates. The State<br />
Department did not have the first requisite of a properly organized<br />
foreign office, for it could not be trusted with confidential<br />
information. The Department did not tell Page what it was doing,<br />
but it apparently told the whole world what Page was doing. It<br />
is an astonishing fact that Page could not write and cable the<br />
most important details, for he was afraid that they would promptly<br />
be given to the reporters.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;I shall not send another confidential message to the<br />
State Department,&quot; Page wrote to Colonel House,<br />
<br />
<br><br>September 15, 1914; &quot;it's too dangerous. Time and time<br />
again now the Department has leaked. Last week, I sent a dispatch<br />
and I said in the body of it, <I>'this is confidential and under<br />
no condition to be given out or made public, but to be regarded<br />
as inviolably secret.' </I>The very next morning it was telegraphed<br />
from Washington to the London newspapers. Bryan telegraphed me<br />
that he was sure it didn't get out from the Department and that<br />
he now had so fixed it that there could be no leak. He's said<br />
that at least four times before. The Department swarms with newspaper<br />
men, I hear. But whether it does or not the leak continues. I<br />
have to go with my tail between my legs and apologize to Sir Edward<br />
Grey and to do myself that shame ---and to do my very best to<br />
keep his confidence---against these unnecessary odds. The only<br />
way to be safe is to do the job perfunctorily, to answer the questions<br />
the Department sends and to do nothing on your own account. That's<br />
the reason so many of our men do their jobs in that way---or <I>one<br />
</I>reason and a strong one. We can never have an alert and energetic<br />
and powerful service until men can trust the Department and until<br />
they can get necessary information from it. I wrote the President<br />
that of course I'd go on till the war ended and all the questions<br />
growing out of it were settled, and that then he must excuse me,<br />
if I must continue to be exposed to this danger and humiliation.<br />
In the meantime, I shall send all my confidential matter in private<br />
letters to him.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>Page did not regard Mr. Bryan's opinions and attitudes as a<br />
joke: to him they were a serious matter and, in his eyes, Bryan<br />
was most interesting as a national menace. He regarded the Secretary<br />
as the extreme expression of an irrational sentimentalism that<br />
was in danger of undermining the American character, especially<br />
as the kind of thought he represented was manifest in many phases<br />
of American life. In a moment of exasperation, Page gave expression<br />
to this feeling in a letter to his son:<br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To Arthur W. Page</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>London, June 6, 1915.<br />
<br><br>DEAR ARTHUR:<br />
<br><br>. . . We're in danger of being feminized and fad-ridden-grape<br />
juice (God knows water's good enough: why grape juice?); pensions;<br />
Christian Science; peace cranks; efficiency-correspondence schools;<br />
aid-your-memory; women's clubs; co-this and co-t'other and coddling<br />
in general; Billy Sunday; petticoats where breeches ought to<br />
be and breeches where petticoats ought to be; white livers and<br />
soft heads and milk-and-water;---I don't want war: nobody knows<br />
its horrors or its degradations or its cost. But to get rid of<br />
hyphenated degenerates perhaps it's worth while, and to free<br />
us from 'isms and soft folk. That's the domestic view of it.<br />
As for being kicked by a sauerkraut caste---O Lord, give us backbone!<br />
Heartily yours,<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<br><br>In the bottom of this note, Page has cut a notch in the paper<br />
and against it he has written: &quot;This notch is the place to<br />
apply a match to this letter.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;Again and ever I am reminded,&quot; Page also wrote in<br />
reference to Bryan's resignation, &quot;of the danger of having<br />
to do with cranks. A certain orderliness of mind and conduct seems<br />
essential for safety in this short life. Spiritualists, bone-rubbers,<br />
anti-vivisectionists, all sort of anti's in fact, those who have<br />
fads about education or fads against it, Perfectionists, Daughters<br />
of the Dove of Peace, Sons of the Roaring Torrent, itinerant peacemonger<br />
---these may have a real genius among them once in forty years;<br />
but to look for an exception to the common run of yellow dogs<br />
and damfools among them is like opening oysters with the hope<br />
of finding pearls. It's the common man we want and the uncommon<br />
common man when we can find him---never the crank. This is the<br />
lesson of Bryan.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>At one time, however, Mr. Bryan's departure seemed likely to<br />
have important consequences for Page. Colonel House and others<br />
strongly urged the President to call him home from London and<br />
make him Secretary of State. This was the third position in President<br />
Wilson's Cabinet for which Page had been considered. The early<br />
plans to make him Secretary of the Interior or Secretary of Agriculture<br />
have already been described. Of all cabinet posts, however, the<br />
one that would have especially attracted him would have been the<br />
Department of State. But President Wilson believed that the appointment<br />
of an Ambassador at one of the belligerent capitals, especially<br />
of an Ambassador whose sympathies for the Allies were so pronounced<br />
as were Page's, would have been an &quot;unneutral&quot; act,<br />
and, therefore, Colonel House's recommendation was not approved.<br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">From Edward M. House</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>Roslyn, Long Island,<BR><br />
June 25th, 1915.<br />
<br><br>DEAR PAGE:<br />
<br><br>The President finally decided to appoint Lansing to succeed<br />
Mr. Bryan. In my opinion, he did wisely, though I would have<br />
preferred his appointing you.<br />
<br><br>The argument against your appointment was the fact that you<br />
are an Ambassador at one of the belligerent capitals. The President<br />
did not think it would do, and from what I read, when your name<br />
was suggested I take it there would have been much criticism.<br />
I am sorry---sorrier than I can tell you, for it would have worked<br />
admirably in the general scheme of things.<br />
<br><br>However, I feel sure that Lansing will do the job, and that<br />
you will find your relations with him in every way satisfactory.<br />
<br><br>The President spent yesterday with me and we talked much of<br />
you. He is looking well and feeling so.<br />
<br><br>I read the President your letter and he enjoyed it as much<br />
as I did.<br />
<br><br>I am writing hastily, for I am leaving for Manchester, Massachusetts,<br />
where I shall be during July and August.<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>Your sincere friend,<br />
<br><br>E. M. HOUSE.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2">III</FONT><br />
<br />
<br><br>But, in addition to the <I>Lusitania </I>crisis, a new terror<br />
now loomed on the horizon. Page's correspondence reveals that<br />
Bryan had more reasons than one for his resignation; he was now<br />
planning to undertake a self-appointed mission to Europe for the<br />
purpose of opening peace negotiations entirely on his own account.<br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">From Edward M. House</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>Manchester, Massachusetts,<BR><br />
August 12th, 1915.<br />
<br><br>DEAR PAGE:<br />
<br><br>The Bryans have been stopping with the X's. X writes me that<br />
Bryan told him that he intended to go to Europe soon and try<br />
peace negotiations. He has Lloyd George in mind in England, and<br />
it is then his purpose to go to Germany.<br />
<br><br>I take it he will want credentials from the President which,<br />
of course, he will not want to give, but just what he will feel<br />
obliged to give is another story. I anticipated this when he<br />
resigned. I knew it was merely a matter of time when he would<br />
take this step.<br />
<br><br>He may find encouragement in Germany, for he is in high favour<br />
now in that quarter. It is his purpose to oppose the President<br />
upon the matter of &quot;preparedness,&quot; and, from what we<br />
can learn, it will not be long before there will be open antagonism<br />
between the Administration and himself.<br />
<br><br>It might be a good thing to encourage his going to Europe.<br />
He would probably come back a sadder and wiser man. I take it<br />
that no one in authority in England would discuss the matter<br />
seriously with him, and, in France, I do not believe he could<br />
even get a hearing.<br />
<br><br>Please let me have your impressions upon this subject.<br />
<br><br>I wish I could be near you to-day for there are so many things<br />
I could tell that I cannot write.<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>Your friend,<br />
<br><br>E. M. HOUSE.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>.<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To Edward M. House</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>American Embassy, London [Undated].<br />
<br><br>DEAR HOUSE:<br />
<br><br>Never mind about Bryan. Send him over here if you wish to<br />
get rid of him. He'll cut no more figure than a tar-baby at a<br />
Negro camp-meeting. If he had come while he was Secretary, I<br />
should have jumped off London Bridge and the country would have<br />
had one ambassador less. But I shall enjoy him now. You see some<br />
peace crank from the United States comes along every week---some<br />
crank or some gang of cranks. There've been two this week. Ever<br />
since the Daughters of the Dove of Peace met at The Hague, the<br />
game has become popular in America; and I haven't yet heard that<br />
a single one has been shot---so far. I think that some of them<br />
are likely soon to be hanged, however, because there are signs<br />
that they may come also from Germany. The same crowd that supplies<br />
money to buy labour-leaders and the press and to blow up factories<br />
in the United States keeps a good supply of peace-liars on tap.<br />
It'll be fun to watch Bryan perform and never suspect that anybody<br />
is lying to him or laughing at him; and he'll go home convinced<br />
that he's done the job and he'll let loose doves all over the<br />
land till they are as thick as English sparrows. Not even the<br />
President could teach him anything permanently. He can do no<br />
harm on this side the world. It's only your side that's in any<br />
possible danger; and, if I read the signs right, there's a diminishing<br />
danger there.<br />
<br><br>No, there's never yet come a moment when there was the slightest<br />
chance of peace. Did the Emperor not say last year that peace<br />
would come in October, and again this year in October? Since<br />
he said it, how can it come?<br />
<br><br>The ambitions and the actions of men, my friend, are determined<br />
by their antecedents, their surroundings, and their opportunities---the<br />
great deeds of men before them whom consciously or unconsciously<br />
they take for models, the codes they are reared by, and the chances<br />
that they think they see. These influences shaped Alexander and<br />
Caesar, and they shaped you and me. Now every monarch on the<br />
Continent has behind him the Napoleonic example. &quot;Can I<br />
do that?&quot; crosses the mind of everyone. Of course every<br />
one thinks of himself as doing it beneficently---for the good<br />
of the world. Napoleon, himself, persuaded himself of his benevolent<br />
intentions, and the devil of it was he persuaded other people<br />
also. Now the only monarch in Europe in our time who thought<br />
he had a chance is your friend in Berlin. When he told you last<br />
year (1914) that of course he didn't want war,. but that he was<br />
&quot;ready,&quot; that's what he meant. A similar ambition,<br />
of course, comes into the mind of every professional soldier<br />
of the continent who rises to eminence. In Berlin you have both---the<br />
absolute monarch and the military class of ambitious soldiers<br />
and their fighting machine.<br />
<br><br>Behind these men walks the Napoleonic ambition all the time,<br />
just as in the United States we lie down every night in George<br />
Washington's feather-bed of no entangling alliances.<br />
<br><br>Then remember, too, that the German monarchy is a cross between<br />
the Napoleonic ambition and its inheritance from Frederick the<br />
Great and Bismarck. I suppose the three damnedest liars that<br />
were ever born are these three---old Frederick, Napoleon, and<br />
Bismarck---not, I take it, because they naturally loved lying,<br />
but because the game they played constantly called for lying.<br />
There was no other way to play it: they <I>had </I>to fool people<br />
all the time. You have abundant leisure---do this: Read the whole<br />
career of Napoleon and write down the startling and exact parallels<br />
that you will find there to what is happening to-day. The French<br />
were united and patriotic, just as the Germans now are. When<br />
they invaded other people's territory, they said they were attacked<br />
and that the other people had brought on war. They had their<br />
lying diplomats, their corruption funds; they levied money on<br />
cities and states; they took booty; and they were God's elect.<br />
It's a wonderful parallel---not strangely, because the game is<br />
the same and the moral methods are the same.<br />
<br><br>Only the tools are somewhat different---the submarine, for<br />
example. Hence the <I>Lusitania </I>disaster (not disavowed,<br />
you will observe), the <I>Arabic </I>disaster, the propaganda,<br />
underground and above, in the United States. And there'll be<br />
more. The Napoleonic Wars were about eleven years long. I fancy<br />
that we shall have war and wars from this attempt to dominate<br />
Europe, for perhaps as long a period. The Balkans can't be quieted<br />
by this war only, nor Russia and Italy perhaps. And Germany may<br />
have a series of earthquakes herself---internal explosions. Then<br />
Poland and perhaps some of the Scandinavian States. Nobody can<br />
tell.<br />
<br><br>I cannot express my admiration of the President's management,<br />
so far at least, of his colossal task of leading us right. He<br />
has shown his supreme wisdom up to this point and I have the<br />
profoundest confidence in his judgment. But I hope he doesn't<br />
fool himself about the future; I'm sure he doesn't. I see no<br />
possible way for us to keep out, because I know the ignorance<br />
and falseness of the German leaders. They'll drown or kill more<br />
Americans---on the sea and in America. They <I>may </I>at last<br />
even attack one of our own passenger ships, or do something that<br />
will dramatically reveal them to the whole American people. Then,<br />
of course, the tune will be called. It's only a question of time;<br />
and I am afraid the war will last long enough to give them time.<br />
An early peace is all that can prevent them from driving us at<br />
last into war; and I can see no chance of an early peace. You<br />
had as well prepare as fast as the condition of public opinion<br />
will permit.<br />
<br><br>There could be no better measure of the immeasurable moral<br />
advance that the United States has made over Europe than the<br />
incredulity of our people. They simply can't comprehend what<br />
the Napoleonic legend can do, nor the low political morality<br />
of the Continent---of Berlin in particular. Hence they don't<br />
believe it. We have gone on for 100 years working might and main<br />
to better our condition and the condition of people about us---the<br />
greatest effort made by the largest number of people since the<br />
world began to further the mood and the arts of peace. There<br />
is no other such chapter in human history as our work for a hundred<br />
years. Yet just a hundred years ago the Capitol at Washington<br />
was burned by---a political oligarchy in the freest country of<br />
Europe---as damnable an atrocity as you will find in history.<br />
The Germans are a hundred years behind the English in political<br />
development and political morality.<br />
<br><br>So, let Willum J. come. He can't hurt Europe---nor help it;<br />
and you can spare him. Let all the Peace-gang come. You can spare<br />
<I>them, </I>too; and they can do no harm here. Let somebody<br />
induce Hoke Smith to come, too. You have hit on a great scheme---friendly<br />
deportation.<br />
<br><br>And Bryan won't be alone. Daughters of the Dove of Peace and<br />
Sons of the Olive Branch come every week. The latest Son came<br />
to see me to-day. He said that the German Chancellor told him<br />
that he wanted peace---wants it now and wants it bad, and that<br />
only one thing stood in the way---if England would agree not<br />
to take Belgium, Germany would at once make peace! This otherwise<br />
sensible American wanted me to take him to see Sir Edward to<br />
tell him this, and to suggest to him to go over to Holland next<br />
week to meet the German Chancellor and fix it up. A few days<br />
ago a pious preacher chap (American) who had come over to &quot;fix<br />
it all up,&quot; came back from France and called on me. He had<br />
seen something in France---he was excited and he didn't quite<br />
make it clear what he had seen; but he said that if they'd only<br />
let him go home safely and quickly he'd promise not to mention<br />
peace any more---did I think the American boats <I>entirely </I>safe?---So,<br />
you see, I do have some fun even in these dark days.<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>Yours heartily,<br />
<br><br>W. H. PAGE.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2">IV</FONT><br />
<br />
<br><br>This letter discloses that Page was pinning his faith in President<br />
Wilson, and that he still had confidence in the President's determination<br />
to uphold the national honour. Page was not one of those who thought<br />
that the United States should declare war immediately after the<br />
<I>Lusitania. </I>The President's course, in giving Germany a<br />
chance to make amends, and to disavow the act, met with his approval,<br />
and he found, also, much to admire in Mr. Wilson's first <I>Lusitania<br />
</I>note. His judgment in this matter was based first of all upon<br />
the merits of the case; besides this, his admiration for Mr. Wilson<br />
as a public man was strong. To think otherwise of the President<br />
would have been a great grief to the Ambassador and to differ<br />
with his chief on the tremendous issue of the war would have meant<br />
for Page the severance of one of the most cherished associations<br />
of his life. The interest which he had shown in advocating Wilson's<br />
presidential candidacy has already been set forth; and many phases<br />
of the Wilson administration had aroused his admiration. The President's<br />
handling of domestic problems Page regarded as a masterpiece in<br />
reconciling statesmanship with practical politics, and his energetic<br />
attitude on the Panama Tolls had introduced new standards into<br />
American foreign relations. Page could not sympathize with all<br />
the details of the Wilsonian Mexican policy, yet he saw in it<br />
a high-minded purpose and a genuine humanitarianism. But the outbreak<br />
of war presented new aspects of Mr. Wilson's mind. The President's<br />
attitude toward the European struggle, his conception of &quot;neutrality,&quot;<br />
and his failure to grasp the meaning of the conflict, seemed to<br />
Page to show a lack of fundamental statesmanship; still his faith<br />
in Wilson was deep-seated, and he did not abandon hope that the<br />
President could be brought to see things as they really were.<br />
Page even believed that he might be instrumental in his conversion.<br />
<br />
<br><br>But in the summer and autumn of 1915 one agony followed another.<br />
The &quot;too proud to fight&quot; speech was in Page's mind nothing<br />
less than a tragedy. The president's first <I>Lusitania </I>note<br />
for a time restored the Ambassador's confidence; it seemed to<br />
show that the President intended to hold Germany to that &quot;strict<br />
accountability&quot; which he had threatened. But Mr. Wilson's<br />
course now presented new difficulties to his Ambassador. Still<br />
Page believed that the President, in his own way and in his own<br />
time, would find a path out of his dilemma that would protect<br />
the honour and the safety of the United States. If any of the<br />
Embassy subordinates became impatient over the procedure of Washington,<br />
he did not find a sympathetic listener in the Ambassador. The<br />
whole of London and of Europe might be resounding with denunciations<br />
of the White House, but Page would tolerate no manifestations<br />
of hostility in his presence. &quot;The problem appears different<br />
to Washington than it does to us,&quot; he would say to his confidants.<br />
&quot;We see only one side of it; the President sees all sides.<br />
If we give him all the facts, he will decide the thing wisely.&quot;<br />
Englishmen with whom the Ambassador came into contact soon learned<br />
that they could not become flippant or critical about Mr. Wilson<br />
in his presence; he would resent the slightest hostile remark,<br />
and he had a way of phrasing his rebukes that usually discouraged<br />
a second attempt. About this time Page began to keep closely to<br />
himself, and to decline invitations to dinners and to country<br />
houses, even those with which he was most friendly. The reason<br />
was that he could not meet Englishmen and Englishwomen, or even<br />
Americans who were resident in England, on his old easy familiar<br />
terms; he knew the ideas which everybody entertained about his<br />
country, and he knew also what they were saying, when he was not<br />
among them; the restraint which his presence necessarily put upon<br />
his friends produced an uncongenial atmosphere, and the Ambassador<br />
therefore gave up, for a time, those distractions which had ordinarily<br />
proved such a delightful relief from his duties. For the first<br />
time since he had come to England he found himself a solitary<br />
man. He even refused to attend the American Luncheon Club in London<br />
because, in speeches and in conversation, the members did not<br />
hesitate to assail the Wilson policies.<br />
<br />
<br><br>Events, however, eventually proved too strong for the most<br />
devoted supporter of President Wilson. After the <I>Arabic </I>and<br />
the <I>Hesperian, </I>Page's official intimates saw signs that<br />
the Ambassador was losing confidence in his old friend. He would<br />
discuss Mr. Wilson occasionally, with those secretaries, such<br />
as Mr. Laughlin, in whom his confidence was strongest; his expressions,<br />
however, were never flippant or violent. That Page could be biting<br />
as well as brilliant in his comments on public personages his<br />
letters abundantly reveal, yet he never exercised his talent for<br />
sarcasm or invective at the expense of the White House. He never<br />
forgot that Mr. Wilson was President and that he was Ambassador;<br />
he would still defend the Administration; and he even now continued<br />
to find consolation in the reflection that Mr. Wilson was living<br />
in a different atmosphere and that he had difficulties to confront<br />
of which a man in London could know nothing. The Ambassador's<br />
emotion was rather one of disappointment and sorrow, mingled with<br />
anxiety as to the plight into which his country was being led.<br />
As to his duty in this situation, however, Page never hesitated.<br />
In his relations with his Embassy and with the British world he<br />
maintained this non-critical attitude; but in his letters to President<br />
Wilson and Colonel House, he was describing the situation, and<br />
expressing his convictions, with the utmost freedom and frankness.<br />
In both these attitudes Page was consistent and absolutely loyal.<br />
It was his duty to carry out the Wilson instructions and he had<br />
too high a conception of the Ambassadorial office to show to the<br />
world any unfavourable opinions he may have held about his country's<br />
course. His duty to his post made it just as imperative that he<br />
set forth to the President the facts exactly as they were. And<br />
this the Ambassador now proceeded to do. For the mere ornamental<br />
dignities of an Ambassadorship Page cared nothing; he was wasting<br />
his health in his duties and exhausting his private resources;<br />
much as he loved the English and congenial as were his surroundings,<br />
the fear of being recalled for &quot;disloyalty&quot; or insubordination<br />
never influenced him. The letters which he now wrote to Colonel<br />
House and to President Wilson himself are probably without parallel<br />
in the diplomatic annals of this or of any other country. In them<br />
he told the President precisely what Englishmen thought of him<br />
and of the extent to which the United States was suffering in<br />
European estimation from the Wilson policy. His boldness sometimes<br />
astounded his associates. One day a friend and adviser of President<br />
Wilson's came into the Ambassador's office just as Page had finished<br />
one of his communications to Washington.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;Read that!&quot; the Ambassador said, handing over the<br />
manuscript to his visitor.<br />
<br />
<br><br>As the caller read, his countenance displayed the progressive<br />
stages of his amazement. When he had finished, his hands dropped<br />
helplessly upon his knees.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;Is that the way you write to the President? &quot; he<br />
gasped.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;Of course,&quot; Page replied, quietly. &quot;Why not?<br />
Why shouldn't I tell him the truth? That is what I am here for.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;There is no other person in the world who dare talk to<br />
him like that!&quot; was the reply.<br />
<br />
<br><br>This is unquestionably the fact. That President Wilson did<br />
not like people about him whose views were opposed to his own<br />
is now no secret, and during the period when his policy was one<br />
of the great issues of the world there was probably no one except<br />
Page who intruded upon his solitude with ideas that so abruptly<br />
disagreed with the opinions of the White House. The letters which<br />
Page wrote Colonel House were intended, of course, for the President<br />
himself, and practically all of them Colonel House read aloud<br />
to the head of the nation. The two men would closet themselves<br />
in the old cabinet room on the second floor of the White House---that<br />
same room in which Lincoln had met his advisers during Civil War<br />
days; and here Colonel House would quietly read the letters in<br />
which Page so mercilessly portrayed the situation as it appeared<br />
in English and European eyes. The President listened impassively,<br />
giving no sign of approval or disapproval, and hardly, at times,<br />
of much interest. In the earlier days, when Page's letters consisted<br />
of pictures of English life and English men, and colourful descriptions<br />
of England under the stress of war, the President was vastly entertained;<br />
he would laugh loudly at Page's wit, express his delight at his<br />
graphic and pungent style and feel deeply the horrors of war as<br />
his Ambassador unfolded them. &quot; I always found Page compelling<br />
on paper,&quot; Mr. Wilson remarked to Mr. Laughlin, during one<br />
of the latter's visits to Washington. &quot;I could never resist<br />
him---I get more information from his letters than from any other<br />
single source. Tell him to keep it up.&quot; It was during this<br />
period that the President used occasionally to read Page's letters<br />
to the Cabinet, expressing his great appreciation of their charm<br />
and historical importance. &quot;The President quoted from one<br />
of the Ambassador's letters to the Cabinet to-day,&quot; a member<br />
of the Cabinet wrote to Mrs. Page in February, 1915. 'Some day,'<br />
the President said, 'I hope that Walter Page's letters will be<br />
published. They are the best letters I have ever read. They make<br />
you feel the atmosphere in England, understand the people, and<br />
see into the motives of the great actors.' The President repeated<br />
this statement many times, and his letters to Page show how greatly<br />
he enjoyed and profited from this correspondence. But after the<br />
sinking of the <I>Lusitania </I>and the <I>Arabic </I>his attitude<br />
toward Page and his letters changed.<br />
<br />
<br><br>He now found little pleasure or satisfaction in the Page communications.<br />
When Mr. Wilson found that one of his former confidants had turned<br />
out to be a critic, that man instantaneously passed out of his<br />
life. And this was now Page's fate; the friendship and associations<br />
of forty years were as though they had never been. Just why Mr.<br />
Wilson did not recall his Ambassador is a question that has puzzled<br />
Page's friends. He would sometimes refer to him as a man who was<br />
&quot;more British than the British,&quot; as one who had been<br />
taken completely captive by British blandishments, but he never<br />
came to the point of dismissing him. Perhaps he did not care to<br />
face the public scandal that such an act would have caused; but<br />
a more plausible reason is that Page, despite the causes which<br />
he had given for irritation, was indispensable to him. Page's<br />
early letters had furnished the President ideas which had taken<br />
shape in Wilson's policies, and, disagreeable as the communications<br />
now became, there are evidences that they influenced the solitary<br />
statesman in the White House, and that they had much to do in<br />
finally forcing Mr. Wilson into the war. The alternative question,<br />
as to why Page did not retire when he found himself so out of<br />
sympathy with the President, will be sufficiently answered in<br />
subsequent chapters; at present it may be said that he did resign<br />
and only consented to remain at the urgent request of Washington.<br />
In fact, all during 1915 and 1916, there seemed to be a fear in<br />
Washington that Page would definitely abandon the London post.<br />
On one occasion, when the newspapers published rumours to this<br />
effect, Page received an urgent. despatch from Mr. Lansing. The<br />
message came at a time---the date was October 26, 1915---when<br />
Page was especially discouraged over the Washington policy. &quot;Representatives<br />
of the press,&quot; said Mr. Lansing, &quot;have repeated rumours<br />
that you are planning to resign. These have been brought to the<br />
President's attention, and both he and I have denied them. Still<br />
these rumours persist, and they cause both the President and me<br />
great anxiety. We cannot believe that they are well founded.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;In view of the fact that they are so persistent, we have<br />
thought it well to inform you of them and to tell you how earnestly<br />
we hope that they are baseless. We trust that you will set both<br />
our minds at rest.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>If Page had ever had any compunction about addressing the President<br />
in blunt phrases these expressions certainly convinced him that<br />
he was a free agent.<br />
<br />
<br><br>Yet Page himself at times had his doubts as to the value of<br />
this correspondence. He would frequently discuss the<br />
<br />
<br><br>matter with Mr. Laughlin. &quot;That's a pretty harsh letter,&quot;<br />
he would say. &quot;I don't like to talk that way to the President,<br />
yet it doesn't express half what I feel.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;It's your duty to tell the President the real state of<br />
affairs,&quot; Mr. Laughlin would urge.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;But do you suppose it does any good? &quot; Page would<br />
ask.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;Yes, it's bound to, and whether it does or not, it's<br />
your business to keep him informed.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>If in these letters Page seems to lay great stress on the judgment<br />
of Great Britain and Europe on American policy, it must be remembered<br />
that that was his particular province. One of an Ambassador's<br />
most important duties is to transmit to his country the public<br />
opinion of the country to which he is accredited. It was Page's<br />
place to tell Washington what Great Britain thought of it; it<br />
was Washington's business to formulate policy, after giving due<br />
consideration to this and other matters.<br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To Edward M. House</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>July 21, 1915.<br />
<br><br>DEAR HOUSE:<br />
<br><br>I enclose a pamphlet in ridicule of the President. I don't<br />
know who wrote it, for my inquiries so far have brought no real<br />
information. I don't feel like sending it to him. I send it to<br />
you---to do with as you think best.<br />
<br><br>This thing alone is, of course, of no consequence. But it<br />
is symptomatic. There is much feeling about the slowness with<br />
which he acts. One hundred and twenty people (Americans) were<br />
drowned on the <I>Lusitania </I>and we are still writing notes<br />
about it---to the damnedest pirates that ever blew up a ship.<br />
Anybody who knows the Germans knows, of course, that they are<br />
simply playing for time, that they are not going to &quot;come<br />
down,&quot; that Von Tirpitz is on deck, that they'd just as<br />
lief have war with us as not ---perhaps had rather---because<br />
they don't want any large nation left fresh when the war ends.<br />
<br><br>They'd like to have the whole world bankrupt. There is a fast<br />
growing feeling here, therefore, that the American Government<br />
is pusillaninious---dallies with 'em, is affected by the German<br />
propaganda, etc., etc. Of course, such a judgment is not fair.<br />
<br><br>It is formed without knowing the conditions in the United<br />
States. But I think you ought to realize the strength of this<br />
sentiment. No doubt before you receive this, the President will<br />
send something to Germany that will amount to an ultimatum and<br />
there will be at least a momentary change of sentiment here.<br />
But looking at the thing in a long-range way, we're bound to<br />
get into the war. For the Germans will blow up more American<br />
travellers without notice. And by dallying with them we do not<br />
change the ultimate result, but we take away from ourselves the<br />
spunk and credit of getting in instead of being kicked and cursed<br />
in. We've got to get in: they won't play the game in any other<br />
way. I have news direct from a high German source in Berlin which<br />
strongly confirms this. . . .<br />
<br><br>It's a curious thing to say. But the only solution that I<br />
see is another <I>Lusitania </I>outrage, which would force war.<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>P. S. The London papers every day say that the President will<br />
send a strong note, etc. And the people here say, &quot;Damn<br />
notes: hasn't he written enough?&quot; Writing notes hurts nobody---changes<br />
nothing. The Washington correspondents to the London papers say<br />
that Burleson, the Attorney-General, and Daniels are Bryan men<br />
and are holding the President back.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br />
<br><br><B>.</B><br />
<br />
<br><br>The prophecy contained in this letter was quickly fulfilled.<br />
A week or two after Colonel House had received it, the <I>Arabic<br />
</I>was sunk with loss of American life.<br />
<br />
<br><br>Page was taking a brief holiday with his son Frank in Rowsley,<br />
Derbyshire, when this news came. It was telegraphed from the Embassy.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;That settles it,&quot; he said to his son. &quot;They<br />
have sunk the <I>Arabic. </I>That means that we shall break with<br />
Germany and I've got to go back to London.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To Edward M. House</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>American Embassy, London, August 23, 1915.<br />
<br><br>DEAR HOUSE:<br />
<br><br>The sinking of the <I>Arabic </I>is the answer to the President<br />
and to your letter to me. And there'll be more such answers.<br />
You said to me one day after you had got back from your last<br />
visit to Berlin: &quot;They are impossible.&quot; I think you<br />
told the truth, and surely you know your German and you know<br />
your Berlin---or you did know them when you were here.<br />
<br><br>The question is not what we have done for the Allies, not<br />
what any other neutral country has done or has failed to do---such<br />
comparisons, I think, are far from the point. The question is<br />
when the right moment arrives for us to save our self-respect,<br />
our honour, and the esteem and fear (or the contempt) in which<br />
the world will hold us.<br />
<br><br>Berlin has the Napoleonic disease. If you follow Napoleon's<br />
career---his excuses, his evasions, his inventions, the wild<br />
French enthusiasm and how he kept it up---you will find an exact<br />
parallel. That becomes plainer every day. Europe may not be wholly<br />
at peace in five years---may be ten.<br />
<br><br>Hastily and heartily,<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>I have your note about Willum J.... Crank once, crank always.<br />
My son, never tie up with a crank.<br />
<br><br>W. H. P.<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To Edward M. House</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>London, September 2nd, 1915.<br />
<br><br>DEAR HOUSE:<br />
<br><br>You write me about pleasing the Allies, the big Ally in particular.<br />
That doesn't particularly appeal to me. We don't owe them anything.<br />
There's no obligation. I'd never confess for a moment that we<br />
are under any obligation to any of them nor to anybody. I'm not<br />
out to &quot;please&quot; anybody, as a primary purpose: that's<br />
not my game nor my idea---nor yours either. As for England in<br />
particular, the account was squared when she twice sent an army<br />
against us---in her folly---especially the last time when she<br />
burnt our Capitol. There's been no obligation since. The obligation<br />
is on the other foot. We've set her an example of what democracy<br />
will do for men, an example of efficiency, an example of freedom<br />
of opportunity. The future is ours, and she may follow us and<br />
profit by it. Already we have three white English-speaking men<br />
to every two in the British Empire: we are sixty per cent. of<br />
the Anglo-Saxons in the world. If there be any obligation to<br />
please, the obligation is on her to please us. And she feels<br />
and sees it now.<br />
<br><br>My point is not that, nor is it what we or any other neutral<br />
nation has done or may do---Holland or any other. This war is<br />
the direct result of the over-polite, diplomatic, standing-aloof,<br />
bowing-to-one-another in gold lace, which all European nations<br />
are guilty of in times of peace---castes and classes and uniforms<br />
and orders and such folderol, instead of the proper business<br />
of the day. Every nation in Europe knew that Germany was preparing<br />
for war. If they had really got together---not mere Hague Sunday-school<br />
talk and resolutions---but had really got together for business<br />
and had said to Germany, &quot;The moment you fire a shot, we'll<br />
all fight against you; we have so many millions of men, so many<br />
men-of-war, so many billions of money; and we'll increase all<br />
these if you do not change your system and your building-up of<br />
armies&quot;---then there would have been no war.<br />
<br><br>My point is not sentimental. It is:<br />
<br><br>(1) We must maintain our own self-respect and safety. If we<br />
submit to too many insults, that will in time bring Germany against<br />
us. We've got to show at some time that we don't believe, either,<br />
in the efficacy of Sunday-School resolves for peace---that we<br />
are neither Daughters of the Dove of Peace nor Sons of the Olive<br />
Branch, and<br />
<br><br>(2) About nagging and forever presenting technical legal points<br />
as lawyers do to confuse juries---the point is the point of efficiency.<br />
If we do that, we can't carry our main points. I find it harder<br />
and harder to get answers now to important questions because<br />
we ask so many unimportant and nagging ones.<br />
<br><br>I've no sentiment---perhaps not enough. My gushing days are<br />
gone, if I ever had 'em. The cutting-out of the &quot;100 years<br />
of peace&quot; oratory, etc., etc., was one of the blessings<br />
of the war. But we must be just and firm and preserve our own<br />
self-respect and keep alive the fear that other nations have<br />
of us; and we ought to have the courage to make the Department<br />
of State more than a bureau of complaints. We must learn to say<br />
&quot;No&quot; even to a Gawdamighty independent American citizen<br />
when he asks an improper or impracticable question. Public opinion<br />
in the United States consists of something more than the threats<br />
of Congressmen and the bleating of newspapers; it consists of<br />
the judgment of honourable men on courageous and frank actions---a<br />
judgment that cannot be made up till action is taken.<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>Heartily yours,<br />
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>.<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To Edward M. House</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>American Embassy, London, Sept. 8, 1915.<BR><br />
(This is not prudent. It is only true---nothing more.)<br />
<br><br>DEAR HOUSE:<br />
<br><br>I take it for granted that Dumba(<A NAME="n117"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#117">117</A>)<br />
is going, of course. But I must tell you that the President is<br />
being laughed at by our best friends for his slowness in action.<br />
I hardly ever pick up a paper without seeing some sarcastic remark.<br />
I don't mean they expect us to come into the war. They only hoped<br />
we would be as good as our word---would regard another submarine<br />
attack on a ship carrying Americans as an unfriendly act and<br />
would send Bernstorff home. Yet the <I>Arabic </I>and now the<br />
<I>Hesperian </I>have had no effect in action. Bernstorff's personal<br />
<I>note to Lansing,</I>(<A NAME="n118"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#118">118</A>)<I><br />
even as far as it goes, does not bind his Government.</I><br />
<br><br>The upshot of all this is that the President is fast losing<br />
in the minds of our best friends here all that he gained by his<br />
courageous stand on the Panama tolls. They feel that if he takes<br />
another insult---keeps taking them---and is satisfied with Bernstorff's<br />
personal word, which is proved false in four days---he'll take<br />
anything. And the British will pay less attention to what we<br />
say. That's inevitable. If the American people and the President<br />
accept the <I>Arabic </I>and the <I>Hesperian </I>and do nothing<br />
to Dumba till the Government here gave out his letter, which<br />
the State Department had (and silently held) for several days---then<br />
nobody on this side the world will pay much heed to anything<br />
we say hereafter.<br />
<br><br>This, as I say, doesn't mean that these (thoughtful) people<br />
wish or expect us to go to war. They wish only that we'd prove<br />
ourselves as good as the President's word. That's the conservative<br />
truth; we're losing influence more rapidly than I supposed it<br />
were possible.<br />
<br><br>Dumba's tardy dismissal will not touch the main matter, which<br />
is the rights of neutrals at sea, and keeping our word in action.<br />
<br><br>Yours sincerely,<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>P. S. They say it's Mexico over again---watchful waiting and<br />
nothing doing. And the feeling grows that Bryan has really conquered,<br />
since his programme seems to prevail.<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To Edward M. House</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>London, Tuesday night, Sept. 8, 1915.<br />
<br><br>DEAR HOUSE:<br />
<br><br>The Germans seem to think it a good time to try to feel about<br />
for peace. They have more to offer now than they may have again.<br />
That's all. A man who seriously talks peace now in Paris or in<br />
London on any terms that the Germans will consider, would float<br />
dead that very night in the Seine or in the Thames. The Germans<br />
have for the time being &quot;done-up&quot; the Russians; but<br />
the French have shells enough to plough the German trenches day<br />
and night (they've been at it for a fortnight now); Joffre has<br />
been to see the Italian generalissimo; and the English destroy<br />
German submarines now almost as fast as the Germans send them<br />
out. I am credibly told that several weeks ago a group of Admiralty<br />
men who are in the secret had a little dinner to celebrate the<br />
destruction of the 50th submarine.<br />
<br><br>While this is going on, you are talking on your side of the<br />
water about a change in German policy! The only change is that<br />
the number of submarines available becomes smaller and smaller,<br />
and that they wish to use Uncle Sam's broad, fat back to crawl<br />
down on when they have failed.<br />
<br><br>Consequently, they are laughing at Uncle Sam here---it comes<br />
near to being ridicule, in fact, for seeming to jump at Bernstorff's<br />
unfrank assurances. And, as I have telegraphed the President,<br />
English opinion is---well, it is very nearly disrespectful. Men<br />
say here (I mean our old friends) that with no disavowal of the<br />
<I>Lusitania, </I>the <I>Falaba, </I>the Gulflight, or the <I>Arabic<br />
</I>or of the <I>Hesperian, </I>the Germans are &quot;stuffing&quot;<br />
Uncle Sam, that Uncle Sam is in the clutches of the peace-at-any-price<br />
public opinion, that the United States will suffer any insult<br />
and do nothing. I hardly pick up a paper that does not have a<br />
sarcastic paragraph or cartoon. We are on the brink of convincing<br />
the English that we'll not act, whatever the provocation. By<br />
the English, I do not mean the lighter, transitory public opinion,<br />
but I mean the thoughtful men who do not wish us or expect us<br />
to fire a gun. They say that the American democracy, since Cleveland's<br />
day, has become a mere agglomeration of different races, without<br />
national unity, national aims, and without courage or moral qualities.<br />
And (I deeply regret to say) the President is losing here the<br />
high esteem he won by his Panama tolls repeal. They ask, why<br />
on earth did he raise the issue if under repeated provocation<br />
he is unable to recall Gerard or to send Bernstorff home? The<br />
<I>Hesperian </I>follows<I> </I>the <I>Arabic; </I>other &quot;liners&quot;<br />
will <I>follow </I>the <I>Hesperian, </I>if the Germans have<br />
submarines.<br />
<br><br>And, when Sackville-West(<A NAME="n119"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#119">119</A>)<br />
was promptly sent home for answering a private citizen's inquiry<br />
about the two political parties, Dumba is (yet awhile) retained<br />
in spite of a far graver piece of business. There is a tone of<br />
sad disappointment here---not because the most thoughtful men<br />
want us in the war (they don't), but because for some reason,<br />
which nobody here understands, the President, having taken a<br />
stand, seems unable to do anything.<br />
<br><br>All this is a moderate interpretation of sorrowful public<br />
opinion here. And the result will inevitably be that they will<br />
pay far less heed to anything we may hereafter say. In fact men<br />
now say here every day that the American democracy has no opinion,<br />
can form no opinion, has no moral quality, and that the word<br />
of its President never gets as far as action even of the mildest<br />
form. The atmosphere is very depressing. And this feeling has<br />
apparently got beyond anybody's control. I've even heard this<br />
said: &quot;The voice of the United States is Mr. Wilson's: its<br />
actions are controlled by Mr. Bryan.&quot;<br />
<br><br>So, you see, the war will go on a long long time. So far as<br />
English opinion is concerned, the United States is useful to<br />
make ammunition and is now thought of chiefly in this connection.<br />
Less and less attention is paid to what we say. Even the American<br />
telegrams to the London papers have a languid tone.<br />
<br><br>Yet recent revelations have made it clearer than ever that<br />
the same qualities that the English accuse us of having are in<br />
them and that these qualities are directly to blame for this<br />
war. I recall that when I was in Germany a few weeks, six years<br />
ago, I became convinced that Germany had prepared to fight England;<br />
I didn't know when, but I did know that was what the war-machine<br />
had in mind. Of course, I had no opportunities to find out anything<br />
in particular. You were told practically that same thing by the<br />
Kaiser, before the war began. &quot;We are ready,&quot; said<br />
he. Of course the English feared it and Sir Edward put his whole<br />
life into his effort to prevent it. The day the war began, he<br />
told me with tears that it seemed that his life had been wasted---that<br />
his life work had gone for naught.---Nobody could keep from wondering<br />
why England didn't---<br />
<br><br>(Here comes a parenthesis. Word came to me a little while<br />
ago that a Zeppelin was on its way to London. Such a remark doesn't<br />
arouse much attention. But just as I had finished the fifth line<br />
above this, Frank and Mrs. Page came in and challenged me to<br />
play a game of cards before we should go to bed. We sat down,<br />
the cards were dealt, and bang! bang!---with the deep note of<br />
an explosion. A third, a fourth shot. We went into the street.<br />
There the Zeppelin was revealed by a searchlight ---sailing along.<br />
I think it had probably dropped its bombs; but the aircraft guns<br />
were cracking away at it. Some of them shot explosive projectiles<br />
to find the range. Now and then one such explosive would almost<br />
reach the Zeppelin, but it was too high for them and it sailed<br />
away, the air guns doing their ineffectual best. I couldn't see<br />
whether airplanes were trying to shoot it or not. The searchlight<br />
revealed the Zeppelin but nothing else. While we were watching<br />
this battle in the air, the maids came down from the top of the<br />
house and went into the cellar. I think they've already gone<br />
back. You can't imagine how little excitement it caused. It produces<br />
less fright than any other conceivable engine of war.<br />
<br><br>We came back as soon as the Zeppelin was out of sight and<br />
the firing had ceased; we played our game of cards; and here<br />
I am writing you the story---all within about half an hour.---There<br />
was a raid over London last night, too, wherein a dozen or two<br />
women and children and a few men were killed. I haven't the slightest<br />
idea what harm this raid to-night has done. For all I know it<br />
may not be all done. But of all imaginable war-experiences this<br />
seems the most futile. It interrupted a game of cards for twenty<br />
minutes!)<br />
<br><br>Now---to go on with my story: I have wondered ever since the<br />
war began why the Allies were not better prepared---especially<br />
England on land. England has just one big land gun---no more.<br />
Now it has turned out, as you have doubtless read, that the British<br />
Government were as good as told by the German Government that<br />
Germany was going to war pretty soon---this in 1912 when Lord<br />
Haldane(<A NAME="n120"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#120">120</A>)<br />
was sent to make friends with Germany.<br />
<br><br>The only answer he brought back was a proposition that England<br />
should in any event remain neutral---stand aside while Germany<br />
whipped Russia and France. This insulting proposal was kept secret<br />
till the other day. Now, why didn't the British Cabinet inform<br />
the people and get ready? They were afraid the English people<br />
wouldn't believe it and would accuse them of fomenting war. The<br />
English people were making money and pursuing their sports. Probably<br />
they wouldn't have believed it. So the Liberal Cabinet went on<br />
in silence, knowing that war was coming, but not exactly when<br />
it was coming, and they didn't make even a second big gun.<br />
<br><br>Now here was the same silence in this &quot;democracy&quot;<br />
that they now complain of in ours. Rather an interesting and<br />
discouraging parallel---isn't it? Public opinion has turned Lord<br />
Haldane out of office because he didn't tell the public what<br />
he declares they wouldn't have believed. If the English had raised<br />
an army in 1912, and made a lot of big guns, Austria would not<br />
have trampled Serbia in the earth. There would have been no war<br />
now; and the strong European Powers might have made then the<br />
same sort of protective peace-insurance combine that they will<br />
try to make after this war is ended. Query: A democracy's inability<br />
to <I>act</I>---how much is this apparently inherent quality<br />
of a democracy to blame for this war and for---other things?<br />
<br><br>When I am asked every day &quot;Why the United States doesn't<br />
<I>do</I> something---send Dumba and Bernstorff home? &quot;---Well,<br />
it is not the easiest question in the world to answer.<br />
<br><br>Yours heartily,<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>P. S. This is the most comical of all worlds: While I was<br />
writing this, it seems the maids went back upstairs and lighted<br />
their lights without pulling their shades down ---they occupy<br />
three rooms, in front. The doorbell rang furiously. Here were<br />
more than half a dozen policemen and special constables---must<br />
investigate!&quot; One light would be turned on, another would<br />
go out; another one on!&quot;--etc., etc. Frank tackled them,<br />
told 'em it was only the maids going to bed, forgetting to pull<br />
down the shades. Spies and signalling were in the air! So, in<br />
the morning, I'll have to send over to the Foreign Office and<br />
explain. The Zeppelin did more &quot;frightfulness&quot; than<br />
I had supposed, after all. Doesn't this strike you as comical?<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>Friday, September 10, 1915.<br />
<br><br>P. S. The news is just come that Dumba is dismissed. That<br />
will clear the atmosphere---a little, but only a little. Dumba<br />
committed a diplomatic offence. The German Government has caused<br />
the death of United States citizens, has defied us, has declared<br />
it had changed its policy and yet has gone on with the same old<br />
policy. Besides, Bernstorff has done everything that Dumba did<br />
except employ Archibald, which was a mere incident of the game.<br />
The President took a strong stand: they have disregarded it---no<br />
apology nor reparation for a single boat that has been sunk.<br />
Now the English opinion of the Germans is hardly a calm, judicial<br />
opinion---of course not. There may be facts that have not been<br />
made known. There must be good reasons that nobody here can guess,<br />
why the President doesn't act in the long succession of German<br />
acts against us. <I>But I tell you with all solemnity that British<br />
opinion and the British Government have absolutely lost their<br />
respect for us and their former high estimate of the President.<br />
And that former respect is gone for good unless he acts now very<br />
quickly.</I>(<A NAME="n121"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#121">121</A>)<I><br />
</I>They will pay nothing more than formal and polite attention<br />
to anything we may hereafter say. This is not resentful. They<br />
don't particularly care for us to get into the war. Their feeling<br />
(I mean among our best old friends) is not resentful. it is simply<br />
sorrowful. They had the highest respect for our people and our<br />
President. The Germans defy us; we sit in silence. They conclude<br />
here that we'll submit to anything from anybody. We'll write<br />
strong notes---nothing more.<br />
<br><br>I can't possibly exaggerate the revulsion of feeling. Members<br />
of the Government say (in private, of course) that we'll submit<br />
to any insult. The newspapers refuse to publish articles which<br />
attempt to make the President's silence reasonable. &quot;It<br />
isn't defensible,&quot; they say, &quot;and they would only bring<br />
us thousands of insulting letters from our readers.&quot; I can't<br />
think of a paper nor of a man who has a good word to say for<br />
us---except, perhaps, a few Quaker peace-at-any-price people.<br />
And our old friends are disappointed and sorrowful. They feel<br />
that we have dropped out of a position of influence in the world.<br />
<br><br>I needn't and can't write more. Of course there are more important<br />
things than English respect. But the English think that every<br />
Power has lost respect for us---the Germans most of all. And<br />
(unless the President acts very rigorously and very quickly)<br />
we'll have to get along a long time without British respect.<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>P. S. The last Zeppelin raid---which interrupted the game<br />
of cards---killed more than twenty persons and destroyed more<br />
than seven million dollars' worth of private business property---all<br />
non-combatants!<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>.<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To Edward M. House</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>21st of September, 1915.<br />
<br><br>DEAR HOUSE:<br />
<br><br>The insulting cartoon that I enclose (destroy it without showing<br />
it) is typical of, I suppose, five hundred that have appeared<br />
here within a month. This represents the feeling and opinion<br />
of the average man. They say we wrote brave notes and made courageous<br />
demands, to none of which a satisfactory reply has come, but<br />
only more outrages and no guarantee for the future. Yet we will<br />
not even show our displeasure by sending Bernstorff home. We've<br />
simply &quot;gone out,&quot; like a snuffed candle, in the regard<br />
and respect of the vast volume of British opinion. (The last<br />
<I>Punch </I>had six ridiculing allusions to our &quot;fall.&quot;)<br />
<br><br>It's the loneliest time I've had in England. There's a tendency<br />
to avoid me.<br />
<br><br>They can't understand here the continued declaration in the<br />
United States that the British Government is trying to take our<br />
trade---to use its blockade and navy with the direct purpose<br />
of giving British trade profit out of American detentions. Of<br />
course, the Government had no such purpose and has done no such<br />
thing---with any such purpose. It isn't thinking about trade<br />
but only about war.<br />
<br><br>The English think they see in this the effect on our Government<br />
and on American opinion of the German propaganda. I have had<br />
this trade-accusation investigated half a dozen times---the accusation<br />
that this Government is using its military power for its own<br />
trade advantage to our detriment: it simply isn't true. They<br />
stop our cargoes, not for their advantage, but wholly to keep<br />
things from the enemy. Study our own trade reports.<br />
<br><br>In a word, our importers are playing (so the English think)<br />
directly into the hands of the Germans. So matters go on from<br />
bad to worse.<br />
<br><br>Bryce(<A NAME="n122"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#122">122</A>)<br />
is very sad. He confessed to me yesterday the utter hopelessness<br />
of the two people's ever understanding one another.<br />
<br><br>The military situation is very blue---very blue. The general<br />
feeling is that the long war will begin next March and end---nobody<br />
dares predict.<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>W. H. P.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>P. S. There's not a moral shadow of a doubt, (1) that the<br />
commander of the submarine that sunk the <I>Arabic</I> is<I><br />
</I>dead---although he makes reports to his government! nor (2)<br />
that the <I>Hesperian </I>was torpedoed. The State Department<br />
has a piece of the torpedo.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2">V</FONT><br />
<br />
<br><br>The letters which Page sent directly to the President were<br />
just as frank. &quot;Incidents occur nearly every day,&quot; he<br />
wrote to President Wilson in the autumn of 1915, &quot;which reveal<br />
the feeling that the Germans have taken us in. Last week one of<br />
our naval men, Lieutenant McBride, who has just been ordered home,<br />
asked the Admiralty if he might see the piece of metal found on<br />
the deck of the <I>Hesperian. </I>Contrary to their habit, the<br />
British officer refused. 'Take my word for it,' he said. 'She<br />
was torpedoed. Why do you wish to investigate? Your country will<br />
do nothing--will accept any excuse, any insult and---do nothing.'<br />
When McBride told me this, I went at once to the Foreign Office<br />
and made a formal request that this metal should be shown to our<br />
naval attach&eacute;, who (since Symington is with the British<br />
fleet and McBride has been ordered home) is Lieutenant Towers.<br />
Towers was sent for and everything that the Admiralty knows was<br />
shown to him and I am sending that piece of metal by this mail.<br />
But to such a pass has the usual courtesy of a British naval officer<br />
come. There are many such instances of changed conduct. They are<br />
not hard to endure nor to answer and are of no consequence in<br />
themselves but only for what they denote. They're a part of war's<br />
bitterness. But my mind runs ahead and I wonder how Englishmen<br />
will look at this subject five years hence, and it runs afield<br />
and I wonder how the Germans will regard it. A sort of pro-German<br />
American newspaper correspondent came along the other day from<br />
the German headquarters; and he told me that one of the German<br />
generals remarked to him: 'War with America? Ach no! Not war.<br />
If trouble should come, we'd send over a platoon of our policemen<br />
to whip your little army.' (He didn't say just how he'd send 'em.)&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To the President</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>American Embassy, London, Oct. 5, 1915.<br />
<br><br>DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:<br />
<br><br>I have two letters that I have lately written to you but which<br />
I have not sent because they utterly lack good cheer. After reading<br />
them over, I have not liked to send them. Yet I should fail of<br />
my duty if I did not tell you bad news as well as good.<br />
<br><br>The high esteem in which our Government was held when the<br />
first <I>Lusitania </I>note to Germany was sent seems all changed<br />
to indifference or pity---not hatred or hostility, but a sort<br />
of hopeless and sad pity. That ship was sunk just five months<br />
ago; the German Government (or its Ambassador) is yet holding<br />
conversations about the principle involved, making &quot;concessions&quot;<br />
and promises for the future, and so far we have done nothing<br />
to hold the Germans to accountability.(<A NAME="n123"></A><A<br />
HREF="Pagenotes.htm#123">123</A>) In the meantime their submarine<br />
fleet has been so reduced that probably the future will take<br />
care of itself and we shall be used as a sort of excuse for their<br />
failure. This is what the English think and say; and they explain<br />
our failure to act by concluding that the peace-at-any-price<br />
sentiment dominates the Government and paralyzes it. They have<br />
now, I think, given up hope that we will ever take any action.<br />
<br><br>So deeply rooted (and, I fear, permanent) is this feeling<br />
that every occurrence is made to fit into and to strengthen this<br />
supposition. When Dumba was dismissed, they said: &quot;Dumba,<br />
merely the abject tool of German intrigue. Why not Bernstorff?&quot;<br />
When the Anglo-French loan(<A NAME="n124"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#124">124</A>)<br />
was oversubscribed, they said: &quot;The people's sympathy is<br />
most welcome, but their Government is paralyzed.&quot; Their<br />
respect has gone---at least for the time being.<br />
<br><br>It is not that they expect us to go to war: many, in fact,<br />
do not wish us to. They expected that we would be as good as<br />
our word and hold the Germans to accountability. Now I fear they<br />
think little of our word. I shudder to think what our relations<br />
might be if Sir Edward Grey were to yield to another as Foreign<br />
Minister, as, of course, he must yield at some time.<br />
<br><br>The press has less to say than it had a few weeks ago. <I>Punch,<br />
</I>for instance, which ridiculed and pitied us in six cartoons<br />
and articles in each of two succeeding numbers, entirely forgets<br />
us this week. But they've all said their say. I am, in a sense,<br />
isolated---lonely in a way that I have never before been. I am<br />
not exactly avoided, I hope, but I surely am not sought. They<br />
have a polite feeling that they do not wish to offend me and<br />
that to make sure of this the safest course is to let me alone.<br />
There is no mistaking the great change in the attitude of men<br />
I know, both in official and private life.<br />
<br><br>It comes down and comes back to this---that for five months<br />
after the sinking of the <I>Lusitania </I>the Germans are yet<br />
playing with us, that we have not sent Bernstorff home, and hence<br />
that we will submit to any rebuff or any indignity. It is under<br />
these conditions---under this judgment of us---that we now work---the<br />
English respect for our Government indefinitely lessened and<br />
instead of the old-time respect a sad pity. I cannot write more.<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>Heartily yours,<br />
<br><br>WALTER H. PAGE.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br />
<br><br>&nbsp;<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;I have authoritatively heard,&quot; Page writes to President<br />
Wilson in early September, &quot;of a private conversation between<br />
a leading member of the Cabinet and a group of important officials<br />
all friendly to us in which all sorrowfully expressed the opinion<br />
that the United States will submit to any indignity and that no<br />
effect is now to be hoped for from its protests against unlawful<br />
submarine attacks or against anything else. The inactivity of<br />
our Government, or its delay, which they assume is the same as<br />
inactivity, is attributed to domestic politics or to the lack<br />
of national, consciousness or unity.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;No explanation has appeared in the British press of our<br />
Government's inactivity or of any regret or promise of reparation<br />
by Germany for the sinking of the <I>Lusitania, </I>the <I>Falaba,<br />
</I>the <I>Gulflight, </I>the <I>Nebraskan, </I>the <I>Arabic,<br />
</I>or the <I>Hesperian, </I>nor any explanation of a week's silence<br />
about the Dumba letter; and the conclusion is drawn that, in the<br />
absence of action by us, all these acts have been practically<br />
condoned.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;I venture to suggest that such explanations be made public<br />
as will remove, if possible, the practically unanimous conclusion<br />
here that our Government will permit these and similar future<br />
acts to be explained away. I am surprised almost every hour by<br />
some new evidence of the loss of respect for our Government, which,<br />
since the sinking of the <I>Arabic, </I>has become so great as<br />
to warrant calling it a complete revulsion of English feeling<br />
toward the United States. There is no general wish for us to enter<br />
the war, but there is genuine sorrow that we are thought to submit<br />
to any indignity, especially after having taken a firm stand.<br />
I conceive I should be lacking in duty if I did not report this<br />
rapid and unfortunate change in public feeling, which seems likely<br />
to become permanent unless facts are quickly made public which<br />
may change it.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>There are many expressions of such feelings in Page's letters<br />
of this time. They brought only the most perfunctory acknowledgment<br />
from the White House. On January 3, 1916, Page sent the President<br />
a mass of clippings from the British press, all criticizing the<br />
Wilson Administration in unrestrained terms. In his comment on<br />
these, he writes the President:<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;Public opinion, both official and unofficial, is expressed<br />
by these newspaper comments, with far greater restraint than it<br />
is expressed in private conversation. Ridicule of the Administration<br />
runs through the programmes of the theatres; it inspires hundreds<br />
of cartoons; it is a staple of conversation at private dinners<br />
and in the clubs. The most serious class of Englishmen, including<br />
the best friends of the United States, feel that the Administration's<br />
reliance on notes has reduced our Government to a third or fourth-rate<br />
power. There is even talk of spheres of German influence in the<br />
United States as in China. No government could fall lower in English<br />
opinion than we shall fall if more notes are sent to Austria or<br />
to Germany. The only way to keep any shred of English respect<br />
is the immediate dismissal without more parleying of every German<br />
and Austrian official at Washington. Nobody here believes that<br />
such an act would provoke war.<br />
<br />
<br><br>&quot;I can do no real service by mincing matters. My previous<br />
telegrams and letters have been purposely restrained as this one<br />
is. We have now come to the parting of the ways. If English respect<br />
be worth preserving at all, it can be preserved only by immediate<br />
action. Any other course than immediate severing of diplomatic<br />
relations with both Germany and Austria will deepen the English<br />
opinion into a conviction that the Administration was insincere<br />
when it sent the <I>Lusitania </I>notes and that its notes and<br />
protests need not be taken seriously on any subject. And English<br />
opinion is allied opinion. The Italian Ambassador(<A NAME="n125"></A><A<br />
HREF="Pagenotes.htm#125">125</A>) said to me, 'What has happened?<br />
The United States of to-day is not the United States I 'knew fifteen<br />
years ago, when I lived in Washington.' French officers and members<br />
of the Government who come here express themselves even more strongly<br />
than do the British. The British newspapers to-day publish translations<br />
of ridicule of the United States from German papers.&quot;<br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To the President</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>London, January 5, 1916.<br />
<br><br>DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:<br />
<br><br>I wish---an impossible thing of course---that some sort of<br />
guidance could be given to the American correspondents of the<br />
English newspapers. Almost every day they telegraph about the<br />
visits of the Austrian Charg&eacute; or the German Ambassador<br />
to the State Department to assure Mr. Lansing that their governments<br />
will of course make a satisfactory explanation of the latest<br />
torpedo-act in the Mediterranean or to &quot;take one further<br />
step in reaching a satisfactory understanding about the <I>Lusitania.&quot;<br />
</I>They usually go on to say also that more notes are in preparation<br />
to Germany or to Austria. The impression made upon the European<br />
mind is that the German and Austrian officials in Washington<br />
are leading the Administration on to endless discussion, endless<br />
notes, endless hesitation. Nobody in Europe regards their pledges<br />
or promises as worth anything at all: the <I>Arabic </I>follows<br />
the <I>Lusitania, </I>the <I>Hesperian </I>follows the <I>Arabic,<br />
</I>the <I>Persia </I>follows the <I>Ancona. </I>&quot;Still<br />
conferences and notes continue,&quot; these people say, &quot;proving<br />
that the American Government, which took so proper and high a<br />
stand in the <I>Lusitania </I>notes, is paralyzed---in a word<br />
is hoodwinked and 'worked' by the Germans.&quot; And so long<br />
as these diplomatic representatives are permitted to remain in<br />
the United States, &quot;to explain,&quot; &quot;to parley&quot;<br />
and to declare that the destruction of American lives and property<br />
is disavowed by their governments, atrocities on sea and land<br />
win of course continue; and they feel that our Government, by<br />
keeping these German and Austrian representatives in Washington,<br />
condones and encourages them and their governments.<br />
<br><br>This is a temperate and even restrained statement of the English<br />
feeling and (as far as I can make out) of the whole European<br />
feeling.<br />
<br><br>It has been said here that every important journal published<br />
in neutral or allied European countries, daily, weekly, or monthly,<br />
which deals with public affairs, has expressed a loss of respect<br />
for the United States Government and that most of them make continuous<br />
severe criticisms (with surprise and regret) of our failure by<br />
action to live up to the level of our <I>Lusitania </I>notes.<br />
I had (judiciously) two American journalists, resident here---men<br />
of judgment and character---to inquire how true this declaration<br />
is. After talking with neutral and allied journalists here and<br />
with men whose business it is to read the journals of the Continent,<br />
they reported that this declaration is substantially true---that<br />
the whole European press (outside Germany and its allies) uses<br />
the same tone toward our Government that the English press uses---to-day,<br />
disappointment verging on contempt; and many of them explain<br />
our keeping diplomatic intercourse with Germany by saying that<br />
we are afraid of the German vote, or of civil war, or that the<br />
peace-at-any-price people really rule the United States and have<br />
paralyzed our power to act---even to cut off diplomatic relations<br />
with governments that have insulted and defied us.<br />
<br><br>Another (similar) declaration is that practically all men<br />
of public influence in England and in the European allied and<br />
neutral countries have publicly or privately expressed themselves<br />
to the same effect. The report that I have about this is less<br />
definite than about the newspapers, for, of course, no one can<br />
say just what proportion of men of public influence have so expressed<br />
themselves; but the number who have so expressed themselves is<br />
overwhelming.<br />
<br><br>In this Kingdom, where I can myself form some opinion more<br />
or less accurate, and where I can check or verify my opinion<br />
by various methods---I am afraid, as I have frequently already<br />
reported, that the generation now living will never wholly regain<br />
the respect for our Government that it had a year ago. I will<br />
give you three little indications of this feeling; it would be<br />
easy to write down hundreds of them:<br />
<br><br>(One) The governing class: Mr. X [a cabinet member] told Mrs.<br />
Page a few nights ago that for sentimental reasons only he would<br />
be gratified to see the United States in the war along with the<br />
Allies, but that merely sentimental reasons were not a sufficient<br />
reason for war---by no means; that he felt most grateful for<br />
the sympathetic attitude of the large mass of the American people,<br />
that he had no right to expect anything from. our Government,<br />
whose neutral position was entirely proper. Then he added; &quot;But<br />
what I can't for the life of me understand is your Government's<br />
failure to express its disapproval of German utter disregard<br />
of its <I>Lusitania </I>notes. After eight months, it has done<br />
nothing but write more notes. My love for America, I must confess,<br />
is offended at this inaction and---puzzled. I can't understand<br />
it. You will pardon me, I am sure.&quot;<br />
<br><br>(Two) &quot;Middle Class&quot; opinion: A common nickname<br />
for Americans in the financial and newspaper districts London<br />
is &quot;Too-prouds.&quot;<br />
<br><br>(Three) The man in the street: At one of the moving picture<br />
shows in a large theatre a little while ago they filled in an<br />
interval by throwing on the screen the picture of the monarch,<br />
or head of state, and of the flag of each of the principal nations.<br />
When the American picture appeared, there was such hissing and<br />
groaning as caused the managers hastily to move that picture<br />
off the screen.<br />
<br><br>Some time ago I wrote House of some such incidents and expressions<br />
as these; and he wrote me that they were only part and parcel<br />
of the continuous British criticism of their own Government---in<br />
other words, a part of the passing hysteria of war. This remark<br />
shows how House was living in an atmosphere of illusion.<br />
<br><br>As the matter stands to-day our Government has sunk lower,<br />
as regards British and European opinion, than it has ever been<br />
in our time, not as a part of the hysteria of war but as a result<br />
of this process of reasoning, whether it be right or wrong:<br />
<br><br>We said that we should hold the Germans to strict accountability<br />
on account of the <I>Lusitania. </I>We have not settled that<br />
yet and we still allow the German Ambassador to discuss it after<br />
the <I>Hesperian </I>and other such acts showed that his <I>Arabic<br />
</I>pledge was worthless.<br />
<br><br>The <I>Lusitania </I>grows larger and larger in European memory<br />
and imagination. It looks as if it would become the great type<br />
of war atrocities and barbarities. I have seen pictures of the<br />
drowned women and children used even on Christmas cards. And<br />
there is documentary proof in our hands that the warning, which<br />
was really an advance announcement, of that disaster was paid<br />
for by the German Ambassador and charged to his Government. It<br />
is the <I>Lusitania </I>that has caused European opinion to regard<br />
our foreign policy as weak. It is not the wish for us to go to<br />
war. No such general wish exists.<br />
<br><br>I do not know, Mr. President, who else, if anybody, puts these<br />
facts before you with this complete frankness. But I can do no<br />
less and do my duty.<br />
<br><br>No Englishman---except two who were quite intimate friends---has<br />
spoken to me about our Government for months, but I detect all<br />
the time a tone of pity and grief in their studied courtesy and<br />
in their avoidance of the subject. And they talk with every other<br />
American in this Kingdom. It is often made unpleasant for Americans<br />
in the clubs and in the pursuit of their regular business and<br />
occupations; and it is always our inaction about the <I>Lusitania.<br />
</I>Our controversy with the British Government causes little<br />
feeling and that is a sort of echo of the <I>Lusitania. </I>They<br />
feel that we have not lived up to our promises and professions.<br />
<br><br>That is the whole story.<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>Believe me always heartily,<br />
<br><br>WALTER H. PAGE.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>This dismissal of Dumba and of the Attaches has had little<br />
more effect on opinion here than the dismissal of the Turkish<br />
Ambassador.(<A NAME="n126"></A><A HREF="Pagenotes.htm#126">126</A>)<br />
Sending these was regarded as merely kicking the dogs of the<br />
man who had stolen our sheep.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE="+2">VI</FONT><br />
<br />
<br><br>One of the reasons why Page felt so intensely about American<br />
policy at this time was his conviction that the severance of diplomatic<br />
relations, in the latter part of 1915, or the early part of 1916,<br />
in itself would have brought the European War to an end. This<br />
was a conviction from which he never departed. Count Bernstorff<br />
was industriously creating the impression in the United States<br />
that his dismissal would immediately cause war between Germany<br />
and the United States, and there is little doubt that the Administration<br />
accepted this point of view. But Page believed that this was nothing<br />
but Prussian bluff. The severance of diplomatic relations at that<br />
time, in Page's opinion, would have convinced the Germans of the<br />
hopelessness of their cause. In spite of the British blockade,<br />
Germany was drawing enormous quantities of food supplies from<br />
the United States, and without these supplies she could not maintain<br />
indefinitely her resistance. The severance of diplomatic relations<br />
would naturally have been accompanied by an embargo suspending<br />
trade between the United States and the Fatherland. Moreover,<br />
the consideration that was mainly leading Germany to hope for<br />
success was the belief that she could embroil the United States<br />
and Great Britain over the blockade. A break with Germany would<br />
of course mean an end to that manoeuvre. Page regarded all Mr.<br />
Wilson's attempts to make peace in 1914 and early 1915---before<br />
the <I>Lusitania--</I>-as mistakes,<I> </I>for reasons that have<br />
already been set forth. Now, however, he believed that the President<br />
had a real opportunity to end the war and the unparalleled suffering<br />
---which it was causing. The mere dismissal of Bernstorff, in<br />
the Ambassador's opinion, would accomplish this result.<br />
<br />
<br><br>In a communication sent to the President on February 15, 1916,<br />
he made this plain.<br />
<br />
<br><br>.<br />
<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><I><FONT SIZE="+1">To the President</FONT></I><br />
<br><br>February 15, 7 P. M.<br />
<br><br>The Cabinet has directed the Censor to suppress, as far as<br />
he can with prudence, comment which is unfavourable to the United<br />
States. He has taken this action because the public feeling against<br />
the Administration is constantly increasing. Because the <I>Lusitania<br />
</I>controversy has been going on so long, and because the Germans<br />
are using it in their renewed U-boat campaign, the opinion of<br />
this country has reached a point where only prompt action can<br />
bring, a turn in the tide. Therefore my loyalty to you would<br />
not be complete if I should refrain from sending, in the most<br />
respectful terms, the solemn conviction which I hold about our<br />
opportunity and our duty.<br />
<br><br>If you immediately refuse to have further parley or to yield<br />
one jot or tittle of your original <I>Lusitania </I>notes, and<br />
if you at once break diplomatic relations with the German Empire,<br />
and then declare the most vigorous embargo of the Central Powers,<br />
you will quickly end the war. There will be an immediate collapse<br />
in German credit. If there are any Allies who are wavering, such<br />
action will hold them in line. Certain European neutrals---Sweden,<br />
Rumania, Greece, and others---will put up a firm resistance to<br />
Germanic influences and certain of them will take part with Great<br />
Britain and France. There will be an end at once to the German<br />
propaganda, which is now world-wide. The moral weight of our<br />
country will be a determining influence and bring an early peace.<br />
The credit you will receive for such a decision will make you<br />
immortal and even the people of Germany will be forever grateful.<br />
<br><br>It is my conviction that we would not be called upon to fire<br />
a gun or to lose one human life.<br />
<br><br>Above all, such an action will settle the whole question of<br />
permanent peace. The absolute and grateful loyalty of the whole<br />
British Empire, of the British Fleet, and of all the Allied countries<br />
will be ours. The great English-speaking nations will be able<br />
to control the details of the peace and this without any formal<br />
alliance. There will be an incalculable saving of human life<br />
and of treasure. Such an act will make it possible for Germany<br />
to give in honourably and with good grace because the whole world<br />
will be against her. Her bankrupt and blockaded people will bring<br />
such pressure to bear that the decision will be hastened.<br />
<br><br>The sympathies of the American people will be brought in line<br />
with the Administration.<br />
<br><br>If we settle the <I>Lusitania </I>question by compromising<br />
in any way your original demands, or if we permit it to drag<br />
on longer, America can have no part in bringing the war to an<br />
end. The current of allied opinion will run so strongly against<br />
the Administration that no censorship and no friendly interference<br />
by an allied government can stem the distrust of our Government<br />
which is now so strong in Europe.<br />
<br><br>We shall gain by any further delay only a dangerous, thankless,<br />
and opulent isolation. The <I>Lusitania is </I>the turning point<br />
in our history. The time to act is now.<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br>PAGE.</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br />
<P ALIGN=CENTER><HR><br />
<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br><br><FONT SIZE="+1"><IMG SRC="thumbnails/2b.gif" WIDTH="25" HEIGHT="24"<br />
ALIGN="MIDDLE" BORDER="0" ><A HREF="Page10.htm">Chapter<br />
Fifteen</A></FONT><br />
<br><br><FONT SIZE="+1"><IMG SRC="thumbnails/2b.gif" WIDTH="25" HEIGHT="24"<br />
ALIGN="MIDDLE" BORDER="0" ><A HREF="PageTC.htm#TC">Table<br />
of Contents</A></FONT><br />
</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br />
</BODY><br />
</HTML></div>Hirgen