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THE

LIFE AND LETTERS

WALTER H. PAGE

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THE

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

WALTER H. PAGE

BY
BURTON J. HENDRICK

\<C

VOLUME
I

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK

DOUBLE DAY, PAGE & COMPANY

1923

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINA\ IAN

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN* CITY, N. Y.

PREFATORY NOTE

Among the many who have assisted in the preparation of
this Biography especial acknowledgment is made to Mr.
Irwin Laughlin, First Secretary and Counsellor of the Lon-
don Embassy under Mr. Page. Mr. Page's papers show the
high regard which he entertained for Mr. Laughlin s abilities
and character, and the author similarly has found Mr.
Laughlin s assistance indispensable. Mr. Laughlin has had
the goodness to read the manuscript and make numerous sug-
gestions, all for the purpose of reenforcing the accuracy of the
narrative. The author gratefully remembers many long con-
versations with Viscount Grey of Fallodon, in which Anglo-
American relations from 1913 to 1916 were exhaustively
canvassed and many side-lights thrown upon Mr. Page's con-
duct of his difficult and delicate duties. The British Foreign
Office most courteously gave the writer permission to examine
a large number of documents in its archives bearing upon Mr.
Page's ambassadorship and consented to the publication of
several of the most important.

B. J. H.

CONTENTS
VOLUME I

PAGE
1

CHAPTER

I. A Reconstruction Boyhood .

II. Journalism 32

III. "The Forgotten Man" 64

IV. The Wilsonian Era Begins .... 102
V. England Before the War .... 132

VI. "Policy" and "Principle" in Mexico . 175

VII. Personalities of the Mexican Problem 215

VIII. Honour and Dishonour in Panama . 232

IX. America Tries to Prevent the Euro-
pean War 270

X. The Grand Smash 301

XI. England Under the Stress of War . 327

XII. "Waging Neutrality" 357

XIII. Germany's First Peace Drives . . . 398

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Walter H. Page Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Allison Francis Page (1824-1899), father of Walter

H. Page 20

Catherine Raboteau Page (1831-1897), mother of

Walter H. Page 21

Walter H. Page in 1876, when he was a Fellow of

Johns Hopkins University, Raltimore, Md. . 36

Basil L. Gildersleeve, Professor of Greek, Johns

Hopkins University, 1876-1915 37

Walter H. Page (1899) from a photograph taken

when he was editor of the Atlantic Monthly . 100

Dr. Wallace Buttrick, President of the General

Education Board 101

Charles D. Mclver, of Greensboro, North Carolina,

a leader in the cause of Southern Education . 116

Woodrow Wilson in 1912 117

Walter H. Page, from a photograph taken a few
years before he became American Ambassador
to Great Britain 292

The British Foreign Office, Downing Street . . . 293

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

No. 6 Grosvenor Square, the American Embassy

under Mr. Page 308

Irwin Laughlin, Secretary of the American Embassy

at London, 1912-1917, Counsellor 1916-1919 309

THE

LIFE AND LETTERS

WALTER H. PAGE

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF
WALTER H. PAGE

CHAPTER I

A RECONSTRUCTION BOYHOOD

THE earliest recollections of any man have great bio-
graphical interest, and this is especially the case
with Walter Page, for not the least dramatic aspect of his
life was that it spanned the two greatest wars in history.
His last weeks in England Page spent at Sandwich, on
the coast of Kent; every day and every night he could
hear the pounding of the great guns in France, as the
Germans were making their last desperate attempt to
reach Paris or the Channel ports. His memories of his
childhood days in America were similarly the sights and
sounds of war. Page was a North Carolina boy; he has
himself recorded the impression that the Civil War left
upon his mind.

"One day," he writes, "when the cotton fields were
white and the elm leaves were falling, in the soft autumn
of the Southern climate wherein the sky is fathomlessly
clear, the locomotive's whistle blew a much longer time
than usual as the train approached Millworth. It did
not stop at so small a station except when there was some-
body to get off or to get on, and so long a blast meant that
someone was coming. Sam and I ran down the avenue of
elms to see who it was. Sam was my Negro companion,

2 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

philosopher, and friend. I was ten years old and Sam
said that he was fourteen. There was constant talk
about the war. Many men of the neighbourhood had
gone away somewhere — that was certain; but Sam and I
had a theory that the war was only a story. We had
been fooled about old granny Thomas's bringing the baby
and long ago we had been fooled also about Santa Claus.
The war might be another such invention, and we some-
times suspected that it was. But we found out the truth
that day, and for this reason it is among my clearest early
recollections.

"For, when the train stopped, they put off a big box
and gently laid it in the shade of the fence. The only
man at the station was the man who had come to change
the mail-bags; and he said that this was Billy Morris's
coffin and that he had been killed in a battle. He asked
us to stay with it till he could send word to Mr. Morris,
who lived two miles away. The man came back pres-
ently and leaned against the fence till old Mr. Morris
arrived, an hour or more later. The lint of cotton was
on his wagon, for he was hauling his crop to the gin when
the sad news reached him; and he came in his shirt
sleeves, his wife on the wagon seat with him.

"All the neighbourhood gathered at the church, a
funeral was preached and there was a long prayer for our
success against the invaders, and Billy Morris was buried
I remember that I wept the more because it now seemed
to me that my doubt about the war had somehow done
Billy Morris an injustice. Old Mrs. Gregory wept more
loudly than anybody else; and she kept saying, while the
service was going on, 'It'll be my John next.' In a
little while, sine enough, John Gregory's coffin was put
off the train, as Billy Morris's had been, and I regarded
her as a woman gifted with prophecy. Other coffins, too,

A RECONSTRUCTION BOYHOOD 5

were put off from time to time. About the war there
could no longer be a doubt. And, a little later, its reali-
ties and horrors came nearer home to us, with swift, deep
experiences.

"One day my father took me to the camp and parade
ground ten miles away, near the capital. The General
and the Governor sat on horses and the soldiers marched
by them and the band played. They were going to the
front. There surely must be a war at the front, I told
Sam that night. Still more coffins were brought home,
too, as the months and the years passed; and the women
of the neighbourhood used to come and spend whole days
with my mother, sewing for the soldiers. So precious
became woollen cloth that every rag was saved and the
threads were unravelled to be spun and woven into new
fabrics. And they baked bread and roasted chickens
and sheep and pigs and made cakes, all to go to the
soldiers at the front."1

The quality that is uppermost in the Page stock, both
in the past and in the present generation, is that of the
builder and the pioneer. The ancestor of the North Caro-
lina Pages was a Lewis Page, who, in the latter part of the
eighteenth century, left the original American home in
Virginia, and started life anew in what was then regarded
as the less civilized country to the south. Several ex-
planations have survived as to the cause of his departure,
one being that his interest in the rising tide of Methodism
had made him uncongenial to his Church of England
relatives; in the absence of definite knowledge, however,
it may safely be assumed that the impelling motive was
that love of seeking out new things, of constructing a
new home in the wilderness, which has never forsaken his

'From "The Southerner," Chapter I. The first chapter in this novel is practi-
cally autobiographical, though fictitious names have been used.

4 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

descendants. His son, Anderson Page, manifesting this
same love of change, went farther south into Wake County,
and acquired a plantation of a thousand acres about twelve
miles north of Raleigh. He cultivated this estate with
slaves, sending his abundant crops of cotton and tobacco
to Petersburg, Virginia, a traffic that made him suf-
ficiently prosperous to give several of his sons a college
education. The son who is chiefly interesting at the
present time, Allison Francis Page, the father of the future
Ambassador, did not enjoy this opportunity. This fact
in itself gives an insight into his character. While his
brothers were grappling with Latin and Greek and the-
ology— one of them became a Methodist preacher of the
hortatory type for which the South is famous— we catch
glimpses of the older man battling with the logs in the
Cape Fear River, or penetrating the virgin pine forest,
felling trees and converting its raw material to the uses
of a growing civilization. Like many of the Page breed,
this Page was a giant in size and in strength, as sound
morally and physically as the mighty forests in which a
considerable part of his life was spent, brave, determined,
aggressive, domineering almost to the point of intoler-
ance, deeply religious and abstemious — a mixture of the
frontiersman and the Old Testament prophet. Walter
Page dedicated one of his books1 to his father, in words
that accurately sum up his character and career. "To
the honoured memory of my father, whose work was work
that built up the commonwealth." Indeed, Frank Page
— for this is the name by which he was generally known-
spent his whole life in these constructive labours. He
founded two towns in North Carolina, Cary and Aber-
deen; in the City of Raleigh he constructed hotels and
other buildings; his enterprising and restless spirit opened

i"The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths." (1902.)

A RECONSTRUCTION BOYHOOD 5

up Moore County — which includes the Pinehurst region;
he scattered his logging camps and his sawmills all over
the face of the earth ; and he constructed a railroad through
the pine woods that made him a rich man.

Though he was not especially versed in the learning of
the schools, Walter Page's father had a mind that was
keen and far-reaching. He was a pioneer in politics as
he was in the practical concerns of life. Though he was
the son of slave-holding progenitors and even owned
slaves himself, he was not a believer in slavery. The
country that he primarily loved was not Moore County
or North Carolina, but the United States of America.
In politics he was a Whig, which meant that, in the
years preceding the Civil War, he was opposed to the
extension of slavery and did not regard the election of
Abraham Lincoln as a sufficient provocation for the seces-
sion of the Southern States. It is therefore not surpris-
ing that Walter Page, in the midst of the London turmoil
of 1916, should have found his thoughts reverting to his
father as he remembered him in Civil War days. That
gaunt figure of America's time of agony proved an in-
spiration and hope in the anxieties that assailed the Am-
bassador. "When our Civil War began," wrote Page to
Col. Edward M. House — the date was November 24,
1916, one of the darkest days for the Allied cause — "every
man who had a large and firm grip on economic facts
foresaw how it would end — not when but how. Young
as I was, I recall a conversation between my father and
the most distinguished judge of his day in North Caro-
lina. They put down on one side the number of men in
the Confederate States, the number of ships, the number
of manufactures, as nearly as they knew, the number of
skilled workmen, the number of guns, the aggregate of
wealth and of possible production. On the other side

6 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

they put down the best estimate they could make of all
these things in the Northern States. The Northern
States made two (or I shouldn't wonder if it were three)
times as good a showing in men and resources as the
Confederacy had. 'Judge,' said my father, 'this is the
most foolhardy enterprise that man ever undertook.'
But Yancey of Alabama was about that time making
five-hour speeches to thousands of people all over the
South, declaring that one Southerner could whip five
Yankees, and the awful slaughter began and darkened
our childhood and put all our best men where they would
see the sun no more. Our people had at last to accept
worse terms than they could have got at the beginning.
This World War, even more than our Civil War, is an
economic struggle. Put down on either side the same
items that my father and the judge put down and add the
items up. You will see the inevitable result."

If we are seeking an ancestral explanation for that
moral ruggedness, that quick perception of the difference
between right and wrong, that unobscured vision into
men and events, and that deep devotion to America and
to democracy which formed the fibre of Walter Page's
being, we evidently need look no further than his father.
But the son had qualities winch the older man did not
possess — an enthusiasm for literature and learning, a love
of the beautiful in Nature and in art, above all a gentleness
of temperament and of manner. These qualities he held
in common with his mother. On his father's side Page
was undiluted English ; on his mother's he was French and
English. Her father was John Samuel Raboteau, the
descendant of Huguenot refugees who had fled from
France on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; her
mother was Esther Barclay, a member of a family which
gave the name of Barclaysville to a small town half way

A RECONSTRUCTION BOYHOOD 7

between Raleigh and Fayetteville, North Carolina. It
is a member of this tribe to whom Page once referred as
the "vigorous Barclay who held her receptions to notable
men in her bedroom during the years of her bedridden
condition." She was the proprietor of the "Half Way
House," a tavern located between Fayetteville and
Raleigh; and in her old age she kept royal state, in the
fashion which Page describes, for such as were socially en-
titled to this consideration. The most vivid impression
which her present-day descendants retain is that of her
fervent devotion to the Southern cause. She carried the
spirit of secession to such an extreme that she had the
gate to her yard painted to give a complete presentment
of the Confederate Flag. Walter Page's mother, the
granddaughter of tins determined and rebellious lady,
had also her positive quality, but in a somewhat more
subdued form. She did not die until 1897, and so the
recollection of her is fresh and vivid. As a mature woman
she was undemonstrative and soft spoken; a Methodist
of old-fashioned Wesleyan type, she dressed with a
Quaker-like simplicity, her brown hair brushed flatly down
upon a finely shaped head and her garments destitute of
ruffles or ornamentation. The home which she directed
was a home without playing cards or dancing or smok-
ing or wine-bibbing or other worldly frivolities, yet the
memories of her presence which Catherine Page has left
are not at all austere. Duty was with her the prime
consideration of life, and fundamental morals the first
conceptions which she instilled in her children's growing
minds, yet she had a quiet sense of humour and a real
love of fun.

She had also strong likes and dislikes, and was not
especially hospitable to men and women who fell under
her disapproval. A small North Carolina town, in the

8 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

years preceding and following the Civil War, was not
a fruitful soil for cultivating an interest in things intel-
lectual, yet those who remember Walter Page's mother re-
member her always with a book in her hand. She would
read at her knitting and at her miscellaneous household
duties, which were rather arduous in the straitened days
that followed the war, and the books she read were al-
ways substantial ones. Perhaps because her son Walter
was in delicate health, perhaps because his early tastes
and temperament were not unlike her own, perhaps be-
cause he was her oldest surviving child, the fact remains
that, of a family of eight, he was generally regarded as
the child with whom she was especially sympathetic.
The picture of mother and son in those early days is an
altogether charming one. Page's mother was only twenty-
four when he was born; she retained her youth for many
years after that event, and during his early childhood, in
appearance and manner, she was little more than a girl.
When Walter was a small boy, he and his mother used to
take long walks in the woods, sometimes spending the
entire day, fishing along the brooks, hunting wild flowers,
now and then pausing while the mother read pages of
Dickens or of Scott. These experiences Page never for-
got. Nearly all his letters to his mother — to whom,
even in his busiest days in New York, he wrote constantly
— have been accidentally destroyed, but a few scraps
indicate the close spiritual bond that existed between
the two. Always he seemed to think of his mother
as young. Through his entire life, in whatever part
of the world he might be, and however important
was the work in which he might be engaged, Page never
failed to write her a long and affectionate letter at Christ-
mas.

"Well, I've gossiped a night or two" — such is the

A RECONSTRUCTION ROYHOOD 9

conclusion of his Christmas letter of 1893, when Page was
thirty -eight, with a growing family of his own — "till
I've filled the paper — all such little news and less non-
sense as most gossip and most letters are made of. But
it is for you to read between the lines. That's where the
love lies, dear mother. I wish you were here Christmas;
we should welcome you as nobody else in the world can
be welcomed. But wherever you are and though all
the rest have the joy of seeing you, which is denied to me,
never a Christmas comes but I feel as near you as I did
years and years ago when we were young. (In those
years big fish bit in old Wiley Bancom's pond by the rail-
road: they must have been two inches long!) — I would
give a year's growth to have the pleasure of having you
here. You may be sure that every one of my children
along with me will look with an added reverence toward
the picture on the wall that greets me every morning,
when we have our little Christmas frolics— the picture
that little Katharine points to and says 'That's my grand-
mudder.' — The years, as they come, every one, deepen
my gratitude to you, as I better and better understand
the significance of fife and every one adds to an affection
that was never small. God bless you.

"Walter."

Such were the father and mother of Walter Hines Page;
they were married at Fayetteville, North Carolina, July 5,
1849; two children who preceded Walter died in infancy.
The latter was born at Cary, August 15, 1855. Cary
was a small village which Frank Page had created; in
honour of the founder it was for several years known
as Page's Station; the father himself changed the name to
Cary, as a tribute to a temperance orator who caused
something of a commotion in the neighbourhood in the

10 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

early seventies. Cary was not then much of a town and
has not since become one; but it was placed amid the
scene of important historical events. Page's home was
almost the last stopping place of Sherman's army on its
march through Georgia and the Carolinas, and the Con-
federacy came to an end, with Johnston's surrender of the
last Confederate Army, at Durham, only fifteen miles from
his native village. Walter, aboy of ten, his brother Robert,
aged six, and the negro "companion" Tance — who figures
as Sam in the extract quoted above — stood at the second-
story window and watched Sherman's soldiers pass their
house, in hot pursuit of General " Joe " Wheeler's cavalry.
The thing that most astonished the children was the vast
size of the army, which took all day to file by their home.
They had never realized that either of the fighting forces
could embrace such great numbers of men. Nor did the
behaviour of the invading troops especially endear them to
their unwilling hosts. Part of the cavalry encamped in the
Page yard ; their horses ate the bark off the mimosa trees ;
an army corps built its campfires under the great oaks, and
cut their emblems on the trunks ; the officers took posses-
sion of the house, a colonel making his headquarters in the
parlour. Several looting cavalrymen ran their swords
through the beds, probably looking for hidden silver; the
hearth was torn up in the same feverish quest; angry at
their failure, they emptied sacks of flour and scattered the
contents in the bedrooms and on the stairs; for days the
flour, intermingled with feathers from the bayonetted
beds, formed a carpet all over the house. It is there-
fore perhaps not strange that the feelings which Wal-
ter entertained for Sherman's "bummers," despite his
father's Whig principles, were those of most Southern com-
munities. One day a kindly Northern soldier, sympathiz-
ing with the boy because of the small rations left for the

A RECONSTRUCTION BOYHOOD 11

local population, invited him to join the officers' mess at
dinner. Walter drew proudly back.
"I'll starve before I'll eat with the Yankees," he said.

"I slept that night on a trundle bed by my mother's,"
Page wrote years afterward, describing these early
scenes, "for her room was the only room left for the
family, and we had all lived there since the day before.
The dining room and the kitchen were now superfluous,
because there was nothing more to cook or to eat. . . .
A week or more after the army corps had gone, I drove
with my father to the capital one day, and almost every
mile of the journey we saw a blue coat or a gray coat
lying by the road, with bones or hair protruding — the
unburied and the forgotten of either army. Thus I had
come to know what war was, and death by violence was
among the first deep impressions made on my mind.
My emotions must have been violently dealt with and
my sensibilities blunted — or sharpened? Who shall say?
The wounded and the starved straggled home from hos-
pitals and from prisons. There was old Mr. Sanford, the
shoemaker, come back again, with a body so thin and a
step so uncertain that I expected to see him fall to pieces.
Mr. Larkin and Joe Tatum went on crutches; and I saw
a man at the post-office one day whose cheek and ear had
been torn away by a shell. Even when Sam and I sat
on the river-bank fishing, and ought to have been silent
lest the fish swim away, we told over in low tones the
stories that we had heard of wounds and of deaths and of
battles.

"But there was the cheerful gentleness of my mother
to draw my thoughts to different things. I can even now
recall many special little plans that she made to keep my
mind from battles. She hid the military cap that I had

12 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

worn. She bought from me my military buttons and put
them away. She would call me in and tell me pleasant
stories of her own childhood. She would put down her
work to make puzzles with me, and she read gentle
books to me and kept away from me all the stories of the
war and of death that she could. Whatever hardships
befell her (and they must have been many) she kept a
tender manner of resignation and of cheerful patience.

"After a while the neighbourhood came to life again.
There were more widows, more sonless mothers, more
empty sleeves and wooden legs than anybody there had
ever seen before. But the mimosa bloomed, the cotton was
planted again, and the peach trees blossomed; and the
barnyard and the stable again became full of life. For,
when the army marched away, they, too, were as silent
as an old battlefield. The last hen had been caught under
the corn-crib by a 'Yankee' soldier, who had torn his
coat in this brave raid. Aunt Maria told Sam that all
Yankees were chicken thieves whether they 'brung
freedom or no.'

"Every year the cotton bloomed and ripened and
opened white to the sun; for the ripening of the cotton
and the running of the river and the turning of the mills
make the thread not of my story only but of the story of
our Southern land — of its institutions, of its misfortunes
and of its place in the economy of the world ; and they will
make the main threads of its story, I am sure, so long as
the sun shines on our white fields and the rivers run — a
story that is now rushing swiftly into a happier narrative
of a broader day. The same women ^Yllo had guided the
spindles in war-time were again at their tasks — they at
least were left; but the machinery was now old and
worked ill. Negro men, who had wandered a while
looking for an invisible 'freedom,' came back and went to

A RECONSTRUCTION ROYHOOD 13

work on the farm from force of habit. They now re-
ceived wages and bought their own food. That was the
only apparent difference that freedom had brought them.
"My Aunt Katharine came from the city for a visit,
my Cousin Margaret with her. Through the orchard, out
into the newly ploughed ground beyond, back over the
lawn which was itself bravely repairing the hurt done by
horses' hoofs and tent-poles, and under the oaks, which
bore the scars of camp-fires, we two romped and played
gentler games than camp and battle. One afternoon, as
our mothers sat on the piazza and saw us come loaded
with apple-blossoms, they said something (so I afterward
learned) about the eternal blooming of childhood and of
Nature — how sweet the early summer was in spite of the
harrying of the land by war; for our gorgeous pageant of
the seasons came on as if the earth had been the home of
unbroken peace."1

And so it was a tragic world into which this boy Page
had been born. He was ten years old when the Civil
War came to an end, and his early life was therefore cast
in a desolate country. Like all of his neighbours, Frank
Page had been ruined by the war. Both the Southern
and Northern armies had passed over the Page territory ;
compared with the military depredations with which
Page became familiar in the last years of his life, the
Federal troops did not particularly misbehave, the at-
tacks on hen roosts and the destruction of feather beds
representing the extreme of their "atrocities"; but no
country can entertain two great fighting forces without
feeling the effects for a prolonged period. Life in this
part of North Carolina again became reduced to its

ll'The Southerner," Chapter I.

14 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

fundamentals. The old homesteads and the Negro huts
were still left standing, and their interiors were for the
most part unharmed, but nearly everything else had dis-
appeared. Horses, cattle, hogs, livestock of all kinds had
vanished before the advancing hosts of hungry soldiers;
and there was one thing which was even more a rarity
than these. That was money. Confederate veterans
went around in their faded gray uniforms, not only be-
cause they loved them, but because they did not have the
wherewithal to buy new wardrobes. Judges, planters,
and other dignified members of the community became
hack drivers from the necessity of picking up a few small
coins. Page's father was more fortunate than the rest,
for he had one asset with which to accumulate a little
liquid capital; he possessed a fine peach orchard, which
was particularly productive in the summer of 1865, and
the Northern soldiers, who drew their pay in money that
had real value, developed a weakness for the fruit. Wal-
ter Page, a boy of ten, used to take his peaches to Raleigh,
and sell them to the "invader"; although he still dis-
dained having companionable relations with the enemy, he
was not above meeting them on a business footing; and
the greenbacks and silver coin obtained in this way laid a
new basis for the family fortunes.

Despite this happy windfall, fife for the next few years
proved an arduous affair. The horrors of reconstruction
which followed the war were more agonizing than the
war itself. Page's keenest inspiration in after life was
democracy, in its several manifestations; but the form
in which democracy first unrolled before his astonished
eyes was a phase that could hardly inspire much en-
thusiasm. Misguided sentimentalists and more malicious
politicians in the North had suddenly endowed the Negro
with the ballot. In practically all Southern States that

A RECONSTRUCTION ROYHOOD 15

meant government by Negroes — or what was even worse,
government by a combination of Negroes and the most
vicious white elements, including that which was native to
the soil and that which had imported itself from the Nortli
for this particular purpose. Thus the political vocabu-
lary of Page's formative years consisted chiefly of such
words as "scalawag," "carpet bagger," "regulator,"
"Union League," "Ku Klux Klan," and the like. The
resulting confusion, political, social, and economic, did not
completely amount to the destruction of a civilization,
for underneath it all the old sleepy ante-bellum South
still maintained its existence almost unchanged. The
two most conspicuous and contrasting figures were the
Confederate veteran walking around in a sleeveless coat
and the sharp-featured New England school mar'm,
armed with that spelling book which was overnight to
change the African from a genial barbarian into an intel-
ligent and conscientious social unit; but more persistent
than these forces was that old dreamy, " unprogressive "
Southland — the same country that Page himself de-
scribed in an article on "An Old Southern Borough"
which, as a young man, he contributed to the Atlantic
Monthly. It was still the country where the "old-
fashioned gentleman" was the controlling social influence,
where a knowledge of Latin and Greek still made its
possessor a person of consideration, where Emerson was
a "Yankee philosopher" and therefore not important,
where Shakespeare and Milton were looked upon almost
as contemporary authors, where the Church and politics
and the matrimonial history of friends and relatives
formed the staple of conversation, and where a strong
prejudice still existed against anything that resembled
popular education. In the absence of more substantial
employment, stump speaking, especially eloquent in praise

16 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

of the South and its achievements in war, had become
the leading industry.

"Wat" Page — he is still known by this name in his
old home — was a tall, rangy, curly-headed boy, with
brown hair and brown eyes, fond of fishing and hunting,
not especially robust, but conspicuously alert and vital.
Such of his old playmates as survive recall chiefly his
keenness of observation, his contagious laughter, his
devotion to reading and to talk. He was also given to
taking long walks in the woods, frequently with the soli-
tary companionship of a book. Indeed, his extremely
efficient family regarded him as a dreamer and were not
entirely clear as to what purpose he was destined to serve
in a community which, above all, demanded practical
men. Such elementary schools as North Carolina pos-
sessed had vanished in the war; the prevailing custom was
for the better-conditioned families to join forces and
engage a teacher for their assembled children. It was
in such a primary school in Cary that Page learned the
elementary branches, though his mother herself taught
him to read and write. The boy showed such aptitude
in his studies that his mother began to hope, though in
no aggressive fashion, that he might some day become a
Methodist clergyman; she had given him his middle name,
"Hines," in honour of her favourite preacher — a kins-
man. At the age of twelve Page was transferred to the
Bingham School, then located at Mebane. This was the
Eton of North Carolina, from both a social and an edu-
cational standpoint. It was a military school; the boys
all dressed in gray uniforms built on the plan of the Con-
federate army; the hero constantly paraded before their
imaginations was Robert E. Lee ; discipline was rigidly mil-
itary ; more important, a high standard of honour was in-
sisted upon. There was one thing a boy could not do at

A RECONSTRUCTION BOYHOOD 17

Bingham and remain in the school ; that was to cheat in
class-rooms or at examinations. For this offence no second
chance was given. "I cannot argue the subject," Page
quotes Colonel Bingham saying to the distracted parent
whose son had been dismissed on this charge, and who
was begging for his reinstatement. "In fact, I have no
power to reinstate your boy. I could not keep the honour
of the school — I could not even keep the boys, if he were
to return. They would appeal to their parents and most
of them would be called home. They are the flower of
the South, Sir!" And the social standards that con-
trolled the thinking of the South for so many years after
the war were strongly entrenched. "The son of a Con-
federate general," Page writes, "if he were at all a decent
fellow, had, of course, a higher social rank at the Bingham
School than the son of a colonel. There was some dif-
ficulty in deciding the exact rank of a judge or a governor,
as a father; but the son of a preacher had a fair chance of
a good social rating, especially of an Episcopalian clergy-
man. A Presbyterian preacher came next in rank. I
at first was at a social disadvantage. My father had been
a Methodist — that was bad enough; but he had had no
military title at all. If it had become known among the
boys that he had been a 'Union man' — I used to shudder
at the suspicion in which I should be held. And the
fact that my father had held no military title did at last
become known!"

A single episode discloses that Page maintained his
respect for the Bingham School to the end. In March,
1918, as American Ambassador, he went up to Harrow
and gave an informal talk to the boys on the United
States. His hosts were so pleased that two prizes were
established to commemorate his visit. One was for an
essay by Harrow boys on the subject: "The Drawing

18 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Together of America and Great Britain by Common
Devotion to a Great Cause." A similar prize on the same
subject was offered to the boys of some American school,
and Page was asked to select the recipient. He promptly
named his old Bingham School in North Carolina.

It was at Bingham that Page gained his first knowledge
of Greek, Latin, and mathematics, and he was an outstand-
ing student in all three subjects. He had no particular
liking for mathematics, but he could never understand
why any one should find this branch of learning difficult ;
he mastered it with the utmost ease and always stood
high. In two or three years he had absorbed everything
that Bingham could offer and was ready for the next
step. But political conditions in North Carolina now had
their influence upon Page's educational plans. Under
ordinary conditions he would have entered the State
University at Chapel Hill; it had been a great head-
quarters in ante-bellum days for the prosperous families
of the South. But by the time that Page was ready to go
to college the University had fallen upon evil days. The
forces which then ruled the state, acting in accordance
with the new principles of racial equality, had opened the
doors of this, one of the most aristocratic of Southern in-
stitutions, to Negroes. The consequences may be easily
imagined. The newly enfranchised blacks showed no in-
clination for the groves of Academe, and not a single
representative of the race applied for matriculation.
The outraged white population turned its back upon this
new type of coeducation; in the autumn of 1872 not a
solitary white boy made his appearance. The old uni-
versity therefore closed its doors for lack of students and
for the next few years it became a pitiable victim to
the worst vices of the reconstruction era. Politicians
were awarded the presidency and the professorships as

A RECONSTRUCTION BOYHOOD 19

political pap, and the resources of the place, in money and
books, were scattered to the wind. Page had therefore
to find his education elsewhere. The deep religious feel-
ings of his family quickly settled this point. The young
man promptly betook himself to the backwoods of North
Carolina and knocked at the doors of Trinity College,
a Methodist Institution then located in Randolph County.
Trinity has since changed its abiding place to Durham
and has been transformed into one of the largest and most
successful colleges of the new South; but in those days
a famous Methodist divine and journalist described it
as "a college with a few buildings that look like tobacco
barns and a few teachers that look as though they ought
to be worming tobacco." Page spent something more
than a year at Trinity, entering in the autumn of 1871,
and leaving in December, 1872. A few letters, written
from this place, are scarcely more complimentary than
the judgment passed above. They show that the young
man was very unhappy. One long letter to his mother
is nothing but a boyish diatribe against the place. " I do
not care a horse apple for Trinity's distinction," he writes,
and then he gives the reasons for this juvenile contempt.
His first report, he says, will soon reach home; he warns
his mother that it will be unfavourable, and he explains
that this bad showing is the result of a deliberate plot.
The boys who obtain high marks, Page declares, secure
them usually by cheating or through the partisanship of
the professors; a high grade therefore really means that
the recipient is either a humbug or a bootlicker. Page
had therefore attempted to keep his reputation unsullied
by aiming at a low academic record ! The report on that
three months' work, which still survives, discloses that
Page's conspiracy against himself did not succeed, for his
marks are all high. "Be sure to send him back" is the

20 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

annotation on this document, indicating that Page had
made a better impression on Trinity than Trinity had
made on Page.

But the rebellious young man did not return. After
Christmas, 1872, his schoolboy letters reveal him at
Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va. Here again
the atmosphere is Methodistical, but of a somewhat more
genial type. "It was at Ashland that I first began to
unfold," said Page afterward. "Dear old Ashland!"
Dr. Duncan, the President, was a clergyman whose pul-
pit oratory is still a tradition in the South, but, in ad-
dition to his religious exaltation, he was an exceedingly
lovable, companionable, and stimulating human being.
Certainly there was no lack of the religious impulse.
"We have a preacher president," Page writes his mother,
"a preacher secretary, a preacher chaplain, and a dozen
preacher students and three or more preachers are living
here and twenty-five or thirty yet-to-be preachers in
college!" In tins latter class Page evidently places
himself; at least he gravely writes his mother — he was
now eighteen — that he had definitely made up his mind
to enter the Methodist ministry. He had a close friend —
Wilbur Fisk Tillett — who cherished similar ambitions,
and Page one day surprised Tillett by suggesting that, at
the approaching Methodist Conference, they apply for
licensing as "local preachers" for the next summer. His
friend dissuaded him, however, and henceforth Page
concentrated on more worldly studies. In many ways
he was the life of the undergraduate body. His desire
for an immediate theological campaign was merely that
passion for doing things and for self-expression which
were always conspicuous traits. His intense ambition
as a boy is still remembered in this sleepy little village.
He read every book in the sparse college library ; he tallied

Allison Francis Page (1824-1899), father of Walter H. Page

Catherine Raboteau Page (1831-1897), mother of
Walter H. Page

A RECONSTRUCTION ROYHOOD 21

to his college mates and his professors on every imaginable
subject; he led his associates in the miniature parliament
—the Franklin Debating Society— to which he belonged;
he wrote prose and verse at an astonishing rate; he
explored the country for miles around, making frequent
pilgrimages to the birthplace of Henry Clay, which is the
chief historical glory of Ashland, and to that Hanover
Court House which was the scene of the oratorical tri-
umph of Patrick Henry; he flirted with the pretty girls
in the village, and even had two half-serious love affairs
in rapid succession ; he slept upon a hard mattress at night
and imbibed more than the usual allotment of Greek,
Latin, and mathematics in the daytime. One year he
captured the Greek prize and the next the Sutherlin
medal for oratory. With a fellow classicist he entered
into a solemn compact to hold all their conversation,
even on the most trivial topics, in Latin, with heavy
penalties for careless lapses into English. Probably the
linguistic result would have astonished Quintilian, but
the experiment at least had a certain influence in im-
proving the young man's Latinity. Another favourite
dissipation was that of translating English masterpieces
into the ancient tongue ; there still survives among Page's
early papers a copy of Bryant's "Waterfowl" done into
Latin iambics. As to Page's personal appearance, a
designation coined by a fellow student who afterward be-
came a famous editor gives the suggestion of a portrait.
He called him one of the "seven slabs" of the college.
And, as always, the adjectives which his contemporaries
chiefly use in describing Page are "alert" and "positive."
But Randolph-Macon did one great thing for Page.
Like many small struggling Southern colleges it managed
to assemble several instructors of real mental distinction.
And at the time of Page's undergraduate life it possessed

22 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

at least one great teacher. This was Thomas R. Price,
afterward Professor of Greek at the University of Vir-
ginia and Professor of English at Columbia University in
New York. Professor Price took one forward step that
has given him a permanent fame in the history of Southern
education. He found that the greatest stumbling block
to teaching Greek was not the conditional mood, but the
fact that Ins hopeful charges were not sufficiently familiar
with their mother tongue. The prayer that was always
on Price's lips, and the one with which he made his boys
most familiar, was that of a wise old Greek: "0 Great
Apollo, send down the reviving rain upon our fields; pre-
serve our flocks; ward off our enemies; and— build up our
speech!" "It is irrational," he said, "absurd, almost
criminal, to expect a young man, whose knowledge of
English words and construction is scant and inexact, to
put into English a difficult thought of Plato or an involved
period of Cicero." Above all, it will be observed, Price's
intellectual enthusiasm was the ancient tongue. A
present-day argument for learning Greek and Latin is
that thereby we improve our English; but Thomas R.
Price advocated the teaching of English so that we might
better understand the dead languages. To-day every
great American educational institution has vast resources
for teaching English literature; even in 1876, most
American universities had their professors of English;
but Price insisted on placing English on exactly the same
footing as Greek and Latin. He himself became head of
the new English school at Randolph-Macon; and Page
himself at once became the favourite pupil. This dis-
tinguished scholar— a fine figure with an imperial beard
that suggested the Confederate officer — used to have
Page to tea at least twice a week and at these meetings
the young man was first introduced in an understanding

A RECONSTRUCTION ROYHOOD 23

way to Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson,
and the other writers who became the literary passions
of his maturer life. And Price did even more for Page;
he passed him on to another place and to another teacher
who extended Iris horizon. Up to the autumn of 1876
Page had never gone farther North than Ashland ; he was
still a Southern boy, speaking with the Southern drawl,
living exclusively the thoughts and even the prejudices
of the South. His family's broad-minded attitude had
prevented him from acquiring a too restricted view of cer-
tain problems that were then vexing both sections of the
country ; however, his outlook was still a limited one, as his
youthful correspondence shows. But in October of the
centennial year a great prospect opened before him.

Two or three years previously an eccentric merchant
named Johns Hopkins had died, leaving the larger part
of his fortune to found a college or university in
Baltimore. Johns Hopkins was not an educated man
himself and his conception of a new college did not
extend beyond creating something in the nature of a
Yale or Harvard in Maryland. By a lucky chance, how-
ever, a Yale graduate who was then the President of
the University of California, Daniel Coit Gilman, was
invited to come to Baltimore and discuss with the trustees
his availability for the headship of the new institution.
Dr. Gilman promptly informed his prospective employers
that he would have no interest in associating himself with
a new American college built upon the lines of those which
then existed. Such a foundation would merely be a du-
plication of work already well done elsewhere and therefore
a waste of money and effort. He proposed that this
large endowment should be used, not for the erection of

24 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

expensive architecture, but primarily for seeking out, in
all parts of the world, the best professorial brains in certain
approved branches of learning. In the same spirit he
suggested that a similarly selective process be adopted in
the choice of students: that only those American boys
who had displayed exceptional promise should be admitted
and that part of the university funds should be used to
pay the expenses of twenty young men who, in under-
graduate work at other colleges, stood head and shoulders
above their contemporaries. The bringing together of
these two sets of brains for graduate study would con-
stitute the new university. A few rooms in the nearest
dwelling house would suffice for headquarters. Dr. Gil-
man's scheme was approved; he became President on these
terms; he gathered his faculty not only in the United
States but in England, and he collected his first body of
students, especially his first twenty fellows, with the same
minute care.

It seems almost a miracle that an inexperienced youth
in a little Methodist college in Virginia should have been
chosen as one of these first twenty fellows, and it is a suf-
ficient tribute to the impression that Page must have
made upon all who met him that he should have won this
great academic distinction. He was only twenty-one at
the time— the youngest of a group nearly every member
of which became distinguished in after fife. He won a
Fellowship in Greek. This in itself was a great good
fortune; even greater was the fact that his new life
brought him into immediate contact with a scholar of
great genius and lovableness. Someone has said that
America has produced four scholars of the very first
rank — Agassiz in natural science, Whitney in philology,
Willard Gibbs in physics, and Gildersleeve in Greek. It
was the last of these who now took Walter Page in charge.

A RECONSTRUCTION ROYHOOD 25

The atmosphere of Johns Hopkins was quite different
from anything which the young man had previously
known. The university gave a great shock to that part
of the American community with which Page had spent
his life by beginning its first session in October, 1876,
without an opening prayer. Instead Thomas H. Huxley
was invited from England to deliver a scientific address —
an address which now has an honoured place in his col-
lected works. The absence of prayer and the presence
of so audacious a Darwinian as Huxley caused a tre-
mendous excitement in the public prints, the religious
press, and the evangelical pulpit. In the minds of Gilman
and his abettors, however, all this was intended to em-
phasize the fact that Johns Hopkins was a real university,
in which the unbiased truth was to be the only aim. And
certainly this was the spirit of the institution. "Gentle-
men, you must fight your own torch," was the admonition
of President Gilman, in his welcoming address to his
twenty fellows; intellectual independence, freedom from
the trammels of tradition, were thus to be the directing
ideas. One of Page's associates was Josiah Royce, who
afterward had a distinguished career in philosophy at
Harvard. "The beginnings of Johns Hopkins," he after-
ward wrote, "was a dawn wherein it was bliss to be alive.
The air was full of noteworthy work done by the older
men of the place and of hopes that one might find a way to
get a little working power one's self. One longed to be
a doer of the word, not a hearer only, a creator of his
own infinitesimal fraction of the product, bound in God's
name to produce when the time came."

A choice group of five aspiring Grecians, of whom Page
was one, periodically gathered around a long pine table
in a second-story room of an old dwelling house on How-
ard Street, with Professor Gildersleeve at the head. The

26 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

process of teaching was thus the intimate contact of
mind with mind. Here in the course of nearly two years'
residence, Page was led by Professor Gildersleeve into
the closest communion with the great minds of the an-
cient world and gained that intimate knowledge of their
written word which was the basis of his mental equip-
ment. "Professor Gildersleeve, splendid scholar that he
is!" he wrote to a friend in North Carolina. "He makes
me grow wonderfully. When I have a chance to enjoy
y-Eschylus as I have now, I go to work on those immortal
pieces with a pleasure that swallows up everything." To
the extent that Gildersleeve opened up the literary treas-
ures of the past — and no man had a greater appreciation
of his favourite authors than this fine humanist — Page's
life was one of unalloyed delight. But there was another
side to the picture. This little company of scholars was
composed of men who aspired to no ordinary knowledge
of Greek ; they expected to devote their entire lives to the
subject, to edit Greek texts, and to hold Greek chairs
at the leading American universities. Such, indeed, has
been the career of nearly all members of the group. The
Greek tragedies were therefore read for other things than
their stylistic and dramatic values. The sons of Ger-
mania then exercised a profound influence on American
education ; Professor Gildersleeve himself was a graduate
of Gottingen, and the necessity of "settling hoti's busi-
ness" was strong in Ins seminar. Gildersleeve was a
writer of English who developed real style; as a Greek
scholar, his fame rests chiefly upon his work in the field
of historical syntax. He assumed that his students could
read Greek as easily as they could read French, and the
really important tasks he set them had to do with the
most abstruse fields of philology. For work of this kind
Page had little interest and less inclination. When Pvo*

A RECONSTRUCTION ROYHOOD 27

fessor Gildersleeve would assign him the adverb vpCv,
and direct him to study the peculiarities of its use from
Homer down to the Byzantine writers, he found him-
self in pretty deep waters. Was it conceivable that a
man could spend a lifetime in an occupation of this kind?
By pursuing such studies Gildersleeve and his most ad-
vanced pupils uncovered many new facts about the
language and even found hitherto unsuspected beauties;
but Page's letters show that this sort of effort was ex-
tremely uncongenial. He fulminates against the "gram-
marians" and begins to think that perhaps, after all, a
career of erudite scholarship is not the ideal existence.
"Learn to look on me as a Greek drudge," he writes,
"somewhere pounding into men and boys a faint hint of
the beauty of old Greekdom. That's most probably what
I shall come to before many years. I am sure that I
have mistaken my life work, if I consider Greek my life-
work. In truth at times I am tempted to throw the whole
thing away. . . . But without a home feeling in
Greek literature no man can lay claim to high culture."
So he would keep at it for three or four years and "then
leave it as a man's work." Despite these despairing
words Page acquired a living knowledge of Greek that
was one of his choicest possessions through life. That
he made a greater success than his self-depreciation would
imply is evident from the fact that his Fellowship was re-
newed for the next year.

But the truth is that the world was tugging at Page
more insistently than the cloister. "Speaking grammat-
ically," writes Prof. E. G. Sihler, one of Page's fellow
students of that time, in his "Confessions and Convictions
of a Classicist," "Page was interested in that one of the
main tenses which we call the Present." In his after
life, amid all the excitements of journalism, Page could

28 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

take a brief vacation and spend it with Ulysses by the
sea; but actuality and human activity charmed him even
more than did the heroes of the ancient world. He
went somewhat into Baltimore society, but not ex-
tensively; he joined a club whose membership comprised
the leading intellectual men of the town; probably his
most congenial associations, however, came of the Satur-
day night meetings of the fellows in Hopkins Hall, where,
over pipes and steins of beer, they passed in review all
the questions of the day. Page was still the Southern
boy, with the strange notions about the North and
Northern people which were the inheritance of many
years' misunderstandings. He writes of one fellow stu-
dent to whom he had taken a liking. "He is that rare
thing," he says, "a Yankee Christian gentleman." He par-
ticularly dislikes one of his instructors, but, as he explains,
he is a native of Connecticut, and Connecticut, I sup-
pose, is capable of producing any unholy human phenom-
enon." Speaking of a beautiful and well mannered Greek
girl whom he had met, he writes: "The little creature
might be taken for a Southern girl, but never for a Yankee.
She has an easy manner and even an air of gentility about
her that doesn't appear north of Mason and Dixon's Line.
Indeed, however much the Southern race (I say race in-
tentionally: Yankeedom is the home of another race
from us) however much the Southern race owes its
strength to Anglo-Saxon blood, it owes its beauty and
gracefulness to the Southern climate and culture. Who
says that we are not an improvement on the English?
An improvement in a happy combination of mental graces
and Saxon force? " This sort of thing is especially enter-
taining in the youthful Page, for it is precisely against
this kind of complacency that, as a mature man, he
directed his choicest ridicule. As an editor and writer

A RECONSTRUCTION BOYHOOD 29

his energies were devoted to reconciling North and South,
and Johns Hopkins itself had much to do with opening
his eyes. Its young men and its professors were gathered
from all parts of the country ; a student, if his mind was
awake, learned more than Greek and mathematics; he
learned much about that far-flung nation known as the
United States.

And Page did not confine his work exclusively to the
curriculum. He writes that he is regularly attending
a German Sunday School, not, however, from religious
motives, but from a desire to improve his colloquial
German. "Is this courting the Devil for knowledge? "
he asks. And all this time he was engaging in a delightful
correspondence — from which these quotations are taken
— with a young woman in North Carolina, his cousin.
About this time this cousin began spending her summers
in the Page home at Cary ; her great interest in books made
the two young people good friends and companions. It was
she who first introduced Page to certain Southern writers,
especially Timrod and Sidney Lanier, and, when Page
left for Johns Hopkins, the two entered into a compact
for a systematic reading and study of the English poets.
According to this plan, certain parts of Tennyson or
Chaucer would be set aside for a particular week's read-
ing; then both would write the impressions gained and the
criticisms which they assumed to make, and send the
product to the other. The plan was carried out more
faithfully than is usually the case in such arrangements ; a
large number of Page's letters survive and give a complete
history of his mental progress. There are lengthy dis-
quisitions on Wordsworth, Browning, Byron, Shelley,
Matthew Arnold, and the like. These letters also show
that Page, as a relaxation from Greek roots and syntax,
was indulging in poetic flights of his own ; his efforts, which

30 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

he encloses in his letters, are mainly imitations of the
particular poet in whom he was at the moment interested.
This correspondence also takes Page to Germany, in
which country he spent the larger part of the summer
of 1877. This choice of the Fatherland as a place of
pilgrimage was probably merely a reflection of the en-
thusiasm for German educational methods which then
prevailed in the United States, especially at Johns Hop-
kins. Page's letters are the usual traveller's descriptions
of unfamiliar customs, museums, libraries, and the like;
so far as enlarging his outlook was concerned the ex-
perience does not seem to have been especially profitable.
He returned to Baltimore in the autumn of 1877, but
only for a few months. He had pretty definitely aban-
doned his plan of devoting his life to Greek scholarship.
As a mental stimulus, as a recreation from the cares of
life, his Greek authors would always be a first love, as
they proved to be; but he had abandoned his early am-
bition of making them his everyday occupation and means
of livelihood. Of course there was only one career for a
man of his leanings, and, more and more, his mind was
tinning to journalism. For only one brief period did he
again listen to the temptations of a scholar's existence.
The university of his native state invited him to lecture
in the summer school of 1878; he took Shakespeare for
his subject, and made so great a success that there was
some discussion of his settling down permanently at
Chapel Hill in the chair of Greek. Had the offer def-
initely been made Page would probably have accepted,
but difficulties arose. Page was no longer orthodox in
his religious views; he had long outgrown dogma and
could only smile at the recollection that he had once
thought of becoming a clergyman. But a rationalist
at the University of North Carolina in 1878 could hardly

A RECONSTRUCTION BOYHOOD 31

be endured. The offer, therefore, fortunately was not
made. Afterward Page was much criticized for having
left his native state at a time when it especially needed
young men of his type. It may therefore be recorded
that, if there were any blame at all, it rested upon North
Carolina. He refers to his disappointment in a letter in
February, 1879 — a letter that proved to be a prophecy.
" I shall some day buy a home," he says, "where I was net
allowed to work for one, and be laid away in the soil that
I love. I wanted to work for the old state ; it had no need
for it, it seems. "

CHAPTER II

JOURNALISM

THE five years from 1878 to 1883 Page spent in various
places, engaged, for the larger part of the time, in
several kinds of journalistic work. It was his period of
struggle and of preparation. Like many American public
men he served a brief apprenticeship — in his case, a very
brief one — as a pedagogue. In the autumn of 1878 he
went to Louisville, Kentucky, and taught English for a
year at the Boys ' Lligh School. But he presently found
an occupation in this progressive city which proved far
more absorbing. A few months before his arrival certain
energetic spirits had founded a weekly paper, the Age,
a journal which, they hoped, would fill the place in the
Southern States which the very successful New York
Nation, under the editorship of Godkin, was then occupy-
ing in the North. Page at once began contributing lead-
ing articles on literary and political topics to this
publication; the work proved so congenial that he pur-
chased— on notes — a controlling interest in the new ven-
ture and became its directing spirit. The Age was in
every way a worthy enterprise ; in the dignity of its make-
up and the high literary standards at which it aimed it
imitated the London Spectator. Perhaps Page obtained
a thousand dollars' worth of fun out of his investment; if
so, that represented his entire profit. He now learned
a lesson which was emphasized in his after career as editor
and publisher, and that was that the Southern States pro-

JOURNALISM 33

vided a poor market for books or periodicals. The net
result of the proceeding was that, at the age of twenty-
three, he found himself out of a job and considerably in
debt.

He has himself rapidly sketched his varied activities
of the next five years :

"After trying in vain," he writes, "to get work to do
on any newspaper in North Carolina, I advertised for a
job in journalism — any sort of a job. By a queer accident
— a fortunate one for me — the owner of the St. Joseph, Mis-
souri, Gazette, answered the advertisement. Why he did it,
I never found out. He was in the same sort of desperate
need of a newspaper man as I was in desperate need of a
job. I knew nothing about him: he knew nothing about
me. I knew nothing about newspaper work. I had done
nothing since I left the University but teach English in the
Louisville, Kentucky, High School for boys one winter
and lecture at the summer school at Chapel Hill one sum-
mer. I made up my mind to go into journalism. But
journalism didn't seem in any hurry to make up its mind
to admit me. Not only did all the papers in North Caro-
lina decline my requests for work, but such of them in
Baltimore and Louisville as I tried said 'No.' So I bor-
rowed $50 and set out to St. Joe, Missouri, where I didn 't
know a human being. I became a reporter. At first
I reported the price of cattle — went to the stockyards, etc.
My salary came near to paying my board and lodging, but
it didn't quite do it. But I had a good time in St. Joe
for somewhat more than a year. There were interesting
people there. I came to know something about Western
life. Kansas was across the river. I often went there.
I came to know Kansas City, St. Louis — a good deal of
the West. After a while I was made editor of the pa-
per. What a rousing political campaign or two we had !

34 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Then — I had done that kind of a job as long as I cared
to. Every swashbuckling campaign is like every other
one. Why do two? Besides, I knew my trade. I had
done everything on a daily paper from stockyard reports
to political editorials and heavy literary articles. In the
meantime I had written several magazine articles and
done other such jobs. I got leave of absence for a month
or two. I wrote to several of the principal papers in
Chicago, New York, and Boston and told them that I
was going down South to make political and social studies
and that I was going to send them my letters. I hoped
they'd publish them.

"That's all I could say. I could make no engagement;
they didn't know me. I didn't even ask for an engage-
ment. I told them simply this : that I 'd write letters and
send them; and I prayed heaven that they'd print them
and pay for them. Then off I went with my little money
in my pocket — about enough to get to New Orleans. I
travelled and I wrote. I went all over the South. I sent
letters and letters and letters. All the papers published all
that I sent them and I was rolling in wealth ! I had money
in my pocket for the first time in my life. Then I went
back to St. Joe and resigned ; for the (old) New York World
had asked me to go to the Atlanta Exposition as a cor-
respondent. I went. I wrote and kept writing. How
kind Henry Grady was to me! But at last the Expo-
sition ended. I was out of a job. I applied to the
Constitution. No, they wouldn't have me. I never got
a job in my life that I asked for! But all my life better
jobs have been given me than I dared ask for. Well —
I was at the end of my rope in Atlanta and I was trying to
make a living in any honest way I could when one day a
telegram came from the New York World (it was the old
World, which was one of the best of the dailies in its

JOURNALISM 35

literary quality) asking me to come to New York. I had
never seen a man on the paper — had never been in New
York except for a day when I landed there on a return
voyage from a European trip that I took during one va-
cation when I was in the University. Then I went to New
York straight and quickly. I had an interesting experience
on the old World, writing literary matter chiefly, an edi-
torial now and then, and I was frequently sent as a cor-
respondent on interesting errands. I travelled all over the
country with the Tariff Commission. I spent one winter
in Washington as a sort of editorial correspondent while
the tariff bill was going through Congress. Then, one
day, the World was sold to Mr. Pulitzer and all the staff
resigned. The character of the paper changed."

What better training could a journalist ask for than
this? Page was only twenty-eight when these five years
came to an end; but his fife had been a comprehensive
education in human contact, in the course of which he had
picked up many things that were not included in the rou-
tine of Johns Hopkins University. From Athens to St.
Joe, from the comedies of Aristophanes to the stockyards
and political conventions of Kansas City — the transition
may possibly have been an abrupt one, but it is not likely
that Page so regarded it. For books and the personal
relation both appealed to him, in almost equal proportions,
as essentials to the fully rounded man. Merely from the
standpoint of geography, Page's achievement had been an
important one; how many Americans, at the age of
twenty-eight, have such an extensive mileage to their
credit? Page had spent his childhood — and his childhood
only — in North Carolina; he had passed his youth in
Virginia and Maryland; before he was twenty-three he had
lived several months in Germany, and, on his return
voyage, he had sailed by the white cliffs of England, and,

36 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

from the deck of his steamer, had caught glimpses of that
Isle of Wight which then held his youthful favourite Ten-
nyson. He had added to these experiences a winter in
Kentucky and a sojourn of nearly two years in Missouri.
His Southern trip, to which Page refers in the above, had
taken him through Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, and Louisiana; he had visited the West again in
1882, spending a considerable time in all the large cities,
Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Leadville, Salt Lake, and from
the latter point he had travelled extensively through
Mormondom. The several months spent in Atlanta had
given the young correspondent a glimpse into the new
South, for this energetic city embodied a Southern spirit
that was several decades removed from the Civil War.
After this came nearly two years in New York and Wash-
ington, where Page gained his first insight into Federal
politics; in particular, as a correspondent attached to the
Tariff Commission — an assignment that again started
him on his travels to industrial centres — he came into con-
tact, for the first time, with the mechanism of framing the
great American tariff. And during this period Page was
not only forming a first-hand acquaintance with the pass-
ing scene, but also with important actors in it. The mere
fact that, on the St. Joseph Gazette, he succeeded Eugene
Field — "a good fellow named Page is going to take my
desk," said the careless poet, "I hope he will succeed to
my debts too" — always remained a pleasant memory.
He entered zealously into the life of this active commun-
ity ; his love of talk and disputation, his interest in politics,
his hearty laugh, his vigorous handclasp, his animation of
body and of spirit, and his sunny outlook on men and
events — these are the traits that his old friends in this
town, some of whom still survive, associate with the
juvenile editor. In his Southern trip Page called — self-

Walter H. Page in 1876, when he was a Fellow of Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, Md

Basil L. Gildersleeve, Professor of Greek, Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity, 1876-1915

JOURNALISM 37

invited — upon Jefferson Davis and was cordially re-
ceived. At Atlanta, as he records above, he made friends
with that chivalric champion of a resurrected South,
Henry Grady; here also he obtained fugitive glimpses
of a struggling and briefless lawyer, who, like Page, was
interested more in books and writing than in the hum-
drum of professional life, and who was then engaged
in putting together a brochure on Congressional Govern-
ment which immediately gave him a national standing.
The name of this sympathetic acquaintance was Wood-
row Wilson.

Another important event had taken place, for, at St.
Louis, on November 15, 1880, Page had married Miss
Willia Alice Wilson. Miss Wilson was the daughter of a
Scotch physician, Dr. William Wilson, who had settled
in Michigan, near Detroit, in 1832. When she was a
small child she went with her sister's family — her father
had died seven years before — to North Carolina, near
Gary; and she and Page had been childhood friends and
schoolmates. At the time of the wedding, Page was
editor of the St. Joseph Gazette; the fact that he had
attained this position, five months after starting at the
bottom, sufficiently discloses his aptitude for journalistic
work.

Page had now outgrown any Southern particularism
with which he may have started life. He no longer found
his country exclusively in the area south of the Potomac ;
he had made his own the West, the North — New York,
Chicago, Denver, as well as Atlanta and Raleigh. It is
worth while insisting on this fact, for the cultivation of a
wide-sweeping Americanism and a profound faith in de-
mocracy became the qualities that will loom most largely in
his career from this time forward. It is necessary only to
read the newspaper letters which he wrote on his Southern

38 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

trip in 1881 to understand how early his mind seized this
new point of view. Many things which now fell Under
his observant eye in the Southern States greatly irritated
him and with his characteristic impulsiveness he pictured
these traits in pungent phrase. The atmosphere of
shiftlessness that too generally prevailed in some localities;
the gangs of tobacco-chewing loafers assembled around rail-
way stations; the listless Negroes that seemed to overhang
the whole country like a black cloud ; the plantation man-
sions in a sad state of disrepair; the old unoccupied slave
huts overgrown with weeds; the unpainted and broken-down
fences; the rich soil that was crudely and wastefully cul-
tivated with a single crop — the youthful social philosopher
found himself comparing these vestigia of a half-moribund
civilization with the vibrant cities of the North, the beau-
tiful white and green villages of New England, and the
fertile prairie farms of the West. "Even the dogs,"
he said, "look old-fashioned." Oh, for a change in his
beloved South— a change of almost any kind! "Even
a heresy, if it be bright and fresh, would be a relief. You
feel as if you wished to see some kind of an effort put
forth, a discussion, a fight, a runaway, anything to make
the blood go faster." Wherever Page saw signs of a new
spirit — and he saw many — he recorded them with an
eagerness which showed his loyalty to the section of his
birth. The splitting up of great plantations into small
farms he put down as one of the indications of a new
day. A growing tendency to educate, not only the
white child, but the Negro, inspired a similar tribute.
But he rejoiced most over the decreasing bitterness of the
masses over the memories of the Civil War, and dis-
covered, with satisfaction, that any remaining ill-feeling
was a heritage left not by the Union soldier, but by
the carpetbagger.

JOURNALISM 39

And one scene is worth preserving, for it illustrates not
only the zeal of Page himself for the common country, but
the changing attitude of the Southern people. It was
enacted at Martin, Tennessee, on the evening of July 2,
1881. Page was spending a few hours in the village
grocery, discussing things in general with the local yeo-
manry, when the telegraph operator came from the post
office with rather more than his usual expedition and ex-
citement. He was frantically waving a yellow slip which
bore the news that President Garfield had been shot.
Garfield had been an energetic and a successful general
in the war and his subsequent course in Congress, where
he had joined the radical Republicans, had not caused the
South to look upon him as a friend. But these farmers
responded to this shock, not like sectionalists, but like
Americans. "Every man of them," Page records, "ex-
pressed almost a personal sorrow. Little was said of
politics or of parties. Mr. Garfield was President of the
United States — that was enough. A dozen voices spoke
the great gratification that the assassin was not a
Southern man. It was an affecting scene to see weather-
beaten old countrymen so profoundly agitated — men
who yesterday I should have supposed hardly knew
and certainly did not seem to care who was President.
The great centres of population, of politicians, and of
thought may be profoundly agitated to-night, but no
more patriotic sorrow and humiliation is felt anywhere
by any men than by these old backwoods ex-Confeder-
ates."

Page himself was so stirred by the news that he as-
cended a cracker barrel, and made a speech to the as-
sembled countrymen, preaching to responsive ears the.
theme of North and South, now reunited in a common
sorrow. Thus, by the time he was twenty-six, Page, at

40 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

any rate in respect to his Americanism, was a full-grown

man.

A few years afterward Page had an opportunity of dis-
cussing this, his favourite topic, with the American whom
he most admired. Perhaps the finest thing in the career of
Grover Cleveland was the influence which he exerted upon
young men. After the sordid political transactions of the
reconstruction period and after the orgy of partisanship
which had followed the Civil War, this new figure, acceding
to the Presidency in 1885, came as an inspiration to millions
of zealous and intelligent young college-bred Americans.
One of the first to feel the new spell was Walter Page;
Mr. Cleveland was perhaps the most important influence
in forming his public ideals. Of everything that Cleve-
land represented — civil service reform; the cleansing of
politics, state and national; the reduction in the tariff;
a foreign policy which, without degenerating into trucu-
lence, manfully upheld the rights of American citizens;
a determination to curb the growing pension evil; the
doctrine that the Government was something to be served
and not something to be plundered — Page became an
active and brilliant journalistic advocate. It was there-
fore a great day in his life when, on a trip to Washington
in the autumn of 1885, he had an hour's private conver-
sation with President Cleveland, and it was entirely char-
acteristic of Page that he should make the conversation
take the turn of a discussion of the so-called Southern
question.

"In the White House at Washington," Page wrote
about this visit, "is an honest, plain, strong man, a man
of wonderfully broad information and of most uncommon
industry. He has always been a Democrat. He is a dis-

JOURNALISM 41

tinguished lawyer and a scholar on all public questions.
He is as frank and patriotic and sincere as any man that
ever won the high place he holds. Within less than a
year he has done so well and so wisely that he has dis-
appointed his enemies and won their admiration. He is
as unselfish as he is great. He is one of the most in-
dustrious men in the world. He rises early and works
late and does not waste his time — all because his time is
now not his own but the Republic's, whose most honoured
servant he is. I count it among the most inspiring ex-
periences in my life that I had the privilege, at the sug-
gestion of one of his personal friends, of talking with him
one morning about the complete reuniting of the two
great sections of our Republic by his election. I told
him, and I know I told him the truth, when I said that
every young man in the Southern States who, without
an opportunity to share either the glory or the defeat of
the late Confederacy, had in spite of himself suffered the
disadvantages of the poverty and oppression that fol-
lowed war, took new hope for the full and speedy reali-
zation of a complete union, of unparalleled prosperity
and of broad thinking and noble living from his elevation
to the Presidency. I told him that the men of North
Carolina were not only patriotic but ambitious as well;
and that they were Democrats and proud citizens of the
State and the Republic not because they wanted offices
or favours, but because they loved freedom and wished
the land that had been impoverished by war to regain
more than it had lost. ' I have not called, Mr. President,
to ask for an office for myself or for anybody else, ' I re-
marked; 'but to have the pleasure of expressing my grati-
fication, as a citizen of North Carolina, at the complete
change in political methods and morals that I believe
will date from your Administration. ' He answered that

42 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

he was glad to see all men who came in such a spirit and
did not come to beg — especially young men of the South
of to-day; and he talked and encouraged me to talk
freely as if he had been as small a man as I am, or I as
great a man as he is.

"From that day to this it has been my business to
watch every public act that he does, to read every public
word he speaks, and it has been a pleasure and a benefit
to me (like the benefit that a man gets from reading a
great history — for he is making a great history) to study
the progress of his Administration ; and at every step he
seems to me to warrant the trust that the great Democratic
party put in him."

The period to which Page refers in this letter repre-
sented the time when he was making a serious and harass-
ing attempt to establish himself in his chosen profession
in his native state. He went south for a short visit
after resigning his place on the New York World, and
several admirers in Raleigh persuaded him to found a
new paper, which should devote itself to preaching the
Cleveland ideals, and, above all, to exerting an influence
on the development of a new Southern spirit. No task
could have been more grateful to Page and there was
no place in which he would have better liked to under-
take it than in the old state which he loved so well. The
result was the State Chronicle of Raleigh, practically a
new paper, which for a year and a half proved to be
the most unconventional and refreshing influence that
North Carolina had known in many a year. Necessarily
Page found himself in conflict with his environment. He
had little interest in the things that then chiefly interested
the state, and North Carolina apparently had little in-
terest in the things that chiefly occupied the mind of the
youthful journalist. Page was interested in Cleveland,

JOURNALISM 43

in the reform of the civil service ; the Democrats of North
Carolina little appreciated their great national leader
and were especially hostile to his belief that service to a
party did not in itself establish a qualification for public
office. Page was interested in uplifting the common
people, in helping every farmer to own his own acres, and
in teaching the most modern and scientific way of culti-
vating them; he was interested in giving every boy and
girl at least an elementary education, and in giving a
university training to such as had the aptitude and the
ambition to obtain it; he believed in industrial training
— and in these things the North Carolina of those days
had little concern. Page even went so far as to take an
open stand for the pitiably neglected black man: he in-
sisted that he should be taught to read and write, and
instructed in agriculture and the manual trades. A man
who advocated such revolutionary things in those days
was accused — and Page was so accused — of attempting to
promote the "social equality" of the two races. Page
also declaimed in favour of developing the state indus-
trially; he called attention to the absurdity of sending
Southern cotton to New England spinning mills, and he
pointed out the boundless but unworked natural resources
of the state, in minerals, forests, waterpower, and lands.
North Carolina, he informed his astonished compatriots,
had once been a great manufacturing colony; why could
the state not become one againP But the matter in which
the buoyant editor and his constituents found themselves
most at variance was the spirit that controlled North
Carolina life. It was a spirit that found comfort for its
present poverty and lack of progress in a backward look
at the greatness of the state in the past and the achieve-
ments of its sons in the Civil War. Though Page believed
that the Confederacy had been a ghastly error, and though

44 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

he abhorred the institution of slavery and attributed to
it all the woes, economic and social, from which his section
suffered, he rendered that homage to the soldiers of the
South which is the due of brave, self-sacrificing and
conscientious men ; yet he taught that progress lay in re-
garding the four dreadful years of the Civil War as the
closed chapter of an unhappy and mistaken history and
in hastening the day when the South should resume its
place as a living part of the great American democracy.
All manifestations of a contrary spirit he ridiculed in
language which was extremely readable but which at
times outraged the good conservative people whom he
was attempting to convert. He did not even spare the
one figure which was almost a part of the Southerner's
religion, the Confederate general, especially that par-
ticular type who used his war record as a stepping stone
to public office, and whose oratory, colourful and turgid
in its celebrations of the past, Page regarded as somewhat
unrelated, in style and matter, to the realities of the
present. The image-breaking editor even asserted that
the Daughters of the Confederacy were not entirely a
helpful influence in Southern regeneration; for they, too,
were harping always upon the old times and keeping alive
sectional antagonisms and hatreds. This he regarded
as an unworthy occupation for high-minded Southern
women, and he said so, sometimes in language that made
him very unpopular in certain circles.

Altogether it was a piquant period in Page's life. He
found that he had suddenly become a "traitor" to his
country and that his experiences in the North had com-
pletely "Yankeeized" him. Even in more mature days,
Page's pen had its javelin-like quality; and in 1884, pos-
sessed as he was of all the fury of youth, he never hesitated
to return every blow that was rained upon his head. As

JOURNALISM 45

a matter of fact he had a highly enjoyable time. The
State Chronicle during his editorship is one of the most
cherished recollections of older North Carolinians to-day.
Even those who hurled the liveliest epithets in his di-
rection have long since accepted the ideas for which Page
was then contending; "the only trouble with him," they
now ruefully admit, "was that he was forty \ears ahead
of his time." They recall with satisfaction the satiric
accounts which Page used to publish of Democratic Con-
ventions— solemn, long-winded, frock-coated, white-neck-
tied affairs that displayed little concern for the reform of
the tariff or of the civil service, but an energetic interest in
pensioning Confederate veterans and erecting monuments
to the Southern heroes of the Civil War. One editorial
is joyfully recalled, in which Page referred to a public
officer who was distinguished for his dignity and his
family tree, but not noted for any animated administra-
tion of his duties, as "Thothmes II." When this be-
wildered functionary searched the Encyclopaedia and
learned that "Thothmes II" was an Egyptian king of the
XVIIIth dynasty, whose dessicated mummy had re-
cently been disinterred from the hot sands of the desert,
he naturally stopped his subscription to the paper.
The metaphor apparently tickled Page, for he used it in
a series of articles which have become immortal in the
political annals of North Carolina. These have always
been known as the "Mummy letters." They furnished
a vivid but rather aggravating explanation for the
existing backwardness and chauvinism of the common-
wealth. All the trouble, it seems, was caused by the
"mummies." "It is an awfully discouraging business,"
Page wrote, "to undertake to prove to a mummy that it
is a mummy. You go up to it and say, 'Old fellow, the
Egyptian dynasties crumbled several thousand years ago :

46 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

you are a fish out of water. You have by accident or the
Providence of God got a long way out of your time. This
is America.' The old thing grins that grin which death
set on its solemn features when the world was young ; and
your task is so pitiful that even the humour of it is gone.
Give it up."

Everything great in North Carolina, Page declared, be-
longed to a vanished generation. "Our great lawyers, great
judges, great editors, are all of the past. ... In
the general intelligence of the people, in intellectual force
and in cultivation, we are doing nothing. We are not
doing or getting more liberal ideas, a broader view of this
world. . . . The presumptuous powers of ignorance,
heredity, decayed respectability and stagnation that con-
trol public action and public expression are absolutely
leading us back intellectually."

But Page did more than berate the mummified aristo-
cracy which, he declared, was driving the best talent and
initiative from the state; he was not the only man in
Raleigh who expressed these unpopular views ; at that time,
indeed, he was the centre and inspiration of a group of
young progressive spirits who held frequent meetings to de-
vise ways of starting the state on the road to a new exist-
ence. Page then, as always, exercised a great fascination
over young men. The apparently merciless character of
his ridicule might at first convey the idea of intolerance;
the fact remains, however, that he was the most tolerant
of men ; he was almost deferential to the opinions of others,
even the shallow and the inexperienced; and nothing de-
lighted him more than an animated discussion. His
liveliness of spirits, his mental and physical vitality, the
constant sparkle of his talk, the sharp edge of his humour,
naturally drew the younger men to his side. The result
was the organization of the Wautauga Club, a gathering

JOURNALISM 47

which held monthly meetings for the discussion of ways
and means of improving social and educational condi-
tions in North Carolina. The very name gives the key
to its mental outlook. The Wautauga colony was one of
the last founded in North Carolina — in the extreme west,
on a plateau of the Great Smoky Mountains; it was
always famous for the energy and independence of its
people. The word "Wautauga" therefore suggested the
breaker of tradition; and it provided a stimulating name
for Page's group of young spiritual and economic path-
finders. The Wautauga Club had a brief existence of a
little more than two years, the period practically covering
Page's residence in the state; but its influence is an im-
portant fact at the present time. It gave the state ideas
that afterward caused something like a revolution in its
economic and educational status. The noblest monument
to its labours is the State College in Raleigh, an institution
which now has more than a thousand students, for the
most part studying the mechanic arts and scientific ag-
riculture. To this one college most North Carolinians
to-day attribute the fact that their state in appreciable
measure is realizing its great economic and industrial
opportunities. From it in the last thirty years thousands
of young men have gone : in all sections of the common-
wealth they have caused the almost barren acres to yield
fertile and diversified crops; they have planted every-
where new industries; they have unfolded unsuspected
resources and everywhere created wealth and spread
enlightenment. This institution is a direct outcome of
Page 's brief sojourn in his native state nearly forty years
ago. The idea originated in his brain; the files of the
State Chronicle tell the story of his struggle in its behalf;
the activities of the Wautauga Club were largely con-
centrated upon securing its establishment.

48 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

The State College was a great victory for Page, but
final success did not come until three years after he had
left the state. For a year and a half of hard newspaper
work convinced Page that North Carolina really had no
permanent place for him. The Chronicle was editorially a
success: Page's articles were widely quoted, not only
in his own state but in New England and other parts of
the Union. He succeeded in stirring up North Carolina
and the South generally, but popular support for the
Chronicle was not forthcoming in sufficient amount to
make the paper a commercial possib. lity . Reluctantly and
sadly Page had to forego his hope of playing an active
part in rescuing his state from the disasters of the Civil
War. Late in the summer of 1885, he again left for the
North, which now became his permanent home.

And with this second sojourn in New York Page's
opportunity came. The first two years he spent in news-
paper work, for the most part with the Evening Post, but,
one day in November, 1887, a man whom he had never seen
came into his office and unfolded a new opportunity. Two
years before a rather miscellaneous group had launched
an ambitious literary undertaking. This was a monthly
periodical, which, it was hoped, would do for the United
States what such publications as the Fortnightly and the
Contemporary were doing for England. The magazine was
to have the highest literary quality and to be sufficiently
dignified to attract the finest minds in America as con-
tributors; its purpose was to exercise a profound in-
fluence in politics, literature, science, and art. The pro-
jectors had selected for this publication a title that was
almost perfection — the Forum — but this, after nearly
two years' experimentation, represented about the limit of

JOURNALISM 49

their achievement. The Forum had hardly made an
impression on public thought and had attracted very few
readers, although it had lost large sums of money for its
progenitors. These public-spirited gentlemen now turned
to Page as the man who might rescue them from their
dilemma and achieve their purpose. He accepted the
engagement, first as manager and presently as editor,
and remained the guiding spirit of the Forum for eight
years, until the summer of 1895.

That the success of a publication is the success of its
editors, and not of its business managers and its "back-
ers," is a truth that ought to be generally apparent; never
has this fact been so eloquently illustrated as in the case
of the Forum under Page. Before his accession it had had
not the slightest importance ; for the period of his editor-
ship it is doubtful if any review published in English
exercised so great an influence, and certainly none ever
obtained so large a circulation. From almost nothing the
Forum, in two or three years, attracted 30,000 sub-
scribers— something without precedent for a publication
of this character. It had accomplished this great re-
sult simply because of the vitality and interest of its
contents. The period covered was an important one,
in the United States and Europe ; it was the time of Cleve-
land's second administration in this country, and of
Gladstone's fourth administration in England; it was a
time of great controversy and of a growing interest in
science, education, social reform and a better political
order. All these great matters were reflected in the
pages of the Forum, whose fist of contributors contained
the most distinguished names in all countries. Its purpose,
as Page explained it, was "to provoke discussion about
subjects of contemporary interest, in which the maga-
zine is not a partisan, but merely the instrument." In

50 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the highest sense, that is, its purpose was journalistic;
practically everything that it printed was related to the
thought and the action of the time. So insistent was
Page on this programme that his pages were not "closed"
until a week before the day of issue. Though the Forum
dealt constantly in controversial subjects it never did so in
a narrow-minded spirit ; it was always ready to hear both
sides of a question and the magazine "debate," in which
opposing writers handled vigorously the same theme, was
a constant feature.

Page, indeed, represented a new type of editor. Up to
that time this functionary had been a rather solemn, in-
accessible high priest; he sat secluded in his sanctuary, and
weeded out from the mass of manuscripts dumped upon
his desk the particular selections which seemed to be
most suited to his purpose. To solicit contributions
would have seemed an entirely undignified proceeding; in
all cases contributors must come to him. According to
Page, however, "an editor must know men and be out
among men." His system of "making up" the maga-
zine at first somewhat astounded his associates. A
month or two in advance of publication day he would
draw up his table of contents. This, in its preliminary
stage, amounted to nothing except a list of the main
subjects which he aspired to handle in that number. It
was a hope, not a performance. The subjects were com-
monly suggested by the happenings of the time — an
especially outrageous lynching, the trial of a clergyman
for heresy, a new attack upon the Monroe Doctrine, the
discovery of a new substance such as radium, the publica-
tion of an epoch-making book. Page would then fix upon
the inevitable men who could write most readably and
most authoritatively upon these topics, and "go after"
them. Sometimes he would write one of his matchless

JOURNALISM 51

editorial letters; at other times he would make a per-
sonal visit; if necessary , he would use any available friends
in a wire-pulling campaign. At all odds he must "get"
his man; once he had fixed upon a certain contributor
nothing could divert him from the chase. Nor did the
negotiations cease after he had "landed" his quarry. He
had his way of discussing the subject with his proposed
writer, and he discussed it from every possible point of
view. He would take him to lunch or to dinner; in his
quiet way he would draw him out, find whether he really
knew much about the subject, learn the attitude that he
was likely to take, and delicately slip in suggestions of
his own. Not infrequently this preliminary interview
would disclose that the much sought writer, despite
appearances, was not the one who was destined for that
particular job ; in this case Page would find some way of
shunting him in favour of a more promising candidate.
But Page was no mere chaser of names ; there was nothing
of the literary tuft-hunter about his editorial methods.
He liked to see such men as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow
Wilson, William Graham Sumner, Charles W. Eliot,
Frederic Harrison, Paul Bourget, and the like upon his
title page — and here these and many other similarly
distinguished authors appeared — but the greatest name
could not attain a place there if the letter press that fol-
lowed were unworthy. Indeed Page 's habit of throwing
out the contributions of the great, after paying a stiff
price for them, caused much perturbation in his counting
room. One day he called in one of his associates.

"Do you see that waste basket?" he asked, pointing
to a large receptacle filled to overflowing with manu-
scripts. "All our Cleveland articles are there!"

He had gone to great trouble and expense to obtain
a series of six articles from the most prominent publicists

52 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

and political leaders of the country on the first year of
Mr. Cleveland 's second administration. It was to be the
"feature" of the number then in preparation.

"There isn't one of them," he declared, "who has got
the point. I have thrown them all away and I am going
to try to write something myself."

And he spent a couple of days turning out an article
which aroused great public interest. When Page com-
missioned an article, he meant simply that he would pay
full price for it; whether he would publish it depended
entirely upon the quality of the material itself. But
Page was just as severe upon his own writings as upon
those of other men. He wrote occasionally — always under
a nom-de-plume ; but he had great difficulty in satisfy-
ing his own editorial standards. After finishing an article
he would commonly send for one of his friends and read
the result.

"That is superb!" this admiring associate would some-
times say.

In response Page would take the manuscript and,
holding it aloft in two hands, tear it into several bits, and
throw the scraps into the waste basket.

"Oh, I can do better than that," he would laugh and in
another minute he was busy rewriting the article, from
beginning to end.

Page retired from the editorship of the Forum in 1895.
The severance of relations was half a comedy, half a
tragedy. The proprietors had only the remotest relation
to literature ; they had lost much money in the enterprise
before Page became editor and only the fortunate accident
of securing Iris services had changed their losing venture
into a financial success. In a moment of despair, before the
happier period had arrived, they offered to sell the prop-
erty to Page and his friends. Page quickly assembled a

JOURNALISM 53

new group to purchase control, when, much to the amaze-
ment of the old owners, the Forum began to make money.
Instead of having a burden on their hands, the proprietors
suddenly discovered that they had a gold mine. They
therefore refused to deliver their holdings and an inevita-
ble struggle ensued for control. Page could edit a mag-
azine and turn a shipwrecked enterprise into a profitable
one ; but, in a tussle of this kind, he was no match for the
shrewd business men who owned the property. When the
time came for counting noses Page and his friends found
themselves in a minority. Of course his resignation as
editor necessarily followed this little unpleasantness.
And just as inevitably the Forum again began to lose
money, and soon sank into an obscurity from which it has
never emerged.

The Forum had established Page's reputation as an
editor, and the competition for his services was lively.
The distinguished Boston publishing house of Houghton,
Mifflin & Company immediately invited him to become
a part of their organization. When Horace E. Scudder,
in 1898, resigned the editorship of the Atlantic Monthly,
Page succeeded him. Thus Page became the successor of
James Russell Lowell, James T. Fields, William D. Howells,
and Thomas Bailey Aldrich as the head of this famous
periodical. This meant that he had reached the top of
his profession. He was now forty-three years old.

No American publication had ever had so brilliant a
history. Founded in 1857, in the most flourishing period
of the New England writers, its pages had first published
many of the best essays of Emerson, the second series of
the Biglow papers as well as many other of Lowell's
writings, poems of Longfellow and Whittier, such great
successes as Holmes's "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,"
Mrs. Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and the

54 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

early novels of Henry James. If America had a literature,
the Atlantic was certainly its most successful periodical
exponent. Yet, in a sense, the Atlantic, by the time Page
succeeded to the editorship, had become the victim of
its dazzling past. Its recent editors had lived too ex-
clusively in their back numbers. They had conducted
the magazine too much for the restricted audience of
Boston and New England. There was a time, indeed,
when the business office arranged the subscribers in two
classes — "Boston" and "foreign"; "Boston" representing
their local adherents, and "foreign" the loyal readers who
lived in the more benighted parts of the United States.
One of its editors had been heard to boast that he never
solicited a contribution; it was not his business to be
a literary drummer! Let the truth be fairly spoken:
when Page made his first appearance in the Atlantic
office, the magazine was unquestionably on the decline.
Its literary quality was still high; the momentum that
its great contributors had given it was still keeping the
publication alive; entrance into its columns still repre-
sented the ultimate ambition of the aspiring American
writer; but it needed a new spirit to insure its future.
What it required was the kind of editing that had suddenly
made the Forum one of the greatest of English-written
reviews. This is the reason why the canny Yankee pro-
prietors had reached over to New York and grasped Page
as quickly as the capitalists of the Forum let him slip be-
tween their fingers.

Page's sense of humour discovered a certain ironic
aspect in his position as the dictator of this famous New
England magazine. The fact that his manner was im-
patiently energetic and somewhat startling to the placid
atmosphere of Park Street was not the thing that really
signified its break with its past. But here was a South-

JOURNALISM 55

erner firmly entrenched in a headquarters that had long
been sacred to the New England abolitionists. One
of the first sights that greeted Page, as he came into the
office, was the angular and spectacled countenance of
William Lloyd Garrison, gazing down from a steel en-
graving on the wall. One of Garrison's sons was a col-
league, and the anterooms were frequently cluttered with
dusky gentlemen patiently waiting for interviews with
this benefactor of their race. Page once was careless
enough to inform Mr. Garrison that "one of your niggers"
was waiting outside for an audience. "I very much re-
gret, Mr. Page," came the answer, "that you should in-
sist on spelling 'Negro' with two 'g's'." Despite the
mock solemnity of this rebuke, perennial good-nature and
raillery prevailed between the son of Garrison and his
disrespectful but ever sympathetic Southern friend.
Indeed, one of Page 's earliest performances was to intro-
duce a spirit of laughter and genial cooperation into a
rather solemn and self-satisfied environment. Mr. Mifflin,
the head of the house, even formally thanked Page "for
the hearty human way in which you take hold of life."
Mr. Ellery Sedgwick, the present editor of the Atlantic, has
described the somewhat disconcerting descent of Page
upon the editorial sanctuary of James Russell Lowell :

"Were a visitant from another sphere to ask me for the
incarnation of those qualities we love to call American, I
should turn to a familiar gallery of my memory and point
to the living portrait that hangs there of Walter Page. A
sort of foursquareness, bluntness, it seemed to some ; an un-
easy, o'ten explosive energy ; a disposition to underrate fine
drawn nicenesses of all sorts; ingrained Yankee com-
mon sense, checking his vaulting enthusiasm; enormous
self-confidence, impatience of failure — all of these were

56 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

in him; and he was besides affectionate to a fault, devoted
to his country, his family, his craft — a strong, bluff, ten-
der man.

"Those were the decorous days of the old tradition, and
Page's entrance into the 'atmosphere' of Park Street has
taken on the dignity of legend. There were all kinds of
signs and portents, as the older denizens will tell you.
Strange breezes floated through the office, electric emana-
tions, and a pervasive scent of tobacco, which — so the lo-
cal historian says — had been unknown in the vicinity
since the days of Walter Raleigh, except for the literary
aroma of Aldrich's quarantined sanctum upstairs. Page's
coming marked the end of small ways. His first require-
ment was, in lieu of a desk, a table that might have served
a family of twelve for Thanksgiving dinner. No one
could imagine what that vast, polished tableland could
serve for until they watched the editor at work. Then
they saw. Order vanished and chaos reigned. Huge
piles of papers, letters, articles, reports, books, pamphlets,
magazines, congregated themselves as if by magic. To
work in such confusion seemed hopeless, but Page eluded
the congestion by the simple expedient of moving on.
He would light a fresh cigar, give the editorial chair a
hitch, and begin his work in front of a fresh expanse of
table, with no clutter of the past to disturb the new day's
litter.

' ' The motive power of his work was enthusiasm. Never
was more generous welcome given to a newcomer than
Page held out to the successful manuscript of an unknown.
I remember, though I heard the news second hand at the
time, what a day it was in the office when the first manu-
script from the future author of 'To Have and To Hold,'
came in from an untried Southern girl. He walked up and
down, reading paragraphs aloud and slapping the crisp

JOURNALISM 57

manuscript to enforce his commendation. To take a
humbler instance, I recall the words of over generous
praise with which he greeted the first paper I ever sent
to an editor quite as clearly as I remember the monstrous
effort which had brought it into being. Sometimes he
would do a favoured manuscript the honour of taking it
out to lunch in his coat-pocket, and an associate vividly
recalls eggs, coffee, and pie in a near-by restaurant, while,
in a voice that could be heard by the remotest lunchers,
Page read passages which many of them were too startled
to appreciate. He was not given to overrating, but it
was not in his nature to understate. 'I tell you,' said he,
grumbling over some unfortunate proof-sheets from Man-
hattan, 'there isn't one man in New York who can write
English — not from the Battery to Harlem Heights.' And
if the faults were moral rather than literary, his disap-
proval grew in emphasis. There is more than tradition
in the tale of the Negro who, presuming on Page's deep
interest in his race, brought to his desk a manuscript
copied word for word from a published source. Page
recognized the deception, and seizing the rascal's collar
with a firm editorial grip, rejected the poem, and ejected
the poet, with an energy very invigorating to the ancient
serenities of the office.

"Page was always effervescent with ideas. Like an
editor who would have made a good fisherman, he used to
say that you had to cast a dozen times before you could
get a strike. He was forever in those days sending out
ideas and suggestions and invitations to write. The re-
sult was electric, and the magazine became with a sudden-
ness (of which only an editor can appreciate the wonder)
a storehouse of animating thoughts. He avoided the
mistake common to our craft of editing a magazine for
the immediate satisfaction of his colleagues. 'Don't

58 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

write for the office,' he would say. 'Write for outside,'
and so his magazine became a living thing. His phrase
suggests one special gift that Page had, for which his pro-
fession should do him especial honour. He was able,
quite beyond the powers of any man of my acquaintance,
to put compendiously into words the secrets of successful
editing. It was capital training just to hear him talk.
'Never save a feature,' he used to say. 'Always work for
the next number. Forget the others. Spend everything
just on that.' And to those who know, there is divina-
tion in the principle. Again he understood instinctively
that to write well a man must not only have something
to say, but must long to say it. A highly intelligent
representative of the coloured race came to him with a
philosophic essay., Page would have none of it. 'I know
what you are thinking of,' said Page. 'You are thinking
of the barriers we set up against you, and the handicap
of your lot. If you will write what it feels like to be a
Negro, I will print that.' The result was a paper which has
seemed to me the most moving expression of the hopeless
hope of the race I know of.

"Page was generous in his cooperation. He never drew
a rigid line about his share in any enterprise, but gave and
took help with each and all. A lover of good English,
with an honest passion for things tersely said, Page es-
teemed good journalism far above any second-rate mani-
festation of more pretentious forms ; but many of us will
regret that he was not privileged to find some outlet for
his energies in which aspiration for real literature might
have played an ampler part. For the literature of the
past Page had great respect, but his interest was ever in
the present and the future. He was forever fulminating
against bad writing, and hated the ignorant and slipshod
work of the hack almost as much as he despised the sham

JOURNALISM 59

of the man who affected letters, the dabbler and the poet-
aster. His taste was for the roast beef of literature, not
for the side dishes and the trimmings, and his appreciation
of the substantial work of others was no surer than his
instinct for his own performance. He was an admirable
writer of exposition, argument, and narrative — solid and
thoughtful, but never dull. ... I came into close
relations with him and from him I learned more of my
profession than from any one I have ever known. Scores
of other men would say the same."

But the fact that a new hand had seized the Atlantic was
apparent in other places than in the Atlantic office itself.
One of Page's contributors of the Forum days, Mr.
Courtney DeKalb, happened to be in St. Louis when the
first number of the magazine under its new editor made its
appearance. Mr. DeKalb had been out of the country for
some time and knew nothing of the change. Happening
accidentally to pick up the Atlantic, the table of contents
caught his eye. It bore the traces of an unmistakable
hand. Only one man, he said to himself, could assemble
such a group as that, and above all, only Page could give
such an enticing turn of the titles. He therefore sat
down and wrote his old friend congratulating him on his
accession to the Atlantic Monthly. The change that now
took place was indeed a conspicuous, almost a startling
one. The Atlantic retained all its old literary flavour, for
to its traditions Page was as much devoted as the highest
caste Bostonian; it still gave up much of its space to a
high type of fiction, poetry, and reviews of contemporary
literature, but every number contained also an assortment
of articles which celebrated the prevailing activities of
men and women in all worth-while fields of effort. There
were discussions of present-day politics, and these even

60 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

became personal dissections of presidential candidates;
there were articles on the racial characters of the American
population : Theodore Roosevelt was permitted to discuss
the New York police; Woodrow Wilson to pass in review
the several elements that made the Nation; Booker T.
Washington to picture the awakening of the Negro ; John
Muir to enlighten Americans upon a national beauty and
wealth of which they had been woefully ignorant, their
forests ; William Allen White to describe certain aspects of
his favourite Kansas ; E. L. Godkin to review the dangers
and the hopes of American democracy ; Jacob Riis to tell
about the Battle with the Slum ; and W. G. Frost to reveal
for the first time the archaic civilization of the Kentucky
mountaineers. The latter article illustrated Page's genius
at rewriting titles. Mr. Frost's theme was that these
Kentucky mountaineers were really Elizabethan survi-
vals; that their dialect, their ballads, their habits were
really a case of arrested development; that by studying
them present-day Americans could get a picture of their
distant forbears. Page gave vitality to the presentation
by changing a commonplace title to this one: "Our Con-
temporary Ancestors."

There were those who were offended by Page 's willing-
ness to seek inspiration on the highways and byways and
even in newspapers, for not infrequently he would find
hidden away in a corner an idea that would result in
valuable magazine matter. On one occasion at least this
practice had important literary consequences. One day
he happened to read that a Mrs. Robert Hanning had died
in Toronto, the account casually mentioning the fact that
Mrs. Hanning was the youngest sister of Thomas Carlyle.
Page handed this clipping to a young assistant, and told
him to take the first train to Canada. The editor could
easily divine that a sister of Carlyle, expatriated for forty-

JOURNALISM 61

six years on this side of the Atlantic, must have received
a large number of letters from her brother, and it was
safe to assume that they had been carefully preserved.
Such proved to be the fact; and a new volume of Carlyle
letters, of somewhat more genial character than the other
collections, was the outcome of this visit.1 And another
fruit of this journalistic habit was "The Memoirs of a
Revolutionist," by Prince Peter Kropotkin. In 1897
the great Russian nihilist was lecturing in Boston. Page
met him, learned from his own lips his story, and per-
suaded him to put it in permanent form. This willing-
ness of Page to admit such a revolutionary person into
the pages of the Atlantic caused some excitement in
conventional circles. In fact, it did take some courage,
but Page never hesitated; the man was of heroic mould,
he had a great story to tell, he wielded an engaging pen,
and his purposes were high-minded. A great book of
memoirs was the result.

Mr. Sedgwick refers above to Page's editorial fervour
when Miss Mary Johnston's "Prisoners of Hope" first
fell out of the blue sky into his Boston office. Page's
joy was not less keen because the young author was a
Virginia girl, and because she had discovered that the early
period of Virginia history was a field for romance. When, a
few months afterward, Page was casting about for an
Atlantic serial, Miss Johnston and this Virginia field
seemed to be an especially favourable prospect. "Pris-
oners of Hope" had been published as a book and had
made a good success, but Miss Johnston's future still
lay ahead of her. With Page to think meant to act, and
so, instead of writing a formal letter, he at once jumped on
a train for Birmingham, Alabama, where Miss Johnston

^'Letters of Thomas Carlyle to his Youngest Sister." Edited by Charles Town-
send Copeland. Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1899.

62 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

was then living. "I remember quite distinctly that first
meeting," writes Miss Johnston. "The day was rainy.
Standing at my window I watched Mr. Page — a charac-
teristic figure, air and walk — approach the house. When
a few minutes later I met him he was simplicity and kind-
liness itself. This was my first personal contact with
publishers (my publishers) or with editors of anything
so great as the Atlantic. My heart beat! But he was
friendly and Southern. I told him what I had done upon
a new story. He was going on that night. Might he
take the manuscript with him and read it upon the train?
It might — he couldn't say positively, of course — but it
might have serial possibilities. I was only too glad
for him to have the manuscript. I forget just how many
chapters I had completed. But it was not quite in order.
Could I get it so in a few hours? In that case he would
send a messenger for it from the hotel. Yes, I could.
Very good ! A little further talk and he left with a strong
handshake. Three or four hours later he had the manu-
script and took it with him from Birmingham that night."

Page's enterprising visit had put into his hands the
half-finished manuscript of a story, "To Have and to
Hold," which, when printed in the Atlantic, more than
doubled its circulation, and which, when made into a book,
proved one of the biggest successes since "Uncle Tom's
Cabin."

Page's most independent stroke in his Atlantic days
came with the outbreak of the Spanish-American War.
Boston was then the headquarters of a national mood
which has almost passed out of popular remembrance.
Its spokesmen called themselves anti-imperialists. The
theory back of their protest was that the American declar-
ation of war on Spain was not only the wanton attack of
a great bully upon a feeble little country : it was something

JOURNALISM 63

that was bound to have deplorable consequences. The
United States was breaking with its past and engaging
in European quarrels; as a consequence of the war it
would acquire territories and embark on a career of
"imperialism." Page was impatient at this kind of
twaddle. He declared that the Spanish War was a
"necessary act of surgery for the health of civilization."
He did not believe that a nation, simply because it was
small, should be permitted to maintain indefinitely a
human slaughter house at the door of the United States.
The Atlantic for June, 1898, gave the so-called anti-
imperialists a thrill of horror. On the cover appeared
the defiantly flying American flag; the first article was a
vigorous and approving presentation of the American case
against Spain; though this was unsigned, its incisive style
at once betrayed the author. The Atlantic had printed
the American flag on its cover during the Civil War;
but certain New Englanders thought that this latest
struggle, in its motives and its proportions, was hardly
entitled to the distinction. Page declared, however, that
the Spanish War marked a new period in history ; and he
endorsed the McKinley Administration, not only in the
war itself, but in its consequences, particularly the annexa-
tion of the Philippine Islands.

Page greatly enjoyed life in Boston and Cambridge.
The Atlantic was rapidly growing in circulation and in
influence, and the new friends that its editor was making
were especially to his taste. He now had a family of four
children, three boys and one girl — and their bringing up
and education, as he said at this time, constituted his
real occupation. So far as he could see, in the summer
of 1899, he was permanently established in fife. But
larger events in the publishing world now again pulled him
back to New York.

CHAPTER III

"the forgotten man'

IN JULY, 1899, the publishing community learned that
financial difficulties were seriously embarrassing the
great house of Harper. For nearly a century this estab-
lishment had maintained a position ahnost of preemi-
nence among American publishers. Three generations
of Harpers had successively presided over its destinies;
its magazines and books had become almost a household
necessity in all parts of the United States, and its authors
included many of the names most celebrated in American
letters. The average American could no more associate
the idea of bankruptcy with this great business than with
the federal Treasury itself. Yet this incredible disaster
had virtually taken place. At this time the public knew
nothing of the impending ruin; the fact was, however,
that, in July, 1899, the banking house of J. P. Morgan &
Company practically controlled this property. This was
the situation which again called Page to New York.

In the preceding year Mr. S. S. McClure, whose recent
success as editor and publisher had been little less than a
sensation, had joined forces with Mr. Frank N. Double-
day, and organized the new firm of Doubleday & Mc-
Clure. This business was making rapid progress; and
that it would soon become one of the leading American
publishing houses was already apparent. It was perhaps
not unnatural, therefore, that Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan,
scanning the horizon for the men who might rescue the

"the forgotten man" 65

Harper concern from approaching disaster, should have
had his attention drawn to Mr. McClure and Mr. Double-
day. "The failure of Harper & Brothers," Mr. Morgan
said in a published statement, "would be a national ca-
lamity." One morning, therefore, a member of the Harper
firm called upon Mr. McClure. Without the slight-
est hesitation he unfolded the Harper situation to his
astonished contemporary. The solution proposed was
more astonishing still. This was that Mr. Doubleday and
Mr. McClure should amalgamate their young and vig-
orous business with the Harper enterprise and become the
active managers of the new corporation. Both Mr. Mc-
Clure and Mr. Doubleday were comparatively young men,
and the magnitude of the proposed undertaking at fust
rather staggered them. It was as though a small inde-
pendent steel maker should suddenly be invited to take
over the United States Steel Corporation. Mr. McClure,
characteristically impetuous and daring, wished to accept
the invitation outright; Mr. Doubleday, however, sug-
gested a period of probation. The outcome was that the
two men offered to take charge of Harper & Brothers
for a few months, and then decide whether they wished
to make the association a permanent one. One thing was
immediately apparent; Messrs. Doubleday and McClure,
able as they were, would need the help of the best talent
available in the work that lay ahead. The first man
to whom they turned was Page, who presently left Boston
and took up his business abode at Franklin Square. The
rumble of the elevated road was somewhat distract-
ing after the four quiet years in Park Street, but the
new daily routine was not lacking in interest. The
Harper experiment, however, did not end as Mr. Morgan
had hoped. After a few months Messrs. Doubleday,
Page and McClure withdrew, and left the work of rescue

66 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

to be performed by Mr. George Harvey, who, curiously
enough, succeeded Page, twenty-one years afterward, in
an even more important post — that of ambassador to
the Court of St. James's. The one important outcome of
the Harper episode, so far as Page was concerned, w as the
forming of a close business and personal association w ith
Mr. Frank N. Doubleday. As soon as the two men defi-
nitely decided not to assume the Harper responsibility,
therefore, they joined forces and founded the firm of
Doubleday, Page & Company. Page now had the op-
portunity which he had long wished for; the mere editing
of magazines, even magazines of such an eminent charac-
ter as the Forum and the Atlantic Monthly, could hardly
satisfy his ambition; he yearned to possess something
which he could call his own, at least in part.

The life of an editor has its unsatisfactory aspect, unless
the editor himself has an influential ownership in his
periodical. Page now found his opportunity to establish
a monthly magazine which he could regard as his own in
both senses. He was its untrammelled editor, and also,
in part, its proprietor. All editors and writers will sym-
pathize with the ideas expressed in a letter written about
this time to Page's friend, Mr. William Roscoe Thayer,
already distinguished as the historian of Italian unity and
afterward to win fame as the biographer of Cavour and
John Hay. When the first number of the World's Work
appeared Mr. Thayer wrote, expressing a slight disap-
pointment that its leading tendency was journalistic
rather than literary and intellectual. "When you edited
the Forum,'" wrote Mr. Thayer, "I perceived that no
such talent for editing had been seen in America before,
and when, a little later, you rejuvenated the Atlantic.
making it for a couple of years the best periodical printed
in English, I felt that you had a great mission before you

"the forgotten man" 67

as evoker and editor of the best literary work and w eight-
iest thought on important topics of our foremost men."
He had hoped to see a magnified Atlantic, and the new
publication, splendid as it was, seemed to be of rather
more popular character than the publications with which
Page had previously been associated. Page met this
challenge in his usual hearty fashion.

To William Roscoe Thayer

34 Union Square East, New York,
December 5, 1900.
My dear Thayer:

The World's Work has brought me nothing so good as
your letter of yesterday. When Mrs. Page read it,
she shouted "Now that's it!" For "it" read "truth,"
and you will have her meaning and mine. My thanks
you may be sure you have, in great and earnest abun-
dance.

You surprise me in two ways — (1) that you think as
well of the magazine as you do. If it have half the force
and earnestness that you say it has, how happy I shall be,
for then it will surely bring something to pass. The
other way in which you surprise me is by the flattering
things that you say about my conduct of the Atlantic.
Alas! it was not what you in your kind way say — no,
no.

Of course the World's Work is not yet by any means what
I hope to make it. But it has this incalculable advantage
(to me) over every other magazine in existence : it is mine
(mine and my partners', i. e., partly mine), and I shall not
work to build up a good piece of machinery and then
be turned out to graze as an old horse is. This of course,
is selfish and personal — not wholly selfish either, I think.
I threw down the Atlantic for this reason: (Consider the

68 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

history of its editors) Low ell1 complained bitterly that he
was never rewarded properly for the time and work he did ;
Fields was (in a way) one of its owners; it was sold out
from under Howells, etc., etc. I might (probably should)
have been at the mercy completely of owners some day who
would have dismissed me for a younger man. Nearly all
hired editors suffer this fate. My good friends in Boston
were sincere in thinking that my day of doom would
never come; but they didn't offer me any guarantee — part
ownership, for instance; and the years go swiftly. I
could afford, of my own volition, to leave the Atlantic. I
couldn 't afford to take permanently the risks that a hired
editor must take. Nor should I ever again have turned
my hand to such a task except on a magazine of my own.
I should have sought other employment. There are many
easier and better and more influential things to do — yet;
ten years hence I might have been too old. Harry Hough-
ton2 has an old horse thirty years old. I used to see him
grazing sometimes and hear his master's self-congratula-
tory explanation of his own kindness to that faithful
beast. In the office of Houghton, Mifflin & Company
there is an old man whom I used to see every day —
pensioned, grazing. Then I would go home and see four
bright children. Three of them are now^ away from home
at school; and the four cost a pretty penny to educate.
My income had been the same for ten years — or very
nearly the same. If I was a "magic" editor, I confess I
didn't see the magic; and there is no power under Heaven
or in it that can prove to me that I ought to keep on mak-
ing magazines as a hired man — without the common

*A memorandum of an old Atlantic balance sheet discloses that James Russell
Lowell's salary as editor was $1,500 a year.

2 A member of the firm of Houghton, Mifflin & Company.

"the forgotten man" 69

security of permanent service for lack of which nearly all
my predecessors lost their chance.

But this is not all, nor half. A man ought to express
himself, ought to live his own life, say his own little say,
before silence comes. The "say" may be bad — a mere
yawp, and silence might be more becoming. But the
same argument would make a man dissatisfied with his
own nose if it happened to be ugly. It's his nose, and he
must content himself. So it's his yawp and he must let
it go.

I 'm not going to make the new magazine my own mega-
phone— you may be sure of that. It will nevertheless
contain my general interpretation of things, in which I
swear I do believe! The first thing, of course, is to es-
tablish it. Then it can be shaped more nearly into what
I wish it to become. If it seem unmannerly, aggressive,
I know no other way to make it heard. If it died, then
the game would be up. Well, we seem to have established
it at once. It promises not to cost us a penny of invest-
ment.

Now, the magazines need new topics. They have all
threshed over old straw for many years. There is one new
subject, to my thinking worth all the old ones: the new
impulse in American life, the new feeling of nationality,
our coming to realize ourselves. To my mind there is
greater promise in democracy than men of any preceding
period ever dared dream of — aggressive democracy —
growth by action. Our wr iters (the few we have) are yet
in the pre-democratic era. When men's imaginations lay
hold on the things that already begin to appear above the
horizon, we shall have something worth reading. At
present I can do no more than bawl out, "See! here are
new subjects." One of these days somebody will come
along who can write about them. I have started out

70 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

without a writer. Fiske is under contract, James would
give nothing more to the Atlantic, you were ill (I thank
Heaven you are no longer so) the second- and third-rate
essayists have been bought by mere Wall Street pub-
lishers. Beyond these are the company of story tellers
and beyond them only a dreary waste of dead-level un-
imaginative men and women. I can (soon) get all that
I could ever have got in the Atlantic and new ones (I
know they'll come) whom I could never have got there.
You'll see — within a year or two — by far a better mag-
azine than I have ever made ; and you and I will differ in
nothing unless you feel despair about the breakdown of
certain democratic theories, which I think were always
mere theories. Let 'em go! The real thing, which is life
and action, is better.

Heartily and always your grateful friend,

Walter H. Page.

Thus the fact that Page's new magazine was intended
for a popular audience was not the result of accident, but
of design. It represented a periodical plan which had long
been taking shape in Page's mind. The things that he
had been doing for the Forum and the Atlantic he aspired
to do for a larger audience than that to which publications
of this character could appeal. Scholar though Page was,
and lover of the finest things in literature that he had al-
ways been, yet this sympathy and interest had always lain
with the masses. Perhaps it is impossible to make lit-
erature democratic, but Page believed that he would be
genuinely serving the great cause that was nearest his heart
if he could spread wide the facts of the modern world, es-
pecially the facts of America, and if he could clothe
the expression in language which, while always dignified
and even "literary," would still be sufficiently touched

"the forgotten man" 71

with the vital, the picturesque, and the "human," to
make his new publication appeal to a wide audience of
intelligent, everyday Americans. It was thus part of
his general programme of improving the status of the
average man, and it formed a logical part of his philos-
ophy of human advancement. For the only acceptable
measure of any civilization, Page believed, was the
extent to which it improved the condition of the com-
mon citizen. A few cultured and university-trained men at
the top; a few ancient families living in luxury; a few
painters and poets and statesmen and generals; these
things, in Page's view, did not constitute a satisfactory
state of society ; the real test was the extent to which the
masses participated in education, in the necessities and
comforts of existence, in the right of self-evolution and
self-expression, in that "equality of opportunity," which,
Page never wearied of repeating, "was the basis of social
progress." The mere right to vote and to hold office was
not democracy; parliamentary majorities and political
caucuses were not democracy — at the best these things were
only details and not the most important ones; democ-
racy was the right of every man to enjoy, in accordance
with his aptitudes of character and mentality, the material
and spiritual opportunities that nature and science had
placed at the disposition of mankind. This democratic
creed had now become the dominating interest of Page 's
life. From this time on it consumed all his activities.
His new magazine set itself first of all to interpret the
American panorama from this point of view; to describe
the progress that the several parts of the country were
making in the several manifestations of democracy —
education, agriculture, industry, social life, politics —
and the importance that Page attached to them was
practically in the order named. Above all it concerned

72 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

itself with the men and women who were accomplishing
most in the definite realization of this great end.

And now also Page began to carry his activities far be-
yond mere print. In his early residence in New York, from
1885 to 1895, he had always taken his part in public move-
ments ; he had been a vital spirit in the New York Reform
Club, which was engaged mainly in advocating the Cleve-
land tariff; he had always shown a willingness to experi-
ment with new ideas; at one time he had mingled with
Socialists and he had been quite captivated by the personal
and literary charm of Henry George. After 1900, how-
ever, Page became essentially a public man, though not in
the political sense. His work as editor and writer was
merely one expression of the enthusiasms that occupied
his mind. From 1900 until 1913, when he left for England,
life meant for him mainly an effort to spread the demo-
cratic ideal, as he conceived it ; concretely it represented a
constant campaign for improving the fundamental oppor-
tunities and the everyday social advantages of the masses.

Inevitably the condition of the people in his own home-
land enlisted Page 's sympathy, for he had learned of their
necessities at first hand. The need of education had
powerfully impressed him even as a boy. At twenty-
three he began writing articles for the Raleigh Observer,
and practically all of them were pleas for the education of
the Southern child. His subsequent activities of this
kind, as editor of the State Chronicle, have already been
described. The American from other parts of the country
is rather shocked when he first learns of the backwardness
of education in the South a generation ago. In any real
sense there was no publicly supported system for training
the child. A few wretched hovels, scattered through a

"the forgotten man" 73

sparsely settled country, served as school houses; a few
uninspiring and neglected women, earning perhaps $50
or $75 a year, did weary duty as teachers; a few groups
of anemic and listless children, attending school for only
forty days a year — such was the preparation for life which
most Southern states gave the less fortunate of their
citizens. The glaring fact that emphasized the outcome
of this official carelessness was an illiteracy, among white
men and women, of 26 per cent. Among the Negroes it
was vastly larger.

The first exhortation to reform came from the Wautauga
Club, which Page had organized in Raleigh in 1884.
After Page had left his native state, other men began
preaching the same crusade. Perhaps the greatest of
those advocates whom the South loves to refer to as
"educational statesmen" was Dr. Charles D. Mclver,
of Greensboro, N. C. Mclver 's personality and career
had an heroic quality all their own. Back in the 'eighties
Mclver and Edwin A. Alderman, now President of the
University of Virginia, endured all kinds of hardships and
buffetings in the cause of popular education ; they stumped
the state, much like political campaigners, preaching the
strange new gospel in mountain cabin, in village church,
at the cart's tail — all in an attempt to arouse their
lethargic countrymen to the duty of laying a small tax
to save their children from illiteracy. Some day the story
of Mclver and Alderman will find its historian; when it
does, he will learn that, in those dark ages, one of their
greatest sources of inspiration was Walter Page. Mclver,
a great burly boy, physically and intellectually, so full
of energy that existence for him was little less than
an unending tornado, so full of zeal that any other oc-
cupation than that of training the neglected seemed a
trifling with life, so sleepless in his efforts that, at the age

74 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

of forty-five, he one day dropped dead while travelling
on a railroad train; Alderman, a man of finer culture,
quieter in his methods, an orator of polish and restraint,
but an advocate vigorous in the prosecution of the great
end; and Page, living faraway in the North, but pumping
his associates full of courage and enthusiasm — these -were
the three guardsmen of this new battle for the elevation
of the white and black men of the South. Mclver's
great work was the State Normal College for Women,
which, amid unparallelled difficulties, he founded for
teaching the teachers of the newT Southern generation. It
was at this institution that Page, in 1897, delivered the
address which gave the cause of Southern education that
one thing which is worth armies to any struggling re-
form— a phrase; and it was a phrase that lived in the
popular mind and heart and summed up, in a way that
a thousand speeches could never have done, the great
purpose for which the best people in the state were striv-
ing.

His editorial gift for title-making now served Page in
good stead. "The Forgotten Man," which was the head-
ing of his address, immediately passed into the common
speech of the South and even at this day inevitably ap-
pears in all discussions of social progress. It was again
Page 's familiar message of democracy, of improving the
condition of the everyday man, woman, and child; and
the message, as is usually the case in all incitements to
change, involved many unpleasant facts. Page had first
of all to inform his fellow Southerners that it was only in
the South that "The Forgotten Man" was really an out-
standing feature. He did not exist in New England, in
the Middle States, in the Mississippi Valley, or in the
West, or existed in these regions to so slight an extent that
he was not a grave menace to society. But in the South

"the forgotten man" 75

the situation was quite different. And for this fact the
explanation was found in history. The South certainly
could not fix the blame upon Nature. In natural wealth
— in forests, mines, quarries, rich soil, in the unlimited
power supplied by water courses — the Southern States
formed perhaps the richest region in the country. These
things North Carolina and her sister communities had
not developed ; more startling still, they had not developed
a source of wealth that was infinitely greater than all these
combined; they had not developed their men and their
women. The Southern States represented the purest
"Anglo-Saxon" strain in the United States; to-day in
North Carolina only one person in four hundred is of "for-
eign stock," and a voting list of almost any town contains
practically nothing except the English and Scotch names
that were borne by the original settlers. Yet here de-
mocracy, in any real sense, had scarcely obtained a footing.
The region which had given Thomas Jefferson and George
Washington to the world was still, in the year 1897,
organized upon an essentially aristocratic basis. The con-
ception of education which prevailed in the most hide-
bound aristocracies of Europe still ruled south of the
Potomac. There was no acceptance of that fundamental
American doctrine that education was the function of the
state. It was generally regarded as the luxury of the rich
and the socially high placed; it was certainly not for the
poor ; and it was a generally accepted view that those who
enjoyed this privilege must pay for it out of their own
pockets. Again Page returned to the "mummy" theme
— the fact that North Carolina, and the South generally,
were too much ruled by "dead men's" hands. The
state was controlled by a "little aristocracy, which, in its
social and economic character, made a failure and left
a stubborn crop of wrong social notions behind it —

76 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

especially about education." The chief backward influ-
ences were the stump and the pulpit. "From the days
of King George to this day, the politicians of North Car-
olina have declaimed against taxes, thus laying the foun-
dation of our poverty. It was a misfortune for us that
the quarrel with King George happened to turn upon
the question of taxation — so great was the dread of
taxation that was instilled into us." What had the up-
per classes done for the education of the average man?
The statistics of illiteracy, the deplorable economic and
social conditions of the rural population — and most of
the population of North Carolina was rural— furnished
the answer.

Thus the North Carolina aristocracy had failed in
education and the failure of the Church had been as com-
plete and deplorable. The preachers had established
preparatory schools for boys and girls, but these were
under the control of sects; and so education was either a
class or an ecclesiastical concern. "The forgotten man
remained forgotten. The aristocratic scheme of educa-
tion had passed him by. To a less extent, but still to the
extent of hundreds of thousands, the ecclesiastical scheme
had passed him by." But even the education which these
institutions gave was inferior. Page told his North Car-
olina audience that the University of which they were so
proud did not rank with Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and
other universities of the North. The state had not pro-
duced great scholars nor established great libraries. In
the estimation of publishers North Carolina was unimport-
ant as a book market. "By any test that may be made,
both these systems have failed even with the classes that
they appealed to. ' ' The net result was that ' ' One in every
four was wholly forgotten" — that is, was unable to read and
write. And the worst of it all was that the victim of this

"the forgotten man" 77

neglect was not disturbed over his situation. "The for-
gotten man was content to be forgotten. He became not
only a dead weight, but a definite opponent of social prog-
ress. He faithfully heard the politician on the stump
praise him for virtues that he did not have. The poli-
ticians told him that he lived in the best state in the Union ;
told him that the other politicians had some hare-brained
plan to increase his taxes, told him as a consolation for his
ignorance how many of his kinsmen had been killed in the
war, told him to distrust any one who wished to change
anything. What was good enough for his fathers was
good enough for him. Thus the 'forgotten man' became
a dupe, became thankful for being neglected. And the
preacher told him that the ills and misfortunes of this fife
were blessings in disguise, that God meant his poverty as
a means of grace, and that if he accepted the right creed
all would be well with him. These influences encouraged
inertia. There could not have been a better means to
prevent the development of the people."

Even more tragic than these "forgotten men" were the
"forgotten women." "Thin and wrinkled in youth from
ill-prepared food, clad without warmth or grace, living in
untidy houses, working from daylight till bedtime at the
dull round of weary duties, the slaves of men of equal
slovenliness, the mothers of joyless children — all unedu-
cated if not illiterate." "This sight," Page told his
hearers, "every one of you has seen, not in the countries
whither we send missionaries, but in the borders of the
State of North Carolina, in this year of grace."

"Our civilization," he declared, "has been a failure."
Both the politicians and the preacher had failed to lift
the masses. "It is a time for a wiser statesmanship and
a more certain means of grace." He admitted that there
had been recent progress in North Carolina, owing largely

78 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

to the work of Mclver and Alderman, but taxes for edu-
cational purposes were still low. What was the solution?
"A public school system generously supported by
public sentiment and generously maintained by both
state and local taxation, is the only effective means to
develop the forgotten man and even more surely the
only means to develop the forgotten woman. . . ."
"If any beggar for a church school oppose a local tax
for schools or a higher school tax, take him to the huts
of the forgotten women and children, and in their hope-
less presence remind him that the church system of edu-
cation has not touched tens of thousands of these lives
and ask him whether he thinks it wrong that the common-
wealth should educate them. If he think it wrong ask
him and ask the people plainly, whether he be a worthy
preacher of the gospel that declares one man equal to
another in the sight of God? . . . The most sacred
thing in the commonwealth and to the commonwealth
is the child, whether it be your child or the child of the
dull-faced mother of the hovel. The child of the dull-
faced mother may, as you know, be the most capable
child in the state. . . . Several of the strongest
personalities that were ever born in North Carolina were
men whose very fathers were unknown. We have all
known two such, who held high places in Church and
State. President Eliot said a little while ago that the
ablest man that he had known in his many years' con-
nection with Harvard University was the son of a brick
mason."

In place of the ecclesiastical creed that had guided
North Carolina for so many generations Page proposed
his creed of democracy. He advised that North Carolina
commit this to memory and teach it to its children. It
was as follows:

"the forgotten man" 79

"I believe in the free public training of both the hands
and the mind of every child born of woman.

"I believe that by the right training of men we add to
the wealth of the world. All wealth is the creation of
man, and he creates it only in proportion to the trained
uses of the community; and the more men we train the
more wealth everyone may create.

"I believe in the perpetual regeneration of society, and
in the immortality of democracy and in growth ever-
lasting."

Thus Page nailed his theses upon the door of his native
state, and mighty was the reverberation. In a few weeks
Page's Greensboro address had made its way all over the
Southern States, and his melancholy figure, "the for-
gotten man" had become part of the indelible imagery
of the Southern people. The portrait etched itself
deeply into the popular consciousness for the very good
reason that its truth was pretty generally recognized.
The higher type of newspaper, though it winced some-
what at Page's strictures, manfully recognized that the
best way of meeting his charge was by setting to work and
improving conditions. The fact is that the better con-
science of North Carolina welcomed this eloquent de-
scription of unquestioned evils ; but the gentlemen whom
Page used to stigmatize as "professional Southerners" —
the men who commercialized class and sectional prejudice
to their own political and financial or ecclesiastical profit
— fell foul of this "renegade," this "Southern Yankee"
this sacrilegious "intruder" who had dared to visit his
old home and desecrate its traditions and its religion.
This clerical wrath was kindled into fresh flame when
Page, in an editorial in his magazine, declared that these
same preachers, ignoring their real duties, were content

80 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

"to herd their women and children around the stagnant
pools of theology." For real religion Page had the
deepest reverence, and he had great respect also for the
robust evangelical preachers whose efforts had con-
tributed so much to the opening up of the frontier. In
his Greensboro address Page had given these men high
praise. But for the assiduous idolaters of stratified dogma
he entertained a contempt which he was seldom at pains
to conceal. North Carolina had many clergymen of the
more progressive type; these men chuckled at Page's
vigorous characterization of the brethren, but those
against whom it had been aimed raged with a fervour
that was almost unchristian. This clerical excitement,
however, did not greatly disturb the philosophic Page.
The hubbub lasted for several years — for Page's Greens-
boro speech was only the first of many pronouncements
of the same kind — but he never publicly referred to the
attacks upon him. Occasionally in letters to his friends
he would good-naturedly discuss them. "I have had
several letters," he wrote to Professor Edwin Mims, of
Trinity College, North Carolina, "about an 'excoriation'
(Great Heavens! What a word!) that somebody in
North Carolina has been giving me. I never read these
things and I don't know what it's all about — nor do J
care. But perhaps you'll be interested in a letter that I
wrote an old friend (a lady) who is concerned about
it. I enclose a copy of it. I shall never notice any
'excoriator.' But if you wish to add to the gaiety of
nations, give this copy to some newspaper and let it
loose in the state — if you care to do so. We must have
patience with these puny and peevish brethren. They've
been trained to a false view of life. Heaven knows I
bear them no ill-will."

The letter to which Page referred follows:

"the forgotten man" 81

My dear Friend:

I have your letter saying that some of the papers in
North Carolina are again "jumping on" me. I do not
know which they are, and I am glad that you did not
tell me. I had heard of it before. A preacher wrote me
the other day that he approved of every word of an "ex-
coriation" that some religious editor had given me. A
kindly Christian act — wasn't it, to send a stranger word
that you were glad that he had been abused by a religious
editor? I wrote him a gentle letter, telling him that I
hoped he'd have a long and happy life preaching a gospel
of friendliness and neighbourliness and good-will, and
that I cared nothing about "excoriations." Why should
he, then, forsake his calling and take delight in dis-
seminating personal abuse?

And why do you not write me about things that I
really care for in the good old country — the budding trees,
the pleasant weather, news of old friends, gossip of good
people — cheerful things? I pray you, don't be concerned
about what any poor whining soul may write about me.
I don't care for myself: I care only for him; for the writer
of personal abuse always suffers from it — never the man
abused.

I haven't read what my kindly clerical correspondent
calls an "excoriation" for ten years, and I never shall
read one if I know what it is beforehand. Why should
I or anybody read such stuff? I can't find time to do
half the positive things that I should like to do for the
broadening of my own character and for the encourage-
ment of others. Why should I waste a single minute
in such a negative and cheerless way as reading anybody's
personal abuse of anybody else — least of all myself?

These silly outbursts never reach me and they never
can ; and they, therefore, utterly fail, and always will fail,

82 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

of their aim ; yet, my dear friend, there is nevertheless a
serious side to such folly. For it shows the need of edu-
cation, education, education. The religious editor and
the preacher who took joy in his abuse of me have such
a starved view of life that they cannot themselves, per-
haps, ever be educated into kindliness and dignity of
thought. But their children may be — must be. Think
of beautiful children growing up in a home where "ex-
coriating" people who differ with you is regarded as a
manly Christian exercise! It is pitiful beyond words.
There is no way to lift up life that is on so low a level ex-
cept by the free education of all the people. Let us work
for that and, when the growlers are done growling and
forgotten, better men will remember us with gratitude.
I felt greatly complimented and pleased to receive an
invitation the other day to attend the North Carolina
Teachers' Assembly in June. I have many things to do
in June, but I am going— going with great pleasure. I
hope to see you there. I know of no other company of
people that I should be so glad to meet. They are doing
noble work — the most devoted and useful work in this
whole wide world. They are the true leaders of the
people. I often wish that I were one of them. They
inspire me as nobody else does. They are the army of
our salvation.

Write me what they are doing. Write me about the
wonderful educational progress. And write me about the
peach trees and the budding imminence of spring; and
about the children who now live all day outdoors and
grow brown and plump. And never mind that queer
sect, "The Excoriators." They and their stage thunder
will be forgotten to-morrow. Meantime let us live and
work for things nobler than any controversies, for things
that are larger than the poor mission of any sect; and let

"the forgotten man" 83

us have charity and a patient pity for those that think
they serve God by abusing their fellow-men. I wish I
saw some way to help them to a broader and a higher life.

Faithfully yours,

Walter H. Page.

That Page should have little interest in "excoriators"
at the time this letter was written — in April, 1902 — was
not surprising, for his educational campaign and that of
his friends was now bearing fruit. "Write me about
the wonderful educational progress," he says to this
correspondent; and, indeed, the change that was coming
over North Carolina and the South generally seemed to
be tinged with the miraculous. The "Forgotten Man"
and the "Forgotten Woman" were rapidly coming into
their own. Two years after the delivery of Page's
Greensboro address, a small group of educational en-
thusiasts met at Capon Springs, West Virginia, to dis-
cuss the general situation in the South. The leader of
this little gathering was Robert C. Ogden, a great New
York merchant who for many years had been President
of the Board of Hampton Institute. Out of this meet-
ing grew the Southern Educational Conference, which
was little more than an annual meeting for advertis-
ing broadcast the educational needs of the South. Each
year Mr. Ogden chartered a railroad train; a hundred
or so of the leading editors, lawyers, bankers, and the
like became his guests; the train moved through the
Southern States, pausing now and then to investigate
some particular institution or locality; and at some
Southern city, such as Birmingham or Atlanta or Winston-
Salem, a stop of several days would be made, a public
building engaged, and long meetings held. In all these

84 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

proceedings Page was an active figure, as he became in
the Southern Education Board, which directly resulted
from Mr. Ogden's public spirited excursions. Like the
Conference, the Southern Education Board was a purely
missionary organization, and its most active worker was
Page himself. He was constantly speaking and writing
on his favourite subjeot; he printed article after article,
not only in his own magazine, but in the Atlantic, in
the Outlook, and in a multitude of newspapers, such as
the Boston Transcript, the New York Times, and the
Kansas City Star. And always through his writings,
and, indeed, through his life, there ran, like the motif of
an opera, that same perpetual plea for "the forgotten
man" — the need of uplifting the backward masses
through training, both of the mind and of the hand.

The day came when this loyal group had other things to
work with than their voices and their pens ; their efforts
had attracted the attention of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, who
brought assistance of an extremely substantial character.
In 1902 Mr. Rockefeller organized the General Education
Board. Of the ten members six were taken from the
Southern Education Board; other members represented
general educational movements and especially the Baptist
interests to which Mr. Rockefeller had been contributing
for years. In a large sense, therefore, especially in its
membership, the General Education Board was a develop-
ment of the Ogden organization; but it was much broader
in its sweep, taking under its view the entire nation and
all forms of educational effort. It immediately began
to concern itself with the needs of the South. In 1902
Mr. Rockefeller gave this new corporation $1,000,000;
in 1905 he gave it $10,000,000; in 1907 he astonished the
Nation by giving $32,000,000, and, in 1909, another
,000,000; the whole making a total of $53,000,000,

"the forgotten man" 85

the largest sum ever given by a single man, up to that
time, for social or philanthropic purposes. The General
Education Board now became the chief outside interest
of Page's life. He was made a member of the Executive
Committee, faithfully attended all its sessions, and par-
ticipated intimately in every important plan. All
such bodies have their decorative members and their
working members; Page belonged emphatically in the
latter class. Not only was he fertile in suggestions, but
his ready mind could give almost any proposal its proper
emphasis and clearly set forth its essential details. Be-
tween Page and Dr. Buttrick, Secretary and now President
of the Board, a close personal intimacy grew up. Dr.
Buttrick moved to Teaneck Road, Englewood, where Page
had his home, and many a long evening did the two men
spend together, many a long walk did they take in the
surrounding country, always discussing education, espe-
cially Southern education. A letter to the present writer
from Dr. Abraham Flexner, the present Secretary of the
Board, perhaps sums up the matter. "Page was one of
the real educational statesmen of this country," says Dr.
Flexner, "probably the greatest that we have had since
the Civil War."

And this Rockefeller support came at a time when
that movement known as the "educational awakening"
had started in the South. In 1900 North Carolina elected
its greatest governor since the Civil War — Charles B.
Ay cock. A much repeated anecdote attributes Lincoln's
detestation of slavery to a slave auction that he wit-
nessed as a small boy; Aycock's first zeal as an educa-
tional reformer had an origin that was even more pathetic,
for he always carried in his mind his recollection of his own
mother signing an important legal document with a cross.
As a young man fresh from the university Aycock also

86 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

came under the influence of Page. An old letter, pre-
served among Page's papers, dated February 26, 1886,
discloses that he was a sympathizing reader of the
"mummy" controversy; when the brickbats began flying
in Page's direction Aycock wrote, telling Page that
"fully three fourths of the people are with you and wish
you Godspeed in your effort to awaken better work,
greater activity, and freer opinion in the state." And
now under Aycock's governorship North Carolina began
to tackle the educational problem with a purpose. School
houses started up all over the state at the rate of one a
day — many of them beautiful, commodious, modern struc-
tures, in every way the equals of any in the North or
West; high schools, normal schools, trade schools made
their appearance wherever the need was greatest; and
in other parts of the South the response was similarly
energetic. The reform is not yet complete, but the
description that Page gave of Southern education in
1897, accurate in all its details as it was then, has now
become ancient history.

And in occupations of this kind Page passed his years
of maturity. His was not a spectacular life; his family
for the most part still remained his most immediate
interest; the daily round of an editor has its imaginative
quality, but in the main it was for Page a quiet, even a
cloistered existence; the work that an editor does, the
achievements that he can put to his credit, are usually
anonymous; and the American public little understood
the extent to which Page was influencing many of the
most vital forces of his time. The business association
that he had formed with Mr. Doubleday turned out
most happily. Their publishing house, in a short time,

"the forgotten man" 87

attained a position of great influence and prosperity.
The two men, on both the personal and the business
side, were congenial and complementary; and the
love that both felt for country life led to the estab-
lishment of a publishing and printing plant of unusual
beauty. In Garden City, Long Island, a great brick struc-
ture was built, somewhat suggestive in its architecture of
Hampton Court, surrounded by pools and fountains, Italian
gardens, green walks and pergolas, gardens blooming in ap-
propriate seasons with roses, peonies, rhododendrons, chry-
santhemums, and the like, and parks of evergreen, fir,
cedar, and more exotic trees and shrubs. Certainly fate
could have designed no more fitting setting for Page's
favourite activities than this. In assembling authors,
in instigating the writing of books, in watching the
achievements and the tendencies of American life, in the
routine of editing his magazine — all this in association with
partners whose daily companionship was a delight and a
stimulation — Page spent his last years in America.

Page's independence as an editor, sufficiently indicated
in the days of his vivacious youth, became even more em-
phatic in his maturer years. In his eyes, merely inking over
so many pages of good white paper was not journalism;
conviction, zeal, honesty — these were the important
points. Almost on the very day that his appointment as
Ambassador to Great Britain was announced his maga-
zine published an editorial from his pen, which contained
not especially complimentary references to his new chief,
Mr. Bryan, the Secretary of State; naturally the news-
papers found much amusement in these few sentences;
but the thing was typical of Page's whole career as an
editor. He held to the creed that an editor should
divorce himself entirely from prejudices, animosities,
and predilections; this seems an obvious, even a trite

88 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

thing to say, yet there are so few men who can leave
personal considerations aside in writing of men and
events that it is worth while pointing out that Page was
such a man. When his firm was planning to establish
its magazine, his partner, Mr. Doubleday, was ap-
proached by a New York politician of large influence but
shady reputation who wished to be assured that it would
reflect correct political principles. "You should see Mr.
Page about that," was the response. "No, this is a busi-
ness matter," the insinuating gentleman went on, and
then he proceeded to show that about twenty-five thou-
sand subscribers could be obtained if the publication
preached orthodox standpat doctrine. "I don't think
you had better see Mr. Page," said Mr. Doubleday, dis-
missing his caller.

Many incidents which illustrate this independence
could be given; one will suffice. In 1907 and 1908,
Page's magazine published the "Random Reminiscences of
John D. Rockefeller." While the articles were appear-
ing, the Hearst newspapers obtained a large number of
letters that, some years before, had passed between
Mr. John D. Archbold, President of the Standard Oil
Company and one of Mr. Rockefeller's business associates
from the earliest days, and Senator Joseph R. Foraker, of
Ohio. These letters uncovered one of the gravest scan-
dals that had ever involved an American public man;
they instantaneously destroyed Senator Foraker 's politi-
cal career and hastened his death. They showed that
this brilliant man had been obtaining large sums of
money from the Standard Oil Company while he was
filling the post of United States Senator and that at the
same time he was receiving suggestions from Mr. Arch-
bold about pending legislation. Mr. Rockefeller was not
personally involved, for he had retired from active busi-

"the forgotten man" 89

ness many years before these things had been done; but
the Standard Oil Company, with which his name was
intimately associated, was involved and in a way that
seemed to substantiate the worst charges that had been
made against it. At this time Page, as a member of the
General Education Board, was doing his part in helping
to disperse the Rockefeller millions for public purposes;
his magazine was publishing Mr. Rockefeller's reminis-
cences; there are editors who would have felt a certain
embarrassment in commenting on the Archbold trans-
action. Page, however, did not hesitate. Mr. Arch-
bold, hearing that he intended to treat the subject fully,
asked him to come and see him. Page replied that he
would be glad to have Mr. Archbold call upon him.
The two men were brought together by friendly inter-
mediaries in a neutral place; but the great oil magnate's
explanation of his iniquities did not satisfy Page. The
November, 1908, issue of the magazine contained, in one
section, an interesting chapter by Mr. Rockefeller, de-
scribing the early days of the Standard Oil Company, and,
in another, ten columns by Page, discussing the Archbold
disclosures in language that was discriminating and well
tempered, but not at all complimentary to Mr. Archbold
or to the Standard Oil Company.

Occasionally Page was summoned for services of a
public character. Thus President Roosevelt, whose friend-
ship he had enjoyed for many years, asked him to
serve upon his Country Life Commission — a group of
men called by the President to study ways of im-
proving the surroundings and extending the oppor-
tunities of American farmers. Page's interest in Negro
education led to his appointment to the Jeanes Board.
He early became an admirer of Booker Washington, and
especially approved his plan for uplifting the Negro

90 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

by industrial training. One of the great services that
Page rendered literature was his persuasion of Wash-
ington to write that really great autobiography, "Up
from Slavery," and another biography in a different
field, for which he was responsible, was Miss Helen
Keller's "Story of My Life." And only once, amid these
fine but not showy activities, did Page's life assume any-
thing in the nature of the sensational. This was in
1909, when he published his one effort at novel writing,
"The Southerner." To write novels had been an early
ambition with Page; indeed his papers disclose that he
had meditated several plans of this kind; but he never
seriously settled himself to the task until the year 1906.
In July of that year the Atlantic Monthly began pub-
lishing a serial entitled "The Autobiography of a South-
erner Since the Civil War," by Nicholas Worth. The
literary matter that appeared under this title most
readers accepted as veracious though anonymous auto-
biography. It related the life adventures of a young man,
born in the South, of parents who had had little sympathy
with the Confederate cause, attempting to carve out his
career in the section of his birth and meeting opposition
and defeat from the prejudices Avith which he constantly
found himself in conflict. The story found its main
theme and background in the fact that the Southern
States were so exclusively living in the memories of the
Civil War that it was impossible for modern ideas to
obtain a foothold. " I have sometimes thought," said the
author, and this passage may be taken as embodying the
leading point of the narrative, "that many of the men
who survived that unnatural war unwittingly did us a
greater hurt than the war itself. It gave everyone of
them the intensest experience of his life and ever after-
ward he referred every other experience to this. Thus

"the forgotten man" 91

it stopped the thought of most of them as an earthquake
stops a clock. The fierce blow of battle paralyzed the
mind. Their speech was a vocabulary of war, their
loyalties were loyalties, not to living ideas or duties, but
to old commanders and to distorted traditions. They
were dead men, most of them, moving among the living
as ghosts; and yet, as ghosts in a play, they held the
stage. ' ' In another passage the writer names the " ghosts ' '
which are chiefly responsible for preventing Southern
progress. They are three: "The Ghost of the Con-
federate dead, the Ghost of religious orthodoxy, the Ghost
of Negro domination." Everywhere the hero finds his
progress blocked by these obstructive wraiths of the past.
He seeks a livelihood in educational work — becomes a local
superintendent of Public Instruction, and loses his place
because his religious views are unorthodox, because he
refuses to accept the popular estimate of Confederate
statesmen, and because he hopes to educate the black
child as well as the white one. He enters politics and
runs for public office on the platform of the new day, is
elected, and then finds himself counted out by political
ringsters. Still he does not lose faith, and finally settles
down in the management of a cotton mill, convinced that
the real path of salvation lies in economic effort. This
mere skeleton of a story furnishes an excuse for rehears-
ing again the ideas that Page had already made familiar
in his writings and in his public addresses. This time
the lesson is enlivened by the portrayal of certain typ-
ical characters of the post-bellum South. They are
all there — the several types of Negro, ranging all the
way from the faithful and philosophic plantation re-
tainer to the lazy "Publican" office-seeker; the po-
litical colonel, to whom the Confederate veterans and
the "fair daughters of the South (God bless 'em)" are

92 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the mainstays of "civerlerzation" and indispensable in-
strumentalities in the game of partisan politics ; the evan-
gelical clergymen who cared more for old-fashioned creeds
than for the education of the masses ; the disreputable edi-
tor who specialized in Negro crime and constantly preached
the doctrine of the "white man's country"; the Southern
woman who, innocently and sincerely and even charm-
ingly, upheld the ancient tradition and the ancient feud.
On the other hand, Page's book portrays the buoyant
enthusiast of the new day, the reformer who was seeking
to establish a public school system and to strengthen
the position of woman; and, above all, the quiet, hard-
working industrialist who cared nothing for stump speak-
ing but much for cotton mills, improved methods of
farming, the introduction of diversified crops, the tidying
up of cities and the country.

These chapters, extensively rewritten, were published
as a book in 1909. Probably Page was under no illusion
that he had created a real romance when he described
his completed work as a "novel." The Atlantic auto-
biography had attracted wide attention, and the identi-
fication of the author had been immediate and accurate.
Page's friends began calling his house on the telephone and
asking for "Nicholas" and certain genial spirits addressed
him in letters as "Marse Little Nick" — the name under
which the hero was known to the old Negro family ser-
vant, Uncle Ephraim — perhaps the best drawn character
in the book. Page's real purpose in calling the book a
"novel" therefore, was to inform the public that the
story, so far as its incidents and most of its characters
were concerned, was pure fiction. Certain episodes, such
as those describing the hero's early days, were, in the
main, veracious transcripts from Page's own fife, but the
rest of the book bears practically no relation to his career.

"the forgotten man" 93

The fact that he spent his mature years in the North,
editing magazines and publishing, whereas Nicholas
Worth spends his in the South, engaged in educational
work and in politics and industry, settles this point.
The characters, too, are rather types than specific in-
dividuals, though one or two of them, particularly Pro-
fessor Billy Bain, who is clearly Charles D. Mclver, may
be accepted as fairly accurate portraits. But as a work
of fiction "The Southerner" can hardly be considered
a success; the love story is too slight, the women not well
done, most of the characters rather personified qualities
than flesh and blood people. Its strength consists in
the picture that it gives of the so-called "Southern
problem," and especially of the devastating influence of
slavery. From this standpoint the book is an auto-
biography, for the ideas and convictions it presents had
formed the mental fife of Page from his earliest days.
And these were the things that hurt. Yet the stories of
the anger caused by "The Southerner" have been much
exaggerated. It is said that a certain distinguished South-
ern senator declared that, had he known that Page was the
author of "The Southerner," he would have blocked his
nomination as Ambassador to Great Britain ; certain South-
ern newspapers also severely denounced the volume ; even
some of Page's friends thought that it was a little unkind
in spots; yet as a whole the Southern people accepted it
as a fair, and certainly as an honest, treatment of a
very difficult subject. Possibly Page was a little hard
upon the Confederate veteran, and did not sufficiently
portray the really pathetic aspects of his character; any
shortcomings of this sort are due, not to any failing
in sympathy, but to the fact that Page's zeal was
absorbingly concentrated upon certain glaring abuses.
And as to the accuracy of his vision in these respects

94 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

there could be no question. The volume was a wel-
come antidote to the sentimental Southern novels that
had contented themselves with glorifying a vanished
society which, when the veil is stripped, was not heroic
in all its phases, for it was based upon an institution so
squalid as human slavery, and to those even more perni-
cious books which, by luridly portraying the unquestioned
vices of reconstruction and the frightful consequences
which resulted from giving the Negro the ballot, simply
aroused useless passions and made the way out of the
existing wilderness still more difficult. So the best public
opinion, North and South, regarded "The Southerner,"
and decided that Page had performed a service to the
section of his birth in writing it. Indeed the fair-minded
and intelligent spirit with which the best elements in
the South received "The Southerner" in itself demonstra-
ted that this great region had entered upon a new day.

Nor was Page's work for the South yet ended. In the
important five years from 1905 to 1910 he performed two
services of an extremely practical kind. In 1906 the
problem of Southern education assumed a new phase.
Dr. Wallace Buttrick, the Secretary of the General
Education Board, had now decided that the fundamental
difficulty was economic. By that time the Southern
people had revised their original conception that edu-
cation was a private and not a public concern; there was
now a general acceptance of the doctrine that the mental
and physical training of every child, white and black,
was the responsibility of the state; Aycock's campaign
had worked such a popular revolution on this subject
that no politician who aspired to public office would dare
to take a contrary view. Yet the economic difficulty

' THE FORGOTTEN MAN " 95

still remained. The South was poor; whatever might be
the general desire, the taxable resources were not suf-
ficient to support such a comprehensive system of
popular instruction as existed in the North and West.
Any permanent improvement must therefore be based
upon the strengthening of the South 's economic position.
Essentially the task was to build up Southern agricul-
ture, which for generations had been wasteful, unintel-
ligent and consequently unproductive. Such a far-reach-
ing programme might well appall the most energetic
reformer, but Dr. Buttrick set to work. He saw little
light until his attention was drawn to a quaint and
philosophic gentleman — a kind of bucolic Ben Franklin
— who was then obscurely working in the cotton lands of
Louisiana, making warfare on the boll weevil in a way
of his own. At that time Dr. Seaman A. Knapp had
made no national reputation; yet he had evolved a plan
for redeeming country life and making American farms
more fruitful that has since worked marvellous results.
There was nothing especially sensational about its details.
Dr. Knapp had made the discovery in relation to farms
that the utilitarians had long since made with reference
to other human activities : that the only way to improve
agriculture was not to talk about it, but to go and do it.
During the preceding fifty years agricultural colleges had
sprung up all over the United States — Dr. Knapp had
been president of one himself; practically every Southern
state had one or more; agricultural lecturers covered
thousands of miles annually telling their yawning audi-
ences how to farm; these efforts had scattered broadcast
much valuable information about the subject, but the dif-
ficulty lay in inducing the farmers to apply it. Dr.
Knapp had a new method. He selected a particular
farmer and persuaded him to work his fields for a period

96 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

according to methods which he prescribed. He told his
pupil how to plough, what seed to plant, how to space his
rows, what fertilizers to use, and the like. If a selected
acreage yielded a profitable crop which the farmer could
sell at an increased price Dr. Knapp had sufficient faith
in human nature to believe that that particular farmer
would continue to operate his farm on the new method
and that his neighbours, having this practical example of
growing prosperity, would imitate him.

Such was the famous "Demonstration Work" of Dr.
Seaman A. Knapp; this activity is now a regular branch
of the Department of Agriculture, employing thousands
of agents and spending not far from $18,000,000 a year.
Its application to the South has made practically a new
and rich country, and it has long since been extended to
other regions. When Dr. Buttrick first met Knapp, how-
ever, there were few indications of this splendid future.
He brought Dr. Knapp North and exhibited him to
Page. This was precisely the kind of man who appealed
to Page's sympathies. His mind was always keenly on
the scent for the new man— the original thinker who had
some practical plan for uplifting humankind and making
fife more worth while. And Dr. Knapp's mission was
one that had filled most of his thoughts for many years;
its real purpose was the enrichment of country life.
Page therefore took to Dr. Knapp with a mighty zest.
He supported him on all occasions; he pled his cause with
great eloquence before the General Education Board,
whose purse strings were liberally unloosed in behalf of
the Knapp work; in his writings, in speeches, in letters,
in all forms of public advocacy, he insisted that Dr.
Knapp had found the solution of the agricultural problem.
The fact is that Page regarded Knapp as one of the great-
est men of the time. His feeling came out with character-

"the forgotten man" 97

istic intensity on the occasion of the homely reformer's
funeral. "The exercises," Page once told a friend, "were
held in a rather dismal little church on the outskirts of
Washington. The day was bleak and chill, the attend-
ants were few — chiefly officials of the Department of
Agriculture. The clergyman read the service in the most
perfunctory way. Then James Wilson, the Secretary of
Agriculture, spoke formally of Dr. Knapp as a faithful
servant of the Department who always did well what he
was told to do, commending his life in an altogether com-
monplace fashion. By that time my heart was pretty hot.
No one seemed to divine that in the coffin before them
was the body of a really great man, one who had hit up-
on a fruitful idea in American agriculture — an idea that
was destined to cover the nation and enrich rural life
immeasurably." Page was so moved by this lack of ap-
preciation, so full of sorrow at the loss of one of his
dearest friends, that, when he rose to speak, his apprais-
ment took on a certain indignation. Their dead associate,
Page declared, would outrank the generals and the poli-
ticians who received the world's plaudits, for he had de-
voted his life to a really great purpose ; his inspiration had
been the love of the common people, his faith, his sym-
pathy had all been expended in an effort to brighten the
life of the too frequently neglected masses. Page's ad-
dress on this occasion was entirely extemporaneous; no
record of it was ever made, but those who heard it still
carry the memory of an eloquent and fiery outburst that
placed Knapp 's work in its proper relation to American
history and gave an unforgettable picture of a patient,
idealistic, achieving man whose name will loom large in
the future.

During this same period Page, always on the out-
look for the exceptional man, made another discovery

98 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

which has had world-wide consequences. As a member
of President Roosevelt's Country Life Commission Page
became one of the committee assigned to investigate con-
ditions in the Southern States. The sanitarian of this
commission was Dr. Charles W. Stiles, a man who held
high rank as a zoologist, and who, as such, had for many
years done important work with the Department of
Agriculture. Page had hardly formed Dr. Stiles's ac-
quaintance before he discovered that, at that time, he
was a man of one idea. And this one idea had for years
brought upon his head much good-natured ridicule.
For Dr. Stiles had his own explanation for much of the
mental and physical sluggishness that prevailed in the
rural sections of the Southern States. Yet he could not
mention this without exciting uproarious laughter —
even in the presence of scientific men. Several years
previously Dr. Stiles had discovered that a hitherto unclas-
sified species of a parasite popularly known as the hook-
worm prevailed to an astonishing extent in all the South-
ern States. The pathological effects of this creature had
long been known; it localized in the intestines, there se-
creted a poison that destroyed the red blood corpuscles,
and reduced its victims to a deplorable state of anaemia,
making them constantly ill, listless, mentally dull — in
every sense of the word useless units of society. The
encouraging part of this discovery was that the patients
could quickly be cured and the hookworm eradicated by
a few simple improvements in sanitation. Dr. Stiles had
long been advocating such a campaign as an indispensable
preliminary to improving Southern fife. But the hu-
morous aspect of the hookworm always interfered with
his cause ; the microbe of laziness had at last been found !
It was not until Dr. Stiles, in the course of this Southern
trip, cornered Page in a Pullman car, that he finally found

THE FORGOTTEN MAN " 99

an attentive listener. Page, of course, had his prelimi-
nary laugh, but then the hookworm began to work on his
imagination. He quickly discovered that Dr. Stiles was
no fool; and before the expedition was finished, he had
become a convert and, like most converts, an extremely
zealous one. The hookworm now filled his thoughts as
completely as it did those of his friend ; he studied it, he
talked about it; and characteristically he set to work to
see what could be done. How much Southern history
did the thing explain? Was it not forces like this, and
not statesmen and generals, that really controlled the des-
tinies of mankind? Page's North Carolina country people
had for generations been denounced as "crackers," and as
"hill-billies," but here was the discovery that the great
mass of them were ill — as ill as the tuberculosis patients in
the Adirondacks. Free these masses from the enervating
parasite that consumed all their energies— for Dr. Stiles
had discovered that the disease afflicted the great major-
ity of the rural classes — and a new generation would re-
suit. Naturally the cause strongly touched Page's sym-
pathies. He laid the case before the ever sympathetic
Dr. Buttrick, but here again progress was slow. By
hard hammering, however, he half converted Dr. Butt-
rick, who, in turn, took the case of the hookworm to his
old associate, Dr. Frederick T. Gates. What Page was
determined to obtain was a million dollars or so from
Mr. John D. Rockefeller, for the purpose of engaging in
deadly warfare upon this pest. This was the proper way
to produce results: first persuade Dr. Buttrick, then
induce him to persuade Dr. Gates, who, if convinced,
had ready access to the great treasure house. But Dr.
Gates also began to smile; even the combined elo-
quence of Page and Dr. Buttrick could not move him.
So the reform marked time until one day Dr. Buttrick,

100 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Dr. Gates, and Dr. Simon Flexner, the Director of the
Rockefeller Institute, happened to be fellow travellers —
again on a Pullman car.

"Dr. Flexner," said Dr. Buttrick — this for the benefit
of his incredulous friend — "what is the scientific standing
of Dr. Charles W. Stiles?"

"Very, very high," came the immediate response, and
at this Dr. Gates pricked up his ears. Yet the subse-
quent conversation disclosed that Dr. Flexner was un-
familiar with the Stiles hookworm work. He, too, smiled
at the idea, but, like Page his smile was not one of
ridicule.

"If Dr. Stiles believes this," was his dictum, "it is
something to be taken most seriously."

As Dr. Flexner is probably the leading medical scientist
in the United States, his judgment at once lifted the hook-
worm issue to a new plane. Dr. Gates ceased laughing
and events now moved rapidly. Mr. Rockefeller gave a
million dollars to a sanitary commission for the eradica-
tion of the hookworm in the Southern States, and of this
Page became a charter member. In this way an enterprise
that is the greatest sanitary and health reform of modern
times had its beginnings. So great was the success of the
Hookworm Commission in the South, so many thousands
were almost daily restored to health and usefulness, that
Mr. Rockefeller extended its work all over the world — to
India, Egypt, China, Australia, to all sections that fall
within the now accurately located "hookworm belt."
Out of it grew the great International Health Commission,
also endowed with unlimited millions of Rockefeller money,
which is engaged in stamping out disease and promoting
medical education in all quarters of the globe. Dr. Stiles
and Page 's associates on the General Education Board at-
tribute the origin of this work to the simple fact that Page,

Walter H. Page (1899), from a photograph taken when he was
editor of the Atlantic Monthly

Dr. Wallace Butt rick. President of the General Education Board

"the forgotten man" 101

great humourist that he was, could temper his humour
with intelligence, and could therefore perceive the point
at which a joke ceased to be a joke and actually concealed
a truth of the most far-reaching importance to mankind.

Page enjoyed the full results of this labour one night in
the autumn of 1913, when Dr. Wickliffe Rose, the head of
the International Health Board, came to London to discuss
the possibility of beginning hookworm work in the British
Empire, especially in Egypt and India. Page, as Am-
bassador, arranged a dinner at the Marlborough Club,
attended by the leading medical scientists of the kingdom
and several members of the Cabinet. Dr. Rose's de-
scription of his work made a deep impression. He was
informed that the British Government was only too ready
to cooperate with the Health Board. When the discus-
sion was ended the Right Honourable Lewis Harcourt,
the Secretary of State for the Colonies, concluded an
eloquent address with these words:

"The time will come when we shall look back on this
evening as the beginning of a new era in British colonial
administration.

CHAPTER IV

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS

IT WAS Page's interest in the material and spiritual
elevation of the masses that first directed his attention
to the Presidential aspirations of Woodrow Wilson. So
much history has been made since 1912 that the public
questions which then stirred the popular mind have
largely passed out of recollection. Yet the great rallying
cry of that era was democracy, spelled with a small "d."
In the fifty years since the Civil War only one Demo-
cratic President had occupied the White House. The
Republicans' long lease of power had produced certain
symptoms which their political foes now proceeded to
describe as great public abuses. The truth of the matter,
of course, is that neither political virtue nor political
depravity was the exclusive possession of either of the
great national organizations. The Republican party,
especially under the enlightened autocracy of Roosevelt,
had started such reforms as conservation, the improve-
ment of country life, the regulation of the railroads, and
the warfare on the trusts, and had shown successful in-
terest in such evidences of the new day as child labour laws,
employer's liability laws, corrupt practice acts, direct
primaries and the popular election of United States Sena-
tors— not all perhaps wise as methods, but all certainly
inspired with a new conception of democratic government.
Roosevelt also had led in the onslaught on that corpora-
tion influence which, after all, constituted the great

102

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 103

problem of American politics. But Mr. Taft's adminis-
tration had impressed many men, and especially Page, as
a discouraging slump back into the ancient system. Page
was never blind to the inadequacies of his own party;
the three campaigns of Bryan and his extensive influence
with the Democratic masses at times caused him deep
despair; that even the corporations had extended their
tentacles into the ranks of Jefferson was all too obvious
a fact; yet the Democratic party at that time Page
regarded as the most available instrument for embody-
ing in legislation and practice the new things in which
he most believed. Above all, the Democratic party in
1912 possessed one asset to which the Republicans could
lay no claim — a new man, a new leader, the first states-
man who had crossed its threshold since Grover Cleve-
land.

Like many scholarly Americans, Page had been charmed
by the intellectual brilliancy of Woodrow Wilson. The
utter commonplaceness of much of what passes for po-
litical thinking in this country had for years discouraged
him. American political life may have possessed energy,
character, even greatness; but it was certainly lacking in
distinction. It was this new quality that Wilson
brought, and it was this that attracted thousands of
cultivated Americans to his standard, irrespective of
party. The man was an original thinker ; he exercised the
priceless possession of literary style. He entertained;
he did not weary; even his temperamental deficiencies,
which were apparent to many observers in 1912, had
at least the advantage that attaches to the interesting and
the unusual.

What Page and thousands of other public-spirited men
saw in Wilson was a leader of fine intellectual gifts who
was prepared to devote his splendid energies to making

104 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

life more attractive and profitable to the "Forgotten
Man." Here was the opportunity then, to embody in
one imaginative statesman all the interest which for a
generation had been accumulating in favour of the
democratic revival. At any rate, after thirty years of
Republican half-success and half-failure, here was the
chance for a new deal. Amid a mob of shopworn pub-
lic men, here was one who had at least the charm of
novelty.

Page had known Mr. Wilson for thirty years, and all
this time the Princeton scholar had seemed to him to be
one of the most helpful influences at work in the United
States. As already noted Page had met the future Pres-
ident when he was serving a journalistic apprenticeship
in Atlanta, Georgia. Wilson was then spending his days
in a dingy law office and was putting to good use the time
consumed in waiting for the clients who never came by
writing that famous book on "Congressional Government"
which first lifted his name out of obscurity. This work,
the product of a man of twenty-nine, was perhaps the
first searching examination to which the American Con-
gressional system had ever been subjected. It brought
Wilson a professorship at the newly established Bryn
Mawr College and drew to him other growing minds like
Page's. "Watch that man!" was Page's admonition to
his friends. Wilson then went into academic work and
Page plunged into the exactions of daily and periodical
journalism, but Page's papers show that the two men had
kept in touch with each other during the succeeding thirty
years. These papers include a collection of letters from
Woodrow Wilson, the earliest of which is dated October
30, 1885, when the future President was beginning his
career at Bryn Mawr. He was eager to come to New
York, Wilson said, and discuss with Page "half a hundred

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 105

topics" suggested by "Congressional Government." The
atmosphere at Bryn Mawr was evidently not stimulating.
"Such a talk would give me a chance to let off some of the
enthusiasm I am just now painfully stirring up in enforced
silence." The Forum and the Atlantic Monthly, when
Page was editor, showed many traces of his interest in
Wilson, who was one of his most frequent contributors.
When Wilson became President of Princeton, he occasion-
ally called upon his old Atlantic friend for advice. He
writes to Page on various matters — to ask for suggestions
about filling a professorship or a lectureship; and there
are also references to the difficulties Wilson is having with
the Princeton trustees.

Page's letters also portray the new hopes with which
Wilson inspired him. One of his best loved correspond-
ents was Henry Wallace, editor of Wallace's Farmer, a
homely and genial Rooseveltian. Page was one of those
who immensely admired Roosevelt's career; but he re^
garded him as a man who had finished his work, at least
in domestic affairs, and whose great claim upon posterity
would be as the stimulator of the American conscience.
"I see you are coming around to Wilson," Page writes,
"and in pretty rapid fashion. I assure you that that is
the solution of the problem. I have known him since we
were boys, and I have been studying him lately with a
great deal of care. I haven't any doubt but that is the
way out. The old labels 'Democrat' and 'Republican'
have ceased to have any meaning, not only in my mind
and in yours, but I think in the minds of nearly all the
people. Don 't you feel that way? "

The campaign of 1912 was approaching its end when
this letter was written; and no proceeding in American
politics had so aroused Page's energies. He had himself
played a part in Wilson 's nomination. He was one of the

106 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

first to urge the Princeton President to seize the great op-
portunity that was rising before him. These suggestions
were coming from many sources in the summer of 1910;
Mr. Wilson was about to retire from the Presidency of
Princeton; the movement had started to make him Gov-
ernor of New Jersey, and it was well understood that this
was merely intended as the first step to the White House.
But Mr. Wilson was himself undecided; to escape the
excitement of the moment he had retired to a country
house at Lyme, Connecticut. In this place, in response
to a letter, Page now sought him out. His visit was a
plea that Mr. Wilson should accept his proffered fate;
the Governorship of New Jersey, then the Presidency,
and the opportunity to promote the causes in which
both men believed.

"But do you think I can do it, Page?" asked the hesi-
tating Wilson.

"I am sure you can": and then Page again, with his
customary gusto, launched into his persuasive argument.
His host at one moment would assent; at another present
the difficulties ; it was apparent that he was having trouble
in reaching a decision. To what extent Page's conver-
sation converted him the record does not disclose; it is
apparent, however, that when, in the next two years,
difficulties came, his mind seemed naturally to turn in
Page's direction. Especially noticeable is it that he appeals
to Page for help against his fool friends. An indiscreet
person in New Jersey is booming Mr. Wilson for the
Presidency; the activity of such a man inevitably brings
ridicule upon the object of his attention ; cannot Page find
some kindly way of calling him off? Mr. Wilson asks
Page's advice about a campaign manager, and incidentally
expresses his own aversion to a man of "large calibre"
for this engagement. There were occasional conferences

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 107

with Mr. Wilson on his Presidential prospects, one of
which took place at Page's New York apartment. Page
was also the man who brought Mr. Wilson and Colonel
House together; this had the immediate result of placing
the important state of Texas on the Wilson side, and, as
its ultimate consequence, brought about one of the most
important associations in the history of American politics.
Page had known Colonel House for many years and was
the advocate who convinced the sagacious Texan that
Woodrow Wilson was the man. Wilson also acquired the
habit of referring to Page men who offered themselves to
him as volunteer workers in his cause. "Go and see
Walter Page" was his usual answer to this kind of an ap-
proach. But Page was not a collector of delegates to
nominating conventions ; not his the art of manipulating
these assemblages in the interest of a favoured man ; yet
his services to the Wilson cause, while less demonstra-
tive, were almost as practical. His talent lay in exposi-
tion; and he now took upon himself the task of spreading
Wilson's fame. In his own magazine and in books pub-
lished by his firm, in letters to friends, in personal con-
ferences, he set forth Wilson's achievements. Page also
persuaded Wilson to make his famous speechmaking
trip through the Western States in 1911 and this was per-
haps his largest definite contribution to the Wilson cam-
paign. It was in the course of this historic pilgrimage that
the American masses obtained their first view of a pre-
viously too-much hidden figure.

On election day Page wrote the President-elect a letter
of congratulation which contains one item of the greatest
interest. When the time came for the new President to
deliver his first message to Congress, he surprised the
country by abandoning the usual practice of sending a
long written communication to be droned out by a read-

108 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

ing clerk to a yawning company of legislators. He ap-
peared in person and read the document himself. As
President Harding has followed his example it seems likely
that this innovation, which certainly represents a great
improvement over the old routine, has become the estab-
lished custom. The origin of the idea therefore has
historic value.

To Woodrow Wilson

Garden City, N. Y.
Election Day, 19i2. [Nov. 5]
My dear Mr. President-elect:

Before going into town to hear the returns, I write you
my congratulations. Even if you were defeated, I should
still congratulate you on putting a Presidential campaign
on a higher level than it has ever before reached since
Washington's time. Your grip became firmer and your
sweep wider every week. It was inspiring to watch the
unfolding of the deep meaning of it and to see the people 's
grasp of the main idea. It was fairly, highly, freely, won,
and now we enter the Era of Great Opportunity. It
is hard to measure the extent or the thrill of the new in-
terest in public affairs and the new hope that you have
aroused in thousands of men who were becoming hopeless
under the long-drawn-out reign of privilege.

To the big burden of suggestions that you are receiving,
may I add these small ones?

1. Call Congress in extra session mainly to revise the
tariff and incidentally to prepare the way for rural credit
societies.

Mr. Taft set the stage admirably in 1909 when he
promptly called an extra session; but then he let the
villain run the play. To get the main job in hand at
once will be both dramatic and effective and it will save

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 109

lime. Moreover, it will give you this great tactical ad-
vantage— you can the better keep in line those who have
debts or doubts before you have answered their importun-
ities for offices and for favours.

The time is come when the land must be developed by
the newr agriculture and farming made a business. This
calls for money. Every acre will repay a reasonable loan
on long time at a fair interest rate, and group-borrowing
develops the men quite as much as the men will develop
the soil. It saved the German Empire and is remakh :g
Italy. And this is the proper use of much of the money
that now flows into the reach of the credit barons. This
building up of farm life will restore the equilibrium cf
our civilization and, besides, will prove to be one half the
solution of our currency and credit problem. . . .

2. Set your trusted friends immediately to work, every
man in the field he knows best, to prepare briefs for you
on such great subjects and departments as the Currency,
the Post Office, Conservation, Rural Credit, the Agri-
cultural Department, which has the most direct power
for good to the most people — to make our farmers as
independent as Denmark's and to give our best country
folk the dignity of the old-time English gentleman
— this expert, independent information to compare with
your own knowledge and with official reports.

3. The President reads (or speaks) his Inaugural to the
people. Why not go back to the old custom of himself
delivering his Messages to Congress? Would that not
restore a feeling of comradeship in responsibility and
make the Legislative branch feel nearer to the Executive?
Every President of our time has sooner or later got aw ay
with Congress.

I cannot keep from saying what a new thrill of hope and
tingle of expectancy I feel — as of a great event about to

110 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

happen for our country and for the restoration of popu-
lar government; for you will keep your rudder true.

Most heartily yours,

Walter H. Page.
To Governor Wilson,
Princeton, N. J.

Page was one of the first of Mr. Wilson's friends to
discuss with the President-elect the new legislative pro-
gramme. The memorandum which he made of this
interview shows how little any one, in 1912, appreciated
the tremendous problems that Mr. Wilson would have to
face. Only domestic matters then seemed to have the
slightest importance. Especially significant is the fact
that even at this early date, Page was chiefly impressed
by Mr. Wilson's "loneliness."

Memorandum dated November 15, 1912

To use the Government, especially the Department of
Agriculture and the Bureau of Education, to help actively
in the restoration of country life — that's the great chance
for Woodrow Wilson, ten days ago elected President.
Precisely how well he understands this chance, how well,
for example, he understands the grave difference between
the Knapp Demonstration method of teaching farmers
and the usual Agricultural College method of lecturing to
them, and what he knows about the rising movement for
country schools of the right sort, and agricultural credit
societies — how all this great constructive problem of
Country Life lies in his mind, who knows? I do not.
If I do not know, who does know? The political mana-
gers who have surrounded him these six months have
now done their task. They know nothing of this Big
Chance and Great Outlook. And for the moment they

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 111

have left him alone. In two days he will go to Bermuda
for a month to rest and to meditate. He ought to meditate
on this Constructive programme. It seemed my duty
to go and tell him about it. I asked for an interview and
he telegraphed to go to-day at five o'clock.

Arthur and I drove in the car and reached Princeton
just before five — a beautiful drive of something less than
four hours from New York. Presently we arrived at the
Wilson house.

"The Governor is engaged," I was informed by the
man who opened the door. "He can see nobody. He
is going away to-morrow."

"I have an appointment with him," said I, and I gave
him my card.

"I know he can't see anybody."

"Will you send my card in?"

We waited at the door till the maid took it in and
returned to say the Governor would presently come
down.

The reception room had a desk in the corner, and on a
row of chairs across the whole side of the room were
piles of unopened letters. It is a plain, modestly but
decently furnished room, such as you would expect to
find in the modest house of a professor at Princeton.
During his presidency of the college, he had lived in the
President's house in the college yard. This was his own
house of his professorial days.

"Hello, Page, come out here: I am glad to see you."
There he stood in a door at the back of the room, which
led to his library and work room. "Come back here."

"In the best of all possible worlds, the right thing does
sometimes happen," said I.

"Yes."

"And a great opportunity."

112 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

He smiled and was cordial and said some pleasant
words. But he was weary. "I have cobwebs in my
head." He was not depressed but oppressed — rather
shy, I thought, and I should say rather lonely. The
campaign noise and the little campaigners were hushed
and gone. There were no men of companionable size
about him, and the Great Task lay before him. The
Democratic party has not brought forward large men in
public life during its long term of exclusion from the
Government; and the newly elected President has had
few opportunities and a very short time to make acquaint-
ances of a continental kind. This little college town, this
little hitherto corrupt state, are both small.

I went at my business without delay. The big country-
life idea, the working of great economic forces to put its
vitalization within sight, the coming equilibrium by the
restoration of country life — all coincident with his coming
into the Presidency. His Administration must fall in
with it, guide it, further it. The chief instruments are
the Agricultural Department, the Bureau of Education,
and the power of the President himself to bring about
Rural Credit Societies and similar organized helps. He
quickly saw the difference between Demonstration Work
by the Agricultural Department and the plan to vote
large sums to agricultural colleges and to the states to
build up schools.

"Who is the best man for Secretary of Agriculture?"

I ought to have known, but I didn't. For who is?

"May I look about and answer your question later?"

"Yes, I will thank you."

"I wish to find the very best men for my Cabinet, re-
gardless of consequences. I do not forget the party as
an instrument of government, and I do not wish to do
violence to it. But I must have the best men in the

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 113

Nation" — with a very solemn tone as he sat bolt upright,
with a stern look on his face, and a lonely look.

I told him my idea of the country school that must be
and talked of the Bureau of Education. He saw quick h
and assented to all my propositions.

And then we talked somewhat more conservatively of
Conservation, about which he knows less.

I asked if he would care to have me make briefs about
the Agricultural Department, the Bureau of Education,
the Rural Credit Societies, and Conservation. "I shall
be very grateful, if it be not too great a sacrifice."

I had gained that permission, which (if he respect my
opinion) ought to guide him somewhat toward a real
understanding of how the Government may help toward
our Great Constructive Problem.

I gained also the impression that he has no sympathy
with the idea of giving government grants to schools and
agricultural colleges — a very distinct impression.

I had been with him an hour and had talked (I fear)
too much. But he seemed hearty in his thanks. He
came to the front door with me, insisted on helping me
on with my coat, envied me the motor-car drive in the
night back to New York, spoke to eight or ten reporters
who had crowded into the hall for their interview — a
most undignified method, it seemed to me, for a President-
elect to reach the public; I stepped out on the muddy
street, and, as I walked to the Inn, I had the feeling of
the man's oppressive loneliness as he faced his great task.
There is no pomp of circumstance, nor hardly dignity
in this setting, except the dignity of his seriousness and
his loneliness.

There was a general expectation that Page would become
a member of President Wilson's Cabinet, and the place

114 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

for which he seemed particularly qualified was the Secre-
taryship of Agriculture. The smoke of battle had hardly
passed away, therefore, when Page's admirers began
bringing pressure to bear upon the President-elect.
There was probably no man in the United States who had
such completely developed views about this Department
as Page; and it is not improbable that, had circumstances
combined to offer him this position, he would have ac-
cepted it. But fate in matters of this sort is sometimes
kinder than a man's friends. Page had a great horror of
anything which suggested office-seeking, and the cam-
paign which now was started in his interest greatly
embarrassed him. He wrote Mr. Wilson, disclaiming
all responsibility and begging him to ignore these
misguided efforts. As the best way of checking the
movement, Page now definitely answered Mr. Wilson's
question: Who was the best man for the Agricultural
Department? It is interesting to note that the candidate
whom Page nominated in this letter — a man who had
been his friend for many years and an associate on the
Southern Education Board — was the man whom Mr.
Wilson chose.

To Woodrow Wilson

Garden City, N. Y.

November 27, 1912.
My dear Wilson:

I send you (wrongly, perhaps, when you are trying to
rest) the shortest statement that I could make about the
demonstration field-work of the Department of Agricul-
ture. This is the best tool yet invented to shape country
life. Other (and shorter) briefs will be ready in a little
while.

You asked me who I thought was the best man for Secre-

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 115

tary of Agriculture. Houston,1 I should say, of the men
that I know. You will find my estimate of him in the
little packet of memoranda. Van Hise2 may be as good or
even better if he be young in mind and adaptable enough.
But he seems to me a man who may already have done
his big job.

I answer the other questions you asked at Princeton
and I have taken the liberty to send some memoranda
about a few other men — on the theory that every friend
of yours ought now to tell you with the utmost frankness
about the men he knows, of whom you may be thinking.

The building up of the countryman is the big con-
structive job of our time. When the countryman comes
to his own, the town man will no longer be able to tax,
and to concentrate power, and to bully the world.

Very heartily yours,

Walter H. Page.

To Henry Wallace

Garden City, N. Y.
11 March, 1913.
My dear Uncle Henry:

What a letter yours is ! By George ! we must get on the
job, you and I, of steering the world — get on it a little
more actively. Else it may run amuck. We have
frightful responsibilities in this matter. The subject
weighs the more deeply and heavily on me because I am
just back from a month's vacation in North Carolina,
where I am going to build me a winter and old-age bunga-
low. No; you would be disappointed if you went out of

!Mr. David F. Houston, ex-President of the University of Texas, and in 1912
Chancellor of the Washington University of St. Louis.

2Charles R. Van Hise, President of the University of Wisconsin.

116 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

your way to see my boys. Moreover, they are now
merely clearing land. They sold out the farm they put
in shape, after two years' work, for just ten times what
it had cost, and they are now starting another one de
novo. About a year hence, they'll have something to
show. And next winter, when my house is built down
there, I want you to come and see me and see that coun-
try. I'll show you one of the most remarkable farmers'
clubs you ever saw and many other interesting things as
Avell — many, very many. I'm getting into this farm
business in dead earnest. That's the dickens of it: how
can I do my share in our partnership to run the universe
if I give my time to cotton-growing problems? It's a
tangled world.

Well, bless your soul! You and the younger Wallaces
(my regards to every one of them) and Poe1 — you are all
very kind to think of me for that difficult place— too dif-
ficult by far, for me. Besides, it would have cost me my
life. If I were to go into public life, I should have had
to sell my whole interest here. This would have meant
that I could never make another dollar. More than that,
I'd have thrown away a trade that I've learned and gone
at another one that I know little about — a bad change,
surely. So, you see, there never was anything serious
in this either in my mind or in the President's. Arthur
hit it off right one day when somebody asked him:

"Is your father going to take the Secretaryship of
Agriculture?"

He replied : " Not seriously."

Besides, the President didn't ask me! He knew too
much for that.

But he did ask me who would be a good man and I
said "Houston." You are not quite fair to him in your

'Clarence Poe, editor of The Progressive Farmer.

Charles D. Mclver of Greensboro, North Carolina, a
leader in the cause of Southern Education

W k ' M

rfl

^^Hj^^H jf v . JBB

t^Lj^^,, .

,. vft, ^H i^jvaS

Wood row Wilson in 1912

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 117

editorial. He does know — knows much and well and is
the strongest man in the Cabinet — in promise. The
farmers don't yet know him: that's the only trouble.
Give him a chance.

I've "put it up" to the new President and to the new
Secretary to get on the job immediately of organizing
country life. I've drawn up a scheme (a darned good one,
too) which they have. I have good hope that they'll
get to it soon and to the thing that we have all been
working toward. I'm very hopeful about this. I told
them both last week to get their minds on this before the
wolves devour them. Don't you think it better to work
with the Government and to try to steer it right than to
go off organizing other agencies?

God pity our new masters ! The President is all right.
He's sound, earnest, courageous. But his party! I still
have some muscular strength. In certain remote regions
they still break stones in the road by hand. Now I'll
break stones before I'd have a job at Washington now.
I spent four days with them last week — the new crowd.
They'll try their best. I think they'll succeed. But, if
they do succeed and survive, they'll come out of the
scrimmage bleeding and torn. We've got to stand off and
run 'em, Uncle Henry. That's the only hope I see for the
country. Don't damn Houston, then, beforehand. He's
a real man. Let's get on the job and tell 'em how.

Now, when you come East, come before you need to
get any of your meetings and strike a bee-line for Garden
City; and don't be in a hurry when you get here. If a
Presbyterian meeting be necessary for your happiness,
I'll drum up one on the Island for you. And, of course,
you must come to my house and pack up right and get
your legs steady sometime before you sail — you and
Mrs. Wallace: will she not go with you?

118 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

In the meantime, don't be disgruntled. We can steer
the old world right, if you'll just keep your shoulder to
the wheel. We'll work it all out here in the summer and
verify it all (including your job of setting the effete
kingdoms of Europe all right) — we'll verify it all next
winter down in North Carolina. I think things have
got such a start that they'll keep going in some fashion,
till we check up the several items, political, ethical, agri-
cultural, journalistic, and international. God bless us
all!

Most heartily always yours,

Walter H. Page.

Though Mr. Wilson did not offer Page the Agricultural
Department, he much desired to have him in his Cabinet,
and had already decided upon him for a post which the
new President probably regarded as more important —
the Interior. The narrow margin with which Page
escaped this responsibility illustrates again the slender
threads upon which history is constructed. The episode
is also not without its humorous side. For there was
only one reason why Page did not enter the Cabinet as
Secretary of the Interior ; and that is revealed in the above
letter to "Uncle Henry"; he was so busy planning his
new house in the sandhills of North Carolina that, while
cabinets were being formed and great decisions taken,
he was absent from New York. A short time before the
inauguration, Mr. Wilson asked Colonel House to ar-
range a meeting with Page in the latter's apartment.
Mr. Wilson wished to see him on a Saturday; the pur-
pose was to offer him the Secretaryship of the Interior.
Colonel House called up Page's office at Garden City and
was informed that he was in North Carolina. Colonel
House then telegraphed asking Page to start north im-

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 119

mediately, and suggesting the succeeding Monday as a
good time for the interview. A reply was at once re-
ceived from Page that he was on his way.

Meanwhile certain of Mr. Wilson's advisers had heard
of the plan and were raising objections. Page was a
Southerner; the Interior Department has supervision
over the pension bureau, with its hundreds of thousands
of Civil War veterans as pensioners; moreover, Page was
an outspoken enemy of the whole pension system and
had led several "campaigns" against it. The appoint-
ment would never do! Mr. Wilson himself was per-
suaded that it would be a mistake.

"But what are we going to do about Page?" asked
Colonel House. "I have summoned him from North
Carolina on important business. What excuse shall I
give for bringing him way up here?"

But the President-elect was equal to the emergency.

"Here's the cabinet list," he drily replied. "Show it
to Page. Tell him these are the people I have about de-
cided to appoint and ask him what he thinks of them.
Then he will assume that we summoned him to get his
advice."

When Page made his appearance, therefore, Colonel
House gave him the list of names and solemnly asked him
what he thought of them. The first name that attracted
Page's attention was that of Josephus Daniels, as Secre-
tary of the Navy. Page at once expressed his energetic
dissent.

"Why, don't you think he is Cabinet timber?" asked
Colonel House.

"Timber!" Page fairly shouted. "He isn't a splinter!
Have you got a time table? When does the next train
leave for Princeton?"

In a couple of hours Page was sitting with Mr. Wilson,

120 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

earnestly protesting against Mr. Daniels's appointment.
But Mr. Wilson said that he had already offered Mr.
Daniels the place.

About the time of Wilson's election a great calamity
befell one of Page's dearest friends. Dr. Edwin A. Alder-
man, the President of the University of Virginia, one of
the pioneer educational forces in the Southern States,
and for years an associate of Page on the General Edu-
cation Board, was stricken with tuberculosis. He was
taken to Saranac, and here a patient course of treatment
happily restored him to health. One of the dreariest
aspects of such an experience is its tediousness and loneli-
ness. Yet the maintenance of one's good spirits and
optimism is an essential part of the treatment. And it
was in this work that Page now proved an indispensable
aid to the medical men. As soon as Dr. Alderman found
himself stretched out, a weak and isolated figure, cut off
from those activities and interests which had been his
inspiration for forty years, with no companions except
his own thoughts and a few sufferers like himself, letters
began to arrive with weekly regularity from the man
whom he always refers to as "dear old Page." The
gayety and optimism of these letters, the lively com-
ments which they passed upon men and things, and their
wholesome and genial philosophy, were largely instru-
mental, Dr. Alderman has always believed, in his re-
covery. Their effect was so instant and beneficial that
the physicians asked to have them read to the other
patients, who also derived abounding comfort and joy
from them. The whole episode was one of the most
beautiful in Page's life, and brings out again that gift
for friendship which was perhaps his finest quality. For

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 121

this reason it is a calamity that most of these letters have
not been preserved. The few that have survived are
interesting not only in themselves; they reveal Page's
innermost thoughts on the subject of Woodrow Wilson.
That he admired the new President is evident, yet these
letters make it clear that, even in 1912 and 1913, there
was something about Mr. Wilson that caused him to
hesitate, to entertain doubts, to wonder how, after all,
the experiment was to end.

To Edwin A. Alderman

Garden City, L. I.
December 31, 1912.
My dear Ed Alderman :

I have a new amusement, a new excitement, a new
study, as you have and as we all have who really believe
in democracy — a new study, a new hope, and sometimes
a new fear; and its name is Wilson. I have for many
years regarded myself as an interested, but always a
somewhat detached, outsider, believing that the demo-
cratic idea was real and safe and lifting, if we could ever
get it put into action, contenting myself ever with such
patches of it as time and accident and occasion now and
then sewed on our gilded or tattered garments. But now
it is come — the real thing; at any rate a man somewhat
like us, whose thought and aim and dream are our thought
and aim and dream. That's enormously exciting! I
didn't suppose I'd ever become so interested in a general
proposition or in a governmental hope.

Will he do it? Can he do it? Can anybody do it?
How can we help him do it? Now that the task is on
him, does he really understand? Do I understand him
and he me? There's a certain unreality about it.

The man himself— I find that nobody quite knows him

122 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

now. Alas! I wonder if he quite knows himself . Tem-
peramentally very shy, having lived too much alone and
far too much with women (how I wish two of his daugh-
ters were sons!) this Big Thing having descended on him
before he knew or was quite prepared for it, thrust into a
whirl of self-seeking men even while he is trying to think
out the theory of the duties that press, knowing the
necessity of silence, surrounded by small people — well, I
made up my mind that his real friends owed it to him and
to what we all hope for, to break over his reserve and to
volunteer help. He asks for conferences with official folk
— only, I think. So I began to write memoranda about
those subjects of government about which I know some-
thing and have opinions and about men who are or who
may be related to them. It has been great sport to
set down in words without any reserve precisely what
you think. It is imprudent, of course, as most things
worth doing are. But what have I to lose, I who have
my life now planned and laid out and have got far beyond
the reach of gratitude or hatred or praise or blame or
fear of any man? I sent him some such memoranda.
Here came forthwith a note of almost abject thanks. I
sent more. Again, such a note — written in his own hand.
Yet not a word of what he thinks. The Sphinx was gar-
rulous in comparison. Then here comes a mob of my
good friends crying for office for me. So I sent a ten-
line note, by the hand of my secretary, saying that this
should not disturb my perfect frankness nor (I knew it
would not) his confidence. Again, a note in his own
hand, of perfect understanding and with the very glow of
gratitude. And he talks — generalities to the public.
Perhaps that's all he can talk now. Wise? Yes. But
does he know the men about him? Does he really know
men? Nobody knows. Thus 'twixt fear and hope I

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 123

see— suspense. I'll swear I can't doubt, I can't believe.
Whether it is going to work out or not — whether he or
anybody can work it out of the haze of theory — nobody
knows; and nobody's speculation is better than mine and
mine is worthless.

This is the game, this is the excitement, this is the
doubthope and the hopedoubt. I send this word about
it to you (I could and would to nobody else: you're snow-
bound, you see, and don't write much and don't see many
people: restrain your natural loquacity!) But for the
love of heaven tell me if you see any way very clearly.
It's a kind of misty dream to me.

I ask myself why should I concern myself about it?
Of course the answer's easy and I think creditable: I do
profoundly hold this democratic faith and believe that
it can be worked into action among men; and it may be
I shall yet see it done. That's the secret of my interest.
But when this awful office descends on a man, it op-
presses him, changes him, you are not quite so sure of
him, you doubt whether he knows himself or you in the
old way.

And I find among men the very crudest ideas of gov-
ernment or of democracy. They have not thought the
thing out. They hold no ordered creed of human organ-
ization or advancement. They leave all to chance and
think, when they think at all, that chance determines it.
And yet the Great Hope persists, and I think I have
grown an inch by it.

I wonder how it seems, looked at from the cold moun-
tains of Lake Saranac?

It's the end of the year. Mrs. Page and I (alone!)
have been talking of democracy, of these very things
I've written. The bell-ringing and the dancing and
the feasting are not, on this particular year, to our liking.

124 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

We see all our children gone— half of them to nests of
their own building, the rest on errands of their own
pleasure, and we are left, young yet, but the main job
of life behind us! We're going down to a cottage in
southern North Carolina (with our own cook and motor
car, praise God!) for February, still further to think
this thing out and incidentally to build us a library, in
which we'll live when we can. That, for convention's
sake, we call a Vacation.

Your brave note came to-day. Of course, you'll
"get" 'em — those small enemies. The gain of twelve
pounds tells the story. The danger is, your season of
philosophy and reverie will be too soon ended. Don't
fret; the work and the friends will be here when you come
down. There's many a long day ahead; and there may
not be so many seasons of rest and meditation. You are
the only man I know who has time enough to think out a
clear answer to this: "What ought to be done with
Bryan?" What can be done with Bryan? When you
find the answer, telegraph it to me.

I've a book or two more to send you. If they interest
you, praise the gods. If they bore you, fling 'em in the
snow and think no worse of me. You can't tell what a
given book may be worth to a given man in an unknown
mood. They've become such a commodity to me that
I thank my stars for a month away from them when I
may come at 'em at a different angle and really need a
few old ones— Wordsworth, for instance. When you get
old enough, you'll wake up some day with the feeling
that the world is much more beautiful than it was when
you were young, that a landscape has a closer meaning,
that the sky is more companionable, that outdoor colour
and motion are more splendidly audacious and beauti-
fully rhythmical than you had ever thought. That's

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 125

true. The gently snow-clad little pines out my window
are more to me than the whole Taft Administration.
They'll soon be better than the year's dividends. And
the few great craftsmen in words who can confirm this
feeling — they are the masters you become grateful for.
Then the sordidness of the world lies far beneath you
and your great democracy is truly come — the democracy
of Nature. To be akin to a tree, in this sense, is as good
as to be akin to a man. I have a grove of little long-leaf
pines down in the old country and I know they'll have
some consciousness of me after all men have forgotten
me: I've saved 'em, and they'll sing a century of grati-
tude if I can keep 'em saved. Joe Holmes gave me a dis-
sertation on them the other day. He was down there
"on a little Sunday jaunt" of forty miles — the best legs
and the best brain that ever worked together in one
anatomy.

A conquering New Year — that's what you'll find, be-
gun before this reaches you, carrying all good wishes from

Yours affectionately,
W. H. P.

To Edwin A. Alderman

Garden City, New York,
January 26, 1913.
My dear Ed Alderman:

This has been "Board"1 week, as you know. The
men came from all quarters of the land, and we had a
good time. New work is opening; old work is going well;
the fellowship ran in good tide — except that everybody
asked everybody else: "What do you know about
Alderman?" Everybody who had late news of you gave

JThe reference is to the meeting of the Southern and the General Education
Boards.

126 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

a good report. The Southern Board formally passed a
resolution to send affectionate greetings to you and
high hope and expectation, and I was commissioned to
frame the message. This is it. I shall write no formal
resolution, for that wasn't the spirit of it. The fellows
all asked me, singly and collectively, to send their love.
And we don't put that sort of a message under whereases
and wherefores. There they were, every one of them, ex-
cept Peabody and Bowie. Mr. Ogden in particular was
anxious for his emphatic remembrance and good wishes
to go. The dear old man is fast passing into the last
stage of his illness and he knows it and he soon expects
the end, in a mood as brave and as game as he ever w as.
I am sorry to tell you he suffers a good deal of pain.

What a fine thing to look back over — this Southern
Board's work ! Here was a fine, zealous merchant twenty
years ago, then fifty-seven years old, who saw this big
job as a modest layman. If he had known more about
"Education" or more about "the South, bygawd, sir!"
he'd never have had the courage to tackle the job. But with
the bravery of ignorance, he turned out to be the w isest
man on that task in our generation. He has united every
real, good force, and he showed what can be done in a
democracy even by one zealous man. I've sometimes
thought that this is possibly the wisest single piece of
work that I have ever seen done — wisest, not smartest.
I don't know what can be done when he's gone. His
phase of it is really done. But, if another real leader
arise, there will doubtless be another phase.

The General Board doesn't find much more college-
endowing to do. We made only one or two gifts. But
we are trying to get the country school task rightly fo-
cussed. We haven't done it yet; but we will. Buttrick
and Rose will work it out. I wish to God I could throw

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 127

down my practical job and go at it with 'em. Darned if
I couldn't get it going! though / say it, as shouldn't.
And we are going pretty soon to begin with the medical
colleges; that, I think, is good — very.

But the most efficient workmanlike piece of organiza-
tion that my mortal eyes have ever seen is Rose 's hook-
worm work. We're going soon to organize country life
in a sanitary way, the county health officer being the
biggest man on the horizon. Stiles has moved his marine
hospital and his staff to Wilmington, North Carolina, and
he and the local health men are quietly going to make New
Hanover the model county for sanitary condition and
efficiency. You'll know what a vast revolution that de-
notes!— And Congress seems likely to charter the big
Rockefeller Foundation, which will at once make five
millions available for chasing the hookworm off the face of
the earth. Rose will spread himself over Honduras, etc.,
etc., and China, and India! This does literally beat the
devil; for, if the hookworm isn't the devil, what is?

I 'm going to farming. I 've two brothers and two sons,
all young and strong, who believe in the game. We have
land without end, thousands of acres; engines to pull
stumps, to plough, to plant, to reap. The nigger go hang!
A white boy with an engine can outdo a dozen of 'em.
Cotton and corn for staple crops; peaches, figs, scupper-
nongs, vegetables, melons for incidental crops; God's
good air in North Carolina; good roads, too — why, man,
Moore County has authorized the laying out of a strip
of land along all highways to be planted in shrubbery
and fruit trees and kept as a park, so that you will motor
for 100 miles through odorous bloom in spring! — I mean
I am going down there to-morrow for a month, one day for
golf at Pinehurst, the next day for clearing land with an
oil locomotive, ripping up stumps! Every day for life

128 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

out-of-doors and every night, too. I'm going to grow
dasheens. You know what a dasheen is? It's a Trini-
dad potato, which keeps and tastes like a sweet potato
stuffed with chestnuts. There are lots of things to learn
in this world.

God bless us all, old man. It's a pretty good world,
whether seen from the petty excitements of reforming the
world and dreaming of a diseaseless earth in New York,
or from the stump-pulling recreation of a North Carolina
wilderness.

Health be with you!

W. H. P.

To Edwin A. Alderman

Garden City, L. I.
March 10, 1913.
My dear Ed Alderman:

I 'm home from a month of perfect climate in the sand-
hills of North Carolina, where I am preparing a farm and
building a home at least for winter use; and I had the
most instructive and interesting month of my life there.
I believe I see, even in my life-time, the coming of a kind
of man and a kind of life that shall come pretty near to
being the model American citizen and the model American
way to live. Half of it is climate; a fourth of it occupa-
tion; the other fourth, companionship. And the climate
(with what it does) is three fourths companionship.

Then I came to Washington and saw Wilson made Pres-
ident— a very impressive experience indeed. The future
— God knows; but I believe in Wilson very thoroughly.
Men fool him yet. Men fool us all. He has already
made some mistakes. But he 's sound. And, if we have
moral courage enough to beat back the grafters, little and
big — I mean if we, the people, will vote two years and

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 129

four years hence, to keep them back, I think that we shall
now really work toward a democratic government. I
have a stronger confidence in government now as an in-
strument of human progress than I have ever had before.
And I find it an exhilarating and exciting experience.

I have seen many of your good friends in North Caro-
lina, Virginia, and Washington. How we all do love you,
old man! Don't forget that, in your successful fight.
And, with my affectionate greetings to Mrs. Alderman, ask
her to send me the news of your progress.

Always affectionately yours,

Walter H. Page.

To Edwin A. Alderman

On the Baltic, New York to Liverpool,

May 19, 1913.
My dear Ed Alderman:

It was the best kind of news I heard of you during my
last weeks at home — every day of which I wished to go to
Briarcliff to see you. At a distance, it seems absurd to
say that it was impossible to go. But it was. I set down
five different days in my calendar for this use; and some-
how every one of them was taken. Two were taken by
unexpected calls to Washington. Another was taken by
my partners who arranged a little good-bye dinner. An-
other was taken by the British Ambassador — and so on.
Absurd — of course it was absurd, and I feel now as if it
approached the criminal. But every stolen day I said,
"Well, I'll find another." But another never came.

But good news of you came by many hands and mouths.
My congratulations, my cheers, my love, old man. Now
when you do take up work again, don't take up all the
work. Show the fine virtue called self-restraint. We
work too much and too hard and do too many things even

130 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

when we are well. There are three titled Englishmen who
sit at the table with me on this ship — one a former Lord
Mayor of London, another a peer, and the third an M. P.
Damn their self-sufficiencies! They do excite my envy.
They don't shoulder the work of the world: they shoulder
the world and leave the work to be done by somebody else.
Three days' stories and political discussion with them have
made me wonder why the devil I've been so industrious
all my life. They know more than I know; they are
richer than I am; they have been about the world more
than I have; they are far more influential than I am; and
yet one of them asked me to-day if George Washington
was a born American! I said to him, "Where the devil
do you suppose he came from — Hades? " And he laughed
at himself as heartily as the rest of us laughed at him,
and didn't care a hang!

If that's British, I've a mind to become British; and,
the point is, you must, too. Work is a curse. There was
some truth in that old doctrine. At any rate a little of it
must henceforth go a long way with you.

A sermon? Yes. But, since it's a good one, I know
you'll forgive me; for it is preached in love, my dear boy,
and accompanied with the hearty and insistent hope that
you'll write to me.

Affectionately,

Walter Page.

This last letter apparently anticipates the story. A
few weeks before it was written President Wilson had
succeeded in carrying out his determination to make Page
an important part of his Administration. One morning
Page's telephone rang and Colonel Houses well-known
and well-modulated voice came over the wire.

"Good morning, Your Excellency," was his greeting.

THE WILSONIAN ERA BEGINS 131

"What the devil are you talking about?" asked Page.

Then Colonel House explained himself. The night
before, he said, he had dined at the White House. In a
pause of the conversation the President had quietly re-
marked :

"I've about made up my mind to send Walter Page
to England. What do you think of that?"

Colonel House thought very well of it indeed and the
result of his conversation was this telephone call, in which
he was authorized to offer Page the Ambassadorship to
Great Britain.

CHAPTER V

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR

THE London Embassy is the greatest diplomatic gift
at the disposal of the President, and, in the minds of
the American people, it possesses a glamour and an his-
toric importance all its own. Page came to the position,
as his predecessors had come, with a sense of awe ; the great
traditions of the office ; the long fine of distinguished men,
from Thomas Pinckney to Whitelaw Reid, who had filled
it; the peculiar delicacy of the problems that then existed
between the two countries; the reverent respect which
Page had always entertained for English history, English
literature, and English public men — all these considera-
tions naturally quickened the new ambassador's im-
agination and, at the same time, made his arrival in Eng-
land a rather solemn event. Yet his first days in London
had their grotesque side as well. He himself has recorded
his impressions, and, since they contain an important
lesson for the citizens of the world's richest and most
powerful Republic, they should be preserved. When the
ambassador of practically any other country reaches
London, he finds waiting for him a spacious and beautiful
embassy, filled with a large corps of secretaries and ser-
vants— everything ready, to the minutest detail, for the
beginning of his labours. He simply enters these elabo-
rate state-owned and state-supported quarters and starts
work. How differently the mighty United States wel-
comes its ambassadors let Page 's memorandum tell :

132

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 133

The boat touched at Queenstown, and a mass cf Irish
reporters came aboard and wished to know what I thought
of Ireland. Some of them printed the important announce-
ment that I was quite friendly to Ireland! At Liverpool
was Mr. Laughlin,1 Charge d' Affaires in London since Mr.
Reid 's death, to meet me, and of course the consul, Mr.
Washington. . . . On our arrival in London, Laughlin
explained that he had taken quarters for me at the Co-
burg Hotel, whither we drove, after having fought my way
through a mob of reporters at the station. One fellow told
me that since I left New York the papers had published a
declaration by me that I meant to be very "democratic"
and would under no conditions wear "knee breeches" ; and
he asked me about that report. I was foolish enough to
reply that the existence of an ass in the United States ought
not necessarily to require the existence of a corresponding
ass in London. He printed that ! I never knew the origin
of this "knee breeches" story.

That residence at the Coburg Hotel for three months
was a crowded and uncomfortable nightmare. The
indignity and inconvenience — even the humiliation — of an
ambassador beginning his career in an hotel, especially
during the Court season, and a green ambassador at
that! I hope I may not die before our Government
does the conventional duty to provide ambassadors' resi-
dences.

The next morning I went to the Chancery (123, Vic-
toria Street) and my heart sank. I had never in my life
been in an American Embassy. I had had no business
with them in Paris or in London on my previous visits.
In fact I had never been in any embassy except the
British Embassy at Washington. But the moment I

lMr. Irwin Laughlin, first secretary of the American Embassy in London.

134 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

entered that dark and dingy hall at 123, Victoria Street,
between two cheap stores — the same entrance that the
dwellers in the cheap flats above used — I knew that Uncle
Sam had no fit dwelling there. And the Ambassador's
room greatly depressed me — dingy with twenty-nine years
of dirt and darkness, and utterly undignified. And the
rooms for the secretaries and attaches were the little bed-
rooms, kitchen, etc., of that cheap flat; that's all it was.
For the place we paid $1 ,500 a year. I did not understand
then and I do not understand yet how Lowell, Bayard,
Phelps, Hay, Choate, and Reid endured that cheap hole.
Of course they stayed there only about an hour a day;
but they sometimes saw important people there. And,
whether they ever saw anybody there or not, the offices of
the United States Government in London ought at least to
be as good as a common lawyer's office in a country town
in a rural state of our Union. Nobody asked for anything
for an embassy : nobody got anything for an embassy. I
made up my mind in ten minutes that I 'd get out of this
place.1

At the Coburg Hotel, we were very well situated; but
the hotel became intolerably tiresome. Harold Fowler
and Frank and I were there until W. A. W. P.2 and Kitty3
came (and Frances Clark came with them) . Then we were
just a little too big a hotel party. Every morning I drove
down to the old hole of a Chancery and remained about
two hours. There wasn't very much work to do; and
my main business was to become acquainted with the
work and with people — to find myself with reference to

iln about a year Page moved the Chancery to the present satisfactory quar-
ters at No. 4 Grosvenor Gardens.

2Mrs. Walter H. Page.

8Miss Katharine A. Page, the Ambassador's daughter.

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 135

this task, with reference to official life and to London life
in general.

Every afternoon people came to the hotel to see me —
some to pay their respects and to make life pleasant, some
out of mere curiosity, and many for ends of their own. I
confess that on many days nightfall found me completely
worn out. But the evenings seldom brought a chance to
rest. The social season was going at its full gait; and the
new ambassador (any new ambassador) would have been
invited to many functions. A very few days after my ar-
rival, the Duchess of X invited Frank and me to dinner.
The powdered footmen were the chief novelty of the occa-
sion for us. But I was much confused because nobody
introduced anybody to anybody else. If a juxtaposition,
as at the dinner table, made an introduction imperative,
the name of the lady next you was so slurred that you
couldn't possibly understand it.

Party succeeded party. I went to them because they
gave me a chance to become acquainted with people.

But very early after my arrival, I was of course sum-
moned by the King. I had presented a copy of my cre-
dentials to the Foreign Secretary (Sir Edward Grey) and
the real credentials — the original in a sealed envelope —
I must present to His Majesty. One morning the King's
Master of the Ceremonies, Sir Arthur Walsh, came to
the hotel with the royal coaches, four or five of them, and
the richly caparisoned grooms. The whole staff of the
Embassy must go with me. We drove to Buckingham
Palace, and, after waiting a few moments, I was ushered
into the King's presence. He stood in one of the draw-
ing rooms on the ground floor looking out on the garden.
There stood with him in uniform Sir Edward Grey. I
entered and bowed. He shook my hand, and I spoke my
little piece of three or four sentences.

136 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

He replied, welcoming me and immediately proceeded to
express his surprise and regret that a great and rich coun-
try like the United States had not provided a residence for
its ambassadors. "It is not fair to an ambassador,"
said he ; and he spoke most earnestly.

I reminded him that, although the lack of a home was an
inconvenience, the trouble or discomfort that fell on an
ambassador was not so bad as the wrong impression
which I feared was produced about the United States
and its Government, and I explained that we had had
so many absorbing domestic tasks and, in general, so
few absorbing foreign relations, that we had only begun
to develop what might be called an international con-
sciousness.

Sir Edward was kind enough the next time I saw him to
remark that I did that very well and made a good im-
pression on the King.

I could now begin my ambassadorial career proper —
call on the other ambassadors and accept invitations to
dinners and the like.

I was told after I came from the King's presence that
the Queen would receive me in a few minutes. I was
shown upstairs, the door opened, and there in a small
drawing room, stood the Queen alone — a pleasant woman,
very royal in appearance. The one thing that sticks in
my memory out of this first conversation with her Maj-
esty was her remark that she had seen only one man who
had been President of the United States— Mr. Roosevelt.
She hoped he was well. I felt moved to remark that
she was not likely to see many former Presidents because
the office was so hard a task that most of them did not
long survive.

"I'm hoping that office will not soon kill the King,"
she said.

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 137

In time Page obtained an entirely adequate and digni-
fied house at 6 Grosvenor Square, and soon found that the
American Ambassadorship had compensations which were
hardly suggested by his first glimpse of the lugubrious
Chancery. He brought to this new existence his plastic
and inquisitive mind, and his mighty gusto for the in-
teresting and the unusual; he immensely enjoyed his meet-
ings with the most important representatives of all types
of British life. The period of his arrival marked a cri-
sis in British history ; Mr. Lloyd George was supposed to be
taxing the aristocracy out of existence; Mr. Asquith was
accused of plotting the destruction of the House of Lords ;
the tide of liberalism, even of radicalism, was running
high, and, in the judgment of the conservative forces,
England was tottering to its fall; the gathering mob was
about to submerge everything that had made it great.
And the Irish question had reached another crisis with
the passage of the Home Rule Bill, which Sir Edward
Carson was preparing to resist with his Irish "volun-
teers."

All these matters formed the staple of talk at dinner
tables, at country houses and at the clubs ; and Page found
constant entertainment in the variegated pageant. There
were important American matters to discuss with the
Foreign Office — more important than any that had arisen
in recent years — particularly Mexico and the Pant ma
Tolls. Before these questions are considered, however,
it may be profitable to print a selection from the mcny
letters which Page wrote during his first year, giving his
impressions of this England which he had always loved
and which a closer view made him love and admire still
more. These letters have the advantage of presenting a
frank and yet sympathetic picture of British society and
British life as it was just before the war.

138 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

To Frank N. Doubleday

The Coburg Hotel,
Carlos Place, Grosvenor Square,
London, W.
Dear Effendi:1

You can't imagine the intensity of the party feeling
here. I dined to-night in an old Tory family. They had
just had a "division" an hour or two before in the House
of Lords on the Home Rule Bill. Six Lords were at the
dinner and their wives. One was a Duke, two were
Bishops, and the other three were Earls. They expect a
general "bust-up." If the King does so and so, off with
the King! That's what they fear the Liberals will do.
It sounds very silly to me ; but you can 't exaggerate their
fear. The Great Lady, who was our hostess, told me,
with tears in her voice, that she had suspended all social
relations with the Liberal leaders.

At lunch — just five or six hours before — we were at
the Prime Minister's, where the talk was precisely on the
other side. Gladstone's granddaughter was there and
several members of the Cabinet.

Somehow it reminds me of the tense days of the slavery
controversy just before the Civil War.

Yet in the everyday life of the people, you hear nothing
about it. It is impossible to believe that the ordinary
man cares a fig!

Good-night. You don't care a fig for this. But I'll
get time to write you something interesting in a little
while.

Yours,

W. H. P.

i" Effendi" is the name by which Mr. F. N. Doubleday, Page's partner, is
known to his intimates. It is obviously suggested by the initials of his name.

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 139

To Herbert S. Houston

American Embassy

London

Sunday, 24 Aug., 1913.

DearH. S. H.:

. . . You know there's been much discussion of the
decadence of the English people. I don't believe a word
of it. They have an awful slum, I hear, as everybody
knows, and they have an idle class. Worse, from an
equal-opportunity point-of-view, they have a very large
servant-class, and a large class that depends on the no-
bility and the rich. All these are economic and social
drawbacks. But they have always had all these — ex-
cept that the slum has become larger in modern years.
And I don't see or find any reason to believe in the theory
of decadence. The world never saw a finer lot of men
than the best of their ruling class. You may search the
world and you may search history for finer men than
Lord Morley, Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Harcourt, and other
members of the present Cabinet. And I meet such
men everywhere — gently bred, high-minded, physically
fit, intellectually cultivated, patriotic. If the devotion
to old forms and the inertia which makes any change al-
most impossible strike an American as out-of-date, you
must remember that in the grand old times of England,
they had all these things and had them worse than they
are now. I can't see that the race is breaking down or
giving out. Consider how their political morals have
been pulled up since the days of the rotten boroughs;
consider how their court-life is now high and decent, and
think what it once was. British trade is larger this year
than it ever was, Englishmen are richer then they ever
were and more of them are rich. They write and speak

140 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

and play cricket, and govern, and fight as well as they
have ever done — excepting, of course, the writing of
Shakespeare.

Another conclusion that is confirmed the more you
see of English life is their high art of living. When they
make their money, they stop money-making and culti-
vate their minds and their gardens and entertain their
friends and do all the high arts of living — to perfection.
Three days ago a retired soldier gave a garden-party in
my honour, twenty-five miles out of London. There
was his historic house, a part of it 500 years old ; there were
his ten acres of garden, his lawn, his trees ; and they walk
with you over it all; they sit out-of-doors; they serve tea;
they take life rationally; they talk pleasantly (not jocu-
larly, nor story-telling) ; they abhor the smart in talk or
in conduct; they have gentleness, cultivation, the best
manners in the world ; and they are genuine. The hostess
has me take a basket and go with her while she cuts it full
of flowers for us to bring home ; and, as we walk, she tells
the story of the place. She is a tenant-for-life ; it is
entailed. Her husband was wounded in South Africa.
Her heir is her nephew. The home, of course, will re-
main in the family forever. No, they don't go to London
much in recent years : why should they ? But they travel
a month or more. They give three big tea-parties — one
when the rhododendrons bloom and the others at stated
times. They have friends to stay with them half the
time, perhaps — sometimes parties of a dozen. England
never had a finer lot of folk than these. And you see
them everywhere. The art of living sanely they have
developed to as high a level, I think, as you will find at
any time in any land.

The present political battle is fiercer than you would
ever guess. The Lords feel that they are sure to be

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 141

robbed: they see the end of the ordered world. Chaos
and confiscation lie before them. Yet that, too, has
nearly always been so. It was so in the Reform Bill days.
Lord Morley said to me the other day that when all the
abolitions had been done, there would be fewer things
abolished than anybody hopes or fears, and that there
would be the same problems in some form for many
generations. I'm beginning to believe that the English-
man has always been afraid of the future — that's what's
keeps him so alert. They say to me : "You have frightful
things happen in the United States — your Governor of
New York,1 your Thaw case, your corruption, etc., etc.;
and yet you seem sure and tell us that your countrymen
feel sure of the safety of your government." In the
newspaper comments on my Southampton2 speech the
other day, this same feeling cropped up; the American
Ambassador assures us that the note of hope is the domi-
nant note of the Republic — etc., etc. Yes, they are
dull, in a way — not dull, so much as steady; and yet
they have more solid sense than any other people.

It's an interesting study — the most interesting in the
world. The genuineness of the courtesy, the real kind-
ness and the hospitality of the English are beyond praise
and without limit. In this they show a strange contra-
diction to their dickering habits in trade and their "unc-
tuous rectitude" in stealing continents. I know a place
in the world now where they are steadily moving their
boundary line into other people's territory. I guess they
really believe that the earth belongs to them.

Sincerely,

W. H. P.

JA reference to William Sulzer, Governor of New York, who at this time was
undergoing impeachment.

2 See Chapter VIII, page 258.

142 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

To Arthur W. Page1

Gordon Arms Hotel, Elgin, Scotland.
September 6, 1913.
Dear Arthur:

Your mother and Kitty2 and I are on our way to see
Andy.3 Had you any idea that to motor from London
to Skibo means driving more than eight hundred miles?
Our speedometer now shows more than seven hundred
and we've another day to go — at least one hundred and
thirty miles. And we haven't even had a tire accident.
We're having a delightful journey — only this country
yields neither vegetables nor fruits, and I have to live on
oatmeal. They spell it p-o-r-r-i-d-g-e, and they call it
puruge. But they beat all creation as carnivorous folk.
We stayed last night at a beautiful mountain hotel at
Braemar (the same town whereat Stevenson wrote "Treas-
ure Island") and they had nine kinds of meat for dinner
and eggs in three ways, and no vegetables but potatoes.
But this morning we struck the same thin oatbread that
you ate at Grandfather Mountain.

I've never understood the Scotch. I think they are,
without doubt, the most capable race in the world —
away from home. But how they came to be so and how
they keep up their character and supremacy and keep
breeding true needs explanation. As you come through
the country, you see the most monotonous and dingy
little houses and thousands of robust children, all dirtier
than niggers. In the fertile parts of the country, the
fields are beautifully cultivated — for Lord This-and-
T'Other who lives in London and comes up here in sum-

JThe Ambassador's son.
2Miss Katharine A. Page.
sMr. Andrew Carnegie.

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 143

mer to collect his rents and to shoot. The country people
seem desperately poor. But they don't lose their ro-
bustness. In the solid cities — the solidest you ever saw,
all being of granite — such as Edinburgh and Aberdeen,
where you see the prosperous class, they look the sturdiest
and most independent fellows you ever saw. As they
grow old they all look like blue-bellied Presbyterian
elders. Scotch to the marrow — everybody and every-
thing seem — bare knees alike on the street and in the
hotel with dress coats on, bagpipes — there's no sense in
these things, yet being Scotch they live forever. The
first men I saw early this morning on the street in front
of the hotel were two weather-beaten old chaps, with
gray beards under their chins. "Guddddd Murrrrn-
inggggg, Andy," said one. "Guddddd murrninggggg,
Sandy," said the other; and they trudged on. They'd
dethrone kings before they'd shave differently or drop
their burrs and gutturals or cover their knees or cease
lying about the bagpipe. And you can't get it out of
the blood. Your mother1 becomes provoked when I say
these things, and I shouldn't wonder if you yourself
resent them and break out quoting Burns. Now the
Highlands can't support a population larger than the
mountain counties of Kentucky. Now your Kentucky
feud is a mere disgrace to civilization. But your High-
land feud is celebrated in song and story. Every clan
keeps itself together to this day by its history and by its
plaid. At a turn in the road in the mountains yesterday,
there stood a statue of Rob Roy painted every stripe to
life. We sawT his sword and purse in Sir Walter's house
at Abbotsford. The King himself wore the kilt and one
of the plaids at the last court ball at Buckingham Palace,
and there is a man who writes his name and is called

JMrs. Walter H. Page is the daughter of a Scotchman from Ayrshire.

144 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

"The Macintosh of Macintosh," and that's a prouder
title than the King's. A little handful of sheep-stealing
bandits got themselves immortalized and heroized, and
they are now all Presbyterian elders. They got their
church "established" in Scotland, and when the King
comes to Scotland, by Jehoshaphat! he is obliged to
become a Presbyterian. Yet your Kentucky feudist —
poor devil — he comes too late. The Scotchman has pre-
empted that particular field of glory. And all such com-
parisons make your mother fighting mad. . . .

Affectionately, \y jj p

To the President

American Embassy, London.
October 25, 1913.
Dear Mr. President:

I am moved once in a while to write you privately, not
about any specific piece of public business, but only, if I
can, to transmit something of the atmosphere of the
work here. And, since this is meant quite as much for
your amusement as for any information it may carry,
don't read it "in office hours."

The future of the world belongs to us. A man needs
to live here, with two economic eyes in his head, a very
little time to become very sure of this. Everybody will
see it presently. These English are spending their
capital, and it is their capital that continues to give them
their vast power. Now what are we going to do with
the leadership of the world presently when it clearly falls
into our hands?1 And how can we use the English for the
highest uses of democracy?

2The astonishing thing about Page's comment on the leadership of the United
States — if it would only take this leadership — is that these letters were written in
1913, a year before the outbreak of the war, and eight years before the Washing-
ton Disarmament Conference of 1921-22.

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 145

You see their fear of an on-sweeping democracy in
their social treatment of party opponents. A Tory lady
told me with tears that she could no longer invite her
Liberal friends to her house: "I have lost them — they
are robbing us, you know." I made the mistake of say-
ing a word in praise of Sir Edward Grey to a duke. "Yes,
yes, no doubt an able man ; but you must understand, sir,
that I don't train with that gang." A bishop explained
to me at elaborate length why the very monarchy is
doomed unless something befalls Lloyd George and his
programme. Every dinner party is made up with
strict reference to the party politics of the guests. Some-
times you imagine you see something like civil war; and
money is flowing out of the Kingdom into Canada in the
greatest volume ever known and I am told that a number
of old families are investing their fortunes in African
lands.

These and such things are, of course, mere chips which
show the direction the slow stream runs. The great
economic tide of the century flows our way. We shall
have the big world questions to decide presently. Then
we shall need world policies ; and it will be these old-time
world leaders that we shall then have to work with, more
closely than now.

The English make a sharp distinction between the
American people and the American Government — a dis-
tinction that they are conscious of and that they them-
selves talk about. They do not think of our people as
foreigners. I have a club book on my table wherein the
members are classified as British, Colonial, American,
and Foreign — quite unconsciously. But they do think
of our Government as foreign, and as a frontier sort of
thing without good manners or good faith. This dis-
tinction presents the big task of implanting here a real

146 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

respect for our Government. People often think to
compliment the American Ambassador by assuming that
he is better than his Government and must at times be
ashamed of it. Of course the Government never does
this — never — but persons in unofficial life; and I have
sometimes hit some hard blows under this condescending
provocation. This is the one experience that I have
found irritating. They commiserate me on having a
Government that will not provide an Ambassador's resi-
dence— from the King to my servants. They talk about
American lynchings. Even the Spectator, in an early
editorial about you, said that we should now see what
stuff there is in the new President by watching whether
you would stop lynchings. They forever quote Bryce
on the badness of our municipal government. They
pretend to think that the impeachment of governors is
common and ought to be commoner. One delicious
M. P. asked me: "Now, since the Governor of New
York is impeached, who becomes Vice-President?"1
Ignorance, unfathomable ignorance, is at the bottom of
much of it; if the Town Treasurer of Yuba Dam gets a
$100 "rake off" on a paving contract, our city govern-
ment is a failure.

I am about to conclude that our yellow press does us
more harm abroad than at home, and many of the Ameri-
can correspondents of the English papers send exactly
the wrong news. The whole governing class of England
has a possibly exaggerated admiration for the American
people and something very like contempt for the American
Government.

JJust what, this critical Briton had in mind, in thinking that the removal of a
New York governor created a vacaney in the Vice-Presidency, is not clear. Pos-
sihly, however, he had a cloudy recollection of the fact that Theodore Roosevelt,
after serving as Governor of New York State, became Vice-President, and may
have concluded from this that the two offices were held by the same man.

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 147

If I make it out right two causes (in addition to their
ignorance) of their dislike of our Government are (1) its
lack of manners in the past, and (2) its indiscretions of
publicity about foreign affairs. We ostentatiously stand
aloof from their polite ways and courteous manners in
many of the every-day, ordinary, unimportant dealings
with them — aloof from the common amenities of long-
organized political life. . . .

Not one of these things is worth mentioning or re-
membering. But generations of them have caused our
Government to be regarded as thoughtless of the fine
little acts of life — as rude. The more I find out about
diplomatic customs and the more I hear of the little-big
troubles of others, the more need I find to be careful
about details of courtesy.

Thus we are making as brave a show as becomes us.
I no longer dismiss a princess after supper or keep the
whole diplomatic corps waiting while I talk to an inter-
esting man till the Master of Ceremonies comes up and
whispers: "Your Excellency, I think they are waiting for
you to move." But I am both young and green, and
even these folk forgive much to green youth, if it show a
willingness to learn.

But our Government, though green, isn't young enough
to plead its youth. It is time that it, too, were learning
Old World manners in dealing with Old World peoples.
I do not know whether we need a Bureau, or a Major-
Domo, or a Master of Ceremonies at Washington, but we
need somebody to prompt us to act as polite as we really
are, somebody to think of those gentler touches that we
naturally forget. Some other governments have such
officers — perhaps all. The Japanese, for instance, are
newcomers in world politics. But this Japanese Am-
bassador and his wife here never miss a trick; and they

148 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

come across the square and ask us how to do it! All
the other governments, too, play the game of small
courtesies to perfection — the French, of course, and the
Spanish and — even the old Turk.

Another reason for the English distrust of our Govern-
ment is its indiscretions in the past of this sort: one of
our Ministers to Germany, you will recall, was obliged
to resign because the Government at Washington inad-
vertently published one of his confidential despatches;
Griscom saved his neck only by the skin, when he was in
Japan, for a similar reason. These things travel all
round the world from one chancery to another and all
governments know them. Yesterday somebody in Wash-
ington talked about my despatch summarizing my talk
with Sir Edward Grey about Mexico, and it appeared in
the papers here this morning that Sir Edward had told
me that the big business interests were pushing him hard.
This I sent as only my inference. I had at once to dis-
claim it. This leaves in his mind a doubt about our care
for secrecy. They have monstrous big doors and silent
men in Downing Street; and, I am told, a stenographer
sits behind a big screen in Sir Edward's room while an
Ambassador talks! * I wonder if my comments on certain
poets, which I have poured forth there to provoke his,
are preserved in the archives of the British Empire. The
British Empire is surely very welcome to them. I have
twice found it useful, by the way, to bring up Wordsworth

xFor years this idea of the stenographer back of a screen in the Foreign Office has
been abroad, but it is entirely unfounded. Several years ago a Foreign Secretary,
perhaps Lord Salisbury, put a screen behind his desk to keep off the draughts and
from this precaution the myth arose that it shielded a stenographer who took a
complete record of ambassadorial conversations. After an ambassador leaves, the
Foreign Secretary, however, does write out the important points in the conversation.
Copies are made and printed, and sent to the King, the Prime Minister, the
British Ambassador in the country to which the interview relates, and occasion-
ally to others. All these records are, of course, carefully preserved in the archives
of the Foreign Office.

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 149

when he has begun to talk about Panama tolls. Then
your friend Canon Rawnsley1 has, without suspecting it,
done good service in diplomacy.

The newspaper men here, by the way, both English
and American, are disposed to treat us fairly and to be
helpful. The London Times, on most subjects, is very
friendly, and I find its editors worth cultivating for their
own sakes and because of their position. It is still the
greatest English newspaper. Its general friendliness to
the United States, by the way, has started a rumour that
I hear once in a while — that it is really owned by Ameri-
cans— nonsense yet awhile. To the fairness and help-
fulness of the newspaper men there are one or two excep-
tions, for instance, a certain sneaking whelp who writes for
several papers. He went to the Navy League dinner
last night at which I made a little speech. When I sat
down, he remarked to his neighbour, with a yawn, "Well,
nothing in it for me. The Ambassador, I am afraid, said
nothing for which I can demand his recall." They, of
course, don't care thrippence about me ; it's you they hope
to annoy.

Then after beating them at their own game of daily
little courtesies, we want a fight with them — a good stiff
fight about something wherein we are dead right, to re-
mind them sharply that we have sand in our craw.2 I
pray every night for such a fight; for they like fighting
men. Then they'll respect our Government as they al-
ready respect us — if we are dead right.

But I've little hope for a fight of the right kind with
Sir Edward Grey. He is the very reverse of insolent —

xThe Rev. Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, the well-known Vicar of Crosth-
waite, Keswick, poet and student of Wordsworth. President Wilson, who used
occasionally to spend his vacation in the Lake region, was one of his friends.

2It is perhaps unnecessary to say that the Ambassador was thinking only of *
diplomatic "fight."

150 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

fair, frank, sympathetic, and he has so clear an under-
standing of our real character that he'd yield anything
that his party and Parliament would permit. He'd make
a good American with the use of very little sandpaper.
Of course I know him better than I know any other
member of the Cabinet, but he seems to me the best-
balanced man of them all.

I can assure you emphatically that the tariff act1 does
command their respect and is already having an amazing
influence on their opinion of our Government. Lord
Mersey, a distinguished law lord and a fine old fellow of
the very best type of Englishman, said to me last Sunday,
"I wish to thank you for stopping half-way in reducing
your tariff; that will only half ruin us." A lady of a
political family (Liberal) next whom I sat at dinner the
other night (and these women know their politics as no
class of women among us do) said: "Tell me something
about your great President. We hadn't heard much
about him nor felt his hand till your tariff bill passed.
He seems to have real power in the Government. You
know we do not always know who has power in your
Government." Lord Grey, the one-time Governor-
General of Canada, stopped looking at the royal wedding
presents the other evening long enough to say: "The
United States Government is waking up — waking up."

I sum up these atmospheric conditions — I do not pre-
sume to call them by so definite a name as recommenda-
tions :

We are in the international game — not in its Old World
intrigues and burdens and sorrows and melancholy, but
in the inevitable way to leadership and to cheerful mastery

^The Underwood Bill revising the tariff "downward" became a law October,
1913. It was one of the first important measures of the new Wilson Adminis'
tratioa.

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 151

in the future; and everybody knows that we arc in it
but us. It is a sheer blind habit that causes us to con-
tinue to try to think of ourselves as aloof. They think in
terms of races here, and we are of their race, and we shall
become the strongest and the happiest branch of it.

While we play the game with them, we shall play it
better by playing it under their long-wrought-out rules
of courtesy in everyday affairs.

We shall play it better, too, if our Government play it
quietly — except when the subject demands publicity.
I have heard that in past years the foreign representatives
of our Government have reported too few things and
much too meagrely. I have heard since I have been
here that these representatives become timid because
Washington has for many a year conducted its foreign
business too much in the newspapers; and the foreign
governments themselves are always afraid of this.

Meantime I hardly need tell you of my appreciation of
such a chance to make so interesting a study and to
enjoy so greatly the most interesting experience, I really
believe, in the whole world. I only hope that in time I
may see how to shape the constant progression of inci-
dents into a constructive course of events ; for we are soon
coming into a time of big changes.

Most heartily yours,

Walter H. Page.

To David F. Houston1

American Embassy, London [undated].
Dear Houston:

You're doing the bigger job : as the world now is, there
is no other job so big as yours or so well worth doing; but
I'm having more fun. I'm having more fun than any-

^ecretary of Agriculture in President Wilson's Cabinet.

152 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

body else anywhere. It's a large window you look
through on the big world — here in London; and, while I
am for the moment missing many of the things that I've
most cared about hitherto (such as working for the
countryman, guessing at American public opinion, coffee
that's fit to drink, corn bread, sunshine, and old faces)
big new things come on the horizon. Yet a man's per-
sonal experiences are nothing in comparison with the
large job that our Government has to do in its Foreign
Relations. I'm beginning to begin to see what it is.
The American people are taken most seriously here. I'm
sometimes almost afraid of the respect and even awe in
which they hold us. But the American Government is a
mere joke to them. They don't even believe that we
ourselves believe in it. We've had no foreign policy,
no continuity of plan, no matured scheme, no settled way
of doing things and we seem afraid of Irishmen or Ger-
mans or some "element" when a chance for real action
comes. I'm writing to the President about this and tell-
ing him stories to show how it works.

We needn't talk any longer about keeping aloof. If
Cecil Spring Rice would tell you the complaints he has
already presented and if you saw the work that goes on
here — more than in all the other posts in Europe — you'd
see that all the old talk about keeping aloof is Missouri
buncombe. We're very much "in," but not frankly in.

I wish you'd keep your eye on these things in cabinet
meetings. The English and the whole English world are
ours, if we have the courtesy to take them — fleet and trade
and all; and we go on pretending we are afraid of "en-
tangling alliances." What about disentangling alliances?

We're in the game. There's no use in letting a few
wild Irish or cocky Germans scare us. We need courtesy
and frankness, and the destinies of the world will be in

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 153

our hands. They'll fall there anyhow after we are dead;
but I wish to see them come, while my own eyes last.
Don't you?

Heartily yours,

W. H. P.

To Robert N. Page1

London, December 22, 1913.
My dear Bob:

. . . We have a splendid, big old house — not in any
way pretentious — a commonplace house in fact for fashion-
able London and the least showy and costly of the Em-
bassies. But it does very well — it's big and elegantly
plain and dignified. We have fifteen servants in the house.
They do just about what seven good ones would do in the
United States, but they do it a great deal better. They
pretty nearly run themselves and the place. The servant
question is admirably solved here. They divide the work
according to a fixed and unchangeable system and they
do it remarkably well — in their own slow English way.
We simply let them alone, unless something important
happens to go wrong. Katharine simply tells the butler
that we'll have twenty-four people to dinner to-morrow
night and gives him a fist of them. As they come in, the
men at the door address every one correctly — Your
Lordship or Your Grace, or what not. When they are
all in, the butler comes to the reception room and an-
nounces dinner. We do the rest. As every man goes
out, the butler asks him if he '11 have a glass of water or of
grog or a cigar ; he calls his car, puts him in it, and that 's
the end of it. Bully good plan. But in the United
States that butler, whose wages are less than the ram-
shackle nigger I had at Garden City to keep the place

*Of Aberdeen, North Carolina, the Ambassador's brother.

154 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

neat, would have a business of his own. But here he is a
sort of duke downstairs. He sits at the head of the ser-
vants' table and orders them around and that's worth
more than money to an Old World servile mind.

The "season" doesn't begin till the King comes back
and Parliament opens, in February. But every kind of
club and patriotic and educational organization is giving
its annual dinner now. I've been going to them and
making after-dinner speeches to get acquainted and also
to preach into them some ^little knowledge of American
ways and ideals. They are very nice — very. You could
not suggest or imagine any improvement in their kindness
and courtesy. They do all these things in some ways
better than we. They have more courtesy. They make
far shorter speeches. But they do them all too much
alike. Still they do get much pleasure out of them and
much instruction too.

Then we are invited to twice as many private dinners
and luncheons as we can attend. At these, these people are
at their best. But it is yet quite confusing. A sea of
friendly faces greets you — you can 't remember the names.
Nobody ever introduces anybody to anybody; and if by
accident anybody ever tries, he simply says— " Uh-o-oh-
Lord Xzwwxkmpt." You couldn't understand it if you
had to be hanged.

But we are untangling some of this confusion and com-
ing to make very real and very charming friends.

About December 20, everybody who is anybody leaves
London. They go to their country places for about a
fortnight or they go to the continent. Almost everything
stops. It has been the only dull time at the Embassy that
I 've had. Nothing is going on now. But up to two days
ago, it kept a furious gait. I'm glad of a little rest.

Dealing with the Government doesn't present the

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 155

difficulties that I feared. Sir Edward Grey is in the main
responsible for the ease with which it is done. He is a
frank and fair and truthful man. You will find him the
day after to-morrow precisely where you left him the day
before yesterday. We get along very well indeed. I
think we should get along if we had harder tasks one with
the other. And the English people are even more friendly
than the Government. You have no idea of their respect
for the American Nation. Of course there is much ig-
norance, sometimes of a surprising sort. Very many
people, for instance, think that all the Americans are rich.
A lady told me the other night how poor she is — she is
worth only $1,250,000 — "nothing like all you Americans."
She was quite sincere. In fact the wealth of the world
(and the poverty, too) is centred here in an amazing way.
You can't easily take it in — how rich or how many rich
English families there are. They have had wealth for
generation after generation, and the surprising thing is,
they take care of it. They spend enormously — seldom
ostentatiously — but they are more than likely to add
some of their income every year to their principal. They
have better houses in town and in the country than I had
imagined. They spend vast fortunes in making homes
in which they expect to five forever — generation after
generation.

To an American democrat the sad thing is the servile
class. Before the law the chimney sweep and the peer
have exactly the same standing. They have worked
that out with absolute justice. But there it stops. The
serving class is what we should call abject. It does not
occur to them that they might ever become — or that
their descendants might ever become — ladies and gentle-
men.

The "courts" are a very fine sight. The diplomatic

156 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

ladies sit on a row of seats on one side the throne room,
the Duchesses on a row opposite. The King and Queen
sit on a raised platform with the royal family. The
Ambassadors come in first and bow and the King shakes
hands with them. Then come the forty or more Min-
isters— no shake for them. In front of the King are
a few officers in gaudy uniform, some Indians of high
rank (from India) and the court officials are all round
about, with pages who hold up the Queen's train. When-
ever the Queen and King move, two court officials back
before them, one carrying a gold stick and the other a
silver stick.

The ladies to be presented come along. They curtsy
to the King, then to the Queen, and disappear in the rooms
farther on. The Ambassadors (all in gaudy uniforms but
me) stand near the throne— stand through the whole per-
formance. One night after an hour or tAvo of ladies com-
ing along and curtsying and disappearing, I whispered to
the Spanish Ambassador, "There must be five hundred
of these ladies." "U-m," said he, as he shifted his weight
to the other foot, "I'm sure there are five thousand!"
When they've all been presented, the King and Queen go
into a room where a stand-up supper is served. The royalty
and the diplomatic folks go into that room, too ; and their
Majesties walk around and talk with whom they please.
Into another and bigger room everybody else goes and gets
supper. Then we all flock back to the throne room; and
preceded by the backing courtiers, their Majesties come
out into the floor and bow to the Ambassadors, then to
the Duchesses, then to the general diplomatic group and
they go out. The show is ended. We come downstairs
and wait an hour for our car and come home about mid-
night. The uniforms on the men and the jewels on the
ladies (by the ton) and their trains — all this makes a very

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 157

brilliant spectacle. The American Ambassador and his
Secretaries and the Swiss and the Portuguese are the only
ones dressed in citizens" clothes.

At a levee, the King receives only gentlemen. Here
they come in all kinds of uniforms. If you are not en-
titled to wear a uniform, you have a dark suit, knee
breeches, and a funny little tin sword. I'm going to
adopt the knee breeches part of it for good when I go
home— golf breeches in the day time and knee breeches
at night. You've no idea how nice and comfortable
they are — though it is a devil of a lot of trouble to put
'em on. Of course every sort of man here but the
Americans wears some sort of decorations around his neck
or on his stomach, at these functions. For my part, I
like it — here. The women sparkle with diamonds, the men
strut; the King is a fine man with a big bass voice and
he talks very well and is most agreeable ; the Queen is very
gracious; the royal ladies (Queen Victoria's daughters,
chiefly) are nice; you see all the big Generals and all
the big Admirals and the great folk of every sort — fine
show.

You 've no idea how much time and money they spend
on shooting. The King has been shooting most of the
time for three months. He 's said to be a very good shot.
He has sent me, on different occasions, grouse, a haunch
of venison, and pheasants.

But except on these occasions, you never think about
the King. The people go about their business as if he
didn 't exist, of course. They begin work much later than
we do. You '11 not find any of the shops open till about
ten o'clock. The sun doesn 't shine except once in a Avhile
and you don't know it's daylight till about ten. You
know the House of Commons has night sessions always.
Nobody is in the Government offices, except clerks and

158 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

secretaries, till the afternoon. We dine at eight, and,
when we have a big dinner, at eight thirty.

I like these people (most of 'em) immensely. They
are very genuine and frank, good fighters and folic of
our own sort — after you come to know them. At first
they have no manners and don't know what to do.
But they warm up to you later. They have abundant
wit, but much less humour than we. And they know how
to live.

Except that part of life which is ministered to in
mechanical ways, they resist conveniences. They don't
really like bathrooms yet. They prefer great tin tubs,
and they use bowls and pitchers when a bathroom is next
door. The telephone — Lord deliver us! — I 've given it up.
They know nothing about it. (It is a government con-
cern, but so are the telegraph and the post office, and they
are remarkably good and swift.) You can't buy a news-
paper on the street, except in the afternoon. Cigar-stores
are as scarce as hen's teeth. Barber-shops are all "hair-
dressers"— dirty and wretched beyond description. You
can't get a decent pen; their newspapers are as big as table-
cloths. In this aquarium in which we live (it rains every
day) they have only three vegetables and two of them are
cabbages. They grow all kinds of fruit in hothouses, and
(I can't explain this) good land in admirable cultivation
thirty miles from London sells for about half what good
corn land in Iowa brings. Lloyd George has scared the
land-owners to death.

Party politics runs so high that many Tories will not
invite Liberals to dinner. They are almost at the point
of civil war. I asked the Prime Minister the other day
how he was going to prevent war. He didn't give any
clear answer. During this recess of Parliament, though
there's no election pending, all the Cabinet are all the

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 159

time going about making speeches on Ireland. They talk
to me about it.

"What would you do?"

"Send 'em all to the United States," say I.

"No, no."

They have had the Irish question three hundred years
and they wouldn't be happy without it. One old Tory
talked me deaf abusing the Liberal Government.

"You do this way in the United States — hate one an-
other, don't you?"

"No," said I, "we live like angels in perfect harmony
except a few weeks before election."

"The devil you do! You don't hate one another?
What do you do for enemies? I couldn't get along with-
out enemies to swear at."

If you think it's all play, you fool yourself; I mean this
job. There's no end of the work. It consists of these
parts: Receiving people for two hours every day, some on
some sort of business, some merely "to pay respects,"
attending to a large (and exceedingly miscellaneous)
mail; going to the Foreign Office on all sorts of errands;
looking up the oddest assortment of information that
you ever heard of; making reports to Washington on all
sorts of things; then the so-called social duties — giving
dinners, receptions, etc., and attending them. I hear the
most important news I get at so-called social functions.
Then the court functions; and the meetings and speeches!
The American Ambassador must go all over England and
explain every American thing. You 'd never recover from
the shock if you could hear me speaking about Education,
Agriculture, the observance of Christmas, the Navy, the
Anglo-Saxon, Mexico, the Monroe Doctrine, Co-educa-
tion, Woman Suffrage, Medicine, Law, Radio-Activity,
Flying, the Supreme Court, the President as a Man of

160 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

letters, Hookworm, the Negro — just get down the Ency-
clopaedia and continue the list. I've done this every
week-night for a month, hand running, with a few after-
noon performances thrown in! I have missed only one
engagement in these seven months ; and that was merely
a private luncheon. I have been late only once. I
have the best chauffeur in the world — he deserves credit
for much of that. Of course, I don't get time to read
a book. In fact, I can't keep up with what goes on at
home. To read a newspaper eight or ten days old, when
they come in bundles of three or four — is impossible.
What isn't telegraphed here, I miss; and that means I
miss most things.

I forgot, there are a dozen other kinds of activities, such
as American marriages, which they always want the Am-
bassador to attend ; getting them out of jail, when they
are jugged (I have an American woman on my hands now,
whose four children come to see me every day); looking
after the American insane; helping Americans move the
bones of their ancestors ; interpreting the income-tax law ;
receiving medals for Americans; hearing American fid-
dlers, pianists, players ; sitting for American sculptors and
photographers; sending telegrams for property owners in
Mexico; reading letters from thousands of people who
have shares in estates here ; writing letters of introduction ;
getting tickets to the House Gallery; getting seats in the
Abbey; going with people to this and that and t'other;
getting tickets to the races, the art-galleries, the House of
Lords; answering fool questions about the United States
put by Englishmen. With a military attache, a naval
attache, three secretaries, a private secretary, two auto'
mobiles, Alice's private secretary, a veterinarian, an im-
migration agent, consuls everywhere, a despatch agent,
lawyers, doctors, messengers — they keep us all busy. A

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 161

woman turned up dying the other day. I sent for a big
doctor. She got well. As if that wasn't enough, both
the woman and the doctor had to come and thank me
(fifteen minutes each). Then each wrote a letter! Then
there are people who are going to have a Fair here ; others
who have a Fair coming on at San Francisco; others at
San Diego; secretaries and returning and outgoing diplo-
mats come and go (lunch for 'em all); niggers come up
from Liberia; Rhodes Scholars from Oxford; Presidential
candidates to succeed Huerta; people who present books;
women who wish to go to court; Jews who are excited
about Rumania; passports, passports to sign; peace com-
mittees about the hundred years of peace; opera singers
going to the United States ; artists who have painted some
American's portrait — don't you see? I haven't said a
word about reporters and editors: the city's full of them.
A Happy New Year.

Affectionately, Wat

To Ralph W. Page1

London, December 23, 1913.
Dear Ralph:

. . . The game is pretty much as it has been. I
can 't think of any new kinds of things to write you. The
old kinds simply multiply and repeat themselves. But we
are beginning now really to become acquainted, and some
life friendships will grow out of our experience. And
there's no doubt about its being instructive. I get
glimpses of the way in which great governments deal with
one another, in ways that our isolated, and, therefore,
safe government seldom has any experience of. For
instance, one of the Lords of the Admiralty told me the
other night that he never gets out of telephone reach of

!Of Pinehurst, North Carolina, the Anihassador's eldest son.

162 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the office — not even half an hour. "The Admiralty,"'
said he, "never sleeps." He has a telephone by his bed
which he can hear at any moment in the night. I don't
believe that they really expect the German fleet to attack
them any day or night. But they would not be at all
surprised if it did so to-night. They talk all the time of
the danger and of the probability of war; they don't expect
it; but most wars have come without warning, and they
are all the time prepared to begin a fight in an hour.

They talk about how much Germany must do to
strengthen her frontier against Russia and her newr
frontier on the Balkan States. They now have these
problems in hand and therefore they are for the moment
not likely to provoke a fight. But they might.

It is all pitiful to see them thinking forever about danger
and defense. The controversy about training boys for the
army never ends. We don't know in the United States
what we owe to the Atlantic Ocean — safe separation from
all these troubles. . . .

But I've often asked both Englishmen and Americans
in a dining room where there were many men of each
country, whether they could look over the company and
say which were English and which were Americans.
Nobody can tell till— they begin to talk.

The ignorance of the two countries, each of the other,
is beyond all belief. A friend of Kitty's— an American-
received a letter from the United States yesterday. The
maid noticed the stamp, which had the head of George
Washington on it. Every stamp in this kingdom bears the
image of King George. She asked if the American stamp
had on it the head of the American Ambassador! I've
known far wiser people to ask far more foolish questions.

Affectionately,

W. H. P.

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 163

To Mrs. Ralph W. Page

London, Christmas-is-coming, 1913.
My dear Leila:

. . . Her work [Mrs. Walter H. Page's] is all the
work of going and receiving and — of reading. She reads
incessantly and enormously; and, when she gets tired,
she goes to bed. That's all there is about it. Lord!
I wish I could. But, when I get tired, I have to go and
make another speech. They think the American Am-
bassador has omniscience for a foible and oratory as a
pastime.

In some ways my duties are very instructive. We get
different points of view on many things, some better than
we had before had, some worse. For instance, life is
pretty well laid out here in water-tight compartments;
and you can't let a stream in from one to another with-
out danger of sinking the ship. Four reporters have been
here to-day because Mr. and Mrs. Sayre1 arrived this
morning. Every one of 'em asked the same question,
"Who met them at the station?" That's the chief thing
they wished to know. When I said "I did" — that fixed
the whole thing on the highest peg of dignity. They
could classify the whole proceeding properly, and they
went off happy. Again: You've got to go in to din-
ner in the exact order prescribed by the constitution;
and, if you avoid that or confuse that, you'll never be able
to live it down. And so about Government, Literature,
Art — everything. Don't you forget your water-tight
compartments. If you do, you are gone ! They have the
same toasts at every public dinner. One is to "the
guests." Now you needn't say a word about the guests

lMr. and Mrs. Francis B. Sayre, son-in-law and daughter of President Wilson,
at that time on their honeymoon trip in Europe.

164 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

when you respond. But they've been having toasts to
the guests since the time of James I and they can't change
it. They had me speak to "the guests" at a club last
night, when they wanted me to talk about Mexico ! The
winter has come — the winter months at least. But they
have had no cold weather — not so cold as you have in
Pinehurst. But the sun has gone out to sea — clean gone.
We never see it. A damp darkness (semi-darkness at
least) hangs over us all the time. But we manage to feel
our way about.

A poor photograph goes to you for Xmas — a poor thing
enough surely. But you get Uncle Bob1 busy on the job
of paying for an Ambassador's house. Then we'll bring
Christmas presents home for you. What a game we are
playing, we poor folks here, along with Ambassadors
whose governments pay them four times what ours pays.
But we don't give the game away, you bet! We throw
the bluff with a fine, straight poker face.

Affectionately,

W. H. P.

To Frank N. Doubleday and Others

London, Sunday, December 28, 1913.
My dear Comrades:

I was never one of those abnormal creatures who got
Christmas all ready by the Fourth of July. The true
spirit of the celebration has just now begun to work on me
— three days late. In this respect the spirit is very like
Christmas plum-pudding. Moreover, we 've just got the
patriotic fervour flowing at high tide this morning. This
is the President's birthday. We 've put up the Stars and

1Mr. Robert N. Page, the Ambassador's brother, was at this time a Congress-
man from North Carolina.

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 165

Stripes on the roof; and half an hour ago the King's Mas-
ter of Ceremonies drove up in a huge motor car and, being
shown into my presence in the state drawing room, held
his hat in his hand and (said he) :

"Your Excellency: I am commanded by the King to
express to you His Majesty's congratulations on the
birthday of the President, to wish him a successful ad-
ministration and good health and long life and to con-
vey His Majesty's greetings to Your Excellency: and His
Majesty commands me to express the hope that you will
acquaint the President with His Majesty's good wishes."

Whereto I made just as pretty a little speech as your
'umble sarvant could. Then we sat down, I called in
Mrs. Page and my secretary and we talked like human
beings.

Having worked like the devil, upon whom, I imagine,
at this bibulous season many heavy duties fall— having thus
toiled for two months — the international docket is clean,
I 've got done a round of twenty-five speeches (0 Lord !)
I've slept three whole nights, I 've made my dinner-calls—
you see I 'm feeling pretty well, in this first period of quiet
life I've yet found in this Babylon. Praise Heaven)
they go off for Christmas. Everything's shut up tight.
The streets of London are as lonely and as quiet as the
road to Oyster Bay while the Oyster is in South America.
It's about as mild here as with you in October and as
damp as Sheepshead's Bay in an autumn storm. But
such people as you meet complain of the c-o-l-d — the
c-o-l-d; and they run into their heatless houses and put
on extra waistcoats and furs and throw shawls over their
knees and curse Lloyd George and enjoy themselves.
They are a great people — even without mint juleps in
summer or eggnog in winter; and I like them. The old
gouty Lords curse the Americans for the decline of drink-

166 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

ing. And you can't live among them without laughing
yourself to death and admiring them, too. It's a fine race
to be sprung from.

All this field of international relations — you fellows
regard it as a bore. So it used to be before my entrance
into the game! But it's everlastingly interesting. Just
to give him a shock, I asked the Foreign Secretary the
other day what difference it would make if the Foreign Of-
fices were all to go out of business and all the Ambassadors
were to be hanged. He thought a minute and said:
"Suppose war kept on in the Balkans, the Russians killed
all their Jews, Germany took Holland and sent an air-fleet
over London, the Japanese landed in California, the Eng-
lish took all the oil-wells in Central and South America
and "

"Good Lord!" said I, "do you and I prevent all these
calamities? If so, we don't get half the credit that is due
us — do we?"

You could ask the same question about any group or
profession of men in the world; and on a scratch, I imagine
that any of them would be missed less than they think.
But the realness and the bigness of the job here in London
is simply oppressive. We don't even know what it is
in the United States and, of course, we don't go about
doing it right. If we did, we shouldn't pick up a green
fellow on the plain of Long Island and send him here;
we 'd train the most capable male babies we have from the
cradle. But this leads a long way.

As I look back over these six or seven months, from
the pause that has come this week, I'm bound to say
(being frank, not to say vain) that I had the good fortune
to do one piece of work that was worth the effort and
worth coming to do — about that infernal Mexican situ-
ation. An abler man would have done it better; but,

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 167

as it was, I did it; and I have a most appreciative letter
about it from the President.

By thunder, he's doing his job, isn't he? Whether
you like the job or not, you've got to grant that. When
I first came over here, I found a mild curiosity about Wil-
son— only mild. But now they sit up and listen and ask
most eager questions. He has pressed his personality
most strongly on the governing class here.

Yours heartily,

W. H. P.

To the President

American Embassy, London

[May 11, 1914,]
Dear Mr. President:

The King of Denmark (I always think of Hamlet)
having come to make his royal kinsman of these Isles a
visit, his royal kinsman to-night gave a state dinner at
the palace whereto the Ambassadors of the eight Great
Powers were, of course, invited. Now I don't know how
other kings do, but I 'm willing to swear by King George
for a job of this sort. The splendour of the thing is truly
regal and the friendliness of it very real and human;
and the company most uncommon. Of course the Am-
bassadors and their wives were there, the chief rulers of
the Empire and men and women of distinction and most of
the royal family. The dinner and the music and the plate
and the decorations and the jewels and the uniforms — all
these were regal; but there is a human touch about it that
seems almost democratic.

All for His Majesty of Denmark, a country with fewer
people and less wealth than New Jersey. This whole
royal game is most interesting. Lloyd George and H. H.
Asquith and John Morley were there, all in white knee

168 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

breeches of silk, and swords and most gaudy coats — these
that are the radicals of the Kingdom, in literature and in
action. Veterans of Indian and South African wars stood
on either side of every door and of every stairway, dressed
as Sir Walter Raleigh dressed, like so many statues, never
blinking an eye. Every person in the company is printed,
in all the papers, with every title he bears. Crowds lined
the streets in front of the palace to see the carriages go
in and to guess who was in each. To-morrow the Diplo-
matic Corps calls on King Christian and to-morrow night
King George commands us to attend the opera as his
guests.

Whether it 's the court, or the honours and the orders and
all the social and imperial spoils, that keep the illusion up,
or whether it is the Old World inability to change any-
thing, you can't ever quite decide. In Defoe's time they
put pots of herbs on the desks of every court in London
to keep the plague off. The pots of herbs are yet put
on every desk in every court room in London. Several
centuries ago somebody tried to break into the Bank of
England. A special guard was detached — a little com-
pany of soldiers — to stand watch at night. The bank has
twice been moved and is now housed in a building that
would stand a siege; but that guard, in the same uniform
goes on duty every night. Nothing is ever abolished,
nothing ever changed. On the anniversary of King
Charles's execution, his statue in Trafalgar Square is
covered with flowers. Every month, too, new books
appear about the mistresses of old kings — as if they, too,
were of more than usual interest : I mean serious, histori-
cal books. From the King 's palace to the humblest house
I've been in, there are pictures of kings and queens. In
every house, too (to show how nothing ever changes), the
towels are folded in the same peculiar way. In every

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 169

grate in the kingdom the coal fire is laid in precisely the
same way. There is not a salesman in any shop on Pic-
cadilly who does not, in the season, wear a long-tail coat.
Everywhere they say a second grace at dinner — not at the
end — but before the dessert, because two hundred years
ago they dared not wait longer lest the parson be under the
table : the grace is said to-day before dessert ! I tried three
months to persuade my "Boots" to leave off blacking the
soles of my shoes under the instep. He simply couldn't
do it. Every "Boots" in the Kingdom does it. A man
of learning had an article in an afternoon paper a few
weeks ago which began thus: "It is now universally
conceded by the French and the Americans that the
decimal system is a failure," and he went on to concoct
a scheme for our money that would be more "rational"
and "historical." In this hot debate about Ulster a fre-
quent phrase used is, "Let us see if we can't find the right
formula to solve the difficulty"; their whole fives are
formulas. Now may not all the honours and garters and
thistles and 0. M.'s and K. C. B.'s and all manner of gaudy
sinecures be secure, only because they can't abolish any-
thing? My servants sit at table in a certain order, and
Mrs. Page 's maid wouldn 't yield her precedence to a mere
housemaid for any mortal consideration — any more than a
royal person of a certain rank would yield to one of a
lower rank. A real democracy is as far off as doomsday.
So you argue, till you remember that it is these same
people who made human liberty possible — to a degree —
and till you sit day after day and hear them in the House
of Commons, mercilessly pounding one another. Then
you are puzzled. Do they keep all these outworn things
because they are incapable of changing anything, or do
these outworn burdens keep them from becoming able to
change anything? I daresay it works both ways. Every

170 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

venerable ruin, every outworn custom, makes the King
more secure; and the King gives veneration to every ruin
and keeps respect for every outworn custom.

Praise God for the Atlantic Ocean ! It is the geographi-
cal foundation of our liberties. Yet, as I 've often written,
there are men here, real men, ruling men, mighty men,
and a vigorous stock.

A civilization, especially an old civilization, isn't an
easy nut to crack. But I notice that the men of vision
keep their thought on us. They never forget that we
are 100 million strong and that we dare do new things;
and they dearly love to ask questions about — Rockefeller!
Our power, our adaptability, our potential wealth they
never forget. They'll hold fast to our favour for reasons
of prudence as well as for reasons of kinship. And, when-
ever we choose to assume the leadership of the world,
they'll grant it — gradually — and follow loyally. They
cannot become French, and they dislike the Germans.
They must keep in our boat for safety as well as for
comfort.

Yours heartily,

Walter H. Page.

The following extracts are made from other letters
written at this time:

. . . To-night I had a long talk with the Duchess
of X, a kindly woman who spends much time and money
in the most helpful "uplift" work; that's the kind of
woman she is.

Now she and the Duke are invited to dine at the French
Ambassador's to-morrow night. "If the Duke went into
any house where there was any member of this Govern-
ment," said she, "he'd turn and walk out again. We

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 171

thought we'd better find out who the French Ambassa-
dor 's guests are. We didn 't wish to ask him nor to have
correspondence about it. Therefore the Duke sent his
Secretary quietly to ask the Ambassador's Secretary —
before we accepted."

This is now a common occurrence. We had Sir Edward
Grey to dinner a little while ago and we had to make sure
we had no Tory guests that night.

This same Duchess of X sat in the Peeresses' gallery of
the House of Lords to-night till 7 o 'clock. " I had to sit in
plain sight of the wives of two members of the Cabinet
and of the wife and daughter of the Prime Minister. I
used to know them," she said, "and it was embarrassing."

Thus the revolution proceeds. For that's what it is.

. . . On the other hand the existing order is the
most skilfully devised machinery for perpetuating itself
that has ever grown up among civilized men. Did you
ever see a London directory? It hasn't names al-
phabetically; but one section is "Tradesmen," another
"The City," etc., etc., and another "The Court." Any
one who has ever been presented at Court is in the
"Court" section, and you must sometimes look in several
sections to find a man. Yet everybody so values these
distinctions that nobody complains of the inconvenience.
When the Liberal party makes Liberals Peers in order to
have Liberals in the House of Lords, lo! they soon turn
Conservative after they get there. The system perpetu-
ates itself and stifles the natural desire for change that
most men in a state of nature instinctively desire in order
to assert their own personalities. . . .

. . . All this social life which engages us at this
particular season, sets a man to thinking. The mass of

172 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the people are very slow — almost dull; and the privileged
are most firmly entrenched. The really alert people are
the aristocracy. They see the drift of events. "What is
the pleasantest part of your country to live in?" Dowa-
ger Lady X asked me on Sunday, more than half in earn-
est. " My husband 's ancestors sat in the House of Lords
for six hundred years. My son sits there now — a dummy.
They have taken all power from the Lords ; they are taxing
us out of our lands; they are saving the monarchy for
destruction last. England is of the past — all is going.
God knows what is coming." . . .

. . . And presently the presentations come.
Lord! how sensible American women scramble for this
privilege ! It royally fits a few of them. Well, I 've made
some rules about presentations myself, since it's really
a sort of personal perquisite of the Ambassador. One
rule is, I don't present any but handsome women.
Pretty girls : that 's what you want when you are getting
up a show. Far too many of ours come here and marry
Englishmen. I think I shall make another rule and ex-
act a promise that after presentation they shall go home.
But the American women do enliven London. . . .

That triumph with the tariff is historic. I wrote to the
President: "Score one!" And I have been telling the
London writers on big subjects, notably the editor of the
Economist, that this event, so quiet and undramatic,
will mark a new epoch in the trade history of the world.

. . . This island is a good breeding place for men
Avhose children find themselves and develop into real men
in freer lands. All that is needed to show the whole
world that the future is ours is just this sort of an act of
self-confidence. You know the old story of the Negro who

ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR 173

saw a ghost — "Git outen de way, Mr. Rabbit, and let
somebody come who kin run!" Score one! We're
making History, and these people here know it. The
trade of the world, or as much of it as is profitable, we
may take as we will. The over-taxed, under-productive,
army-burdened men of the Old World — alas! I read
a settled melancholy in much of their statesmanship and
in more of their literature. The most cheerful men in
official life here are the High Commissioners of Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, and such fellows who know what
the English race is doing and can do freed from uniforms
and heavy taxes and class feeling and such like. . . .

. . . The two things that this island has of eternal
value are its gardens and its men. Nature sprinkles it
almost every day and holds its moisture down so that
every inch of it is forever green ; and somehow men thrive
as the lawns do — the most excellent of all races for
progenitors. You and I1 can never be thankful enough
that our ancestors came of this stock. Even those that
have stayed have cut a wide swath, and they wield good
scythes yet. But I have moods when I pity them — for
their dependence, for instance, on a navy (2 keels to 1)
for their very bread and meat. They frantically resent
conveniences. They build their great law court building
(the architecture ecclesiastical) so as to provide an en-
trance hall of imposing proportions which they use once a
year; and to get this fine hall they have to make their
court rooms, which they must use all the time, dark and
small and inaccessible. They think as much of that once-
a-year ceremony of opening their courts as they think of
the even justice that they dispense; somehow they feel
that the justice depends on the ceremony.

'This is from a letter to President Wilson.

174 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

This moss that has grown all over their lives (some of
it very pretty and most of it very comfortable — it's soft
and warm) is of no great consequence — except that they
think they'd die if it were removed. And this state of
mind gives us a good key to their character and habits.

What are we going to do with this England and this
Empire, presently, when economic forces unmistakably
put the leadership of the race in our hands? How can
we lead it and use it for the highest purposes of the world
and of democracy? We can do what we like if we go
about it heartily and with good manners (any man prefers
to yield to a gentleman rather than to a rustic) and throw
away — gradually — our isolating fears and alternate boast-
ing and bashfulness. "What do we most need to learn
from you?" I asked a gentle and bejewelled nobleman
the other Sunday, in a country garden that invited con-
fidences. "If I may speak without offence, modesty."
A commoner in the company, who had seen the Rocky
Mountains, laughed, and said: "No; see your chance and
take it: that's what we did in the years when we made
the world's history." . . .

CHAPTER VI

POLICY" AND "PRINCIPLE" IN MEXICO

THE last days of February, 1913, witnessed one of
those sanguinary scenes in Mexico which for genera-
tions had accompanied changes in the government of that
distracted country. A group of revolutionists assailed
the feeble power of Francisco Madero and virtually im-
prisoned that executive and his forces in the Presidential
Palace. The Mexican army, whose most influential
officers were General Blanquet and General Victoriano
Huerta, was hastily summoned to the rescue of the Gov-
ernment; instead of relieving the besieged officials, how-
ever, these generals turned their guns upon them, and so
assured the success of the uprising. The speedy outcome
of these transactions was the assassination of President
Madero and the seizure of the Presidency by General
Huerta. Another outcome was the presentation to Page
of one of the most delicate problems in the history of
Anglo-American relations.

At almost any other time this change in the Mexican
succession would have caused only a momentary disturb-
ance. There was nothing new in the violent overthrow of
government in Latin- America ; in Mexico itself no pres-
ident had ever risen to power except by revolution. The
career of Porfirio Diaz, who had maintained his author-
ity for a third of a century, had somewhat obscured this
fundamental fact in Mexican politics, but Diaz had domi-
nated Mexico for seven presidential terms, not because his

175

176 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

methods differed from the accepted methods of his country,
but because he was himself an executive of great force and
a statesman of genius, and could successfully hold his own
against any aspiring antagonist. The civilized world,
including the United States, had long since become rec-
onciled to this situation as almost a normal one. In
recognizing momentarily successful adventurers, Great
Britain and the United States had never considered such
details as justice or constitutionalism : the legality of the
presidential title had never been the point at issue;
the only question involved was whether the successful
aspirant actually controlled the country, whether he had
established a state of affairs that approximately repre-
sented order, and whether he could be depended upon to
protect life and property. During the long dictatorship of
Porfirio Diaz, however, certain events had taken place
which had awakened the minds of Americans to the pos-
sibility of a new international relationship with all back-
ward peoples. The consequences of the Spanish War
had profoundly impressed Page. This conflict had left
the United States a new problem in Cuba and the Philip-
pines. Under the principles that for generations had gov-
erned the Old World there would have been no particu-
lar difficulty in meeting this problem. The United States
would have candidly annexed the islands, and exploited
their resources and their peoples; we should have con-
cerned ourselves little about any duties that might be
owed to the several millions of human beings who in-
habited them. Indeed, what other alternatives were
there?

One was to hand the possessions back to Spain,
who in a four hundred years' experiment had demon-
strated her unfitness to govern them; another was to give
the islands their independence, which would have meant

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 177

merely an indefinite continuance of anarchy. It is one
of the greatest triumphs of American statesmanship that
it discovered a more satisfactory solution. Essentially,
the new plan was to establish in these undeveloped
and politically undisciplined regions the fundamental
conditions that may make possible the ultimate creation of
democratic, self-governing states. It was recognized that
constitutions and election ballots in themselves did not
necessarily imply a democratic order. Before these there
must come other things that were far more important, such
as popular education, scientific agriculture, sanitation, pub-
lic highways, railroads, and the development of the re-
sources of nature. If the backward peoples of the world
could be schooled in such a preliminary apprenticeship,
the time might come when the intelligence and the con-
science of the masses would be so enlightened that they
could be trusted with independence. The labour of
Leonard Wood in Cuba, and of other Americans in the
Philippines, had apparently pointed the way to the only
treatment of such peoples that was just to them and
safe for mankind.

With the experience of Cuba and the Philippines as
a guide, it is not surprising that the situation in Mexico
appealed to many Americans as opening a similar op-
portunity to the United States. The two facts that out-
stood all others were that Mexico, in her existing condition
of popular ignorance, could not govern herself, and that
the twentieth century could not accept indefinitely a
condition of disorder and bloodshed that had apparently
satisfied the nineteenth. The basic difficulty in this
American republic was one of race and of national
character. The fact that was constantly overlooked was
that Mexico was not a Caucasian country: it was a great
shambling Indian Republic. Of its 15,000,000 people less

178 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

than 3,000,000 were of unmixed white blood, about 35 per
cent, were pure Indian, and the rest represented varying
mixtures of white and aboriginal stock. The masses had
advanced little in civilization since the days of Cortez.
Eighty per cent, were illiterate; their lives for the most
part were a dull and squalid routine; protection against
disease was unknown; the agricultural methods were
most primitive; the larger number still spoke the native
dialects which had been used in the days of Montezuma ;
and over good stretches of the country the old tribal
regime still represented the only form of political organi-
zation. The one encouraging feature was that these
Mexican Indians, backward as they might be, were far
superior to the other native tribes of the North Ameri-
can Continent; in ancient times, they had developed
a state of society far superior to that of the traditional
Redskin. Nevertheless, it was true that the progress of
Mexico in the preceding fifty years had been due almost en-
tirely to foreign enterprise. By 1913, about 75,000 Ameri-
cans were living in Mexico as miners, engineers, merchants,
and agriculturists; American investments amounted to
about $1,200,000,000— a larger sum than that of all the
other foreigners combined. Though the work of European
countries, particularly Great Britain, was important, yet
Mexico was practically an economic colony of the United
States. Most observers agree that these foreign activities
had not only profited the foreigners, but that they had
greatly benefited the Mexicans themselves. The enter-
prise of Americans had disclosed enormous riches, had
given hundreds of thousands employment at very high
wages, had built up new Mexican towns on modern Amer-
ican lines, had extended the American railway system
over a large part of the land, and had developed street
railways, electric lighting, and other modern necessities

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 179

in all sections of the Republic. The opening up of Mexi-
can oil resources was perhaps the most typical of these
achievements, as it was certainly the most adventurous.
Americans had created this, perhaps the greatest of Mexi-
can industries, and in 1913, these Americans owned nearly
80 per cent, of Mexican oil. Their success had persuaded
several Englishmen, the best known of whom was Lord
Cowdray, to enter this same field. The activities of the
Americans and the British in oil had an historic signifi-
cance which was not foreseen in 1913, but which assumed
the greatest importance in the World War; for the oil
drawn from these Mexican fields largely supplied the
Allied fleets and thus became an important element in the
defeat of the Central Powers. In 1913, however, Amer-
ican and British oil operators were objects of general sus-
picion in both continents. They were accused of partici-
pating too actively in Mexican politics and there were
those who even held them responsible for the revolution-
ary condition of the country. One picturesque legend in-
sisted that the American oil interests looked with jealous
hostility upon the great favours shown by the Diaz Ad-
ministration to Lord Cowdray 's company, and that they
had instigated the Madero revolution in order to put in
power politicians who would be more friendly to them-
selves. The inevitable complement to this interpretation
of events was a prevailing suspicion that the Cowdray
interests had promoted the Huerta revolt in order to turn
the tables on "Standard Oil," to make safe the "conces-
sions" already obtained from Diaz and to obtain still
more from the new Mexican dictator.

To determine the truth in all these allegations, which
were freely printed in the American press of the time,
would demand more facts than are at present available;
yet it is clear that these oil and other "concessions" pre-

180 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

sented the perpetual Mexican problem in a new and diffi-
cult light. The Wilson Administration came into power
a few days after Huerta had seized the Mexican Govern-
ment. The first difficulty presented to the State Depart-
ment was to determine its attitude toward this usurper.

A few days after President Wilson's inauguration Mr.
Irwin Laughlin, then Charge d 'Affaires in London — this
was several weeks before Page's arrival — was instructed
to ask the British Foreign Office what its attitude would
be in regard to the recognition of President Huerta. Mr.
Laughlin informed the Foreign Office that he was not in-
structed that the United States had decided on any policy,
but that he felt sure it would be to the advantage of both
countries to follow the same line. The query was not an
informal one ; it was made in definite obedience to instruc-
tions and was intended to elicit a formal commitment.
The unequivocal answer that Mr. Laughlin received was
that the British Government would not recognize Huerta,
either formally or tacitly.

Mr. Laughlin sent his message immediately to Washing-
ton, where it apparently made a favourable impression.
The Administration then let it be known that the United
States would not recognize the new Mexican regime.
Whether Mr. Wilson would at this time have taken such a
position, irrespective of the British attitude, is not known,
but at this stage of the proceedings Great Britain and the
United States were standing side by side.

About three weeks afterward Mr. Laughlin heard that
the British Foreign Office was about to recognize Huerta.
Naturally the report astonished him; he at once called
again on the Foreign Office, taking with him the despatch
that he had recently sent to Washington. Why had the
British Government recognized Huerta when it had given
definite assurances to Washington that it had no intention

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 181

of doing so? The outcome of the affair was that Sir Cecil
Spring Rice, British Ambassador in Washington, was in-
structed to inform the State Department that Great
Britain had changed its mind. France, Germany, Spain,
and most other governments followed the British example
in recognizing the new President of Mexico.

It is thus apparent that the initial mistake in the Huerta
affair was made by Great Britain. Its action produced
the most unpleasant impression upon the new Adminis-
tration. Mr. Wilson, Mr. Bryan, and their associates in
the cabinet easily found an explanation that was sat-
isfactory to themselves and to the political enthusiasms
upon which they had come into power. They believed
that the sudden change in the British attitude was the re-
sult of pressure from British commercial interests which
hoped to profit from the Huerta influence. Lord Cow-
dray was a rich and powerful Liberal; he had great con-
cessions in Mexico which had been obtained from Presi-
dent Diaz; it was known that Huerta aimed to make his
dictatorship a continuation of that of Diaz, to rule Mexico
as Diaz had ruled it, that is, by force, and to extend a
welcoming hand to foreign capitalists. An important con-
sideration was that the British Navy had a contract with
the Cowdray Company for oil, which was rapidly be-
coming indispensable as a fuel for warships, and this fact
necessarily made the British Government almost a cham-
pion of the Cowdray interests. It was not necessary to
believe all the rumours that were then afloat in the Amer-
ican press to conclude that a Huerta administration would
be far more acceptable to the Cowdray Company than
any headed by one of the military chieftains who were
then disputing the control of Mexico. Mr. Wilson and
Mr. Bryan believed that these events proved that certain
"interests," similar to the "interests" which, in their view,

182 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

had exercised so baleful an influence on American politics,
were also active in Great Britain. The Wilson election
in 1912 had been a protest against the dominance of "Wall
Street" in American politics; Mr. Bryan's political stock-
in-trade for a generation had consisted of little except a
campaign against these forces; naturally, therefore, the
suspicion that Great Britain was giving way to a British
"Standard Oil" was enough to arm these statesmen
against the Huerta policy, and to intensify that profound
dislike of Huerta himself that was soon to become al-
most an obsession.

With this as a starting point President Wilson pres-
ently formulated an entirely new principle for dealing with
Latin-American republics. There could be no perma-
nent order in these turbulent countries and nothing ap-
proaching a democratic system until the habit of revolu-
tion should be checked. One of the greatest encourage-
ments to revolution, said the President, was the willingness
of foreign governments to recognize any politician who
succeeded in seizing the executive power. He therefore
believed that a refusal to recognize any government
"founded upon violence " would exercise a wholesome in-
fluence in checking this national habit; if Great Britain
and the United States and the other powers would set
the example by refusing to have any diplomatic dealings
with General Huerta, such an unfriendly attitude would
discourage other forceful intriguers from attempting to
repeat his experiment. The result would be that the
decent elements in Mexico and other Latin-American
countries would at last assert themselves, establish a
constitutional system, and select their governments by
constitutional means. At the bottom of the whole busi-
ness were, in the President's and Mr. Bryan's opinion,
the "concession" seekers, the "exploiters," who were con-

POLICY AND "PRINCIPLE" IN MEXICO 183

stantly obtaining advantages at the hands of these
corrupt governments and constantly stirring up revolu-
tions for their financial profit. The time had now come to
end the whole miserable business. "We are closing one
chapter in the history of the world," said Mr. Wilson,
"and opening another of unimaginable significance.
. . . It is a very perilous thing to determine the for-
eign policy of a nation in the terms of material interests.
. . . We have seen such material interests threaten
constitutional freedom in the United States. Therefore
we will now know how to sympathize with those in the
rest of America who have to contend with such powers,
not only within their borders, but from outside their bor-
ders." *

In this way General Huerta, who, in his own eyes, was
merely another in the long succession of Mexican revolu-
tionary chieftains, was translated into an epochal figure
in the history of American foreign policy; he became a
symbol in Mr. Wilson's new scheme of things — the rep-
resentative of the order which was to come to an end, the
man who, all unwittingly, was to point the new way not
only in Mexico, but in all Latin-American countries.
The first diplomatic task imposed upon Page therefore
was one that would have dismayed a more experienced
ambassador. This was to persuade Great Britain to
retrace its steps, to withdraw its recognition of Huerta,
and to join hands with the United States in bringing
about his downfall. The new ambassador sympathized
with Mr. Wilson's ideas to a certain extent; the point
at which he parted company with the President's Mex-
ican policy will appear in due course. He therefore began
zealously to preach the new Latin-American doctrine to
the British Foreign Office, with results that appear in his
letters of this period.

184 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

To the President

6 Grosvenor Square, London,
Friday night, October 24, 1913.
Dear Mr. President:

In this wretched Mexican business, about which I have
read columns and columns and columns of comment these
two days and turned every conceivable proposition back
and forth in my mind — in this whole wretched waste of
comment, I have not seen even an allusion to any moral
principle involved nor a word of concern about the Mexi-
can people. It is all about who is the stronger, Huerta
or some other bandit, and about the necessity of order
for the sake of financial interests. Nobody recalls our
action in giving Cuba to the Cubans or our pledge to the
people of the Philippine Islands. But there is reference
to the influence of Standard Oil in the American policy.
This illustrates the complete divorce of European politics
from fundamental morals, and it shocks even a man who
before knew of this divorce.

In my last talk with Sir Edward Grey I drove this home
by emphasizing strongly the impossibility of your playing
primary heed to any American business interest in Mexico
— even the immorality of your doing so ; there are many
things that come before business and there are some things
that come before order. I used American business inter-
ests because I couldn't speak openly of British business
interests and his Government. I am sure he saw the
obvious inference. But not even from him came a word
about the moral foundation of government or about the
welfare of the Mexican people. These are not in the
European governing vocabulary.

I have been trying to find a way to help this Govern-
ment to wake up to the effect of its pro-Huerta position

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 185

and to give them a chance to refrain from repeating that
mistake — and to save their faces ; and I have telegraphed
one plan to Mr. Bryan to-day. I think they ought now
to be forced to show their hand without the possibility of
evasion. They will not risk losing our good-will — if it
seem wise to you to put them to a square test.

It 's a wretched business, and the sordid level of Euro-
pean statecraft is sad.

I ran across the Prime Minister at the royal wedding
reception * the other day.

"What do you infer from the latest news from Mexico? "
he asked.

"Several things."

"Tell me the most important inference you draw."

"Well, the danger of prematurely making up one's
mind about a Mexican adventurer."

"All!" and he moved on.

Very heartily yours,

Walter H. Page.

To the President

London, Sunday, Nov. 16, 1913.
. . . About the obligations and inferences of de-
mocracy, they are dense. They don't really believe in it;
and they are slow to see what good will come of ousting
Huerta unless we know beforehand who will succeed
him. Sir Edward Grey is not dense, but in this matter
even he is slow fully to understand. The Lord knows
I've told him plainly over and over again and, I fear, even
preached to him. At first he couldn't see the practical
nature of so " idealistic " a programme. I explained to
him how the immemorial " policy " that we all followed of

iPrince Arthur of Connaught and the Duchess of Fife were married in the Chapel
Royal, October 16, 1913.

186 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

recognizing momentarily successful adventurers in Latin-
America had put a premium on revolution ; that you had
found something better than a policy, namely, a principle ;
that policies change, but principles do not; that he need
not be greatly concerned about the successor to Huerta;
that this is primarily and ultimately an American prob-
lem; that Great Britain's interest being only commercial
is far less than the interest of the United States, which
is commercial and also ethical; and so on and so on. His
sympathies and his friendliness are all right. But
Egypt and India were in his mind. He confessed to me
that he was much impressed — "if you can carry it
through." Many men are seeing the new idea (I wonder
if you are conscious how new it is and how incredible to
the Old World mind?) and they express the greatest and
sincerest admiration for "your brave new President";
and a wave of friendliness to the United States swept over
the Kingdom when the Government took its open stand.
At the annual dinner of the oldest and richest of the
merchants' guilds at which they invited me to respond
to a toast the other night they proposed your health most
heartily and, when I arose, they cheered longer and louder
than I had before heard men cheer in this kingdom.
There is, I am sure, more enthusiasm for the United
States here, by far, than for England in the United
States. They are simply dense about any sort of gov-
ernment but their own — particularly dense about the
application of democracy to "dependencies" and inferior
peoples. I have a neighbour who spent many years as
an administrator in India. He has talked me deaf about
the inevitable failure of this "idealistic" Mexican pro-
gramme. He is wholly friendly and wholly incredulous.
And for old-time Toryism gone to seed commend me to
the Spectator. Not a glimmering of the idea has entered

POLICY AND PRINCIPLE" IN MEXICO 187

Strachey's head. The Times, however, now sees it pretty
clearly. I spent Sunday a few weeks ago with two of its
editors in the country, and they have come to see me
several times since and written fairly good "leaders"
out of my conversation with them. So much for this
head. For the moment at least that is satisfactory. You
must not forget that they can't all at once take it in, for
they do not really know what democracy is or whither it
leads and at bottom they do not really believe in it as a
scheme of government — not even this Liberal Cabinet.

The British concern for commercial interests, which
never sleeps, will, I fear, come up continuously. But
we shall simply do justice and stand firm, when this
phase of the subject comes forward.

It's amusing, when you forget its sadness, that their
first impulse is to regard an unselfish international act
as what Cecil Bhodes called the English "unctuous recti-
tude." But this experience that we are having with
them will be worth much in future dealings. They al-
ready feel very clearly that a different hand has the helm
in Washington; and we can drive them hard, if need be,
for they will not forfeit our friendship.

It is worth something to discover that Downing Street
makes many mistakes. Infallibility dwells a long way
from them. In this matter they have made two terrible
blunders — the recognition of Huerta (they know that
now) and the sending of Carden (they may already sus-
pect that: they'll know it presently).

Yours always faithfully,
Walter H. Page.

P. S. By Jove, I didn't know that I'd ever have to put
the British Government through an elementary course in
Democracy !
To the President.

188 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Occasionally Page discussed with Sir Edward Grey an
alternative American policy which was in the minds of
most people at that time :

To the President

. . . The foregoing I wrote before this Mexican
business took its present place. I can't get away from
the feeling that the English simply do not and will not
believe in any unselfish public action — further than the
keeping of order. They have a mania for order, sheer
order, order for the sake of order. They can't see how
anything can come in any one's thought before order or
how anything need come afterward. Even Sir Edward
Grey jocularly ran me across our history with questions
like this:

"Suppose you have to intervene, what then?"
"Make 'em vote and five by their decisions."
"But suppose they will not so live?"
"We'll go in again and make 'em vote again."
"And keep this up 200 years?" asked he.
"Yes," said I. "The United States will be here two
hundred years and it can continue to shoot men for that
little space till they learn to vote and to rule themselves."
I have never seen him laugh so heartily. Shooting
men into self-government! Shooting them into order-
liness— he comprehends that; and that's all right. But
that's as far as his habit of mind goes. At Sheffield last
night, when I had to make a speech, I explained "ideal-
ism" (they always quote it) in Government. They lis-
tened attentively and even eagerly. Then they came up
and asked if I really meant that Government should con-
cern itself with idealistic things — beyond keeping order.
Ought they to do so in India? — I assure you they don't

POLICY AND PRINCIPLE" IN MEXICO 189

think beyond order. A nigger lynched in Mississippi
offends them more than a tyrant in Mexico.

To Edward M. House

London, November 2, 1913.
Dear House:

I've been writing to the President that the Englishman
has a mania for order, order for order's sake, and for —
trade. He has reduced a large part of the world to order.
He is the best policeman in creation; and — he has the
policeman's ethics! Talk to him about character as a
basis of government or about a moral basis of government
in any outlying country, he'll think you daft. Bah!
what matter who governs or how he governs or where he
got his authority or how, so long as he keeps order. He
won't see anything else. The lesson of our dealing with
Cuba is lost on him. He doesn't believe that. We may
bring this Government in line with us on Mexico. But
in this case and in general, the moral uplift of government
must be forced by us — I mean government in outlying
countries.

Mexico is only part of Ontral America, and the only
way we can ever forge a Central and South American
policy that will endure is this way, precisely, by saying
that your momentarily successful adventurer can't count
on us anywhere ; the man that rules must govern for the
governed. Then we have a policy; and nobody else has
that policy. This Mexican business is worth worlds to
us — to establish this.

We may have a diplomatic fight here; and I'm ready!
Very ready on this, for its own sake and for reasons that
follow, to wit:

Extraordinary and sincere and profound as is the re-
spect of the English for the American people, they hold

190 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the American Government in contempt. It shifts and
doesn't keep its treaty, etc., etc. — They are right, too.
But they need to feel the hand that now has the helm.

But one or two things have first to be got out of the
way. That Panama tolls is the worst. We are dead
wrong in that, as we are dead right on the Mexican
matter. If it were possible (I don't know that it is) for
the President to say (quietly, not openly) that he agrees
with us — if he do — then the field would be open for a fight
on Mexico ; and the reenforcement of our position would
be incalculable.

Then we need in Washington some sort of Bureau or
Master of Courtesies for the Government, to do and to
permit us to do those little courtesies that the English
spend half their time in doing— this in the course of our
everyday life and intercourse. For example: When I was
instructed to inform this Government that our fleet would
go to the Mediterranean, I was instructed also to say that
they mustn't trouble to welcome us — don't pay no 'ten-
tion to us! Well, that's what they five for in times of
peace — ceremonies. We come along and say, "We're
comin' but, hell! don't kick up no fuss over us, we're from
Missouri, we are!" And the Briton shrugs his shoulders
and says, "Boor!" These things are happening all the
time. Of course no one nor a dozen nor a hundred count ;
but generations of 'em have counted badly. A Govern-
ment without manners.

If I could outdo these folk at their game of courtesy,
and could keep our treaty faith with 'em, then I could lick
'em into the next century on the moral aspects of the
Mexican Government, and make 'em look up and salute
every time the American Government is mentioned.
See? — Is there any hope? — Such is the job exactly. And
you know what it would lead to — even in our lifetime —

''POLICY" AND "PRINCIPLE" IN MEXICO 191

to the leadership of the world: and we should presently be
considering how we may best use the British fleet, the
British Empire, and the English race for the betterment
of mankind.

Yours eagerly,

W. H. P.

A word of caution is necessary to understand Page's
references to the British democracy. That the parliamen-
tary system is democratic in the sense that it is respon-
sive to public opinion he would have been the first to
admit. That Great Britain is a democracy in the sense
that the suffrage is general is also apparent. But, in
these reflections on the British commonwealth, the Am-
bassador was thinking of his old familiar figure, the
" Forgotten Man" — the neglected man, woman, and child
of the masses. In an address delivered, in June, 1914,
before the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Page gave
what he regarded as the definition of the American
ideal. "The fundamental article in the creed of the
American democracy — you may call it the fundamental
dogma if you like — is the unchanging and unchangeable
resolve that every human being shall have his opportunity
for his utmost development — his chance to become and
to do the best that he can." Democracy is not only a
system of government — "it is a scheme of society."
Every citizen must have not only the suffrage, he must
likewise enjoy the same advantages as his neighbour for
education, for social opportunity, for good health, for
success in agriculture, manufacture, finance, and business
and professional life. The country that most success-
fully opened all these avenues to every boy or girl, ex-
clusively on individual merit, was in Page's view the most
democratic. He believed that the United States did this

192 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

more completely than Great Britain or any other country ;
and therefore he believed that we were far more demo-
cratic. He had not found in other countries the splendid
phenomenon presented by America's great agricultural
region. "The most striking single fact about the United
States is, I think, this spectacle, which, so far as I know,
is new in the world: On that great agricultural area are
about seven million farms of an average size of about 140
acres, most of which are tilled by the owners themselves,
a population that varies greatly, of course, in its tlirift
and efficiency, but most of which is well housed, in houses
they themselves own, well clad, well fed, and a population
that trains practically all its children in schools main-
tained by public taxation." It was some such vision as
this that Page hoped to see realized ultimately in Mex-
ico. And some such development as this would make
Mexico a democracy. It was his difficulty in making
the British see the Mexican problem in this light that
persuaded him that, in this comprehensive meaning of
the word, the democratic ideal had made an inappreciable
progress in Europe — and even in Great Britain itself.

These letters are printed somewhat out of their chrono-
logical order because they picture definitely the two
opposing viewpoints of Great Britain and the United
States on Mexico and Latin-America generally. Here,
then, was the sharp issue drawn between the Old World
and the New — on one side the dreary conception of out-
lying countries as fields to be exploited for the benefit of
" investors," successful revolutionists to be recognized in
so far as they promoted such ends, and no consideration
to be shown to the victims of their rapacity; and the
new American idea, the idea which had been made reality

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 193

in Cuba and the Philippines, that the enlightened and
successful nations stood something in the position of
trustees to such unfortunate lands and that it was their
duty to lead them along the slow pathway of progress
and democracy. So far the Wilsonian principle could be
joyfully supported by the Ambassador. Page disagreed
with the President, however, in that he accepted the
logical consequences of this programme. His formula of
"shooting people into self-government," which had so
entertained the British Foreign Secretary, was a char-
acteristically breezy description of the alternative that
Page, hi the last resort, was ready to adopt, but which
President Wilson and Secretary Bryan persistently re-
fused to consider. Page was just as insistent as the
Washington Administration that Huerta should resign
and that Great Britain should assist the United States
in accomplishing his dethronement, and that the Mexican
people should have a real opportunity of setting up for
themselves. He was not enough of an "idealist," how-
ever, to believe that the Mexicans, without the assistance
of their powerful neighbours, could succeed in establishing
a constitutional government. In early August, 1913,
President Wilson sent Mr. John Lind, ex-Governor of
Minnesota, to Mexico as his personal representative.
His mission was to invite Huerta to remove himself
from Mexican politics, and to permit the Mexican people
to hold a presidential election at which Huerta would
himself agree not to be a candidate. Mr. Lind presented
these proposals on August 15th, and President Huerta re-
jected every one of them with a somewhat disconcerting
promptitude.

That Page was prepared to accept the consequences of
this failure appears in the following letter. The lack of
confidence which it discloses in Secretary Bryan was a

194 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

feeling that became stronger as the Mexican drama urn
folded.

To Edward M. House

London, August 25, 1913.
My dear House:

. . . If you find a chance, get the substance of this

memorandum into the hands of two men: the President

and the Secretary of Agriculture. Get 'em in Houston's

at once — into the President's whenever the time is ripe.

I send the substance to Washington and I send many

other such things. But I never feel sure that they reach

the President. The most confidential letter I have

written was lost in Washington, and there is pretty good

testimony that it reached the Secretary's desk. He does

not acknowledge the important things, but writes me

confidentially to inquire if the office of the man who

attends to the mail pouches (the diplomatic and naval

despatches in London)1 is not an office into which he

might put a Democrat. — But I keep at it. It would be

a pleasure to know that the President knows what I

am trying to do. . . .

Yours heartily,

Walter H. Page.

Following is the memorandum :

In October the provisional recognition of Huerta by
England will end. Then this Government will be free.
Then is the time for the United States to propose to
England joint intervention merely to reduce this turbu-
lent scandal of a country to order — on an agreement, of
course, to preserve the territorial integrity of Mexico.
It's a mere police duty that all great nations have to do —
as they did in the case of the Boxer riots in China. Of

^ee the Appendix (at end of Vol. II) for this episode in detail.

policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 195

course Germany and France, etc., ought to be invited —
on the same pledge: the preservation of territorial in-
tegrity. If Germany should come in, she will thereby
practically acknowledge the Monroe Doctrine, as England
has already done. If Germany stay out, then she can't
complain. England and the United States would have
only to announce their intention: there'd be no need to
fire a gun. Besides settling the Mexican trouble, we'd
gain much — having had England by our side in a praise-
worthy enterprise. That, and the President's visit1
would give the world notice to whom it belongs, and
cause it to be quiet and to go about its proper business of
peaceful industry.

Moreover, it would show all the Central and South
American States that we don't want any of their territory,
that we will not let anybody else have any, but that they,
too, must keep orderly government or the great Nations
of the earth, will, at our bidding, forcibly demand quiet in
their borders. I believe a new era of security would come
in all Spanish America. Investments would be safer,
governments more careful and orderly. And — we would
not have made any entangling alliance with anybody. All
this would prevent perhaps dozens of little wars. It's
merely using the English fleet and ours to make the world
understand that the time has come for orderliness and
peace and for the honest development of backward, tur-
bulent lands and peoples.

If you don't put this through, tell me what's the
matter with it. I've sent it to Washington after talking
and being talked to for a month and after the hardest
kind of thinking. Isn't this constructive? Isn't it using

irThere was a suggestion, which the Ambassador endorsed, that President Wilson
should visit England to accept, in the name of the United States, Sulgrave Manor,
the ancestral home of the Washingtons. See Chapter IX, page 274.

196 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the great power lying idle about the world, to do the thing
that most needs to be done?

Colonel House presented this memorandum to the
President, but events sufficiently disclosed that it had no
influence upon his Mexican policy. Two days after it
was written Mr. Wilson went before Congress, announced
that the Lind Mission had failed, and that conditions in
Mexico had grown worse. He advised all Americans to
leave the country, and declared that he would lay an
embargo on the shipment of munitions — an embargo
that would affect both the Huerta forces and the revo-
lutionary groups that were fighting them.

Meanwhile Great Britain had taken another step that
made as unpleasant an impression on Washington as had
the recognition of Huerta. Sir Lionel Edward Gresley
Carden had for several years been occupying British
diplomatic posts in Central America, in all of which he
had had disagreeable social and diplomatic relations with
Americans. Sir Lionel had always shown great zeal in
promoting British commercial interests, and, justly or
unjustly, had acquired the fame of being intensely anti-
American. From 1911 to 1913 Carden had served as
British Minister to Cuba; here his anti- Americanism had
shown itself in such obnoxious ways that Mr. Knox,
Secretary of State under President Taft, had instructed
Ambassador Reid to bring his behaviour to the attention
of the British Foreign Office. These representations took
practically the form of requesting Carden's removal from
Cuba. Perhaps the unusual relations that the United
States bore toward Cuba warranted Mr. Knox in making
such an approach; yet the British refused to see the mat-
ter in that light; not only did they fail to displace Carden,
but they knighted him— the traditional British way of

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 197

defending a faithful public servant who has been at-
tacked. Sir Lionel Carden refused to mend his ways;
he continued to indulge in what Washington regarded as
anti- American propaganda; and a second time Secretary
Knox intimated that his removal would be acceptable to
this country, and a second time this request was refused.
With this preliminary history of Carden as a background,
and with the British-American misunderstanding over
Huerta at its most serious stage, the emotions of Washing-
ton may well be imagined when the news came, in July,
1913, that this same gentleman had been appointed
British Minister to Mexico. If the British Government
had ransacked its diplomatic force to find the one man
who would have been most objectionable to the United
States, it could have made no better selection. The
President and Mr. Bryan were pretty well persuaded that
the "oil concessionaires" were dictating British-Mexican
policy, and this appointment translated their suspicion
into a conviction. Carden had seen much service in
Mexico; he had been on the friendliest terms with Diaz;
and the newspapers openly charged that the British oil
capitalists had dictated his selection. All these asser-
tions Carden and the oil interests denied; yet Carden's
behaviour from the day of his appointment showed great
hostility to the United States. A few days after he had
reached New York, on his way to his new post, the New
York World published an interview with Carden in which
he was reported as declaring that President Wilson knew
nothing about the Mexican situation and in which he
took the stand that Huerta was the man to handle
Mexico at this crisis. His appearance in the Mexican
capital was accompanied by other highly undiplomatic
publications. In late October President Huerta arrested
all his enemies in the Mexican Congress, threw them

198 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

into jail, and proclaimed himself dictator. Washington
was much displeased that Sir Lionel Carden should have
selected the day of these high-handed proceedings to
present to Huerta his credentials as minister; in its sen-
sitive condition, the State Department interpreted this
act as a reaffirmation of that recognition that had al-
ready caused so much confusion in Mexican affairs.

Carden made things worse by giving out more news-
paper interviews, a tendency that had apparently grown
into a habit. "I do not believe that the United States
recognizes the seriousness of the situation here. . . .
I see no reason why Huerta should be displaced by another
man whose abilities are yet to be tried. . . . Safety
in Mexico can be secured only by punitive and remedial
methods, and a strongman;" — such were a few of the re-
flections that the reporters attributed to this astonishing
diplomat. Meanwhile, the newspapers were filled with
reports that the British Minister was daily consorting
with Huerta, that he was constantly strengthening that
chieftain's backbone in opposition to the United States
and that he was obtaining concessions in return for this
support. To what extent these press accounts rested on
fact cannot be ascertained definitely at this time; yet it
is a truth that Carden's general behaviour gave great
encouragement to Huerta and that it had the deplorable
effect of placing Great Britain and the United States in
opposition. The interpretation of the casual reader was
that Great Britain was determined to seat Huerta in the
Presidency against the determination of the United
States to keep him out. The attitude of the Washington
cabinet was almost bitter at this time against the British
Government. "There is a feeling here," wrote Secretary
Lane to Page, "that England is playing a game unworthy
of her."

' POLICY AND "PRINCIPLE" IN MEXICO ]99

The British Government promptly denied the authen-
ticity of the Carden interview, but that helped matters
little, for the American public insisted on regarding such
denials as purely diplomatic. Something of a storm
against Carden arose in England itself, where it was
believed that his conception of his duties was estranging
two friendly countries. Probably the chief difficulty was
that the British Foreign Office could see no logical se-
quence in the Washington policy. Put Huerta out — yes,
by all means: but what then? Page's notes of his visit
to Sir Edward Grey a few days after the latest Carden
interview confirm this:

I have just come from an hour's talk with Grey about
Mexico. He showed me his telegram to Carden, asking
about Carden's reported interview criticizing the United
States, and Carden's flat denial. He showed me another
telegram to Carden about Huerta's reported boast that
he would have the backing of London, Paris, and Berlin
against the United States, in which Grey advised Carden
that British policy should be to keep aloof from Huerta's
boasts and plans. Carden denied that Huerta made such
a boast in his statement to the Diplomatic Corps. Grey
wishes the President to know of these telegrams.

Talk then became personal and informal. I went over
the whole subject again, telling how the Press and people
of the United States were becoming critical of the British
Government; that they regarded the problem as wholly
American; that they resented aid to Huerta, whom they
regarded as a mere tyrant; that they suspected British
interests of giving financial help to Huerta; that many
newspapers and persons refused to believe Carden's de-
nial; that the President's policy was not academic but
was the only policy that would square with American

200 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

ideals and that it was unchangeable. I cited our treat-
ment of Cuba. I explained again that I was talking un-
officially and giving him only my own interpretation of
the people's mood. He asked, if the British Government
should withdraw the recognition of Huerta, what would
happen.

"In my opinion," I replied, "he would collapse."
"What would happen then — worse chaos?"
"That is impossible," I said. "There is no worse
chaos than deputies in jail, the dictatorial doubling of the
tariff, the suppression of opinion, and the practical ban-
ishment of independent men. If Huerta should fall,
there is hope that suppressed men and opinion will set up
a successful government."

"Suppose that fail," he asked — "what then?"
I replied that, in case of continued and utter failure,
the United States might feel obliged to repeat its dealings
with Cuba and that the continued excitement of opinion
in the United States might precipitate this.

Grey protested that he knew nothing of what British
interests had done or were doing, that he wished time to
think the matter out and that he was glad to await the
President's communication. He thanked me cordially
for my frank statements and declared that he understood
perfectly their personal nature. I impressed him with
the seriousness of American public opinion.

The last thing that the British Government desired
at this time was a serious misunderstanding with the
United States, on Mexico or any other matter. Yet the
Mexican situation, in early November, 1913, clearly de-
manded a complete cleaning up. The occasion soon pre-
sented itself. Sir William Tyrrell, the private secretary
of Sir Edward Grey sailed, in late October, for the United

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 201

States. The purpose of his visit was not diplomatic, but
Page evidently believed that his presence in the United
States offered too good an opportunity to be lost.

To Edward M. House

Newton Hall, Newton, Cambridge.
Sunday, October 26, 1913.
Dear House :

Sir William Tyrrell, the secretary of Sir Edward Grey —
himself, I think, an M. P. — has gone to the United States
to visit his friend, Sir Cecil Spring Rice. He sailed yes-
terday, going first to Dublin, N. H., thence with the Am-
bassador to Washington. He has never before been to
the United States, and he went off in high glee, alone,
to see it. He's a good fellow, a thoroughly good fellow,
and he's an important man. He of course has Sir Ed-
ward's complete confidence, but he's also a man on
his own account. I have come to reckon it worth
while to get ideas that I want driven home into his
head. It's a good head and a good place to put good
ideas.

The Lord knows you have far too much to do; but in
this juncture I should count it worth your while to pay
him some attention. I want him to get the President's
ideas about Mexico, good and firm and hard. They are
so far from altruistic in their politics here that it would
be a good piece of work to get our ideas and aims into
this man's head. His going gives you and the President
and everybody a capital chance to help me keep our good
American-English understanding.

Whatever happen in Mexico, I'm afraid there will be
a disturbance of the very friendly feeling between the
American people and the English. I am delivering a
series of well-thought-out discourses to Sir Edward —

202 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

with what effect, I don't know. If the American press
could be held in a little, that would be as good as it is
impossible.

I'm now giving the Foreign Office the chance to refrain
from more premature recognizing.

Very hastily yours,

Walter H. Page.

Sir William Tyrrell, to whom Page refers so pleasantly,
was one of the most engaging men personally in the
British Foreign Office, as well as one of the most influen-
tial. Though he came to America on no official mission
to our Government, he was exceptionally qualified to
discuss Mexico and other pending questions with the
Washington Administration. He had an excellent back-
ground, and a keen insight into the human aspects
of all problems, but perhaps his most impressive phys-
ical trait was a twinkling eye, as his most conspicu-
ous mental quality was certainly a sense of humour.
Constant association with Sir Edward Grey had given his
mind a cast not dissimilar to that of his chief — a belief
in ordinary decency in international relations, an enthu-
siasm for the better ordering of the world, a sincere ad-
miration for the United States and a desire to maintain
British- American friendship. In his first encounter with
official Washington Sir William needed all that sense of
the ludicrous with which he is abundantly endowed.
This took the form of a long interview with Secretary
Bryan on the foreign policy of Great Britain. The
Secretary harangued Sir William on the wickedness of
the British Empire, particularly in Egypt and India and
in Mexico. The British oil men, Mr. Bryan declared, were
nothing but the ''paymasters" of the British Cabinet.

"You are wrong," replied the Englishman, who saw

POLICY" AND "PRINCIPLE" IN MEXICO 203

that the only thing to do on an occasion of this kind was
to refuse to take the Secretary seriously. ' ' Lord Cowdray
hasn't money enough. Through a long experience with
corruption the Cabinet has grown so greedy that Cow-
dray hasn't the money necessary to reach their price."

"Ah," said Mr. Bryan, triumphantly, accepting Sir
William's bantering answer as made in all seriousness.
"Then you admit the charge."

From tins he proceeded to denounce Great Britain in
still more unmeasured terms. The British, he declared,
had only one interest in Mexico, and that was oil. The
Foreign Office had simply handed its Mexican policy
over to the "oil barons" for predatory purposes.

"That's just what the Standard Oil people told me in
New York," the British diplomat replied. "Mr. Secre-
tary, you are talking just like a Standard Oil man. The
ideas that you hold are the ones which the Standard Oil
is disseminating. You are pursuing the policy which
they have decided on. Without knowing it you are
promoting the interest of Standard Oil."

Sir William saw that it was useless to discuss Mexico
with Mr. Bryan — that the Secretary was not a thinker
but an emotionalist. However, despite their differences,
the two men liked each other and had a good time. As
Sir William was leaving, he bowed deferentially to the
Secretary of State and said:

"You have stripped me naked, Mr. Secretary, but I
am unashamed."

W7ith President Wilson, however, the Englishman had
a more satisfactory experience. He was delighted by
the President's courtesy, charm, intelligence, and con-
versational powers. The impression which Sir William
obtained of the American President on this occasion re-
mained with him for several years and was itself an

204 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

important element in British- American relations after the
outbreak of the World War. And the visit was a profit-
able one for Mr. Wilson, since he obtained a clear under-
standing of the British policy toward Mexico. Sir William
succeeded in persuading the President that the so-called
oil interests were not dictating the policy of Sir Edward
Grey. That British oil men were active in Mexico was ap-
parent; but they were not using a statesman of so high a
character as Sir Edward Grey for their purposes and would
not be able to do so. The British Government entertained
no ambitions in Mexico that meant unfriendliness to the
United States. In no way was the policy of Great Britain
hostile to our own. In fact, the British recognized the pre-
dominant character of the American interest in Mexico and
were willing to accept any policy in which Washington
would take the lead. All it asked was that British pro-
perty and British fives be protected; once these were
safeguarded Great Britain was ready to stand aside and let
the United States deal with Mexico in its own way.

The one disappointment of this visit was that Sir
William Tyrrell was unable to obtain from President
Wilson any satisfactory statement of his Mexican policy.

"When I go back to England," said the Englishman,
as the interview was approaching an end, "I shall be
asked to explain your Mexican policy. Can you tell me
what it is?"

President Wilson looked at him earnestly and said, in
his most decisive manner:

"I am going to teach the South American Republics to
elect good men!"

This was excellent as a purpose, but it could hardly be
regarded as a programme.

"Yes," replied Sir William, "but, Mr. President, I
shall have to explain this to Englishmen, who, as you

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 205

know, lack imagination. They cannot see what is the
difference between Huerta, Carranza, and Villa."

The only answer he could obtain was that Carranza
was the best of the three and that Villa was not so bad as
he had been painted. But the phrase that remained
with the British diplomat was that one so characteristi-
cally Wilsonian: "I propose to teach the South American
Republics to elect good men." In its attitude, its phras-
ing, it held the key to much Wilson history.

Additional details of this historic interview are given
in Colonel House's letters:

From Edward M. House

145 East 35th Street,

New York City.
November 4, 1913.
Dear Page:

Your cablegram, telling me of the arrival of Sir William
Tyrrell on the Imperator, was handed me on my way to
the train as I left for Washington.

The President talked with me about the Mexican situ-
ation and it looks as if something positive will be done in a
few days unless Huerta abdicates.

It is to be the policy of this Administration henceforth
not to recognize any Central American government that
is not formed along constitutional lines. Anything else
would be a makeshift policy. As you know, revolutions
and assassinations in order to obtain control of govern-
ments are instituted almost wholly for the purpose of
loot and when it is found that these methods will not
bring the desired results, they will cease.

The President also feels strongly in regard to foreign
financial interests seeking to control those unstable gov-
ernments through concessions and otherwise. Tins, too,

206 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

he is determined to discourage as far as it is possible to
do so.

This was a great opportunity for England and America
to get together. You know how strongly we both feel
upon this subject and I do not believe that the President
differed greatly from us, but the recent actions of the
British Government have produced a decided irritation,
which to say the least is unfortunate.

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

145 East 35th Street,

New York City.
November 14, 1913.
Dear Page:

Things have happened quickly since I last wrote to you.

I went to Washington Monday night as the guest of
the Bryans. They have been wanting me to come to
them and I thought this a good opportunity.

I talked the Mexican situation out thoroughly with
him and one of your dispatches came while I was there.
I found that he was becoming prejudiced against the
British Government, believing that their Mexican policy
was based purely upon commercialism, that they were
backing Huerta quietly at the instance of Lord Cowdray,
and that Cowdray had not only already obtained con-
cessions from the Huerta Government, but expected to
obtain others. Sir Lionel Carden was also all to the bad.

I saw the President and Ins views were not very dif-
ferent from those of Mr. Bryan. I asked the President
to permit me to see Sir William Tyrrell and talk to him
frankly and to attempt to straighten the tangle out. He
gave me a free hand.

I lunched with Sir William at the British Embassy al-

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 207

though Sir Cecil Spring Rice was not well enough to be
present. I had a long talk with Sir William after lunch
and found that our suspicions were unwarranted and that
we could get together without any difficulty whatever.

I told him very frankly what our purpose was in Mex-
ico and that we were determined to carry it through if it
was within our power to do so. That being so I suggested
that he get his government to cooperate cordially with
ours rather than to accept our policy reluctantly.

I told him that you and I had dreamed of a sympathetic
alliance between the two countries and that it seemed to
me that tins dream might come true very quickly because
of the President and Sir Edward Grey. He expressed a
willingness to cooperate freely and I told him I would
arrange an early meeting with the President. I thought it
better to bring the President into the game rather than
Mr. Bryan. I told him of the President's attitude upon
the Panama toll question but I touched upon that lightly
and in confidence, preferring for the President himself to
make his own statement.

I left the Bryans in the morning of the luncheon with
Sir William, intending to take an afternoon train for New
York, but the President wanted me to stay with him at the
White House over night and meet Sir William with him
at half past nine the following morning. He was so tired
that I did not have the heart to urge a meeting that night.

From half past nine until half past ten the President
and Sir William repeated to each other what they had
said separately to me, and which I had given to each,
and then the President elaborated upon the toll question
much to the satisfaction of Sir William.

He explained the matter in detail and assured him of
his entire sympathy and purpose to carry out our treaty
obligations, both in the letter and the spirit.

208 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Sir William was very happy after the interview and
when the President left us he remained to talk to me and
to express Ins gratification. He cleared up in the Presi-
dent's mind all suspicion, I think, in regard to concessions
and as to the intentions and purposes of the British Gov-
ernment. He assured the President that his government
would work cordially with ours and that they would do
all that they could to bring about joint pressure through
Germany and France for the elimination of Huerta.

We are going to give them a chance to see what they
can do with Huerta before moving any further. Sir
William thinks that if we are willing to let Huerta save
his face he can be got out without force of arms.

Sir William said that if foreign diplomats could have
heard our conversation they would have fallen in a faint;
it was so frankly indiscreet and undiplomatic. I did not
tell him so, but I had it in the back of my mind that
where people wanted to do right and had the power to
carry out their intentions there was no need to cloak their
thoughts in diplomatic language.

All this makes me very happy for it looks as if we are in
sight of the promised land.

I am pleased to tell you of the compliments that have
been thrown at you by the President, Mr. Bryan, and
Sir William. They were all enthusiastic over your work
in London and expressed the keenest appreciation of the
way in which you have handled matters. Sir William
told me that he did not remember an American Am-
bassador that was your equal.

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

So far as a meeting between a British diplomat and the
President of the United States could solve the Mexican

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 209

problem, that problem was apparently solved. The
dearest wish of Mr. Wilson, the elimination of Huerta,
seemed to be approaching realization, now that he had
persuaded Great Britain to support him in this enter-
prise. Whether Sir William Tyrrell, or Sir Edward
Grey, had really become converted to the President's
"idealistic" plans for Mexico is an entirely different
question. At this time there was another matter in
which Great Britain's interest was even greater than in
Mexico. These letters have already contained reference to
tolls on the Panama Canal. Colonel House's letter shows
that the President discussed this topic with Sir William
Tyrrell and gave him assurances that this would be
settled on terms satisfactory to Great Britain. It can-
not be maintained that that assurance was really the
consideration which paved the way to an understanding
on Huerta. The conversation was entirely informal;
indeed, it could not be otherwise, for Sir William Tyrrell
brought no credentials ; there could be no definite bargain
or agreement, but there is little question that Mr. Wilson's
friendly disposition toward British shipping through the
Panama Canal made it easy for Great Britain to give him
a free hand in Mexico.

A few days after this White House interview Sir
Lionel Carden performed what must have been for him
an uncongenial duty. This loquacious minister led a
procession of European diplomats to General Huerta,
formally advised that warrior to yield to the American
demands and withdraw from the Presidency of Mexico.
The delegation informed the grim dictator that their
governments were supporting the American policy and
Sir Lionel brought him the unwelcome news that he could
not depend upon British support. About the same time
Premier Asquith made conciliatory remarks on Mexico

210 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

at the Guildhall banquet. He denied that the British
Government had undertaken any policy "deliberately
opposed to that of the United States. There is no vestige
of foundation for such a rumour." These events changed
the atmosphere at Washington, which now became al-
most as cordial to Great Britain as it had for several
months been suspicious.

To Edward M. House

London, November 15, 1913.
Dear House:

All's well here. The whole trouble was caused not
here but in Mexico City; and that is to be remedied yet.
And it will be ! For the moment it is nullified. But you
need give yourself no concern about the English Govern-
ment or people, in the long run. It is taking them some
time to see the vast difference between acting by a
principle and acting by what they call a "policy." They
and we ourselves too have from immemorial time been
recognizing successful adventurers, and they didn't in-
stantly understand this new "idealistic" move; they
didn't know the man at the helm! I preached many
sermons to our friend, I explained the difference to many
private groups, I made after-dinner speeches leading right
up to the point — as far as I dared, I inspired many news-
paper articles; and they see it now and have said it and
have made it public ; and the British people are enthusias-
tic as far as they understand it.

And anybody concerned here understands the language
that the President speaks now. You mustn't forget that
in all previous experiences in Latin America we ourselves
have been as much to blame as anybody else. Now Ave
have a clear road to travel, a policy based on character
to follow forever — a new era. Our dealing with Cuba was

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 211

a new chapter in the history of the world. Our dealing
with Mexico is Chapter II of the same Revelation. Tell
em this in Washington.

The remaining task will be done too and I think pretty
soon. For that I need well-loaded shells. I'll supply
the gunpowder.

And don't you concern yourself about the English.
They're all right — a little slow, but all right.

Heartily yours,

Walter H. Page.

To Edward M. House

Newtimber Place, Hassocks, Sussex,
Sunday, November 23, 1913.
Dear House:

Your letter telling me about Tyrrell and the President
brought me great joy. Tyrrell is in every way a square
fellow, much like his Chief; and, you may depend on it,
they are playing fair — in their slow way. They always
think of India and of Egypt — never of Cuba. Lord!
Lord! the fun I've had, the holy joy I am having (I never
expected to have such exalted and invigorating felicity)
in delivering elementary courses of instruction in de-
mocracy to the British Government. Deep down at the
bottom, they don't know what Democracy means.
Their Empire is in the way. Their centuries of land-
stealing are in the way. Their unsleeping watchfulness
of British commerce is in the way. 'You say you'll
shoot men into self-government," said Sir Edward.
"Doesn't that strike you as comical?" And I answered,
"It is comical only to the Briton and to others who have
associated shooting with subjugation. We associate
shooting with freedom." Half this blessed Sunday at
this country house I have been ramming the idea down

212 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the throat of the Lord Chancellor.1 He sees it, too, being
a Scotchman. I take the members of the Government,
as I get the chance or can make it, and go over with them
the A B C of the President's principle: no territorial
annexation; no trafficking with tyrants; no stealing of
American governments by concession or financial thimble-
rigging. They'll not recognize another Huerta — they're
sick of that. And they'll not endanger our friendship.
They didn't see the idea in the beginning. Of course
the real trouble has been in Mexico City— Carden. They
don't know yet just what he did. But they will, if I
can find out. I haven't yet been able to make them tell
me at Washington. Washington is a deep hole of silence
toward ambassadors. By gradual approaches, I'm going
to prove that Carden can do — and in a degree has al-
ready done — as much harm as Bryce did good — and all
about a paltry few hundreds of million dollars' worth of
oil. What the devil does the oil or the commerce of
Mexico or the investments there amount to in com-
parison with the close friendship of the two nations?
Carden can't be good long: he'll break out again pres-
ently. He has no political imagination. That's a rather
common disease here, too. Few men have. It's good
fun. I'm inviting the Central and South American
Ministers to lunch with me, one by one, and I'm in-
cidentally loading them up. I have all the boys in the
Embassy full of zeal and they are tackling the Secretaries
of the Central and South American legations. We've
got a principle now to deal by with them. They'll see
after a while.

English people are all right, too— except the Doc-
trinaires. They write much rank ignorance. But the
learned men learn things last of all.

discount Haldane, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain since 1912.

"policy" and "principle" IN MEXICO 213

I thank you heartily for your good news about Tyrrell,
about the President (but I'm sorry he's tired: make him
quit eating meat and play golf) ; about the Panama tolls ;
about the Currency Bill (my love to McAdoo) ; about my
own little affairs. — We are looking with the very greatest
pleasure to the coming of the young White House couple.
I've got two big dinners for them — Sir Edward, the Lord
Chancellor, a duchess or two, some good folk, Ruth
Bryan, a couple of ambassadors, etc., etc., etc. Then
we'll take 'em to a literary speaking-feast or two, have
'em invited to a few great houses; then we'll give 'em
another dinner, and then we'll get a guide for them to
see all the reforming institutions in London, to their
hearts' content — lots of fun.

Lots of fun : I got the American Society for its Thanks-
giving dinner to invite the Lord Chancellor to respond
to a toast to the President. He's been to the United
States lately and he is greatly pleased. So far, so good.
Then I came down here — where he, too, is staying. After
five or six hours' talk about everything else he said,
"By the way, your countrymen have invited me," etc.,
etc. "Now what would be appropriate to talk about?"
Then I poured him full of the New Principle as regards
Central and South America; for, if he will talk on that,
what he says will be reported and read on both conti-
nents. He's a foxy Scot, and he didn't say he would, but
he said that he'd consider it. "Consider it" means that
he will confer with Sir Edward. I'm beginning to learn
their vocabulary. Anyhow the Lord Chancellor is in
fine.

It's good news you send always. Keep it up — keep
it up. The volume of silence that I get is oppressive.
You remember the old nigger that wished to pick a quarrel
with another old nigger? Nigger No. 1 swore and stormed

214 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

at nigger No. 2, and kept on swearing and storming,
hoping to provoke him. Nigger No. 2 said not a word,
but kept at his work. Nigger No. 1 swore and stormed
more. Nigger No. 2 said not a word. Nigger No. 1
frothed still more. Nigger No. 2, still silent. Nigger
No. 1 got desperate and said: "Look here, you kinky-
headed, flat-nosed, slab-footed nigger, I warns you 'fore
God, don't you keep givin' me none o' your damned
silence!" I wish you'd tell all my friends that story.

Always heartily yours,

Walter H. Page.

CHAPTER VII

PERSONALITIES OF THE MEXICAN PROBLEM

PAGE'S remarks about the "trouble in Mexico City"
and the "remaining task" refer, of course, to Sir
Lionel Carden. "As I make Carden out," he wrote about
this time, "he's a slow-minded, unimaginative, com-
mercial Briton, with as much nimbleness as an elephant.
British commerce is his deity, British advantage his duty
and mission ; and he goes about his work with blunt dull-
ness and ineptitude. That's his mental calibre as I read
him — a dull, commercial man."

Although Sir Lionel Carden had been compelled to
harmonize himself with the American policy, Page re-
garded his continued presence in Mexico City as a stand-
ing menace to British- American relations. He there-
fore set himself to accomplish the minister's removal.
The failure of President Taft's attempt to obtain Car-
den's transfer from Havana, in 1912, showed that Page's
new enterprise was a delicate and difficult one; yet he
did not hesitate.

The part that the wives of diplomats and statesmen
play in international relations is one that few Americans
understand. Yet in London, the Ambassador's wife is
almost as important a person as the Ambassador him-
self. An event which now took place in the American
Embassy emphasized this point. A certain lady, well
known in London, called upon Mrs. Page and gave her
a message on Mexican affairs for the Ambassador's

215

216 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

benefit. The purport was that the activities of certain
British commercial interests in Mexico, if not checked,
would produce a serious situation between Great Britain
and the United States. The lady in question was herself
a sincere worker for Anglo-American amity, and this
was the motive that led her to take an unusual step.

"It's all being done for the benefit of one man," she
said.

The facts were presented in the form of a memorandum,
which Mrs. Page copied and gave the Ambassador. This,
in turn, Page sent to President Wilson.

To Edward M. House

London, November 26, 1913.
Dear House:

Won't you read the enclosed and get it to the President?
It is somewhat extra-official but it is very confidential,
and I have a special reason for wishing it to go through
your hands. Perhaps it will interest you.

The lady that wrote it is one of the very best-informed
women I know, one of those active and most influential
women in the high political society of this Kingdom,
at whose table statesmen and diplomats meet and im-
portant things come to pass. . . .

I am sure she has no motive but the avowed one.
She has taken a liking to Mrs. Page and this is merely a
friendly and patriotic act.

I had heard most of the things before as gossip — never
before as here put together by a responsible hand.

Mrs. Page went to see her and, as evidence of our ap-
preciation and safety, gave the original back to her.
We have kept no copy, and I wish this burned, if you
please. It would raise a riot here, if any breath of it
were to get out, that would put bedlam to shame.

PERSONALITIES OF THE MEXICAN PROBLEM 217

Lord Cowdray has been to see me for four successive
days. I have a suspicion (though I don't know) that,
instead of his running the Government, the Government
has now tinned the tables and is running him. His
government contract is becoming a bad thing to sleep
with. He told me this morning that he (through Lord
Murray) had withdrawn the request for any concession
in Colombia.1 I congratulated him. "That, Lord Cow-
dray, will save you as well as some other people I know
a good deal of possible trouble." I have explained to
him the whole New Principle in extenso, "so that you
may see clearly where the line of danger runs." Lord!
how he's changed! Several weeks ago when I ran across
him accidentally he was humorous, almost cynical. Now
he's very serious. I explained to him that the only thing
that had kept South America from being parcelled out as
Africa has been is the Monroe Doctrine and the United
States behind it. He granted that.

"In Monroe's time," said I, "the only way to take a
part of South America was to take land. Now finance
has new ways of its own!"

"Perhaps," said he.

"Right there," I answered, "where you put your
'perhaps,' I put a danger signal. That, I assure you,
you will read about in the histories as 'The Wilson
Doctrine'!"

You don't know how easy it all is with our friend and
leader in command. I've almost grown bold. You feel
steady ground beneath you. They are taking to their
tents.

"What's going to happen in Mexico City?"

JThis was another manifestation of British friendliness. When the American
excitement was most acute, it became known that British capitalists had secured
oil concessions in Colombia. At the demand of the British Government they
gave them up.

218 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

"A peaceful tragedy, followed by emancipation."
"And the great industries of Mexico?'*
"They will not have to depend on adventurers' fa-
vours!"

"But in the meantime, what?"
"Patience, looking towards justice!"

Yours heartily and in health (you bet!)

W. H. P.

From Edward M. House

145 East 35th Street,

New York City.
December 12, 1913.
Dear Page:

Your budget under dates, November 15th, 23rd, and
26th came to me last week, just after the President had
been here. I saved the letters until I went to Washington,
from which place I have just returned.

The President has been in bed for nearly a week and
Doctor Grayson permitted no one to see him but me.
Yesterday before I left he was feeling so well that I
asked him if he did not want to feel better and then I
read him your letters. Mrs. Wilson was present.

I cannot tell you how pleased he was. He laughed re-
peatedly at the different comments you made and he was
delighted with what you had to say concerning Lord
Cowdray. We do not love him for we think that be-
tween Cowdray and Carden a large part of our troubles in
Mexico has been made. Your description of his attitude
at the beginning and his present one pleased us much.

After I had read the confidential letter the President
said "now let me see if I have the facts." He then re-
cited them in consecutive order just as the English lady
had written them, almost using the same phrases, show ing

PERSONALITIES OF THE MEXICAN PROBLEM 219

the well-trained mind that he has. I then dropped the
letter in the grate.

He enjoyed heartily the expression "Washington is a
deep hole of silence towards ambassadors," and again
"The volume of silence that I get is oppressive," and of
course the story apropos of this last remark.

I was with him for more than an hour and he was dis-
tinctly better when I left. I hated to look at him in
bed for I could not help realizing what his life means to
the Democratic Party, to the Nation and almost to the
world.

Of course you know that I only read your letters to
him. Mr. Bryan was my guest on Wednesday and I
returned to Washington with him but I made no mention
of our correspondence and I never have. The President
seems to like our way of doing things and further than
that I do not care.

Upon my soul I do not believe the President could be
better pleased than he is with the work you are doing.

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

From now on the Ambassador exerted a round-about
pressure — the method of "gradual approach" already re-
ferred to — upon the Foreign Office for Carden's removal.
An extract from a letter to the President gives a hint
concerning this method :

I have already worked upon Sir Edward's mind about
his Minister to Mexico as far as I could. Now that the
other matter is settled and while Carden is behaving, I
go at it. Two years ago Mr. Knox made a bad blunder
in protesting against Carden's " an ti- Americanism" in
Cuba. Mr. Knox sent Mr. Reid no definite facts nor even

220 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

accusations to base a protest on. The result was a failure
— a bad failure. I have again asked Mr. Bryan for all
the definite reports he has heard about Carden. That
man, in my judgment, has caused nine tenths of the
trouble here.

Naturally Page did not ask the Minister's removal
directly — that would have been an unpardonable blun-
der. His meetings during this period with Sir Edward
were taking place almost every day, and Carden, in
one way or another, kept coming to the front in their
conversation. Sir Edward, like Page, would sacrifice
much in the cause of Anglo-American relations; Page
would occasionally express his regret that the Brit-
ish Minister to Mexico was not a man who shared
their enthusiasm on this subject; in numerous other ways
the impression was conveyed that the two countries
could solve the Mexican entanglement much better if a
more congenial person represented British interests in
the Southern Republic. This reasoning evidently pro-
duced the desired results. In early January, 1914, a
hint was unofficially conveyed to the American Ambas-
sador that Carden was to be summoned to London for
a "conversation" with Sir Edward Grey, and that his
return to Mexico would depend upon the outcome of that
interview. There was a likelihood that, in future, Sir
Lionel Carden would represent the British Empire in
Brazil.

This news, sent in discreet cipher to Washington, de-
lighted the Administration. "It is fine about Carden,"
wrote Colonel House on January 10th. " I knew you had
done it when I saw it in the papers, but I did not know just
how. You could not have brought it about in a more
diplomatic and effectual way."

PERSONALITIES OF THE MEXICAN PROBLEM 221

And the following came from the President:

From President Wilson

Pass Christian,
January 6, 1914.
My dear Page :

I have your letter of December twenty-first, which I
have greatly enjoyed.

Almost at the very time I was reading it, the report
came through the Associated Press from London that
Carden was to be transferred immediately to Brazil.
If this is true, it is indeed a most fortunate thing and I
feel sure it is to be ascribed to your tactful and yet very
plain representations to Sir Edward Grey. I do not
think you realize how hard we worked to get from either
Lind or O'Shaughnessy1 definite items of speech or con-
duct which we could furnish you as material for what you
had to say to the Ministers about Carden. It simply
was not obtainable. Everything that we got was at
second or third hand. That he was working against
us was too plain for denial, and yet he seems to have done
it in a very astute way which nobody could take direct
hold of. I congratulate you with all my heart on his
transference.

I long, as you do, for an opportunity to do constructive
work all along the line in our foreign relations, particu-
larly with Great Britain and the Latin-American states,
but surely, my dear felloAv, you are deceiving yourself in
supposing that constructive work is not now actually going
on, and going on at your hands quite as much as at ours.
The change of attitude and the growing ability to under-
stand what we are thinking about and purposing on the
part of the official circle in London is directly attributable

'Mr. Nelson 0'Shaughne«sy, Charge d' Affaires in Mexico.

222 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

to what you have been doing, and I feel more and more
grateful every day that you are our spokesman and in-
terpreter there. This is the only possible constructive
work in foreign affairs, aside from definite acts of policy.

So far as the policy is concerned, you may be sure I
will strive to the utmost to obtain both a repeal of the
discrimination in the matter of tolls and a renewal of the
arbitration treaties, and I am not without hope that I
can accomplish both at this session. Indeed this is the
session in which these things must be done if they are to
be done at all.

Back of the smile which came to my face when you
spoke of the impenetrable silence of the State Department
toward its foreign representatives lay thoughts of very
serious concern. We must certainly manage to keep our
foreign representatives properly informed. The real
trouble is to conduct genuinely confidential correspond-
ence except through private letters, but surely the thing
can be changed and it will be if I can manage it.

We are deeply indebted to you for your kindness and
generous hospitality to our young folks1 and we have
learned with delight through your letters and theirs of
their happy days in England.

With deep regard and appreciation,

Cordially and faithfully yours,

Woodrow Wilson.
Hon. Walter H. Page,

American Embassy,
London, England.

Yet for the American Ambassador the experience was
not one of unmixed satisfaction. These letters have
contained references to the demoralized condition of the

!Mr. and Mrs. Francis B. Sayre.

PERSONALITIES OF THE MEXICAN PROBLEM 223

State Department under Mr. Bryan and the succeeding
ones will contain more; the Carden episode portrayed the
stupidity and ignorance of that Department at their
worst. By commanding Carden to cease his anti-
American tactics and to support the American policy the
Foreign Office had performed an act of the utmost
courtesy and consideration to this country. By quietly
"promoting" the same minister to another sphere,
several thousand miles away from Mexico and Washing-
ton, it was now preparing to eliminate all possible causes
of friction between the two countries. The British, that
is, had met the wishes of the United States in the two
great matters that were then making serious trouble —
Huerta and Carden. Yet no government, Great Britain
least of all, wishes to be placed in the position of moving
its diplomats about at the request of another Power.
The whole deplorable story appears in the following
letter.

To Edward M. House

January 8th, 1914.
My dear House:

Two days ago I sent a telegram to the Department
saying that I had information from a private, unofficial
source that the report that Carden would be transferred
was true, and from another source that Marling would
succeed him. The Government here has given out
nothing. I know nothing from official sources. Of
course the only decent thing to do at Washington was to
sit still till this Government should see fit to make an
announcement. But what do they do? Give my tele-
gram to the press! It appears here almost verbatim in
this morning's Mail. — I have to make an humiliating
explanation to the Foreign Office. This is the third

224 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

time I've had to make such an humiliating explanation
to Sir Edward. It's getting a little monotonous. He's
getting tired, and so am I. They now deny at the Foreign
Office that anything has been decided about Carden, and
this meddling by us (as they look at it) will surely cause
a delay and may even cause a change of purpose.

That's the practical result of their leaking at Washing-
ton. On a previous occasion they leaked the same way.
When I telegraphed a remonstrance, they telegraphed
back to me that the leak had been here! That was the
end of it — except that I had to explain to Sir Edward the
best I could. And about a lesser matter, I did the same
thing a third time, in a conversation. Three times this
sort of thing has happened. — On the other hand, the
King's Master of Ceremonies called on me on the Presi-
dent's Birthday and requested for His Majesty that I
send His Majesty's congratulations. Just ten days
passed before a telegraphic answer came! The very
hour it came, I was myself making up an answer for the
President that I was going to send, to save our face.

Now, I'm trying with all my might to do this job. I
spend all my time, all my ingenuity, all my money at it.
I have organized my staff as a sort of Cabinet. We meet
every day. We go over everything conceivable that we
may do or try to do. We do good team work. I am not
sure but I doubt whether these secretaries have before
been taken into just such a relation to their chief. They
are enthusiastic and ambitious and industrious and —
safe. There's no possibility of any leak. We arrange
our dinners with reference to the possibility of getting
information and of carrying points. Mrs. Page gives and
accepts invitations with the same end in view. We're on
the job to the very limit of our abilities.

And I've got the Foreign Office in such a relation that

PERSONALITIES OF THE MEXICAN PROBLEM 225

they are frank and friendly. (I can't keep 'em so, if
this sort of thing goes on.)

Now the State Department seems (as it touches us) to
be utterly chaotic — silent when it ought to respond,
loquacious when it ought to be silent. There are ques-
tions that I have put to it at this Government's request
to which I can get no answer.

It's hard to keep my staff enthusiastic under these
conditions. When I reached the Chancery this morning,
they were in my room, with all the morning papers
marked, on the table, eagerly discussing what we ought
to do about this publication of my dispatch. The en-
thusiasm and buoyancy were all gone out of them. By
their looks they said, " Oh ! what's the use of our bestirring
ourselves to send news to Washington when they use it to
embarrass us?" — While we are thus at work, the only
two communications from the Department to-day are
two letters from two of the Secretaries about — presenting
"Democratic" ladies from Texas and Oklahoma at court!
And Bryan is now lecturing in Kansas.

Since I began to write this letter, Lord Cowdray came
here to the house and stayed two and a half hours, talking
about possible joint intervention in Mexico. Possibly
he came from the Foreign Office. I don't know whether
to dare send a despatch to the State Department, telling
what he told me, for fear they'd leak. And to leak this —
Good Lord ! Two of the Secretaries were here to dinner,
and I asked them if I should send such a despatch. They
both answered instantly: "No, sir, don't dare: write it
to the President." I said: "No, I have no right to
bother the President with regular business nor with fre-
quent letters." To that they agreed; but the interesting
and somewhat appalling thing is, they're actually afraid to
have a confidential despatch go to the State Department.

226 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

I see nothing to do but to suggest to the President to
put somebody in the Department who will stay there and
give intelligent attention to the diplomatic telegrams
and letters — some conscientious assistant or clerk. For
I hear mutterings, somewhat like these mutterings of
mine, from some of the continental embassies.— The whole
thing is disorganizing and demoralizing beyond descrip-
tion.

All these and more are my troubles. I'll take care of
them. But remember what I am going to write on the
next sheet. For here may come a trouble for you:

Mrs. Page has learned something more about Secretary
Bryan's proposed visit here in the spring. He's coming to
talk his peace plan which, you know, is a sort of grape-
juice arbitration — a distinct step backward from a real
arbitration treaty. Well, if he comes with that, when you
come to talk about reducing armaments, you'll wish
you'd never been born. Get your ingenuity together,
then, and prevent that visit.1

Not the least funny thing in the world is — Senator X
turned up to-day. As he danced around the room beg-
ging everybody's pardon (nobody knew what for) he
complimented everybody in sight, explained the forged
letter, dilated on state politics, set the Irish question on
the right end, cleared Bacon2 of all hostility to me, de-
clined tea because he had insomnia and explained just-
how it works to keep you awake, danced more and de-
clared himself happy and bowed himself out — well
pleased. He's as funny a cuss as I've seen in many a day.
Lord Cowdray, who was telling Mexican woes to Katha-
rine in the corner, looked up and asked, "Who's the little

1Colonpl House succeeded in preventing it.

2Senator Augustus O. Bacon, of Georgia who was reported to nourish ill-feeling
toward Page for his authorship of " The Southerner."

PERSONALITIES OF THE MEXICAN PROBLEM 227

dancing gentleman? " Suppose X had known he was
dancing for — Lord Cowdray's amusement, what do y' sup-
pose he'd 've thought? There are some strange com-
binations in our house on Mrs. Page's days at home.
Cowdray has, I am sure, lost (that is, failed to make) a
hundred million dollars that he had within easy reach by
this Wilson Doctrine, but he's game. He doesn't he
awake. He's a dead-game sport, and he knows he's
knocked out in that quarter and he doesn't squeal. His
experiences will serve us many a good turn in the future —
as a warning. I rather like him. He eats out of my
hand in the afternoon and has one of his papers jump on
me in the morning. Some time in the twenty-four hours,
he must attain about the normal temperature — say
about noon. He admires the President greatly — sin-
cerely. Force meets force, you see. With the President
behind me I could really enjoy Cowdray centuries after
X had danced himself into oblivion.

By the way, Cowdray said to me to-day: "Whatever
the United States and Great Britain agree on the world
must do." He's right. (1) The President must come
here, perhaps in his second term; (2) these two Govern-
ments must enter a compact for peace and for gradual
disarmament. Then we can go about our business for

(say) a hundred years. TT „

Heartily, w R p

In spite of the continued pressure of the United States
and the passive support of its anti-Huerta policy by
Great Britain, the Mexican usurper refused to resign.
President Wilson now began to espouse the interests of
Villa and Carranza. His letters to Page indicate that
he took these men at their own valuation, believed that
they were sincere patriots working for the cause of

228 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

"democracy" and "constitutionalism" and that their tri-
umph would usher in a day of enlightenment and progress
for Mexico. It was the opinion of the Foreign Office
that Villa and Carranza were worse men than Huerta
and that any recognition of their revolutionary activities
would represent no moral gain.

From the President

The White House, Washington,
May 18, 1914.
My dear Page:

. . . As to the attitude of mind on that side of the
water toward the Constitutionalists, it is based upon preju-
dices which cannot be sustained by the facts. I am enclos-
ing a copy of an interview by a Mr. Reid1 which appeared
in one of the afternoon papers recently and which sums up
as well as they could be summed up my own conclusions
with regard to the issues and the personnel of the pend-
ing contest in Mexico. I can verify it from a hundred
different sources, most of them sources not in the least
touched by predilections for such men as our friends in
London have supposed Carranza and Villa to be.

Cordially and faithfully yours,

Woodrow Wilson.
Hon. Walter H. Page,
U. S. Embassy,
London, England.

The White House, Washington,
June 1, 1914.
My dear Page:

. . . The fundamental thing is that they (British
critics of Villa) are all radically mistaken. There has

iProbably an error for John Reed, at that time a newspaper correspondent in
Mexico — afterward well known as a champion of the Bolshevist regime in Russia.

PERSONALITIES OF THE MEXICAN PROBLEM 229

been less disorder and less danger to life where the Con-
stitutionalists have gained control than there has been
where Huerta is in control. I should think that if they
are getting correct advices from Tampico, people in
England would be very much enlightened by what has
happened there. Before the Constitutionalists took the
place there was constant danger to the oil properties
and to foreign residents. Now there is no danger
and the men who felt obliged to leave the oil wells to
their Mexican employees are returning, to find, by
the way, that their Mexican employees guarded them
most faithfully without wages, and in some instances
almost without food. I am told that the Constitution-
alists cheered the American flag when they entered Tam-
pico.

I believe that Mexico City will be much quieter and a
much safer place to live in after the Constitutionalists
get there than it is now. The men who are approaching
and are sure to reach it are much less savage and much
more capable of government than Huerta.

These, I need not tell you, are not fancies of mine but
conclusions I have drawn from facts which are at last
becoming very plain and palpable, at least to us on this
side of the water. If they are not becoming plain in
Great Britain, it is because their papers are not serving
them with the truth. Our own papers were prejudiced
enough in all conscience against Villa and Carranza and
everything that was happening in the north of Mexico,
but at last the light is dawning on them in spite of them-
selves and they are beginning to see things as they really
are. I would be as nervous and impatient as your
friends in London are if I feared the same things that they
fear, but I do not. I am convinced that even Zapata
would restrain his followers and leave, at any rate, all

230 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

foreigners and all foreign property untouched if he were
the first to enter Mexico City.

Cordially and faithfully yours,

Woodrow Wilson.
Hon. Walter H. Page,
American Embassy,
London, England.

On this issue, however, the President and his Ambas-
sador to Great Britain permanently disagreed. The
events which took place in April, 1914 — the insult to the
American flag at Tampico, the bombardment and capture
of Vera Cruz by American forces — made stronger Page's
conviction, already set forth in this correspondence, that
there was only one solution of the Mexican problem.

To Edward M. House

April 27, 1914.
Dear House:

. . . And, as for war with Mexico — I confess I've
had a continually growing fear of it for six months. I've
no confidence in the Mexican leaders — none of 'em. We
shall have to Cuba-ize the country, which means thrash-
ing 'em first — I fear, I fear, I fear; and I feel sorry for us
all, the President in particular. It's inexpressibly hard
fortune for him. I can't tell you with what eager fear
we look for despatches every day and twice a day hurry
to get the newspapers. All England believes we've got
to fight it out.

Well, the English are with us, you see. Admiral
Cradock, I understand, does not approve our policy, but
he stands firmly with us whatever we do. The word to
stand firmly with us has, I am very sure, been passed
along the whole line — naval, newspaper, financial, dip-

PERSONALITIES OF THE MEXICAN PROBLEM 231

iomatic. Garden won't give us any more trouble during
the rest of his stay in Mexico. The yellow press's abuse
of the President and me has actually helped us here.

Heartily yours,

W H. P.

CHAPTER VIII

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA

IN THE early part of January, 1914, Colonel House
wrote Page, asking whether he would consider favour-
ably an offer to enter President Wilson's Cabinet, as
Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. David F. Houston, who
was then most acceptably filling that position, was also
an authority on banking and finance; the plan was to
make him governor of the new Federal Reserve Board,
then in process of formation, and to transfer Page to the
vacant place in the Cabinet. The proposal was not
carried through, but Page's reply took the form of a re-
view of his ambassadorship up to date, of his vexations,
his embarrassments, his successes, and especially of the
very important task which still lay before him. There
were certain reasons, it will appear, why he would have
liked to leave London; and there was one impelling reason
why he preferred to stay. From the day of his arrival
in England, Page had been humiliated, and his work had
been constantly impeded, by the almost studied neglect
with which Washington treated its diplomatic service.
The fact that the American Government provided no
official residence for its Ambassador, and no adequate
financial allowance for maintaining the office, had made
his position almost an intolerable one. All Page's pre-
decessors for twenty-five years had been rich men who
could advance the cost of the Embassy from their own
private purses; to meet these expenses, however, Page
had been obliged to encroach on the savings of a life-

232

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 233

time, and such liberality on his part necessarily had its
limitations.

To Edward M. House

London, England,
February 13, 1914.
My dear House:

. . . Of course I am open to the criticism of having
taken the place at all. But I was both uninformed and
misinformed about the cost as well as about the frightful
handicap of having no Embassy. It's a kind of scandal
in London and it has its serious effect. Everybody talks
about it all the time: "Will you explain to me why it is
that your great Government has no Embassy: it's very
odd ! " " What a frugal Government you have ! " " It 's a
damned mean outfit, your American Government." Mrs.
Page collapses many an evening when she gets to her room.
" If they'd only quit talking about it ! " The other Ambas-
sadors, now that we're coming to know them fairly well,
commiserate us. It's a constant humiliation. Of course
this aspect of it doesn't worry me much — I've got hard-
ened to it. But it is a good deal of a real handicap, and
it adds that much dead weight that a man must over-
come; and it greatly lessens the respect in which our
Government and its Ambassador are held. If I had
known this fully in advance, I should not have had the
courage to come here. Now, of course, I've got used
to it, have discounted it, and can "bull" it through —
could "bull" it through if I could afford to pay the bill.
But I shouldn't advise any friend of mine to come here
and face this humiliation without realizing precisely what
it means — wholly apart, of course, from the cost of
it. . . .

My dear House, on the present basis much of the. dip-

234 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

lomatic business is sheer humbug. It will always be so
till we have our own Embassies and an established posi-
tion in consequence. Without a home or a house or a
fixed background, every man has to establish his own posi-
tion for himself; and unless he be unusual, this throws
him clean out of the way of giving emphasis to the right
things. . . .

As for our position, I think I don't fool myself. The
job at the Foreign Office is easy because there is no real
trouble between us, and because Sir Edward Grey is
pretty nearly an ideal man to get on with. I think he
likes me, too, because, of course, I'm straightforward and
frank with him, and he likes the things we stand for.
Outside this official part of the job, of course, we're com-
monplace— a successful commonplace, I hope. But that's
all. We don't know how to try to be anything but what
we naturally are. I dare say we are laughed at here and
there about this and that. Sometimes I hear criticisms,
now and then more or less serious ones. Much of it
comes of our greenness; some of it from the very nature
of the situation. Those who expect to find us brilliant
are, of course, disappointed. Nor are we smart, and the
smart set (both American and English) find us uninter-
esting. But we drive ahead and keep a philosophical
temper and simply do the best we can, and, you may be
sure, a good deal of it. It is laborious. For instance,
I've made two trips lately to speak before important
bodies, one at Leeds, the other at Newcastle, at both
of which, in different ways, I have tried to explain the
President's principle in dealing with Central American
turbulent states— and, incidentally, the American ideals
of government. The audiences see it, approve it, ap-
plaud it. The newspaper editorial writers never quite
go the length— it involves a denial of the divine right of

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 235

the British Empire; at least they fear so. The fewest
possible Englishmen really understand our governmental
aims and ideals. I have delivered unnumbered and in-
numerable little speeches, directly or indirectly, about
them; and they seem to like them. But it would take
an army of oratorical ambassadors a lifetime to get the
idea into the heads of them all. In some ways they are
incredibly far back in mediae valism — incredibly.

If I have to leave in the fall or in December, it will be
said and thought that I've failed, unless there be some
reason that can be made public. I should be perfectly
willing to tell the reason — the failure of the Government
to make it financially possible. I've nothing to conceal
— only definite amounts. I'd never say what it has cost
— only that it costs more than I or anybody but a rich
man can afford. If then, or in the meantime, the Presi-
dent should wish me to serve elsewhere, that would, of
course, be a sufficient reason for my going.

Now another matter, with which I shall not bother the
President — he has enough to bear on that score. It was
announced in one of the London papers the other day
that Mr. Bryan would deliver a lecture here, and prob-
ably in each of the principal European capitals, on Peace.
Now, God restrain me from saying, much more from
doing, anything rash. But if I've got to go home at all,
I'd rather go before he comes. It'll take years for the
American Ambassadors to recover what they'll lose if
he carry out this plan. They now laugh at him here.
Only the President's great personality saves the situation
in foreign relations. Of course the public here doesn't
know how utterly unorganized the State Department is —
how we can't get answers to important questions, and
how they publish most secret despatches or allow them to
leak out. But "bad breaks" like this occur. Mr. Z,

236 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

of the lOO-years'-Peace Committee,1 came here a week
ago, with a letter from Bryan to the Prime Minister ! Z told
me that this 100-year business gave a chance to bind the
nations together that ought not to be missed. Hence Bryan
had asked him to take up the relations of the countries
with the Prime Minister! Bryan sent a telegram to Z
to be read at a big 100-year meeting here. As for the
personal indignity to me — I overlook that. I don't think
he means it. But if he doesn't mean it, what does he mean ?
That's what the Prime Minister asks himself. Fortunately
Mr. Asquith and I get along mighty well. He met Bryan
once, and he told me with a smile that he regarded him as
" a peculiar product of your country." But the Secretary
is always doing things like this. He dashes off letters of
introduction to people asking me to present them to Mr.
Asquith, Mr. Lloyd George, etc.

In the United States we know Mr. Bryan. We know
his good points, his good services, his good intentions.
We not only tolerate him; we like him. But when he
comes here as "the American Prime Minister"2 — good-
bye, John! All that we've tried to do to gain respect for
our Government (as they respect our great nation) will
disappear in one day. Of course they'll feel obliged to
give him big official dinners, etc. And

Now you'd just as well abandon your trip if he comes;
and (I confess) I'd rather be gone. No member of an-
other government ever came here and lectured. T. R.
did it as a private citizen, and even then he split the
heavens asunder.3 Most Englishmen will regard it as a

iThe Committee to celebrate the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of
Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. The plan to make this an elaborate com-
memoration of a 100 years' peace between the English-speaking peoples was upset
by the outbreak of the World War.

2This was the designation Mr. Bryan's admirers sometimes gave him.

3The reference is to President Roosevelt's speech at the Guildhall in June, 1910.

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 237

piece of effrontery. Of course, I'm not in the least con-
cerned about mere matters of taste. It's only the bigger
effects that I have in mind in queering our Government in
their eyes. He must be kept at home on the Mexican
problem, or some other.

Yours faithfully,

Walter H. Page.

P. S. But, by George, it's a fine game! This Govern-
ment and ours are standing together all right, especially
since the President has taken hold of our foreign relations
himself. With such a man at the helm at home, we can
do whatever we wish to do with the English, as I've often
told you. (But it raises doubts every time the shoe-
string necktie, broad-brimmed black hat, oratorical, old-
time, River Platte kind of note is heard.) We've come
a long way in a year — a very joyful long way, full of
progress and real understanding; there's no doubt about
that. A year ago they knew very well the failure that
had saddled them with the tolls trouble and the failure
of arbitration, and an unknown President had just come
in. Presently an unknown Ambassador arrived. Mexico
got worse; would we not recognize Huerta? They send
Carden. We had nothing to say about the tolls — simply
asked for time. They were very friendly; but our slang
phrase fits the situation — "nothin' doin'." They declined
San Francisco.1 Then presently they began to see some
plan in Mexico; they began to see our attitude on the
tolls; they began to understand our attitude toward con-
cessions and governments run for profit ; they began dimly
to see that Carden was a misfit; the Tariff Bill passed;
the Currency Bill; the President loomed up; even the

^his refers to the declination of the British Government to be represented at
the San Francisco world exhibition, held in 1915.

238 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE •

% i

Ambassador, they said, really believed what he preached ;
he wasn't merely making pretty, friendly speeches. — Now,
when we get this tolls job done, we've got 'em where we
can do any proper and reasonable thing we want. It's
been a great three quarters of a year — immense, in fact.
No man has been in the White House who is so regarded
since Lincoln ; in fact, they didn't regard Lincoln while he
lived.

Meantime, I've got to be more or less at home. The
Prime Minister dines with me, the Foreign Secretary, the
Archbishop, the Colonial Secretary — all the rest of 'em;
the King talks very freely ; Mr. Asquith tells me some of
his troubles; Sir Edward is become a good personal friend;
Lord Bryce warms up ; the Lord Chancellor is chummy ;
and so it goes.

So you may be sure we are all in high feather after all ;
and the President's (I fear exaggerated) appreciation of
what I've done is very gratifying indeed. I've got only
one emotion about it all— gratitude ; and gratitude begets
eagerness to go on. Of course I can do future jobs better
than I have done any past ones.

There are two shadows in the background — not dis-
turbing, but shadows none the less :

1. The constant reminder that the American Am-
bassador's homeless position (to this Government and to
this whole people) shows that the American Government
and the American people know nothing about foreign
relations and care nothing — regard them as not worth
buying a house for. This leaves a doubt about any con-
tinuity of any American policy. It even suggests a sort
of fear that we don't really care.

The other is (2) the dispiriting experience of writing
and telegraphing about important things and never hear-
ing a word concerning many of them, and the consequent

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 239

fear of some dead bad break in the State Department.

The clubs are full of stories of the silly and incredible

things that are said to happen there.

After all, these are old troubles. They are not new —

neither of them. And we are the happiest group you

ever saw.

W. H. P.

Page's letters of this period contain many references to
his inability to maintain touch with the State Department.
His letters remained unacknowledged, his telegrams un-
answered ; and he was himself left completely in the dark
as to the plans and opinions at Washington.

To Edward M. House

February 28, 1914.
Dear House :

. . . Couldnt the business with Great Britain be put
into Moore's1 hands? It is surely important enough at
times to warrant separate attention — or (I might say)
attention. You know, after eight or nine months of this
sort of thing, the feeling grows on us all here that perhaps
many of our telegrams and letters may not be read by
anybody at all. You begin to feel that they may not be
deciphered or even opened. Then comes the feeling
(for a moment), why send any more? Why do anything
but answer such questions as come now and then? Cor-
responding with Nobody — can you imagine how that
feels? — What the devil do you suppose does become of the
letters and telegrams that I send, from which and about
which I never hear a word? As a mere matter of curi-
osity I should like to know who receives them and what
he does with them!

1 John Bassett Moore, at that time the very able counsellor of the State Depart-
ment.

240 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

I've a great mind some day to send a despatch saying
that an earthquake has swallowed up the Thames, that
a suffragette has kissed the King, and that the statue of
Cromwell has made an assault on the House of Lords —
just to see if anybody deciphers it.

After the Civil War an old fellow in Virginia was tired
of the world. He'd have no more to do with it. He
cut a slit in a box in his house and nailed up the box.
Whenever a letter came for him, he'd read the postmark
and say "Baltimore — Baltimore — there isn't anybody in
Baltimore that I care to hear from." Then he'd drop
the letter unopened through the slit into the box. " Phil-
adelphia? I have no friend in Philadelphia" — into the
box, unopened. When he died, the big box was nearly
full of miopened letters. When I get to Washington
again, I'm going to look for a big box that must now be
nearly full of my unopened letters and telegrams.

W. H. P.

The real reason why the Ambassador wished to remain
in London was to assist in undoing a great wrong which
the United States had done itself and the world. Page
was attempting to perform his part in introducing new
standards into diplomacy. His discussions of Mexico
had taken the form of that "idealism" which he was ap-
parently having some difficulty in persuading British
statesmen and the British public to accept. He was
doing his best to help bring about that day when, in
Gladstone's famous words, "the idea of public right would
be the governing idea" of international relations. But
while the American Ambassador was preaching this new
conception, the position of his own country on one im-
portant matter was a constant impediment to his efforts.
Page was continually confronted by the fact that the

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 241

United States, high-minded as its foreign policy might
pretend to be, was far from "idealistic" in the observance
of the treaty that it had made with Great Britain con-
cerning the Panama Canal. There was a certain em-
barrassment involved in preaching unselfishness in Mex-
ico and Central America at a time when the United States
was practising selfishness and dishonesty in Panama.
For, in the opinion of the Ambassador and that of most
other dispassionate students of the Panama treaty, the
American policy on Panama tolls amounted to nothing
less.

To one unskilled in legal technicalities, the Panama
controversy involved no great difficulty. Since 1850 the
United States and Great Britain had had a written under-
standing upon the construction of the Panama Canal.
The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, which was adopted that year,
provided that the two countries should share equally in
the construction and control of the proposed waterway
across the Isthmus. This idea of joint control had always
rankled in the United States, and in 1901 the American
Government persuaded Great Britain to abrogate the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and agree to another — the Hay-
Pauncefote — which transferred the rights of ownership
and construction exclusively to this country. In con-
senting to this important change, Great Britain had made
only one stipulation. "The Canal," so read Article III
of the Convention of 1901, "shall be free and open to
the vessels of commerce and war of all nations observing
these rules, on terms of entire equality, so that there
shall be no discrimination against any such nation, or its
citizens or subjects, in respect of the conditions or charges
of traffic, or otherwise." It would seem as though the
English language could utter no thought more clearly
than this. The agreement said, not inferentially, but in

242 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

so many words, that the "charges" levied on the ships
of "all nations" that used the Canal should be the same.
The history of British- American negotiations on the sub-
ject of the Canal had always emphasized this same point.
All American witnesses to drawing the Treaty have testi-
fied that this was the American understanding. The
correspondence of John Hay, who was Secretary of
State at the time, makes it clear that this was the agree-
ment. Mr. Elihu Root, who, as Secretary of War, sat
next to John Hay in the Cabinet which authorized the
treaty, has taken the same stand. The man who con-
ducted the preliminary negotiations with Lord Salisbury,
Mr. Henry White, has emphasized the same point. Mr.
Joseph H. Choate, who, as American Ambassador to
Great Britain in 1901, had charge of the negotiations,
has testified that the British and American Governments
"meant what they said and said what they meant."

In the face of this solemn understanding, the American
Congress, in 1912, passed the Panama Canal Act, which
provided that "no tolls shall be levied upon vessels en-
gaged in the coastwise trade of the United States." A
technical argument, based upon the theory that "all
nations" did not include the United States, and that,
inasmuch as this country had obtained sovereign rights
upon the Isthmus, the situation had changed, persuaded
President Taft to sign this bill. Perhaps this line of
reasoning satisfied the legal consciences of President
Taft and Mr. Knox, his Secretary of State, but it really
cut little figure in the acrimonious discussion that en-
sued. Of course, there was only one question involved ;
that was as to whether the exemption violated the Treaty.
This is precisely the one point that nearly all the con-
troversialists avoided. The statement that the United
States had built the Canal with its own money and its

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 243

own genius, that it had achieved a great success where
other nations had achieved a great failure, and that it
had the right of passing its own ships through its own
highway without assessing tolls — this was apparently ar-
gument enough. When Great Britain protested the exemp-
tion as a violation of the Treaty, there were not lacking
plenty of elements in American politics and journalism
to denounce her as committing an act of high-handed
impertinence, as having intruded herself in matters which
were not properly her concern, and as having attempted
to rob the American public of the fruits of its own enter-
prise. That animosity to Great Britain, which is always
present in certain parts of the hyphenated population,
burst into full flame.

Clear as were the legal aspects of the dispute, the po-
sition of the Wilson Administration was a difficult one.
The Irish- American elements, which have specialized in
making trouble between the United States and Great
Britain, represented a strength to the Democratic Party
in most large cities. The great mass of Democratic
Senators and Congressmen had voted for the exemption
bill. The Democratic platform of 1912 had endorsed
this same legislation. This declaration was the handi-
work of Senator O'Gorman, of New York State, who had
long been a leader of the anti-British crusade in American
politics. More awkward still, President Wilson, in the
course of his Presidential campaign, had himself spoken
approvingly of free tolls for American ships. The prob-
ability is that, when the President made this unfortunate
reference to this clause in the Democratic programme, he
had given the matter little personal investigation; it
must be held to his credit that, when the facts were clearly
presented to him, his mind quickly grasped the real point
at issue — that it was not a matter of commercial advan-

244 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

tage or disadvantage, but one simply of national honour,
of whether the United States proposed to keep its word or
to break it.

Page's contempt for the hair-drawn technicalities of
lawyers was profound, and the tortuous effort to make the
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty mean something quite different
from what it said, inevitably moved him to righteous
wrath. Before sailing for England he spent several
days in the State Department studying the several
questions that were then at issue between his country
and Great Britain. A memorandum contains his im-
pressions of the free tolls contention:

"A little later I went to Washington again to acquaint
myself with the business between the United States and
Great Britain. About that time the Senate confirmed
my appointment, and I spent a number of days reading
the recent correspondence between the two governments.
The two documents that stand out in my memory are the
wretched lawyer's note of Knox about the Panama tolls
(I never read a less sincere, less convincing, more purely
artificial argument) and Bryce's brief reply, which did
have the ring of sincerity in it. The diplomatic cor-
respondence in general seemed to me very dull stuff, and,
after wading through it all day, on several nights as I
went to bed the thought came to me whether this sort of
activity were really worth a man's while."

Anything which affected British shipping adversely
touched Great Britain in a sensitive spot; and Page had
not been long in London before he perceived the acute
nature of the Panama situation. In July, 1913, Col.
Edward M. House reached the British capital. A let-
ter of Page's to Sir Edward Grey gives such a succinct

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 245

description of this new and influential force in American
public life that it is worth quoting:

To Sir Edward Grey

Coburg Hotel, London.
[No date.]

Dear Sir Edward :

There is an American gentleman in London, the like
of whom I do not know. Mr. Edward M. House is his
name. He is "the silent partner" of President Wilson—
that is to say, he is the most trusted political adviser and
the nearest friend of the President. He is a private
citizen, a man without personal political ambition, a
modest, quiet, even shy fellow. He helps to make Cabi-
nets, to shape policies, to select judges and ambassadors
and suchlike merely for the pleasure of seeing that these
tasks are well done.

He is suffering from over-indulgence in advising, and
he has come here to rest. I cannot get him far outside
his hotel, for he cares to see few people. But he is very
eager to meet you.

I wonder if you would do me the honour to take lunch-
eon at the Coburg Hotel with me, to meet him either on
July 1, or 3, or 5 — if you happen to be free? I shall
have only you and Mr. House.

Very sincerely yours,

Walter H. Page.

The chief reason why Colonel House wished to meet
the British Foreign Secretary was to bring him a message
from President Wilson on the subject of the Panama
tolls. The tliree men— Sir Edward, Colonel House, and
Mr. Page— met at the suggested luncheon on July 3rd.

246 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Colonel House informed the Foreign Secretary that Presi-
dent Wilson was now convinced that the Panama Act vio-
lated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty and that he intended to
use all his influence to secure its repeal. The matter, the
American urged, was a difficult one, since it would be
necessary to persuade Congress to pass a law acknowl-
edging its mistake. The best way in which Great Britain
could aid in the process was by taking no public action.
If the British should keep protesting or discussing the
subject acrimoniously in the press and Parliament, such
a course would merely reenforce the elements that would
certainly oppose the President. Any protests would
give them the opportunity to set up the cry of "British
dictation," and a change in the Washington policy would
subject it to the criticism of having yielded to British
pressure. The inevitable effect would be to defeat the
whole proceeding. Colonel House therefore suggested
that President Wilson be left to handle the matter in his
own way and in his own time, and he assured the British
statesman that the result would be satisfactory to both
countries. Sir Edward Grey at once saw that Colonel
House's statement of the matter was simply common
sense, and expressed his willingness to leave the Panama
matter in the President's hands.

Thus, from July 3, 1913, there was a complete under-*
standing between the British Government and the Wash-
ington Administration on the question of the tolls. But
neither the British nor the American public knew that
President Wilson had pledged himself to a policy of
repeal. All during the summer and fall of 1913 this
matter was as generally discussed in England as was
Mexico. Everywhere the Ambassador went — country
houses, London dinner tables, the colleges and the clubs —
he was constantly confronted with what was universally

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 247

regarded as America's great breach of faith. How deeply
he felt in the matter his letters show.

To Edward M. House

August 25, 1913.
Dear House:

. . . The English Government and the English

people without regard to party — I hear it and feel it

everywhere — are of one mind about this: they think we

have acted dishonourably. They really think so — it

isn't any mere political or diplomatic pretense. We

made a bargain, they say, and we have repudiated it.

If it were a mere bluff or game or party contention —

that would be one thing. We could "bull" it through

or live it down. But they look upon it as we look upon

the repudiation of a debt by a state. Whatever the

arguments by which the state may excuse itself, we never

feel the same toward it — never quite so safe about it.

They say, "You are a wonderful nation and a wonderful

people. We like you. But your Government is not a

government of honour. Your honourable men do not

seem to get control." You can't measure the damage

that this does us. Whatever the United States may

propose till this is fixed and forgotten will be regarded

with a certain hesitancy. They will not fully trust the

honour of our Government. They say, too, "See, you've

preached arbitration and you propose peace agreements,

and yet you will not arbitrate this: you know you are

wrong, and this attitude proves it." Whatever Mr.

Hay might or could have done, he made a bargain. The

Senate ratified it. We accepted it. Whether it were a

good bargain or a bad one, we ought to keep it. The

English feeling was shown just the other week when

Senator Root received an honourary degree at Oxford.

248 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

The thing that gave him fame here was his speech on this
treaty.1 There is no end of ways in which they show
their feeling and conviction.

Now, if in the next regular session the President takes
a firm stand against the ship subsidy that this discrimi-
nation gives, couldn't Congress be carried to repeal this
discrimination? For this economic objection also exists.

No Ambassador can do any very large constructive
piece of work so long as this suspicion of the honour of
our Government exists. Sir Edward Grey will take it
up in October or November. If I could say then that
the President will exert all his influence for this repeal —
that would go far. If, when he takes it up, I can say
nothing, it will be practically useless for me to take up
any other large plan. This is the most important thing
for us on the diplomatic horizon.

To the President

Dornoch, Scotland,
September 10, 1913.
Dear Mr. President:

I am spending ten or more of the dog days visiting the
Englishman and the Scotchman in their proper setting —
their country homes — where they show themselves the
best of hosts and reveal their real opinions. There are,
for example, in the house where I happen to be to-day,
the principals of three of the Scotch universities, and a
Member of Parliament, and an influential editor.

They have, of course — I mean all the educated folk I
meet — the most intelligent interest in American affairs,
and they have an unbounded admiration for the American
people — their energy, their resourcefulness, their wealth,

JMr. Root's masterly speech on Panama tolls was made in the United States
Senate. January 21, 1913.

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 249

their economic power and social independence. I think
that no people ever really admired and, in a sense, envied
another people more. They know we hold the keys of
the future.

But they make a sharp distinction between our people
and our Government. They are sincere, God-fearing
people who speak their convictions. They cite Tam-
many, the Thaw case, Sulzer, the Congressional lobby,
and sincerely regret that a democracy does not seem to be
able to justify itself. I am constantly amazed and some-
times dumbfounded at the profound effect that the yellow
press (including the American correspondents of the
English papers) has had upon the British mind. Here is
a most serious journalistic problem, upon which I have
already begun to work seriously with some of the editors
of the better London papers. But it is more than a
journalistic problem. It becomes political. To eradi-
cate this impression will take years of well-planned work.
I am going to make this the subject of one of the dozen
addresses that I must deliver during the next six months
— "The United States as an Example of Honest and
Honourable Government."

And everywhere — in circles the most friendly to us,
and the best informed — I receive commiseration because
of the dishonourable attitude of our Government about
the Panama Canal tolls. This, I confess, is hard to
meet. We made a bargain — a solemn compact — and we
have broken it. Whether it were a good bargain or a
bad one, a silly one or a wise one; that's far from the
point. Isn't it? I confess that this bothers me. . . .

And this Canal tolls matter stands in the way of every-
thing. It is in their minds all the time — the minds of
all parties and all sections of opinion. They have no
respect for Mr. Taft, for they remember that he might

250 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

have vetoed the bill; and they ask, whenever they dare,
what you will do about it. They hold our Government
in shame so long as this thing stands.

As for the folly of having made such a treaty — that's
now passed. As for our unwillingness to arbitrate it —
that's taken as a confession of guilt. . . .

We can command these people, this Government, this
tight island, and its world-wide empire; they honour us,
they envy us, they see the time near at hand when we
shall command the capital and the commerce of the
world if we unfetter our mighty people; they wish to
keep very close to us. But they are suspicious of our
Government because, they contend, it has violated its
faith. Is it so or is it not?

Life meantime is brimful of interest; and, despite this
reflex result of the English long-blunder with Ireland
(how our sins come home to roost), the Great Republic
casts its beams across the whole world and I was never
so proud to be an American democrat, as I see it light
this hemisphere in a thousand ways.

All health and mastery to you!

Walter H. Page.

The story of Sir William Tyrrell's1 visit to the White
House in November, 1913, has already been told. On
this occasion, it will be recalled, not only was an agree-
ment reached on Mexico, but President Wilson also
repeated the assurances already given by Colonel House
on the repeal of the tolls legislation. Now that Great
Britain had accepted the President's leadership in Mex-
ico, the time was approaching when President Wilson
might be expected to take his promised stand on Panama

1Ante: page 202.

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 251

tolls. Yet it must be repeated that there had been no
definite diplomatic bargain. But Page was exerting all
his efforts to establish the best relations between the two
countries on the basis of fair dealing and mutual respect.
Great Britain had shown her good faith in the Mexican
matter; now the turn of the United States had come.

To the President

London, 6 Grosvenor Square.
January 6, 1914.
Dear Mr. President:

We've travelled a long way since this Mexican trouble
began — a long way with His Majesty's Government.
When your policy was first flung at 'em, they showed
at best a friendly incredulity: what! set up a moral
standard for government in Mexico? Everybody's mind
was fixed merely on the restoring of order — the safety
of investments. They thought of course our army would
go down in a few weeks. I recall that Sir Edward Grey
asked me one day if you would not consult the European
governments about the successor to Huerta, speaking of
it as a problem that would come up next week. And
there was also much unofficial talk about joint inter-
vention.

Well, they've followed a long way. They apologized
for Carden (that's what the Prime Minister's speech was) ;
they ordered him to be more prudent. Then the real
meaning of concessions began to get into their heads.
They took up the dangers that lurked in the Govern-
ment's contract with Cowdray for oil; and they pulled
Cowdray out of Colombia and Nicaragua — granting the
application of the Monroe Doctrine to concessions that
might imperil a country's autonomy. Then Sir Edward

252 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

asked me if you would not consult him about such con-
cessions— a long way had been travelled since his other
question! Lord Haldane made the Thanksgiving speech
that I suggested to him. And now they have transferred
Carden. They've done all we asked and more; and,
more wonderful yet, they've come to understand what
we are driving at.

As tins poor world goes, all this seems to me rather
handsomely done. At any rate, it's square and it's

friendly.

Now in diplomacy, as in other contests, there must be
give and take; it's our turn.

If you see your way clear, it would help the Liberal
Government (which needs help) and would be much
appreciated if, before February 10th, when Parliament
meets, you could say a public word friendly to our keeping
the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty— on the tolls. You only,
of course, can judge whether you would be justified in
doing so. I presume only to assure you of the most ex-
cellent effect it would have here. If you will pardon me
for taking a personal view of it, too, I will say that such
an expression would cap the climax of the enormously
heightened esteem and great respect in which recent
events and achievements have caused you to be held
here. It would put the English of all parties in the hap-
piest possible mood toward you for whatever subsequent
dealings may await us. It was as friendly a man as
Kipling who said to me the night I spent with him: "You
know your great Government, which does many great
things greatly, does not lie awake o' nights to keep its
promises."

It's our turn next, whenever you see your way clear.

Most heartily yours,

Walter H. Page.

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 253

From Edward M. House

145 East 35th Street,

New York City.

January 24, 1914.
Dear Page:

I was with the President for twenty-four hours and we
went over everything thoroughly.

He decided to call the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations to the White House on Monday and tell them
of his intentions regarding Panama tolls. We discussed
whether it would be better to see some of them individu-
ally, or to take them collectively. It was agreed that
the latter course was better. It was decided, however,
to have Senator Jones poll the Senate in order to find just
how it stood before getting the Committee together.

The reason for this quick action was in response to
your letter urging that something be done before the 10th
of February. . . .

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

On March 5th the President made good his promise
by going before Congress and asking the two Houses to
repeal that clause in the Panama legislation which granted
preferential treatment to American coastwise shipping.
The President's address was very brief and did not discuss
the matter in the slightest detail. Mr. Wilson made the
question one simply of national honour. The exemption,
he said, clearly violated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty and
there was nothing left to do but to set the matter right.
The part of the President's address that aroused the great-
est interest was the conclusion:

"I ask this of you in support of the foreign policy of

254 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the Administration. I shall not know how to deal with
other matters of even greater delicacy and nearer conse-
quence, if you do not grant it to me in ungrudging meas-
ure.

The impression that this speech made upon the states-
man who then presided over the British Foreign office
is evident from the following letter that he wrote to the
Ambassador in Washington.

Sir Edward Grey to Sir C. Spring Rice

Foreign Office,
March 13, 1914.
Sir:

In the course of a conversation with the American
Ambassador to-day, I took the opportunity of saying
how much I had been struck by President Wilson's
Message to Congress about the Panama Canal tolls.
When I read it, it struck me that, whether it succeeded or
failed in accomplishing the President's object, it was some-
thing to the good of public life, for it helped to lift public
life to a higher plane and to strengthen its morale.

I am, &c,

E. Grey.

Two days after his appearance before Congress the
President wrote to his Ambassador:

From the President

The White House, Washington,
March 7, 1914.
My dear Page:

I have your letters of the twenty-second and twenty-
fourth of February and I thank you for them most
warmly. Happily, things are clearing up a little in the

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 255

matters which have embarrassed our relations with Great
Britain, and I hope that the temper of public opinion is
in fact changing there, as it seems to us from this distance
to be changing.

Your letters are a lamp to my feet. I feel as I read that
their analysis is searching and true.

Things over here go on a tolerably even keel. The
prospect at this moment for the repeal of the tolls ex-
emption is very good indeed. I am beginning to feel a
considerable degree of confidence that the repeal will go
through, and the Press of the country is certainly standing
by me in great shape.

My thoughts turn to you very often with gratitude and
affectionate regard. If there is ever at any time any-
thing specific you want to learn, pray do not hesitate to
ask it of me directly, if you think best.

Carden was here the other day and I spent an hour
with him, but I got not even a glimpse of his mind. I
showed him all of mine that he cared to see.

With warmest regards from us all,

Faithfully yours,

Woodrow Wilson.

The debate which now took place in Congress proved to
be one of the stormiest in the history of that body. The
proceeding did not prove to be the easy victory that
the Administration had evidently expected. The struggle
was protracted for three months; and it signalized Mr.
Wilson's first serious conflict with the Senate — that same
Senate which was destined to play such a vexatious and
destructive role in his career. At this time, however,
Mr. Wilson had reached the zenith of his control over
the law-making bodies. It was early in his Presidential
term, and in these early days Senators are likely to be

256 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER xL PAGE

careful about quarrelling with the White House — especially
the Senators who are members of the President's political
party. In this struggle, moreover, Mr. Wilson had the
intelligence and the character of the Senate largely on
his side, though, strangely enough, his strongest sup-
porters were Republicans and his bitterest opponents
were Democrats. Senator Root, Senator Burton, Senator
Lodge, Senator Kenyon, Senator McCumber, all Re-
publicans, day after day and week after week upheld the
national honour; while Senators O'Gorman, Chamber-
lain, Vardaman, and Reed, all members of the President's
party, just as persistently led the fight for the baser
cause. The debate inspired an outburst of Anglo-
phobia which was most distressing to the best friends of
the United States and Great Britain. The American
press, as a whole, honoured itself by championing the
President, but certain newspapers made the debate an
occasion for unrestrained abuse of Great Britain, and of
any one who believed that the United States should treat
that nation honestly. The Hearst organs, in cartoon
and editorial page, shrieked against the ancient enemy.
All the well-known episodes and characters in American
history — Lexington, Bunker Hill, John Paul Jones, Wash-
ington, and Franklin — were paraded as arguments against
the repeal of an illegal discrimination. Petitions from
the Ancient Order of Hibernians and other Irish societies
were showered upon Congress — in almost unending pro-
cession they clogged the pages of the Congressional
Record; public meetings were held in New York and else-
where denouncing an administration that disgraced the
country by "truckling" to Great Britain. The Presi-
dent was accused of seeking an Anglo- American Alliance
and of sacrificing American shipping to the glory of
British trade, while the history of our diplomatic rela

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 257

tions was surveyed in detail for the purpose of proving
that Great Britain had broken every treaty she had ever
made. In the midst of this deafening hubbub the quiet
voice of Senator McCumber — "we are too big in national
power to be too little in national integrity" — and that of
Senator Root, demolishing one after another the petti-
fogging arguments of the exemptionists, demonstrated
that, after all, the spirit and the eloquence that had
given the Senate its great fame were still influential
forces in that body.

In all this excitement, Page himself came in for his
share of hard knocks. Irish meetings "resolved" against
the Ambassador as a statesman who "looks on English
claims as superior to American rights," and demanded
that President Wilson recall him. It has been the fate
of practically every American ambassador to Great
Britain to be accused of Anglomania. Lowell, John
Hay, and Joseph H. Choate fell under the ban of those
elements in American life who seem to think that the
main duty of an American diplomat in Great Britain is
to insult the country of which he has become the guest.
In 1895 the House of Representatives solemnly passed a
resolution censuring Ambassador Thomas F. Bayard for
a few sentiments friendly to Great Britain which he had
uttered at a public banquet. That Page was no undis-
criminating idolater of Great Britain these letters have
abundantly revealed. That he had the profoundest re-
spect for the British character and British institutions
has been made just as clear. With Page this was no
sudden enthusiasm; the conviction that British concep-
tions of liberty and government and British ideals of
life represented the fine flower of human progress was
one that he felt deeply. The fact that these funda-
mentals had had the opportunity of even freer develop-

258 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

ment in America he regarded as most fortunate both for
the United States and for the world. He had never con-
cealed his belief that the destinies of mankind depended
more upon the friendly cooperation of the United States
and Great Britain than upon any other single influence.
He had preached this in public addresses, and in his
writings for twenty-five years preceding his mission to
Great Britain. But the mere fact that he should hold
such convictions and presume to express them as American
Ambassador apparently outraged those same elements
in this country who railed against Great Britain in this
Panama Tolls debate.

On August 16, 1913, the City of Southampton, Eng-
land, dedicated a monument in honour of the Mayflower
Pilgrims — Southampton having been their original point
of departure for Massachusetts. Quite appropriately
the city invited the American Ambassador to deliver an
address on this occasion; and quite appropriately the
Ambassador acknowledged the debt that Americans of
to-day owed to the England that had sent these ad-
venturers to lay the foundations of new communities on
foreign soil. Yet certain historic truths embodied in
this very beautiful and eloquent address aroused con-
siderable anger in certain parts of the United States.
"Blood," said the Ambassador, "carries with it that
particular trick of thought which makes us all English
in the last resort. . . . And Puritan and Pilgrim
and Cavalier, different yet, are yet one in that they are
English still. And thus, despite the fusion of races and
of the great contributions of other nations to her 100 mil-
lions of people and to her incalculable wealth, the United
States is yet English-led and English-ruled." This was
merely a way of phrasing a great historic truth — that
overwhelmingly the largest element in the American

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 259

population is British in origin1 ; that such vital things as
its speech and its literature are English; and that our
political institutions, our liberty, our law, our con-
ceptions of morality and of life are similarly derived from
the British Isles. Page applied the word "English" to
Americans in the same sense in which that word is used
by John Richard Green, when he traces the history of
the English race from a German forest to the Mississippi
Valley and the wilds of Australia. But the anti-British
elements on this side of the water, taking "English-led
and English-ruled " out of its context, misinterpreted the
phrase as meaning that the American Ambassador had
approvingly called attention to the fact that the United
States was at present under the political control of Great
Britain! Senator Chamberlain of Oregon presented a
petition from the Staatsverband Deutschsprechender Vereine
von Oregon, demanding the Ambassador's removal, while
the Irish- American press and politicians became extremely
vocal.

Animated as was this outburst, it was mild compared
with the excitement caused by a speech that Page
made while the Panama debate was raging in Congress.
At a dinner of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, in
early March, the Ambassador made a few impromptu
remarks. The occasion was one of good fellowship and
good humour, and Page, under the inspiration of the
occasion, indulged in a few half-serious, half-jocular
references to the Panama Canal and British- American
good-feeling, which, when inaccurately reported, caused
a great disturbance in the England-baiting press. "I

^his is the fact that is too frequently lost sight of in current discussions of the
melting pot. In the Atlantic Monthly for August, 1920, Mr. William S. Rossiter,
for many years chief clerk of the United States Census and a statistician of high
standing, shows that, of the 95,000,000 white people of the United States, 55,000-
000 trace their origin to England, Scotland, and Wales.

260 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

would not say that we constructed the Panama Canal
even for you," he said, "for I am speaking with great
frankness and not with diplomatic indirection. We
built it for reasons of our own. But I will say that it
adds to the pleasure of that great work that you will
profit by it. You will profit most by it, for you have
the greatest carrying trade." A few paragraphs on the
Monroe Doctrine, which practically repeated President
Wilson's Mobile speech on that subject, but in which
Mr. Page used the expression, "we prefer that European
Powers shall acquire no more territory on this continent,"
alarmed those precisians in language, who pretended to
believe that the Ambassador had used the word "prefer"
in its literal sense, and interpreted the sentence to mean
that, while the United States would "prefer" that
Europe should not overrun North and South America, it
would really raise no serious objection if Europe did so.

Senator Chamberlain of Oregon, who by this time had
apparently become the Senatorial leader of the anti-Page
propaganda, introduced a resolution demanding that the
Ambassador furnish the Senate a complete copy of this
highly pro-British outgiving. The copy was furnished
forthwith — and with that the tempest subsided.

To the President

American Embassy, London,
March 18, 1914.
Dear Mr. President:

About this infernal racket in the Senate over my poor
speech, I have telegraphed you all there is to say. Of
course, it was a harmless courtesy — no bowing low to the
British or any such thing — as it was spoken and heard.
Of course, too, nothing would have been said about it
but for the controversy over the Canal tolls. That was

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 261

my mistake — in being betrayed by the friendly dinner
and the high compliments paid to us into mentioning a
subject under controversy.

I am greatly distressed lest possibly it may embarrass
you. I do hope not.

I think I have now learned that lesson pretty thor-
oughly. These Anglophobiacs— Irish and Panama— hound
me wherever I go. I think I told you of one of their
correspondents, who one night got up and yawned at
a public dinner as soon as I had spoken and said to his
neighbours: "Well, I'll go, the Ambassador didn't say
anything that I can get him into trouble about."

I shall, hereafter, write out my speeches and have them
gone over carefully by my little Cabinet of Secretaries.
Yet something (perhaps not much) will be lost. For
these people are infinitely kind and friendly and cour-
teous.

They cannot be driven by anybody to do anything,
but they can be led by us to do anything — by the use of
spontaneous courtesy. It is by spontaneous courtesy
that I have achieved whatever I have achieved, and it is
for this that those like me who do like me. Of course,
what some of the American newspapers have said is true
— that I am too free and too untrained to be a great
Ambassador. But the conventional type of Ambassador
would not be worth his salt to represent the United
States here now, when they are eager to work with us for
the peace of the world, if they are convinced of our honour
and right-mindedness and the genuineness of our friend-
ship.

I talked this over with Sir Edward Grey the other day,
and after telling me that I need fear no trouble at this
end of the line, he told me how severely he is now criti-
cized by a "certain element" for "bowing too low to the

262 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Americans." We then each bowed low to the other.
The yellow press and Chamberlain would give a year's
growth for a photograph of us in that posture!

I am infinitely obliged to you for your kind understand-
ing and your toleration of my errors.

Yours always heartily,

Walter H. Page.
To the President.

P. S. The serious part of the speech — made to convince
the financial people, who are restive about Mexico, that
we do not mean to forbid legitimate investments in
Central America — has had a good effect here. I have
received the thanks of many important men.

W. H. P.

From the President

The White House, Washington,
March 25, 1914.
My dear Page:

Thank you for your little note of March thirteenth.4
You may be sure that none of us who knew you or read
the speech felt anything but admiration for it. It is
very astonishing to me how some Democrats in the Senate
themselves bring these artificial difficulties on the Ad-
ministration, and it distresses me not a little. Mr.
Bryan read your speech yesterday to the Cabinet, who
greatly enjoyed it. It was at once sent to the Senate
and I hope will there be given out for publication in full.

I want you to feel constantly how I value the intelligent
and effective work you are doing in London. I do not
know what I should do without you.

The fight is on now about the tolls, but I feel per-
fectly confident of winning in the matter, though there

^he Ambassador's letter is dated March 18th.

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 263

is not a little opposition in Congress — more in the House,
it strangely turns out, where a majority of the Demo-
crats originally voted against the exemption, than in the
Senate, where a majority of the Democrats voted for it.
The vicissitudes of politics are certainly incalculable.
With the warmest regard, in necessary haste,

Cordially and faithfully yours,

Woodrow Wilson.
Hon. Walter H. Page,

American Embassy,

London, England.

To the President

American Embassy, London,
March 2, 1914.
Dear Mr. President:

I have read in the newspapers here that, after you had
read my poor, unfortunate speech, you remarked to
callers that you regarded it as proper. I cannot with-
hold this word of affectionate thanks.

I do not agree with you, heartily as I thank you. The
speech itself, in the surroundings and the atmosphere, was
harmless and was perfectly understood. But I ought
not to have been betrayed into forgetting that the sub-
ject was about to come up for fierce discussion in Con-
gress. . . .

Of course, I know that the whole infernal thing is
cooked up to beat you, if possible. But that is the
greater reason why you must win. I am willing to be
sacrificed, if that will help — for forgetting the impend-
ing row or for any reason you will.

I suppose we've got to go through such a struggle to
pull our Government and our people up to an under-
standing of our own place in the world — a place so high

264 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

and big and so po^vverful that all the future belongs to us.
From an economic point of view, we are the world; and
from a political point of view also. How any man who
sees this can have any feeling but pity for the Old World,
passes understanding. Our role is to treat it most
courteously and to make it respect our character — noth-
ing more. Time will do the rest.

I congratulate you most heartily on the character of
most of your opposition — the wild Irish (they must be
sat upon some time, why not now?), the Clark1 crowd
(characteristically making a stand on a position of dis-
honour), the Hearst press, and demagogues generally.
I have confidence in the people.

This stand is necessary to set us right before the world,
to enable us to build up an influential foreign policy, to
make us respected and feared, and to make the Demo-
cratic Party the party of honour, and to give it the best
reason to live and to win.

May I make a suggestion?

The curiously tenacious hold that Anglophobia has
on a certain class of our people — might it not be worth
your while to make, at some convenient time and in some
natural way, a direct attack on it — in a letter to someone,
which could be published, or in some address, or possibly
in a statement to a Senate committee, which could be
given to the press? Say how big and strong and sure-
of-the-future we are; so big that we envy nobody, and
that those who have Anglophobia or any Europe-phobia
are the only persons who "truckle" to any foreign folk
or power; that in this tolls-fight all the Continental gov-
ernments are a unit; that we respect them all, fear none,
have no favours, except proper favours among friendly

'Mr. Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, was one of the
most blatant opponents of Panama repeal.

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 265

nations, to ask of anybody; and that the idea of a "trade"
with England for holding off in Mexico is (if you will ex-
cuse my French) a common gutter lie.

This may or may not be wise; but you will forgive me
for venturing to suggest it. It is we who are the proud
and erect and patriotic Americans, fearing nobody; but
the other fellows are fooling some of the people in making
them think that they are.

Yours most gratefully,

Walter H. Page.
To the President.

From the President

The White House, Washington,
April 2, 1914.
My dear Page :

Please do not distress yourself about that speech. I
think with you that it was a mistake to touch upon that
matter while it was right hot, because any touch would
be sure to burn the finger; but as for the speech itself, I
would be willing to subscribe to every bit of it myself,
and there can be no rational objection to it. We shall
try to cool the excited persons on this side of the water and
I think nothing further will come of it. In the mean-
time, pray realize how thoroughly and entirely you are
enjoying my confidence and admiration.

Your letter about Cowdray and Murray was very il-
luminating and will be very serviceable to me. I have
come to see that the real knowledge of the relations between
countries in matters of public policy is to be gained at
country houses and dinner tables, and not in diplomatic
correspondence; in brief, that when we know the men
and the currents of opinion, we know more than foreign
ministers can tell us; and your letters give me, in a tbor-

266 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

oughly dignified way, just the sidelights that are neces-
sary to illuminate the picture. I am heartily obliged to
you.

All unite with me in the warmest regards as always.

In haste,

Faithfully yours,

Woodrow Wilson.
Hon. Walter H. Page,
American Embassy,
London, England.

A note of a conversation with Sir Edward Grey touches
the same point: "April 1, 1914. Sir Edward Grey re-
called to me to-day that he had waited for the President
to take up the Canal tolls controversy at his convenience.
' When he took it up at his own time to suit his own plans,
he took it up in the most admirable way possible. ' This
whole story is too good to be lost. If the repeal of the
tolls clause passes the Senate, I propose to make a speech
in the House of Commons on ' The Proper Way for Great
Governments to Deal with One Another,' and use this
experience.

"Sir Edward also spoke of being somewhat 'depressed'
by the fierce opposition to the President on the tolls
question — the extent of Anglophobia in the United
States.

"Here is a place for a campaign of education — Chau-
tauqua and whatnot.

"The amount of Anglophobia is great. But I doubt
if it be as great as it seems ; for it is organized and is very
vociferous. If you collected together or thoroughly or-
ganized all the people in the United States who have
birthmarks on their faces, you'd be 'depressed' by the
number of them."

HONCUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 267

Nothing could have more eloquently proved the truth
of this last remark than the history of this Panama bill
itself. After all the politicians in the House and Senate
had filled pages of the Congressional Record with denun-
ciations of Great Britain — most of it intended for the
entertainment of Irish-Americans and German-Ameri-
cans in the constituencies — the two Houses proceeded
to the really serious business of voting. The House
quickly passed the bill by 216 to 71, and the Senate by
50 to 35. Apparently the amount of Anglophobia was
not portentous, when it came to putting this emotion to
the test of counting heads. The bill went at once to
the President, was signed — and the dishonour was
atoned for.

Mr. and Mrs. Page were attending a ball in Buckingham
Palace when the great news reached London. The
gathering represented all that was most distinguished in
the official and diplomatic fife of the British capital.
The word was rapidly passed from guest to guest, and
the American Ambassador and his wife soon found them-
selves the centre of a company which could hardly re-
strain itself in expressing its admiration for the United
States. Never in the history of the country had Ameri-
can prestige stood so high as on that night. The King and
the Prime Minister were especially affected by this dis-
play of fair-dealing in Washington. The slight com-
mercial advantage which Great Britain had obtained
was not the thought that was uppermost in every-
body's mind. The thing that really moved these as-
sembled statesmen and diplomats was the fact that some-
thing new had appeared in the history of legislative
chambers. A great nation had committed an outrageous
wrong — that was something that had happened many
times before in all countries. But the unprecedented

268 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

thing was that this same nation had exposed its fault
boldly to the world — had lifted up its hands and cried,
"We have sinned!" and then had publicly undone its
error. Proud as Page had always been of his country,
that moment was perhaps the most triumphant in his
life. The action of Congress emphasized all that he had
been saying of the ideals of the United States, and gave
point to his arguments that justice and honour and right,
and not temporary selfish interest, should control the
foreign policy of any nation which really claimed to be
enlightened. The general feeling of Great Britain was
perhaps best expressed by the remark made to Mrs.
Page, on this occasion, by Lady D :

"The United States has set a high standard for all
nations to live up to. I don't believe that there is any
other nation that would have done it."

One significant feature of this great episode was the act
of Congress in accepting the President's statement that
the repeal of the Panama discrimination was a neces-
sary preliminary to the success of American foreign
policy. Mr. Wilson's declaration, that, unless this legis-
lation should be repealed, he would not "know how to
deal with other matters of even greater delicacy and
nearer consequence" had puzzled Congress and the
country. The debates show the keenest curiosity as to
what the President had in mind. The newspapers turned
the matter over and over, without obtaining any clew
to the mystery. Some thought that the President had
planned to intervene in Mexico, and that the tolls legis-
lation was the consideration demanded by Great Britain
for a free hand in this matter. But this correspondence
has already demolished that theory. Others thought
that Japan was in some way involved — but that ex-
planation also failed to satisfy.

HONOUR AND DISHONOUR IN PANAMA 269

Congress accepted the President's statement trustfully
and blindly, and passed the asked-for legislation. Up
to the present moment this passage in the Presidential
message has been unexplained. Page's papers, however,
disclose what seems to be a satisfactory solution to the
mystery. They show that the President and Colonel
House and Page were at this time engaged in a negotia-
tion of the utmost importance. At the very time that
the tolls bill was under discussion Colonel House was
making arrangements for a visit to Great Britain, France,
and Germany, the purpose of which was to bring these
nations to some kind of an understanding that would
prevent a European war. This evidently was the great
business that could not be disclosed at the time and for
which the repeal of the tolls legislation was the necessary
preliminary.

CHAPTER IX

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT THE
EUROPEAN WAR

PAGE'S mind, from the day of his arrival in Eng-
land, had been filled with that portent which was the
most outstanding fact in European life. Could nothing be
done to prevent the dangers threatened by European
militarism? Was there no way of forestalling the war
which seemed every day to be approaching nearer? The
dates of the following letters, August, 1913, show that
this was one of the first ideas which Page presented to the
new Administration.

To Edward M. House

Aug. 28, 1913.
My dear House :

. . . Everything is lovely and the goose hangs high.
We're having a fine time. Only, only, only — I do wish
to do something constructive and lasting. Here are
great navies and armies and great withdrawals of men
from industry — an enormous waste. Here are kings and
courts and gold lace and ceremonies which, without pro-
ducing anything, require great cost to keep them going.
Here are all the privileges and taxes that this state of
things implies — every one a hindrance to human progress.
We are free from most of these. We have more people
and more capable people and many times more territory
than both England and Germany; and we have more
potential wealth than all Europe. They know that.

270

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 271

They'd like to find a way to escape. The Hague pro-
grammes, for the most part, just lead them around a
circle in the dark back to the place where they started.
Somebody needs to do something. If we could find some
friendly use for these navies and armies and kings and
things — in the service of humanity — they'd follow us. We
ought to find a way to use them in cleaning up the tropics
under our leadership and under our code of ethics — that
everything must be done for the good of the tropical
peoples and that nobody may annex a foot of land. They
want a job. Then they'd quit sitting on their haunches,
growling at one another.

I wonder if we couldn't serve notice that the land-
stealing game is forever ended and that the cleaning up
of backward lands is now in order — for the people that
live there; and then invite Europe's help to make the
tropics as healthful as the Panama Zone?

There's no future in Europe's vision — no long look
ahead. They give all their thought to the immediate
danger. Consider this Balkan War; all European energy
was spent merely to keep the Great Powers at peace.
The two wars in the Balkans have simply impoverished
the people — left the world that much worse than it was
before. Nobody has considered the well-being or the
future of those peoples nor of their land. The Great
Powers are mere threats to one another, content to
check, one the other! There can come no help to the
progress of the world from this sort of action — no step
forward.

Work on a world-plan. Nothing but blue chips, you
know. Is it not possible that Mexico may give an enter-
ing wedge for this kind of thing?

Heartily yours,

Walter H. Page.

272 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

In a memorandum, written about the same time, Mr.
Page explains Ins idea in more detail:

Was there ever greater need than there is now of a
first-class mind unselfishly working on world problems?
The ablest ruling minds are engaged on domestic tasks.
There is no world-girdling intelligence at work in gov-
ernment. On the continent of Europe, the Kaiser is
probably the foremost man. Yet he cannot think far
beyond the provincial views of the Germans. In England,
Sir Edward Grey is the largest-visioned statesman. All
the Europeans are spending their thought and money
in watching and checkmating one another and in main-
taining their armed and balanced status quo.

A way must be found out of this stagnant watching.
Else a way will have to be fought out of it ; and a great
European war would set the Old World, perhaps the whole
world, back a long way ; and thereafter, the present armed
watching would recur ; we should have gained nothing. It
seems impossible to talk the Great Powers out of their
fear of one another or to " Hague " them out of it. They'll
never be persuaded to disarm. The only way left seems
to be to find some common and useful work for these
great armies to do. Then, perhaps, they'll work them-
selves out of their jealous position. Isn't this sound
psychology?

To produce a new situation, the vast energy that now
spends itself in maintaining armies and navies must find
a new outlet. Something new must be found for them to
do, some great unselfish task that they can do together.

Nobody can lead in such a new era but the United
States.

May there not come such a chance in Mexico — to clean
out bandits, yellow fever, malaria, hookworm — all to

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 273

make the country healthful, safe for life and investment,
and for orderly self-government at last? What we did in
Cuba might thus be made the beginning of a new epoch
in history — conquest for the sole benefit of the conquered,
worked out by a sanitary reformation. The new sanita-
tion will reclaim all tropical lands ; but the work must be
first done by military power — probably from the outside.

May not the existing military power of Europe con-
ceivably be diverted, gradually, to this use? One step
at a time, as political and financial occasions arise? As
presently in Mexico?

This present order must change. It holds the Old
World still. It keeps all parts of the world apart, in
spite of the friendly cohesive forces of trade and travel.
It keeps back self-government and the progress of man.

And the tropics cry out for sanitation, which is at first
an essentially military task.

A strange idea this may have seemed in August, 1913,
a year before the outbreak of the European war; yet the
scheme is not dissimilar to the "mandatory" principle,
adopted by the Versailles Peace Conference as the only
practical method of dealing with backward peoples. In
this work, as in everything that would help mankind on
its weary way to a more efficient and more democratic
civilization, Page regarded the United States, Great
Britain, and the British Dominions as inevitable partners.
Anything that would bring these two nations into a
closer cooperation he looked upon as a step making for
human advancement. He believed that any opportunity
of sweeping away misconceptions and prejudices and of
impressing upon the two peoples their common mission
should be eagerly seized by the statesmen of the
two countries. And circumstances at this particular

274 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

moment, Page believed,-presented a large opportunity of
this kind. It is one of the minor ironies of modern
history that the United*States and Great Britain should
have selected 1914 as a year for a great peace celebration.
That year marked the one hundredth anniversary of the
signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of
1812, and in 1913 comprehensive plans had already been
formed for observing this impressive centennial. The
plan was to make it more than the mere observance of a
hundred years of peaceful intercourse; it was the inten-
tion to use the occasion to emphasize the fundamental
identity of American and British ideals and to lay the
foundation of a permanent understanding and friend-
ship. The erection of a monument to Abraham Lincoln
at Westminster — a plan that has since been realized —
was one detail of this programme. Another was the res-
toration of Sulgrave Manor, the English country seat of
the Washingtons, and its preservation as a place where
the peoples of both countries could share their common
traditions. Page now dared to hope that President
Wilson might associate himself with this great purpose to
the extent of coming to England and accepting this
gift in the name of the American nation. Such a Presi-
dential visit, he believed, would exercise a mighty in-
fluence in forestalling a tlireatening European war.
The ultimate purpose, that is, was world peace — pre-
cisely the same motive that led President Wilson, in 1919,
to make a European pilgrimage.

This idea was no passing fancy with Page: it was with
him a favourite topic of conversation. Such a presiden-
tial visit, he believed, would accomplish more than any
i ther influences in dissipating the clouds that wen4
darkening the European landscape. He would elaborate
the idea at length in discussions with his intimates,

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 275

"What I want," he would say, "is to have the Presi-
dent of the United States and the King of England stand
up side by side and let the world take a good look at
them!"

To Edward M. House

August 25, 1913,
. . . I wrote him (President Wilson) my plan — a
mere outline. He'll only smile now. But when the
tariff and the currency and Mexico are off his hands, and
when he can be invited to come and deliver an oration
on George Washington next year at the presentation of
the old Washington homestead here, he may be " pushed
over." You do the pushing. Mrs. Page has invited the
young White House couple to visit us on their honey-
moon.1 Encourage that and that may encourage the
larger plan later. Nothing else would give such a friendly
turn to the whole world as the President's coming here.
The old Earth would sit up and rub its eyes and take
notice to whom it belongs. This visit might prevent
an English-German war and an American-Japanese war,
by this mere show of friendliness. It would be one of
the greatest occasions of our time. Even at my little
speeches, they "whoop it up!" What would they do
over the President's!

But at that time Washington was too busy with its
domestic programme to consider such a proposal seriously.
"Your two letters," wrote Colonel House in reply, "have
come to me and lifted me out of the rut of things and
given me a glimpse of a fair land. What you are think-
ing of and what you want this Administration to do is

'Mr. and Mrs. Francis B. Sayre, son-in-law and daughter of President
Wilson,

276 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

beyond the power of accomplishment for the moment.
My desk is covered with matters of no lasting importance,
but which come to me as a part of the day's work, and
which must be done if I am to help lift the load that is
pressing upon the President. It tells me better than
anything else what he has to bear, and how utterly futile
it is for him to attempt such problems as you present."

From the President

My dear Page:

. . . As for your suggestion that I should myself
visit England during my term of office, I must say that I
agree with all your arguments for it, and yet the case
against the President's leaving the country, particularly
now that he is expected to exercise a constant leader-
ship in all parts of the business of the government, is
very strong and I am afraid overwhelming. It might
be the beginning of a practice of visiting foreign countries
which would lead Presidents rather far afield.

It is a most attractive idea, I can assure you, and I
turn away from it with the greatest reluctance.

We hear golden opinions of the impression you are
making in England, and I have only to say that it is
just what I had expected.

Cordially and faithfully yours,
Woodrow Wilson.
Hon. Walter H. Page,

American Embassy,
London, England.

In December, however, evidently Colonel House's mind
had turned to the general subject that had so engaged
that of the Ambassador.

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 277

From Edward M. House

145 East 35th Street,
New York City.
December 13th, 1913.
Dear Page:

In my budget of yesterday I did not tell you of
the suggestion which I made to Sir William Tyrrell
when he was here, and which I also made to the Presi-
dent.

It occurred to me that between us all we might bring
about the naval holiday which Winston Churchill has
proposed. My plan is that I should go to Germany in
the spring and see the Kaiser, and try to win him over
to the thought that is uppermost in our mind and that
of the British Government.

Sir William thought there was a good sporting chance
of success. He offered to let me have all the correspond-
ence that had passed between the British and German
governments upon this question so that I might be thor-
oughly informed as to the position of them both. He
thought I should go directly to Germany without stop-
ping in England, and that Gerard should prepare the
Kaiser for my coming, telling him of my relations with the
President. He thought this would be sufficient without
any further credentials.

In other words, he would do with the Kaiser what you
did with Sir Edward Grey last summer.

I spoke to the President about the matter and he
seemed pleased with the suggestion ; in fact, I might say,
he was enthusiastic. He said, just as Sir William did,
that it would be too late for this year's budget; but he
made a suggestion that he get the Appropriations Commit-
tee to incorporate a clause, permitting him to ehminate

278 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

certain parts of the battleship budget in the event that
other nations declared for a naval holiday. So this will
be done and will further the plan.

Now I want to get you into the game. If you think it
advisable, take the matter up with Sir William Tyrrell
and then with Sir Edward Grey, or directly with Sir
Edward, if you prefer, and give me the benefit of your
advice and conclusions.

Please tell Sir William that I lunched at the Embassy
with the Spring Rices yesterday, and had a satisfactory
talk with both Lady Spring Rice and Sir Cecil.

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

It is apparent from Page's letters that the suggestion
now contained in Colonel House's communication would
receive a friendly hearing. The idea that Colonel House
suggested was merely the initial stage of a plan which soon
took on more ambitious proportions. At the time of Sir
William Tyrrell's American visit, the Winston Churchill
proposal for a naval holiday was being actively dis-
cussed by the British and the American press. In one
form or another it had been figuring in the news for nearly
two years. Viscount Haldane, in the course of his
famous visit to Berlin in February, 1912, had attempted
to reach some understanding with the German Govern-
ment on the limitation of the German and the British
fleets. The Agadir crisis of the year before had left
Europe with a bad state of nerves, and there was a gen-
eral belief that only some agreement on shipbuilding could
prevent a European war. Lord Haldane and von Tir-
pitz spent many hours discussing the relative sizes of the
two navies, but the discussions led to no definite under

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 279

standing. In March, 1913, Mr. Churchill, then First
Lord of the Admiralty, took up the same subject in a
different form. In this speech he first used the words
"naval holiday," and proposed that Germany and Great
Britain should cease building first-class battleships for one
year, thus giving the two nations a breathing space, during
which time they might discuss their future plans in the hope
of reaching a permanent agreement. The matter lagged
again until October 18, 1913, when, in a speech at Manches-
ter, Mr. Churchill placed his proposal in this form: "Now,
we say to our great neighbour, Germany, ' If you will put off
beginning your two ships for twelve months from the ordi-
nary date when you would have begun them, we will put off
beginning our four ships, in absolute good faith, for ex-
actly the same period.'" About the same time Premier
Asquith made it clear that the Ministry was back of the
suggested programme. In Germany, however, the "na-
val holiday" soon became an object of derision. The
official answer was that Germany had a definite naval
law and that the Government could not entertain any
suggestion of departing from it. Great Britain then
answered that, for every keel Germany laid down, the
Admiralty would lay down two. The outcome, there-
fore, of this attempt at friendship was that the two nations
had been placed farther apart than ever.

The dates of this discussion, it will be observed, almost
corresponded with the period covered by the Tyrrell
visit to America. This fact, and Page's letters of this
period, had apparently implanted in Colonel House's mind
an ambition for definite action. He now proposed that
President Wilson should take up the broken threads of
the rapprochement and attempt to bring them together
again. From this, as will be made plain, the plan de-
veloped into something more comprehensive. Page's

280 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

ideas on the treatment of backward nations had strongly
impressed both the President and Colonel House. The
discussion on Mexico which had just taken place be-
tween the American and the British Governments seemed
to have developed ideas that could have a much wider
application. The fundamental difficulties in Mexico
were not peculiar to that country nor indeed to Latin-
America. Perhaps the most prolific cause of war among
the more enlightened countries was that produced by the
jealousies and antagonisms which were developed by their
contacts with unprogressive peoples — in the Balkans, the
Ottoman Empire, Asia, and the Far East. The method
of dealing with such peoples, which the United States
had found so successful in Cuba and the Philippines, had
proved that there was just one honourable way of dealing
with the less fortunate and more primitive races in all
parts of the world. Was it not possible to bring the
greatest nations, especially the United States, Great
Britain, and Germany, to some agreement on this ques-
tion, as well as on the question of disarmament? This
once accomplished, the way could be prepared for joint
action on the numerous other problems which were then
threatening the peace of the world. The League of
Nations was then not even a phrase, but the plan that
was forming in Colonel House's mind was at least some
scheme for permanent international cooperation. For
several years Germany had been the nation which had
proved the greatest obstacle to such international friend-
liness and arbitration. The Kaiser had destroyed both
Hague Conferences as influential forces in the remaking of
the world; and in the autumn of 1913 he had taken on a
more belligerent attitude than ever. If this attempt to es-
tablish a better condition of things was to succeed, Ger-
many's cooperation would be indispensable. This is the

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 281

reason why Colonel House proposed first of all to visit
Berlin.

From Edward M. House

145 East 35th Street,

New York City.
January 4th, 1914.
Dear Page:

. . . Benj. Ide Wheeler1 took lunch with me the
other day. He is just back from Germany and he is on
the most intimate terms with the Kaiser. He tells me he
often takes dinner with the family alone, and spends the
evening with them.

I know, now, the different Cabinet officials who have the
Kaiser's confidence and I know his attitude toward England,
naval armaments, war, and world politics in general.

Wheeler spoke to me very frankly and the information
he gave me will be invaluable in the event that my
plans carry. The general idea is to bring about a sym-
pathetic understanding between England, Germany, and
America, not only upon the question of disarmament, but
upon other matters of equal importance to themselves,
and to the world at large.

It seems to me that Japan should come into this pact,
but Wheeler tells me that the Kaiser feels very strongly
upon the question of Asiatics. He thinks the contest of
the future will be between the Eastern and Western civi-
lizations. . . .

Your friend always,

E. M. House.

By January 4, 1914, the House-Wilson plan had thus
grown into an Anglo-American-German "pact," to deal

1 Ex-President of the University of California, Roosevelt Professor at the Univer-
sity of Berlin, 1909-10.

282 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

not only with "disarmament, but other matters of equal
importance to themselves and to the world at large."
Page's response to this idea was consistent and char-
acteristic. He had no faith in Germany and believed
that the existence of Kaiserism was incompatible with
the extension of the democratic ideal. Even at this
early time — eight months before the outbreak of the
World War — he had no enthusiasm for anything in the
nature of an alliance, or a "pact," that included Ger-
many as an equal partner. He did, however, have great
faith in the cooperation of the English-speaking peoples
as a force that would make for permanent peace and
international justice. In his reply to Colonel House,
therefore, Page fell back at once upon his favourite plan
for an understanding between the United States, Great
Britain, and the British colonies. That he would com-
pletely sympathize with the Washington aspiration for
disarmament was to be expected.

To Edward M. House

January 2, 1914.
My dear House :

You have set my imagination going. I've been thinking
of this thing for months, and now you've given me a fresh
start. It can be worked out somehow — doubtless, not
in the form that anybody may at first see; but experiment
and frank discussion vsill find a way.

As I think of it, turning it this way and that, there
always comes to me just as I am falling to sleep this
reflection: the English-speaking peoples now rule the
world in all essential facts. They alone and Switzerland
have permanent free government. In France there's
freedom — but for how long? In Germany and Austria
— hardly. In the Scandinavian States — yes, but they

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 283

are small and exposed as are Belgium and Holland. In
the big secure South American States — yes, it's coming.
In Japan — ? Only the British lands and the United
States have secure liberty. They also have the most
treasure, the best fighters, the most land, the most ships —
the future in fact.

Now, because George Washington warned us against
alliances, we've gone on as if an alliance were a kind of
smallpox. Suppose there were — let us say for argument's
sake — the tightest sort of an alliance, offensive and de-
fensive, between all Britain, colonies and all, and the
United States — what would happen? Anything we'd
say would go, whether we should say, "Come in out of
the wet," or, " Disarm." That might be the beginning of
a real world-alliance and union to accomplish certain
large results — disarmament, for instance, or arbitration
— dozens of good things.

Of course, we'd have to draw and quarter the O'Gor-
mans.1 But that ought to be done anyhow in the general
interest of good sense in the world. We could force any
nation into this "trust" that we wanted in it.

Isn't it time we tackled such a job frankly, fighting out
the Irish problem once for all, and having done with it?

I'm not proposing a programme. I'm only thinking
out loud. I see little hope of doing anything so long as
we choose to be ruled by an obsolete remark made by
George Washington.

January 11, 1914.
. . . But this armament flurry is worth serious
thought. Lloyd George gave out an interview, seeming
to imply the necessity of reducing the navy programme.

JJaraes A. O'Gorman was the anti-British Senator from New York State at
this time working hard against the repeal of the Panama tolls discrimination.

284 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

The French allies of the British went up in the air ! They
raised a great howl. Churchill went to see them, to
soothe them. They would not be soothed. Now the
Prime Minister is going to Paris — ostensibly to see his
daughter off to the Riviera. Nobody believes that reason.
They say he's going to smooth out the French. Mean-
time the Germans are gleeful.

And the British Navy League is receiving money and
encouraging letters from British subjects, praying greater
activity to keep the navy up. You touch the navy and
you touch the quick — that's the lesson. It's an enor-
mous excitement that this small incident has caused.

W. H. P.

To Edward M. House

London, February 24, 1914.
My dear House :

You'll be interested in these pamphlets by Sir Max
Waechter, who has opened an office here and is spending
much money to "federate" Europe, and to bring a lessen-
ing of armaments. I enclose also an article about him
from the Daily Telegraph, which tells how he has inter-
viewed most of the Old World monarchs. Get also,
immediately, the new two-volume life of Lord Lyons,
Minister to the United States during the Civil War, and
subsequently Ambassador to France. You will find an
interesting account of the campaign of about 1870 to re-
duce armaments, when old Bismarck dumped the whole
basket of apples by marching against France. You
know I sometimes fear some sort of repetition of that
experience. Some government (probably Germany) will
see bankruptcy staring it in the face and the easiest way
out will seem a great war. Bankruptcy before a war
would be ignominious; after a war, it could be charged to

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 285

"Glory." It'll take a long time to bankrupt England.
It's unspeakably rich; they pay enormous taxes, but they
pay them out of their incomes, not out of their principal,
except their inheritance tax. That looks to me as if it
came out of the principal. . . .

I hope you had a good time in Texas and escaped some
cold weather. Tins deceptive sort of winter here is
grippe-laden. I've had the thing, but I'm now getting
over it. . . .

This Benton^Mexican business is causing great ex-
citement here.

Always heartily yours,

W. H. P.

P. S. There's nothing like the President. By George!
the passage of the arbitration treaty (renewal) almost
right off the bat, and apparently the tolls discrimination
coming presently to its repeal! Sir Edward Grey re-
marked to me yesterday: 'Things are clearing up!"
I came near saying to him: "Have you any miracles in
mind that you'd like to see worked?" Wilson stock is at
a high premium on this side of the water in spite of the
momentary impatience caused by Benton's death.

W. H. P.

From Edward M. House

145 East 35th Street,

New York City.
April 19th, 1914.
Dear Page:

I have had a long talk with Mr. Laughlin.2 At first he
thought I would not have more than one chance in a

1 In February, 1915, William S. Benton, an English subject who had spent the
larger part of his life in Mexico, was murdered in the presence of Francisco Villa.

2 Mr. Irwin Laughlin, first secretary of the American Embassy in London; at
this time spending a few weeks in the United States.

286 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

million to do anything with the Kaiser, but after talking
with him further, he concluded that I would have a fairly
good sporting chance. I have about concluded to take it.

If I can do anything, I can do it in a few days. I was
with the President most of last week. . . .

He spoke of your letters to him and to me as being
classics, and said they were the best letters, as far as he
knew, that any one had ever written. Of course you
know how heartily I concur in this. He said that some-
time they should be published.

The President is now crystallizing his mind in regard to
the Federal Reserve Board, and if you are not to remain
in London, then he would probably put Houston on the
Board and ask you to take the Secretaryship of Agricul-
ture.

You have no idea the feeling that is being aroused by
the tolls question. The Hearst papers are screaming at
all of us every day. They have at last honoured me with
their abuse. . . .

With love and best wishes, I am,

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

From Edward M. House

145 East 35th Street,

New York City.
April 20th, 1914.
Dear Page:

. . . It is our purpose to sail on the Imperator,
May 16th, and go directly to Germany. I expect to be
there a week or more, but Mrs. House will reach London
by the 1st or 2nd of June. . . .

Our friend1 in Washington thinks it is worth while for

1 Obviously President Wilson.

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 287

me to go to Germany, and that determines the matter.
The press is shrieking to-day over the Mexican situation,
but I hope they will be disappointed. It is not the in-
tention to do anything further for the moment than to
blockade the ports, and unless some overt act is made
from the North, our troops will not cross the border.

Your friend always,

E. M. House.

To Edward M. House

London, April 27, 1914.
My dear House:

Of course you decided wisely to carry out your original
Berlin plan, and you ought never to have had a mo-
ment's hesitation, if you did have any hesitation. I do
not expect you to produce any visible or immediate re-
sults. I hope I am mistaken in this. But you know that
the German Government has a well-laid progressive plan
for shipbuilding for a certain number of years. I believe
that the work has, in fact, already been arranged for.
But that has nothing to do with the case. You are going
to see what effect you can produce on the mind of a
man. Perhaps you will never know just what effect you
will produce. Yet the fact that you are who you are,
that you make this journey for this especial purpose, that
you are everlastingly right — these are enough.

Moreover, you can't ever tell results, nor can you af-
ford to make your plans in this sort of high work with the
slightest reference to probable results. That's the big-
ness and the glory of it. Any ordinary man can, on any
ordinary day, go and do a task, the favourable results
of Avhich may be foreseen. That's easy. The big thing
is to go confidently to work on a task, the results of
which nobody can possibly foresee — a task so vague and

288 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

improbable of definite results that small men hesitate.
It is in this spirit that very many of the biggest things in
history have been done. Wasn't the purchase of Louisi-
ana such a thing? Who'd ever have supposed that thai
could have been brought about? I applaud your errand
and I am eagerly impatient to hear the results. When
will you get here? I assume that Mrs. House will not
go with you to Berlin. No matter so you both turn up
here for a good long stay.

I've taken me a little bit of a house about twenty
miles out of town whither we are going in July as soon
as we can get away from London. I hope to stay down
there till far into October, coming up to London about
thrice a week. That's the dull season of the year. It's
a charming little country place — big enough for you to
visit us. . . .

From Edward M. House

An Bord des Dampfers Imperator
den May 21, 1914.
Hamburg-Amerika Linie

Dear Page:

Here we are again. The Wallaces1 land at Cherbourg,
Friday morning, and we of course go on to Berlin. I
wish I might have the benefit of your advice just now, for
the chances for success in this great adventure are slender
enough at best. The President has done his part in the
letter I have with me, and it is clearly up to me to do
mine. . . .

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

i Mr. Hugh C. Wallace, afterward Ambassador to France, and Mrs. Wallace.
Mr. and Mrs. Wallace accompanied Mr. and Mrs. House on this journey.

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 289

It will be observed that Colonel House had taken the
advice of Sir William Tyrrell, and had sailed directly to
Germany on a German ship — the Imperator. Ambas-
sador Gerard had made preparations for his reception in
Berlin, and the American soon had long talks with Ad-
miral von Tirpitz, Falkenhayn, Von Jagow, Solf, and
others. Von Bethmann-Hollweg's wife died almost on
the day of his arrival in Berlin, so it was impossible for
him to see the Chancellor — the man who would have
probably been the most receptive to these peace ideas.
All the leaders of the government, except Von Tirpitz,
gave Colonel House's proposals a respectful if somewhat
cynical hearing. Von Tirpitz was openly and demon-
stratively hostile. The leader of the German Navy simply
bristled with antagonism at any suggestion for peace
or disarmament or world cooperation. He consumed a
large part of the time which Colonel House spent with
him denouncing England and all its works. Hatred
of the "Island Kingdom" was apparently the consuming
passion of his existence. On the whole, Von Tirpitz
thus made no attempt to conceal his feeling that the pur-
pose of the House mission was extremely distasteful to
him. The other members of the Government, while not
so tactlessly hostile, were not particularly encouraging.
The usual objections to disarmament were urged — the
fear of other Powers, the walled-in state of Germany, the
vigilant enemies against which it was necessary con-
stantly to be prepared and watchful. Even more than
the unsympathetic politeness of the German Cabinet
the general atmosphere of Berlin was depressing to Colo-
nel House. The militaristic oligarchy was absolutely in
control. Militarism possessed not only the army, the
navy, and the chief officers of state, but the populace as
well. One almost trivial circumstance has left a lasting

290 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

impression on Colonel House's mind. Ambassador Gerard
took him out one evening for a little relaxation. Both
Mr. Gerard and Colonel House were fond of target shoot-
ing and the two men sought one of the numerous rifle
galleries of Berlin. They visited gallery after gallery,
but could not get into one. Great crowds lined up at
every place, waiting their turns at the target; it seemed
as though every able-bodied man in Berlin was spending
all his time improving his marksmanship. But this was
merely a small indication of the atmosphere of militarism
which prevailed in the larger aspects of life. Colonel
House found himself in a strange place to preach inter-
national accord for the ending of war !

He had come to Berlin not merely to talk with the
Cabinet heads; his goal was the Kaiser himself. But he
perceived at once a persistent opposition to his plan.
As he was the President's personal representative, and
carried a letter from the President to the Kaiser, an audi-
ence could not be refused — indeed, it had already been
duly arranged; but there was a quiet opposition to his
consorting with the "All Highest ' ' alone. It was not usual,
Colonel House was informed, for His Imperial Majesty
to discuss such matters except in the presence of a repre-
sentative of the Foreign Office. Germany had not yet
recovered from the shock which the Emperor's conversa-
tion with certain foreign correspondents had given the
nation. The effects were still felt of the famous interviews
of October 28, 1908, which, when published in the Lon-
don Telegraph, had caused the bitterest resentment in
Great Britain. The Kaiser had given his solemn word
that he would indulge in no more indiscretions of this
sort, and a private interview with Colonel House was re-
garded by his advisers as a possible infraction of that
promise. But the American would not be denied. He

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 291

knew that an interview with a third person present would
be simply time thrown away since his message was in-
tended for the Kaiser's own ears; and ultimately his per-
sistence succeeded. The next Monday would be June
1st — a great day in Germany. It was the occasion of the
Schrippenfest, a day which for many years had been set
aside for the glorification of the German Army. On that
festival, the Kaiser entertained with great pomp repre-
sentative army officers and representative privates, as
well as the diplomatic corps and other distinguished
foreigners. Colonel House was invited to attend the
Kaiser's luncheon on that occasion, and was informed that,
after this function was over, he would have an opportun-
ity of having a private conversation with His Majesty.

The affair took place in the palace at Potsdam. The
militarism which Colonel House had felt so oppressively
in Berlin society was especially manifest on this occasion.
There were two luncheon parties — that of the Kaiser
and his officers and guests in the state dining room, and
that of the selected private soldiers outside. The Kaiser
and the Kaiserin spent a few moments with their humbler
subjects, drinking beer with them and passing a few com-
radely remarks; they then proceeded to the large dining
hall and took their places with the gorgeously caparisoned
and bemedalled chieftains of the German Army. The
whole proceeding has an historic interest, in that it was
the last Schrippenfest held. Whether another will ever
be held is problematical, for the occasion was an inevitable
part of the trappings of Hohenzollernism. Despite the
gravity of the occasion, Colonel House's chief memory
of this function is slightly tinged with the ludicrous. He
had spent the better part of a lifetime attempting to
rid himself of his military title, but uselessly. He was
now embarrassed because these solemn German officers

292 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

persisted in regarding him as an important part of the
American Army, and in discussing technical and strategi-
cal problems. The visitor made several attempts to ex-
plain that he was merely a "geographical colonel" —
that the title was constantly conferred in an informal
sense on Americans, especially Southerners, and that the
handle to his name had, therefore, no military signifi-
cance. But the round-faced Teutons stared at Ins ex-
planation in blank amazement; they couldn't grasp the
point at all, and continued to ask his opinion of matters
purely military.

When the lunch was finished, the Kaiser took Colonel
House aside, and the two men withdrew to the terrace,
out of earshot of the rest of the gathering. However,
they were not out of sight. For nearly half an hour the
Kaiser and the American stood side by side upon the ter-
race, the German generals, at a respectful distance, watch-
ing the proceeding, resentful, puzzled, curious as to what it
was all about. The quiet demeanour of the American
" Colonel," his plain citizen's clothes, and his almost impas-
sive face, formed a striking contrast to the Kaiser's dazzling
uniform and the general scene of military display. Two or
three of the generals and admirals present were in the
secret, but only two or three ; the mass of officers watching
this meeting little guessed that the purpose of House's visit
was to persuade the Kaiser to abandon everything for
which the Schrippenfest stood ; to enter an international
compact with the United States and Great Britain for
reducing armaments, to reach an agreement about trade
and the treatment of backward peoples, and to form
something of a permanent association for the preserva-
tion of peace. The one thing which was apparent to the
watchers was that the American was only now and then
saying a brief word, but that the Kaiser was, as usual,

Walter H. Page, from a photograph taken a few years before he
became American Ambassador to Great Britain

The British Foreign Office. Downing Street

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 293

doing a vast amount of talking. His speech rattled on
with the utmost animation, his arms were constantly
gesticulating, he would bring one fist down into his palm
to register an emphatic point, and enforce certain ideas
with a menacing forefinger. At times Colonel House
would show slight signs of impatience and interrupt the
flow of talk. But the Kaiser was clearly absorbed in the
subject under discussion. His entourage several times
attempted to break up the interview. The Court Cham-
berlain twice gingerly approached and informed His
Majesty that the Imperial train Avas waiting to take the
party back to Berlin. Each time the Kaiser, with an
angry gesture, waved the interrupter away. Despairing of
the usual resources, the Kaiserin was sent with the same
message. The Kaiser did not treat her so summarily, but
he paid no attention to the request, and continued to dis-
cuss the European situation with the American.

The subject that had mainly aroused the Imperial
warmth was the "Yellow Peril." For years this had been
an obsession with the Kaiser, and he launched into the
subject as soon as Colonel House broached the purpose of
his visit. There could be no question of disarmament,
the Kaiser vehemently declared, as long as this danger
to civilization existed. "We white nations should join
hands," he said, "to oppose Japan and the other yellow
nations, or some day they will destroy us. "

It was with difficulty that Colonel House could get
His Majesty away from this subject. Whatever topic
he touched upon, the Kaiser would immediately start
declaiming on the dangers that faced Europe from the
East. His insistence on this accounted partly for the
slight signs of impatience which the American showed.
He feared that all the time allotted for the interview would
be devoted to discussing the Japanese. About another

294 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

nation, the Kaiser showed almost as much alarm as he
did about Japan, and that was Russia. He spoke con-
temptuously of France and Great Britain as possible
enemies, for he apparently had no fear of them. But the
size of Russia and the exposed eastern frontier of Ger-
many seemed to appal him. How could Germany join a
peace pact, and reduce its army, so long as 175,000,000
Slavs threatened them from this direction?

Another matter that the Kaiser discussed with de-
rision was Mr. Bryan's arbitration treaty. Practically
all the great nations had already ratified this treaty ex-
cept Germany. The Kaiser now laughed at the treaties
and pooh-poohed Bryan. Germany, he declared, would
never accept such an arbitration plan. Colonel House
had particular cause to remember this part of the conver-
sation three years afterward, when the United States
declared war on Germany. The outstanding feature of
the Bryan treaty was the clause which pledged the high
contracting parties not to go to war without taking a
breathing spell of one year in which to think the matter
over. Had Germany adopted this treaty, the United
States, in April, 1917, after Germany had presented a
casus belli by resuming unrestricted submarine warfare,
could not have gone to war. We should have been
obliged to wait a year, or until April, 1918, before en-
gaging in hostilities. That is, an honourable observance
of this Bryan treaty by the United States would have
meant that Germany would have starved Great Britain
into surrender, and crushed Europe with her army. Had
the Kaiser, on this June afternoon, not notified Colonel
House that Germany would not accept this treaty, but,
instead, had notified him that he would accept it, Wil-
liam II might now be sitting on the throne of a victorious
Germany, with Europe for a footstool.

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 295

Despite the Kaiser's hostile attitude toward these de-
tails, his general reception of the President's proposals
was not outwardly unfriendly. Perhaps he was sincere,
perhaps not; yet the fact is that he manifested more
cordiality to this somewhat vague "get-together" pro-
posal than had any of his official advisers. He encouraged
Colonel House to visit London, talk the matter over with
British statesmen, and then return to Berlin.

"The last thing," he said, "that Germany wants is
war. We are getting to be a great commercial country.
In a few years Germany will be a rich country, like Eng-
land and the United States. We don't want a war to
interfere with our progress."

Any peace suggestion that was compatible with German
safety, he said, would be entertained. Yet his parting
words were not reassuring.

"Every nation in Europe," he said, "has its bayonets

pointed at Germany. But " — and with this he gave

a proud and smiling glance at the glistening representa-
tives of his army gathered on this brilliant occasion —
"we are ready!"

Colonel House left Berlin, not particularly hopeful;
the Kaiser impressed him as a man of unstable nervous
organization — as one who was just hovering on the border-
land of insanity. Certainly, this was no man to be en-
trusted with such powers as the American had witnessed
that day at Potsdam. Dangerous as the Kaiser was,
however, he did not seem to Colonel House to be as great
a menace to mankind as were his military advisers. The
American came away from Berlin with the conviction
that the most powerful force in Germany was the mili-
taristic clique, and second, the Hohenzollern dynasty.
He has always insisted that this represented the real
precedence in power. So long as the Kaiser was obedient

296 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

to the will of militarism, so long could he maintain his
standing. He was confident, however, that the mili-
taristic oligarchy was determined to have its will, and
would dethrone the Kaiser the moment he showed in-
dications of taking a course that would lead to peace.
Colonel House was also convinced that this militaristic
oligarchy was determined on war. The coolness with
which it listened to his proposals, the attempts it made
to keep him from seeing the Kaiser alone, its repeated
efforts to break up the conversation after it had begun,
all pointed to the inevitable tragedy. The fact that the
Kaiser expressed a wish to discuss the matter again,
after Colonel House had sounded London, was the one
hopeful feature of an otherwise discouraging experience,
and accounts for the tone of faint optimism in his letters
describing the visit.

From Edward M. House

Embassy of the United States of America,

Berlin,

May 28, 1914.
Dear Page:

. . . I have done something here already — not
much, but enough to open negotiations with London.
I lunch with the Kaiser on Monday. I was advised to
avoid Admiral von Tirpitz as being very unsympathetic.
However, I went directly at him and had a most interest-
ing talk. He is a forceful fellow. Yon Jagow is pleasant
but not forceful. I have had a long talk with him. The
Chancellor's wife died last week so I have not got in
touch with him. I will write you more fully from Paris.
My address there will be Hotel Ritz.

Hastily,

E. M. H.

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 297

From Edward M. House

Hotel Ritz, 15, Place Vendome, Paris.

June 3, 1914.
Dear Page :

I had a satisfactory talk with the Kaiser on Monday.
I have now seen everyone worthwhile in Germany except
the Chancellor. I am ready now for London. Perhaps
you had better prepare the way. The Kaiser knows I
am to see them, and I have arranged to keep him in touch
with results — if there are any. We must work quickly
after I arrive, for it may be advisable for me to return to
Germany, and I am counting on sailing for home July
15th or 28th. ... I am eager to see you and tell
you what I know.

Yours,

E. M. H.

Colonel House left that night for Paris, but there the
situation was a hopeless one. France was not thinking
of a foreign war; it was engrossed with its domestic
troubles. There had been three French ministries in two
weeks ; and the trial of Madame Caillaux for the murder of
Gaston Calmette, editor of the Paris Figaro, was monop-
olizing all the nation's capacity for emotion. Colonel
House saw that it would be a waste of energy to take up
his mission at Paris — there was no government stable
enough to make a discussion worth while. He therefore
immediately left for London.

The political situation in Great Britain was almost as
confused as that in Paris. The country was in a state
approaching civil war on the question of Home Rule
for Ireland; the suffragettes were threatening to dyna-
mite the Houses of Parliament; and the eternal struggle

298 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

between the Liberal and the Conservative elements was
raging with unprecedented virulence. A European war
was far from everybody's mind. It was this utter in-
ability to grasp the realities of the European situation
which proved the main impediment to Colonel House's
work in England. He met all the important people —
Mr. Asquith, Mr. Lloyd George, Sir Edward Grey, and
others. With them he discussed his "pact" proposal in
great detail.

Naturally, ideas of this sort were listened to sympa-
thetically by statesmen of the stamp of Asquith, Grey,
and Lloyd George. The difficulty, however, was that
none of these men apprehended an immediate war. They
saw no necessity of hurrying about the matter. They had
the utmost confidence in Prince Lichnowsky, the German
Ambassador in London, and Von Bethmann-Hollw eg,
the German Chancellor. Both these men were regarded
by the Foreign Office as guarantees against a German at-
tack; their continuance in their office was looked upon
as an assurance that Germany entertained no immediately
aggressive plans. Though the British statesmen did not
say so definitely, the impression was conveyed that the
mission on which Colonel House was engaged was an
unnecessary one — a preparation against a danger that
did not exist. Colonel House attempted to persuade
Sir Edward Grey to visit the Kiel regatta, which was to
take place in a fewr days, see the Kaiser, and discuss the
plan with him. But the Government feared that such a
visit would be very disturbing to France and Bussia.
Already Mr. Churchill's proposal for a "naval holiday"
had so wTOught up the French that a hurried trip to
France by Mr. Asquith had been necessary to quiet them ;
the consternation that would have been caused in Paris
by the presence of Sir Edw ard Grey at Kiel can only be

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT WAR 299

imagined. The fact that the British statesmen enter-
tained so little apprehension of a German attack may
possibly be a reflection on their judgment; yet Colonel
House's visit has great historical value, for the experience
afterward, convinced him that Great Britain had had no
part in bringing on the European war, and that Germany
was solely responsible. It certainly should have put the
Wilson Administration right on this all-important point,
when the great storm broke.

The most vivid recollection which the British statesmen
whom Colonel House met retain of Ins visit, was his con-
sternation at the spirit that had confronted him every-
where in Germany. The four men most interested —
Sir Edward Grey, Sir William Tyrrell, Mr. Page, and
Colonel House — met at luncheon in the American Em-
bassy a few days after President Wilson's emissary had
returned from Berlin. Colonel House could talk of little
except the preparations for war which were manifest on
every hand.

"I feel as though I had been living near a mighty
electric dynamo," Colonel House told his friends. "The
whole of Germany is charged with electricity. Every-
body's nerves are tense. It needs only a spark to set the
whole thing off."

The "spark" came two weeks afterward with the as-
sassination of the Archduke Ferdinand.

"It is all a bad business," Colonel House wrote to
Page when war broke out, "and just think how near we
came to making such a catastrophe impossible! If
England had moved a little faster and had let me go
back to Germany, the thing, perhaps, could have been
done."

To which Page at once replied:

300 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

"No, no, no — no power on earth could have prevented
it. The German militarism, which is the crime of the
last fifty years, has been working for tins for twenty -five
years. It is the logical result of their spirit and enterprise
and doctrine. It had to come. But, of course, they
chose the wrong time and the wrong issue. Militarism
has no judgment. Don't let your conscience be worried.
You did all that any mortal man could do. But nobody
could have done anything effective.

"We've got to see to it that this system doesn't grow
up again. That's all."

CHAPTER X

THE GRAND SMASH

IN THE latter part of July the Pages took a small house
at Ockliam, in Surrey, and here they spent the fateful
week that preceded the outbreak of war. The Ambas-
sador's emotions on this event are reflected in a memo-
randum written on Sunday, August 2nd — a day that was
full of negotiations, ultimatums, and other precursors of
the approaching struggle.

Bachelor's Farm, Ockham, Surrey.
Sunday, August 2, 1914.

The Grand Smash is come. Last night the German
Ambassador at St. Petersburg handed the Russian Gov-
ernment a declaration of war. To-day the German Gov-
ernment asked the United States to take its diplomatic
and consular business in Russia in hand. Herrick, our
Ambassador in Paris, has already taken the German in-
terests there.

It is reported in London to-day that the Germans have
invaded Luxemburg and France.

Troops were marching through London at one o'clock
this morning. Colonel Squier1 came out to luncheon.
He sees no way for England to keep out of it. There is
no way. If she keep out, Germany will take Belgium
and Holland, France would be betrayed, and England
would be accused of forsaking her friends.

'At this time American military attache.

301

302 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

People came to the Embassy all day to-day (Sunday),
to learn how they can get to the United States — a rather
hard question to answer. I thought several times of
going in, but Greene and Squier said there was no need
of it. People merely hoped we might tell them what we
can't tell them.

Returned travellers from Paris report indescribable con-
fusion— people unable to obtain beds and fighting for
seats in railway carriages.

It's been a hard day here. I have a lot (not a
big lot either) of routine work on my desk which I
meant to do. But it has been impossible to get my
mind off this Great Smash. It holds one in spite of
one's self. I revolve it and revolve it — of course getting
nowhere.

It will revive our shipping. In a jiffy, under stress of a
general European war, the United States Senate passed a
bill permitting American registry to ships built abroad.
Thus a real emergency knocked the old Protectionists
out, who had held on for fifty years! Correspondingly
the political parties here have agreed to suspend their
Home Rule quarrel till this war is ended. Artificial
structures fall when a real wind blows.

The United States is the only great Power wholly out
of it. The United States, most likely, therefore, will be
able xo play a helpful and historic part at its end. It will
give President Wilson, no doubt, a great opportunity.
It will probably help us politically and it will surely help
us economically.

The possible consequences stagger the imagination.
Germany has staked everything on her ability to win
primacy. England and France (to say nothing of
Russia) really ought to give her a drubbing. If they do
not, this side of the world will henceforth be German. If

THE GRAND SMASH 303

they do flog Germany, Germany will for a long time be in
discredit.

I walked out in the night a while ago. The stars are
bright, the night is silent, the country quiet — as quiet
as peace itself. Millions of men are in camp and on war-
ships. Will they all have to fight and many of them die — ■
to untangle this network of treaties and alliances and to
blow off huge debts with gunpowder so that the world
may start again P

A hurried picture of the events of the next seven days
is given in the following letter to the President:

To the President

London, Sunday, August 9, 1914.
Dear Mr. President:

God save us ! What a week it has been ! Last Sunday
I was down here at the cottage I have taken for the
summer — an hour out of London — uneasy because of the
apparent clanger and of what Sir Edward Grey had told
me. During the day people began to go to the Embassy,
but not in great numbers — merely to ask what they
should do in case of war. The Secretary whom I had
left in charge on Sunday telephoned me every few hours
and laughingly told funny experiences with nervous wo-
men who came in and asked absurd questious. Of course,
we all knew the grave danger that war might come but
nobody could by the wildest imagination guess at what
awaited us. On Monday I was at the Embassy earlier
than I think I had ever been there before and every
member of the staff was already on duty. Before break-
fast time the place was filled — packed like sardines.
This was two days before war was declared. There was

304 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

no chance to talk to individuals, such was the jam. I
got on a chair and explained that I had already tele-
graphed to Washington— on Saturday— suggesting the
sending of money and ships, and asking them to be pa-
tient. I made a speech to them several times during the
day, and kept the Secretaries doing so at intervals. More
than 2,000 Americans crowded into those offices (which
are not large) that day. We were kept there till two
o'clock in the morning. The Embassy has not been
closed since.

Mr. Kent of the Bankers Trust Company in New York
volunteered to form an American Citizens' Relief Com-
mittee. He and other men of experience and influence
organized themselves at the Savoy Hotel. The hotel
gave the use of nearly a whole floor. They organized
themselves quickly and admirably and got information
about steamships and currency, etc. We began to send
callers at the Embassy to this Committee for such inform-
ation. The banks were all closed for four days. These
men got money enough — put it up themselves and used
their English banking friends for help— to relieve all
cases of actual want of cash that came to them. Tuesday
the crowd at the Embassy was still great but smaller.
The big space at the Savoy Hotel gave them room to
talk to one another and to get relief for immediate needs.
By that time I had accepted the volunteer services of
five or six men to help us explain to the people — and
they have all worked manfully day and night. We now
have an orderly organization at four places: The Em-
bassy, the Consul-General's Office, the Savoy, and the
American Society in London, and everything is going well.
Those two first days, there was, of course, great con-
fusion. Crazy men and weeping women were imploring
and cursing and demanding— God knows it was bedlam

THE GRAND SMASH 305

turned loose. I have been called a man of the greatest
genius for an emergency by some, by others a damned
fool, by others every epithet between these extremes.
Men shook English banknotes in my face and demanded
United States money and swore our Government and its
agents ought all to be shot. Women expected me to
hand them steamship tickets home. When some found
out that they could not get tickets on the transports
(which they assumed would sail the next day) they ac-
cused me of favouritism. These absurd experiences will
give you a hint of the panic. But now it has worked out
all right, thanks to the Savoy Committee and other
helpers.

Meantime, of course, our telegrams and mail increased
almost as much as our callers. I have filled the place
with stenographers, I have got the Savoy people to answer
certain classes of letters, and we have caught up. My
own time and the time of two of the secretaries has been
almost wholly taken with governmental problems; hun-
dreds of questions have come in from every quarter that
were never asked before. But even with them we have
now practically caught up — it has been a wonderful week !

Then the Austrian Ambassador came to give up his Em-
bassy— to have me take over his business. Every detail was
arranged. The next morning I called on him to assume
charge and to say good-bye, when he told me that he was
not yet going ! That was a stroke of genius by Sir Edward
Grey, who informed him that Austria had not given
England cause for war. That may work out, or it may
not. Pray Heaven it may! Poor Mensdorff, the Aus-
trian Ambassador, does not know where he is. He is
practically shut up in his guarded Embassy, weeping and
waiting the decree of fate.

Then came the declaration of war, most dramatically.

306 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Tuesday night, five minutes after the ultimatum had ex-
pired, the Admiralty telegraphed to the fleet 'Go." In
a few minutes the answer came back "Off." Soldiers
began to march through the city going to the railway
stations. An indescribable crowd so blocked the streets
about the Admiralty, the War Office, and the Foreign
Office, that at one o'clock in the morning I had to drive
in my car by other streets to get home.

The next day the German Embassy was turned over
to me. I went to see the German Ambassador at three
o'clock in the afternoon. He came down in his pajamas,
a crazy man. I feared he might literally go mad. He
is of the anti-war party and he had done his best and
utterly failed. This interview was one of the most
pathetic experiences of my fife. The poor man had not
slept for several nights. Then came the crowds of
frightened Germans, afraid that they would be arrested.
They besieged the German Embassy and our Embassy.
I put one of our naval officers in the German Embassy,
put the United States seal on the door to protect it, and
we began business there, too. Our naval officer has moved
in — sleeps there. He has an assistant, a stenographer, a
messenger: and I gave him the German automobile and
chauffeur and two English servants that were left there.
He has the job well in hand now, under my and Laugh-
lin's supervision. But this has brought still another new
lot of diplomatic and governmental problems — a lot of
them. Three enormous German banks in London have,
of course, been closed. Their managers pray for my aid.
Howling women come and say their innocent German
husbands have been arrested as spies. English, Germans,
Americans — everybody has daughters and wives and
invalid grandmothers alone in Germany. In God's
name, they ask, what can I do for them? Here come

THE GRAND SMASH 307

stacks of letters sent under the impression that I can
send them to Germany. But the German business is
already well in hand and I think that that will take little
of my own time and will give little trouble. I shall send
a report about it in detail to the Department the very
first day I can find time to write it. In spite of the effort
of the English Government to remain at peace with
Austria, I fear I shall yet have the Austrian Embassy too.
But I can attend to it.

Now, however, comes the financial job of wisely using
the $300,000 which I shall have to-morrow. I am using
Mr. Chandler Anderson as counsel, of course. I have
appointed a Committee — Skinner, the Consul-General,
Lieut.-Commander McCrary of our Navy, Kent of the
Bankers Trust Company, New York, and one other man
yet to be chosen — to advise, after investigation, about
every proposed expenditure. Anderson has been at work
all day to-day drawing up proper forms, etc., to fit the
Department's very excellent instructions. I have the
feeling that more of that money may be wisely spent in
helping to get people off the continent (except in France,
where they seem admirably to be managing it, under
Herrick) than is immediately needed in England. All
this merely to show you the diversity and multiplicity
of the job.

I am having a card catalogue, each containing a sort
of who's who, of all Americans in Europe of whom we
hear. This will be ready by the time the Tennessee1
comes. Fifty or more stranded Americans — men and
women — are doing this work free.

I have a member of Congress2 in the general reception

irrhe American Government, on the outbreak of war, sent the U. S. S. Tennessee
to Europe, with large supplies of gold for the relief of stranded Americans.

2The late Augustus P. Gardner, of Massachusetts.

308 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

room of the Embassy answering people's questions —
three other volunteers as well.

We had a world of confusion for two or three days.
But all this work is now well organized and it can be
continued without confusion or cross purposes. I meet
committees and lay plans and read and write telegrams
from the time I wake till I go to bed. But, since it is
now all in order, it is easy. Of course I am running up
the expenses of the Embassy — there is no help for that;
but the bill will be really exceedingly small because of the
volunteer work — for awhile. I have not and shall not
consider the expense of whatever it seems absolutely
necessary to do — of other things I shall always consider
the expense most critically. Everybody is working with
everybody else in the finest possible spirit. I have made
out a sort of military order to the Embassy staff, detailing
one man with clerks for each night and forbidding the
others to stay there till midnight. None of us slept more
than a few hours last week. It was not the work that
kept them after the first night or two, but the sheer ex-
citement of this awful cataclysm. All London has been
awake for a week. Soldiers are marching day and night;
immense throngs block the streets about the government
offices. But they are all very orderly. Every day Ger-
mans are arrested on suspicion ; and several of them have
committed suicide. Yesterday one poor American wo-
man yielded to the excitement and cut her throat. I
find it hard to get about much. People stop me on the
street, follow me to luncheon, grab me as I come out of
any committee meeting — to know my opinion of this
or that — how can they get home? Will such-and-such a
boat fly the American flag? Why did I take the German
Embassy? I have to fight my way about and rush to an
automobile. I have had to buy me a second one to keep

No. 6 Grosvenor Square, the American Embassy under Mr. Page

Irwin Laughlin, Secretary of the American Embassy at London,
1912-1917, Counsellor 1916-1919

THE GRAND SMASH 309

up the racket. Buy? — no — only bargain for it, for I
have not any money. But everybody is considerate,
and that makes no matter for the moment. This little
cottage in an out-of-the-way place, twenty-five miles
from London, where I am trying to write and sleep, has
been found by people to-day, who come in automobiles
to know how they may reach their sick kinspeople in
Germany. I have not had a bath for three days: as
soon as I got in the tub, the telephone rang an "urgent"
call!

Upon my word, if one could forget the awful tragedy,
all this experience would be worth a lifetime of common-
place. One surprise follows another so rapidly that one
loses all sense of time : it seems an age since last Sunday.

I shall never forget Sir Edward Grey's telling me of the
ultimatum — while he wept; nor the poor German Ambas-
sador who has lost in his high game — almost a demented
man ; nor the King as he declaimed at me for half-an-hour
and threw up his hands and said, "My God, Mr. Page,
what else could we do? " Nor the Austrian Ambassador's
wringing his hands and weeping and crying out, "My
dear Colleague, my dear Colleague."

Along with all this tragedy come two reverend Ameri-
can peace delegates who got out of Germany by the
skin of their teeth and complain that they lost all the
clothes they had except what they had on. "Don't
complain," said I, "but thank God you saved your
skins." Everybody has forgotten what war means —
forgotten that folks get hurt. But they are coming
around to it now. A United States Senator telegraphs
me: "Send my wife and daughter home on the first
ship." Ladies and gentlemen filled the steerage of that
ship — not a bunk left; and his wife and daughter are
found three days later sitting in a swell hotel waiting for

310 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

me to bring them stateroom tickets on a silver tray ! One
of my young fellows in the Embassy rushes into my office
saying that a man from Boston, with letters of intro-
duction from Senators and Governors and Secretaries,
et al., was demanding tickets of admission to a picture
gallery, and a secretary to escort him there.

"What shall I do with him?"

"Put his proposal to a vote of the 200 Americans in
the room and see them draw and quarter him."

I have not yet heard what happened. A woman writes
me four pages to prove how dearly she loves my sister
and invites me to her hotel — five miles away — "please
to tell her about the sailing of the steamships." Six
American preachers pass a resolution unanimously "urg-
ing our Ambassador to telegraph our beloved, peace-
loving President to stop this awful war"; and they come
with simple solemnity to present their resolution. Lord
save us, what a world !

And this awful tragedy moves on to — what? We
do not know what is really happening, so strict is the
censorship. But it seems inevitable to me that Germany
will be beaten, that the horrid period of affiances and
armaments will not come again, that England will gain
even more of the earth's surface, that Russia may next
play the menace; that all Europe (as much as survives)
will be bankrupt; that relatively we shall be immensely
stronger financially and politically — there must surely
come many great changes — very many, yet undreamed
of. Be ready; for you will be called on to compose this
huge quarrel. I thank Heaven for many things — first,
the Atlantic Ocean; second, that you refrained from war
in Mexico; third, that we kept our treaty — the canal
tolls victory, I mean. Now, when all this half of the
world will suffer the unspeakable brutalization of war,

THE GRAND SMASH 311

we shall preserve our moral strength, our political powers,
and our ideals.
God save us!

W. H. P.

Vivid as is the above letter, it lacks several impressive
details. Probably the one event that afterward stood
out most conspicuously in Page's mind was his interview
with Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary. Sir
Edward asked the American Ambassador to call Tuesday
afternoon; his purpose was to inform him that Great
Britain had sent an ultimatum to Germany. By this
time Page and the Foreign Secretary had established not
only cordial official relations but a warm friendship.
The two men had many things in common; they had the
same general outlook on world affairs, the same ideas of
justice and fair dealing, the same belief that other mo-
tives than greed and aggrandizement should control the
attitude of one nation to another. The political ten-
dencies of both men were idealistic ; both placed character
above everything else as the first requisite of a statesman ;
both hated war, and looked forward to the time when
more rational methods of conducting international re-
lations would prevail. Moreover, their purely personal
qualities had drawn Sir Edward and Page closely to-
gether. A common love of nature and of out-of-door
life had made them akin; both loved trees, birds, flowers,
and hedgerows; the same intellectual diversions and
similar tastes in reading had strengthened the tie. "I
could never mention a book I liked that Mr. Page had
not read and liked too," Sir Edward Grey once remarked
to the present writer, and the enthusiasm that both men
felt for Wordsworth's poetry in itself formed a strong bond
of union. The part that the American Ambassador had

312 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

played in the repeal of the Panama discrimination had
also made a great impression upon this British statesman
— a man to whom honour means more in international
dealings than any other consideration. "4Mr. Page is
one of the finest illustrations I have ever known," Grey
once said, "of the value of character in a public man."
In their intercourse for the past year the two men had
grown accustomed to disregard all pretense of dip-
lomatic technique; their discussions had been straight-
forward man-to-man talks; there had been nothing sug-
gestive of pose or finesse, and no attempts at cleverness
— merely an effort to get to the bottom of things and to
discover a common meeting ground. The Ambassador,
moreover, represented a nation for which the Foreign
Secretary had always entertained the highest respect and
even affection, and he and Page could find no happier
common meeting-ground than an effort to bring about
the closest cooperation between the two countries. Sir
Edward, far-seeing statesman that he was, had already
appreciated, even amid the exciting and engrossing ex-
periences through which he was then passing, the critical
and almost determining part which the United States was
destined to play in the war, and he had now sent for the
American Ambassador because he believed that the Presi-
dent was entitled to a complete explanation of the mo-
mentous decision which Great Britain had just made.

The meeting took place at three o'clock on Tuesday
afternoon, August 4th — a fateful date in modern history.
The time represented the interval which elapsed between
the transmission of the British ultimatum to Germany
and the hour set for the German reply. The place was
that same historic room in the Foreign Office where so
many interviews had already taken place and where so
many were to take place in the next four years. As

THE GRAND SMASH 313

Page came in, Sir Edward, a tall and worn and rather
pallid figure, was standing against the mantelpiece; he
greeted the Ambassador with a grave handshake and the
two men sat down. Overwrought the Foreign Secretary
may have been, after the racking week which had just
passed, but there was nothing flurried or excited in his
manner; his whole bearing was calm and dignified, his
speech was quiet and restrained, he uttered not one
bitter word against Germany, but his measured accents
had a sureness, a conviction of the justice of his course,
that went home in almost deadly fashion. He sat in a
characteristic pose, his elbows resting on the sides of his
chair, his hands folded and placed beneath his chin,
the whole body leaning forward eagerly and his eyes
searching those of his American friend. The British
Foreign Secretary was a handsome and an inspiring
figure. He was a man of large, but of well knit, robust,
and slender frame, wiry and even athletic ; he had a large
head, surmounted with dark brown hair, slightly touched
with gray; a finely cut, somewhat rugged and bronzed
face, suggestive of that out-of-door life in which he had
always found his greatest pleasure; light blue eyes that
shone with straightforwardness and that on this occasion
were somewhat pensive with anxiety; thin, ascetic lips
that could smile in the most confidential manner or close
tightly with grimness and fixed purpose. He was a man
who was at the same time shy and determined, elusive
and definite, but if there was one note in his bearing that
predominated all others, it was a solemn and quiet sin-
cerity. He seemed utterly without guile and mag-
nificently simple.

Sir Edward at once referred to the German invasion of
Belgium.

"The neutrality of Belgium," he said, and there was

314 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the touch of finality in his voice, "is assured by treaty.
Germany is a signatory power to that treaty. It is upon
such solemn compacts as this that civilization rests. If
we give them up, or permit them to be violated, what
becomes of civilization? Ordered society differs from
mere force only by such solemn agreements or compacts.
But Germany has violated the neutrality of Belgium.
That means bad faith. It means also the end of Bel-
gium's independence. And it will not end with Belgium.
Next will come Holland, and, after Holland, Denmark.
This very morning the Swedish Minister informed me that
Germany had made overtures to Sweden to come in on
Germany's side. The whole plan is thus clear. This one
great military power means to annex Belgium, Holland,
and the Scandinavian states and to subjugate France."

Sir Edward energetically rose; he again stood near the
mantelpiece, his figure straightened, his eyes were fairly
flashing — it was a picture, Page once told me, that was
afterward indelibly fixed in his mind.

"England would be forever contemptible," Sir Edward
said, "if it should sit by and see this treaty violated. Its
position would be gone if Germany were thus permitted to
dominate Europe. I have therefore asked you to come
to tell you that this morning we sent an ultimatum to
Germany. We have told Germany that, if this assault
on Belgium's neutrality is not reversed, England will
declare war."

"Do you expect Germany to accept it?" asked the
Ambassador.

Sir Edward shook his head.

"No. Of course everybody knows that there will be
war.

There was a moment's pause and then the Foreign
Secretary spoke again:

THE GRAND SMASH 315

"Yet we must remember that there are two Germanys.
There is the Germany of men like ourselves — of men like
Liehnowsky and Jagow. Then there is the Germany of men
of the war party. The war party has got the upper hand. ' '

At this point Sir Edward's eyes filled with tears.

"Thus the efforts of a lifetime go for nothing. I feel
like a man who has wasted his life."

"This scene was most affecting," Page said afterward.
"Sir Edward not only realized what the whole thing
meant, but he showed that he realized the awful responsi-
bility for it."

Sir Edward then asked the Ambassador to explain
the situation to President Wilson; he expressed the hope
that the United States would take an attitude of neutral-
ity and that Great Britain might look for "the courtesies
of neutrality" from this country. Page tried to tell him
of the sincere pain that such a war would cause the Presi-
dent and the American people.

"I came away," the Ambassador afterward said, "with
a sort of stunned sense of the impending ruin of half the
world."1

The significant fact in this interview is that the British
Foreign Secretary justified the attitude of his country
exclusively on the ground of the violation of a treaty.
This is something that is not yet completely understood
in the United States. The participation of Great Britain
in this great continental struggle is usually regarded as
having been inevitable, irrespective of the German in-
vasion of Belgium; yet the fact is that, had Germany
not invaded Belgium, Great Britain would not have de-
clared war, at least at this critical time. Sir Edward

irThe materials on which this account is based are a memorandum of the inter-
view made by Sir Edward Grey, now in the archives of the British Foreign Office,
a similar memorandum made by Page, and a detailed description given verbally by
Page to the writer.

316 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

came to Page after a week's experience with a wavering
cabinet. Upon the general question of Britain's partici-
pation in a European war the Asquith Ministry had been
by no means unanimous. Probably Mr. Asquith him-
self and Mr. Lloyd George would have voted against
taking such a step. It is quite unlikely that the cabinet
could have carried a majority of the House of Commons
on this issue. But the violation of the Belgian treaty
changed the situation in a twinkling. The House of
Commons at once took its stand in favour of intervention.
All members of the cabinet, excepting John Morley and
John Burns, who resigned, immediately aligned themselves
on the side of war. In the minds of British statesmen
the violation of this treaty gave Britain no choice. Ger-
many thus forced Great Britain into the war, just as, two
and a half years afterward, the Prussian war lords com-
pelled the United States to take up arms. Sir Edward
Grey's interview with the American Ambassador thus
had great historic importance, for it makes this point clear.
The two men had recently had many discussions on an-
other subject in which the violation of a treaty was the
great consideration — that of Panama tolls — and there
was a certain appropriateness in this explanation of the
British Foreign Secretary that precisely the same point
had determined Great Britain's participation in the great-
est struggle that has ever devastated Europe.

Inevitably the question of American mediation had
come to the surface in this trying time. Several days
before Page's interview with Grey, the American Ambas-
sador, acting in response to a cablegram from Washing-
ton, had asked if the good offices of the United States
could be used in any way. "Sir Edward is very ap-
preciative of our mood and willingness," Page wrote in
reference to this visit. "But they don't want peace on

THE GRAND SMASH 317

the continent — the ruling classes do not. But they will
want it presently and then our opportunity will come.
Ours is the only great government in the world that is
not in some way entangled. Of course I'll keep in daily
touch with Sir Edward and with everybody who can and
will keep me informed."

This was written about July 27th; at that time Austria
had sent her ultimatum to Serbia but there was no cer-
tainty that Europe would become involved in war. A
demand for American mediation soon became widespread
in the United States; the Senate passed a resolution
requesting the President to proffer his good offices to
that end. On this subject the following communications
were exchanged between President Wilson and his chief
adviser, then sojourning at his summer home in Massa-
chusetts. Like Mr. Tumulty, the President's Secretary,
Colonel House usually addressed the President in terms
reminiscent of the days when Mr. Wilson was Governor
of New Jersey. Especially interesting also are Colonel
House's references to his own trip to Berlin and the joint
efforts made by the President and himself in the preceding
June to forestall the war which had now broken out.

Edward M. House to the President

Pride's Crossing (Mass.),

August 3, 1914. [Monday.]
The President,

The White House, Washington, D. C.
Dear Governor:

Our people are deeply shocked at the enormity of this
general European war, and I see here and there regret
that you did not use your good offices in behalf of peace.

If this groAvs into criticism so as to become noticeable
I believe everyone would be pleased and proud that you

318 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

had anticipated this world-wide horror and had done all
that was humanly possible to avert it.

The more terrible the war becomes, the greater credit
it will be that you saw the trend of events long before
it was seen by other statesmen of the world.

Your very faithful,

E. M. House.

P. S. The question might be asked why negotiations
were only with Germany and England and not with
France and Russia. This, of course, was because it
was thought that Germany would act for the Triple
Alliance and England for the Triple Entente.1

The President to Edward M. House

The White House,
Washington, D. C.
August 4th, 1914. [Tuesday.]
Edward M. House,

Pride's Crossing, Mass.
Letter of third received. Do you think I could and
should act now and if so how?

Woodrow Wilson.

Edward M. House to the President
[Telegram]

Pride's Crossing, Mass.
August 5th, 1914. [Wednesday.]
The President,

The White House, Washington, D. C.
Olney2 and I agree that in response to the Senate reso-

^olonel House, of course, is again referring to his experience in Rerlin and
London, described in the preceding chapter.

2Richard Olney, Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Cleveland, who
was a neighbour of Colonel House at his summer home, and with whom the latter
apparently consulted.

THE GRAND SMASH 319

lution it would be unwise to tender your good offices at
this time. We believe it would lessen your influence
when the proper moment arrives. He thinks it advisable
that you make a direct or indirect statement to the effect
that you have done what was humanly possible to com-
pose the situation before this crisis had been reached.
He thinks this would satisfy the Senate and the public
in view of your disinclination to act now upon the Senate
resolution. The story might be told to the correspond-
ents at Washington and they might use the expression
"we have it from high authority."

He agrees to my suggestion that nothing further should
be done now than to instruct our different ambassadors
to inform the respective governments to whom they are
accredited, that you stand ready to tender your good
offices whenever such an offer is desired.

Olney agrees with me that the shipping bill1 is full of
lurking dangers.

E. M. House.

For some reason, however, the suggested statement was
not made. The fact that Colonel House had visited
London, Paris, and Berlin six weeks before the outbreak
of war, in an effort to bring about a plan for disarmament,
was not permitted to reach the public ear. Probably the
real reason why this fact was concealed was that its pub-
lication at that time would have reflected so seriously
upon Germany that it would have been regarded as
"un-neutral." Colonel House, as already described,
had found Germany in a most belligerent frame of mind,
its army "ready," to use the Kaiser's own word, for an
immediate spring at France; on the other hand he had

irThis is the bill passed soon after the outbreak of war admitting foreign built
ships to American registry. Subsequent events showed that it was "full of lurk-
ing dangers."

320 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

found Great Britain in a most pacific frame of mind, en-
tirely unsuspicious of Germany, and confident that the
European situation was daily improving. It is interesting
now to speculate on the public sensation that would have
been caused had Colonel House's account of his visit to
Berlin been published at that exciting time.

Page's telegrams and letters show that any suggestion
at mediation would have been a waste of effort. The
President seriously forebore, but the desire to mediate
was constantly in his mind for the next few months, and
he now interested himself in laying the foundations of
future action. Page was instructed to ask for an au-
dience with King George and to present the following
document:

From the President of the United States
to His Majesty the King

Sir:

As official head of one of the Powers signatory to the
Hague Convention, I feel it to be my privilege and my
duty under Article 3 of that Convention to say to your
Majesty, in a spirit of most earnest friendship, that I
should welcome an opportunity to act in the interest of
European peace either now or at any time that might
be thought more suitable as an occasion, to serve your
Majesty and all concerned in a way that would afford
me lasting cause for gratitude and happiness.

Woodrow Wilson.

This, of course, was not mediation, but a mere ex-
pression of the President's willingness to mediate at any
time that such a tender from him, in the opinion of the
warring Powers, would serve the cause of peace. Identi-
cally the same message was sent to the American Am-

THE GRAND SMASH 321

bassadors at the capitals of all the belligerent Powers for
presentation to the heads of state. Page's letter of
August 9th, printed above, refers to the earnestness and
cordiality with which King George received him and to
the freedom with which His Majesty discussed the situa-
tion.

In this exciting week Page was thrown into intimate
contact with the two most pathetic figures in the dip-
lomatic circle of London — the Austrian and the German
Ambassadors. To both of these men the war was more
than a great personal sorrow: it was a tragedy. Mens-
dorff, the Austrian Ambassador, had long enjoyed an
intimacy with the British royal family. Indeed he was a
distant relative of King George , for he was a member of
the family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a fact which was em-
phasized by his physical resemblance to Prince Albert,
the consort of Queen Victoria. Mensdorff was not a
robust man, physically or mentally, and he showed his
consternation at the impending war in most unrestrained
and even unmanly fashion. As his government directed
him to turn the Austrian Embassy over to the American
Ambassador, it was necessary for Page to call and arrange
the details. The interview, as Page's letter indicates,
was little less than a paroxysm of grief on the Austrian's
part. He denounced Germany and the Kaiser; he pa-
raded up and down the room wringing his hands ; he could
be pacified only by suggestions from the American that
perhaps something might happen to keep Austria out cf
the war. The whole atmosphere of the Austrian Em-
bassy radiated this same feeling. "Austria has no quar-
rel with England," remarked one of Mensdorff's assistants
to one of the ladies of the American Embassy; and this
sentiment was the general one in Austrian diplomatic
circles. The disinclination of both Great Britain and

322 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Austria to war was so great that, as Page relates, for
several days there was no official declaration.

Even more tragical than the fate of the Austrian Am-
bassador was that of his colleague, the representative of
the German Emperor. It was more tragical because
Prince Lichnowsky represented the power that was pri-
marily responsible, and because he had himself been an
unwilling tool in bringing on the cataclysm. It was
more profound because Lichnowsky was a man of deeper
feeling and greater moral purpose than his Austrian col-
league, and because for two years he had been devoting
his strongest energies to preventing the very calamity
which had now become a fact. As the war went on
Lichnowsky gradually emerged as one of its finest figures ;
the pamphlet which he wrote, at a time when Germany's
military fortunes were still high, boldly placing the re-
sponsibility upon his own country and his own Kaiser,
was one of the bravest acts which history records.
Through all Iris brief Ambassadorship Lichnowsky had
shown these same friendly traits. The mere fact that he
had been selected as Ambassador at this time was little
less than a personal calamity. His appointment gives a
fair measure of the depths of duplicity to which the
Prussian system could descend. For more than four-
teen years Lichnowsky had led the quiet life of a Polish
country gentleman; he had never enjoyed the favour of
the Kaiser ; in his own mind and in that of his friends his
career had long since been finished; yet from this retire-
ment he had been suddenly called upon to represent the
Fatherland at the greatest of European capitals. The
motive for this elevation, which was unfathomable then,
is evident enough now. Prince Lichnowsky was known
to be an Anglophile; everything English — English litera-
ture, English country life, English public men — had for

THE GRAND SMASH 323

him an irresistible charm; and his greatest ambition as
a diplomat had been to maintain the most cordial re-
lations between his own country and Great Britain. This
was precisely the type of Ambassador that fitted into the
Imperial purpose at that crisis. Germany was preparing
energetically but quietly for war; it was highly essential
that its most formidable potential foe, Great Britain,
should be deceived as to the Imperial plans and lulled into
a sense of security. The diabolical character of Prince
Lichnowsky's selection for this purpose was that, though
his mission was one of deception, he was not himself a
party to it and did not realize until it was too late that he
had been used merely as a tool. Prince Lichnowsky was
not called upon to assume a mask ; all that was necessary
was that he should simply be himself. And he acquitted
himself with great success. He soon became a favourite
in London society; the Foreign Office found him always
ready to cooperate in any plan that tended to improve
relations between the two countries. It will be remem-
bered that, when Colonel House returned to London
from his interview with the Kaiser in June, 1914, he
found British statesmen incredulous about any trouble
with Germany. This attitude was the consequence of
Lichnowsky's work. The fact is that relations between
the two countries had not been so harmonious in twenty
years. All causes of possible friction had been adjusted.
The treaty regulating the future of the Bagdad Railroad,
the only problem that clouded the future, had been
initialled by both the British and the German Foreign
Offices and was about to be signed at the moment when
the ultimatums began to fly through the air. Prince
Lichnowsky was thus entitled to look upon his ambassa-
dorship as one of the most successful in modern history,
for it had removed all possible cause of war.

324 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

And then suddenly came the stunning blow. For
several days Lichnow sky's behaviour was that of an ir-
responsible person. Those who came into contact with
him found his mind wandering and incoherent. Page
describes the German Ambassador as coming down and
receiving him in his pajamas; he was not the only one
who had that experience, for members of the British
Foreign Office transacted business with this most punc-
tilious of diplomats in a similar condition of personal
disarray. And the dishabille extended to his mental
operations as well.

But Lichnowsky's and Mensdorff's behaviour merely
portrayed the general atmosphere that prevailed in
London during that week. Tins atmosphere was simply
hysterical. Among all the intimate participants, how-
ever, there was one man who kept his poise and who
saw things clearly. That was the American Ambas-
sador. It was certainly a strange trick which fortune
had played upon Page. He had come to London with
no experience in diplomacy. Though the possibility of
such an outbreak as this war had been in every man's
consciousness for a generation, it had always been as
something certain yet remote; most men thought of it
as most men think of death— as a fatality which is in-
evitable, but which is so distant that it never becomes a
reality. Thus Page, when he arrived in London, did not
have the faintest idea of the experience that awaited
him. Most people would have thought that his quiet and
studious and unworldly life had hardly prepared him to.
become the representative of the most powerful neutral
power at the world's capital during the greatest crisis of
modern history. To what an extent that impression was
justified the happenings of the next four years will dis-
close; it is enough to point out in this place that in one

THE GRAND SMASH 325

respect at least the war found the American Ambassador
well prepared. From the instant hostilities began his
mind seized the significance of it all. " Mr. Page had one
fine qualification for his post," a great British statesman
once remarked to the present writer. "From the be-
ginning he saw that there was a right and a wrong to the
matter. He did not believe that Great Britain and Ger-
many were equally to blame. He believed that Great
Britain was right and that Germany was wrong. I re-
gard it as one of the greatest blessings of modern times
that the United States had an ambassador in London in
August, 1914, who had grasped this overwhelming fact.
It seems almost like a dispensation of Providence."

It is important to insist on this point now, for it ex-
plains Page's entire course as Ambassador. The con-
fidential telegram which Page sent directly to President
Wilson in early September, 1914, furnishes the stand-
point from which his career as war Ambassador can be
understood :

Confidential to the President

September 11, 3 a. m.
No. 645.

Accounts of atrocities are so inevitably a part of every
war that for some time I did not believe the unbelievable
reports that were sent from Europe, and there are many
that I find incredible even now. But American and other
neutral observers who have seen these things in France
and especially in Belgium now convince me that the
Germans have perpetrated some of the most barbarous
deeds in history. Apparently credible persons relate
such things without end.

Those who have violated the Belgian treaty, those who
have sown torpedoes in the open sea, those who have

326 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

dropped bombs on Antwerp and Paris indiscriminately
with the idea of kiUing whom they may strike, have taken
to heart Bernhardi's doctrine that war is a glorious oc-
cupation. Can any one longer disbelieve the completely
barbarous behaviour of the Prussians?

Page.

CHAPTER XI

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR

THE months following the outbreak of the war were
busy ones for the American Embassy in London.
The Embassies of all the great Powers with which Great
Britain was contending were handed over to Page, and
the citizens of these countries — Germany, Austria, Tur-
key— who found themselves stranded in England, were
practically made his wards. It is a constant astonish-
ment to his biographer that, during all the labour and
distractions of this period, Page should have found time
to write long letters describing the disturbing scene.
There are scores of them, all penned in the beautiful
copper-plate handwriting that shows no signs of ex-
citement or weariness, but is in itself an evidence of
mental poise and of the sure grip which Page had upon
the evolving drama. From the many sent in these
autumn and early winter months the following selections
are made:

To Edward M. House

September 22nd, 1914.
My dear House:

When the day of settlement comes, the settlement
must make sure that the day of militarism is done and
can come no more. If sheer brute force is to rule the
world, it will not be worth living in. If German bureau-
cratic brute force could conquer Europe, presently it
would try to conquer the United States; and we should

327

328 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

all go back to the era of war as man's chief industry and
back to the domination of kings by divine right. It
seems to me, therefore, that the Hohenzollern idea must
perish — be utterly strangled in the making of peace.

Just how to do this, it is not yet easy to say. If the
German defeat be emphatic enough and dramatic enough,
the question may answer itself — how's the best way to
be rid of the danger of the recurrence of a military bureau-
cracy? But in any event, this thing must be killed for-
ever— somehow. I think that a firm insistence on this
is the main task that mediation will bring. The rest will
be corollaries of this.

The danger, of course, as all the world is beginning to
fear, is that the Kaiser, after a local victory — especially
if he should yet take Paris — will propose peace, saying
that he dreads the very sight of blood — propose peace
in time, as he will hope, to save his throne, his dynasty,
his system. That will be a dangerous day. The horror
of war will have a tendency to make many persons in the
countries of the Allies accept it. All the peace folk in
the world will say "Accept it!" But if he and his
throne and his dynasty and his system be saved, in
twenty-five years the whole job must be done over again.

We are settling down to a routine of double work and
to an oppression of gloom. Dead men, dead men, maimed
men, the dull gray dread of what may happen next, the
impossibility of changing the subject, the monotony of
gloom, the consequent dimness of ideals, the overworking
of the emotions and the heavy bondage of thought — the
days go swiftly: that's one blessing.

The diplomatic work proper brings fewer difficulties
than you would guess. New subjects and new duties
come with great rapidity, but they soon fall into formulas
— at least into classes. We shall have no sharp crises nor

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 329

grave difficulties so long as our Government and this
Government keep their more than friendly relations. I
see Sir Edward Grey almost every day. We talk of many
things — all phases of one vast wreck ; and all the clear-cut
points that come up I report by telegraph. To-day the
talk was of American cargoes in British ships and the
machinery they have set up here for fair settlement.
Then of Americans applying for enlistment in Canadian
regiments. "If sheer brute force conquer Europe," said
he, "the United States will be the only country where life
will be worth living; and in time you will have to fight
against it, too, if it conquer Europe." He spoke of the
letter he had just received from the President, and he
asked me many sympathetic questions about you also
and about your health. I ventured to express some solici-
tude for him.

"How much do you get out now?"

"Only for an automobile drive Sunday afternoon."

This from a man who is never happy away from nature
and is at home only in the woods and along the streams.
He looks worn.

I hear nothing but satisfaction with our neutrality
tight-rope walk. I think we are keeping it here, by close
attention to our work and by silence.

Our volunteer and temporary aids are doing well —
especially the army and navy officers. We now occupy
three work-places: (1) the over-crowded embassy; (2)
a suite of offices around the corner where the ever-
lengthening fist of inquiries for persons is handled and
where an army officer pays money to persons whose friends
have deposited it for them with the Government in Wash-
ington— just now at the rate of about $15,000 a day; and
(3) two great rooms at the Savoy Hotel, where the admir-
able relief committee (which meets all trains that bring

330 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

people from the continent) gives aid to the needy and
helps people to get tickets home. They have this week
helped about 400 with more or less money — after full
investigation.

At the Embassy a secretary remains till bed-time, which
generally means till midnight; and I go back there for an
hour or two every night.

The financial help we give to German and Austrian
subjects (poor devils) is given, of course, at their embassies,
where we have men — our men — in charge. Each of these
governments accepted my offer to give our Ambassadors
(Gerard and Penfield) a sum of money to help Americans
if I would set aside an equal sum to help their people here.
The German fund that I thus began with was $50,000;
the Austrian, $25,000. All this and more will be needed
before the war ends. — All this activity is kept up with
scrupulous attention to the British rules and regulations.
In fact, we are helping this Government much in the man-
agement of these "alien enemies," as they call them.

I am amazed at the good health we all keep with this
big volume of work and the long hours. Not a man nor a
woman has been ill a day. I have known something
about work and the spirit of good work in other organiza-
tions of various sorts ; but I never saw one work in better
spirit than this. And remember, most of them are volun-
teers.

The soldiers here complained for weeks in private about
the lethargy of the people — the slowness of men to enlist.
But they seemed to me to complain with insufficient rea-
son. For now they come by thousands. They do need
more men in the field, and they may conscript them, but
I doubt the necessity. But I. run across such incidents
as these: I met the Dowager Countess of D — yesterday
— a woman of 65, as tall as I and as erect herself as a

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 331

soldier, who might be taken for a woman of 40, prema-
turely gray. "I had five sons in the Boer War. I have
three in this war. I do not know where any one of them
is." Mrs. Page's maid is talking of leaving her. "My
two brothers have gone to the war and perhaps I ought to
help their wives and children." The Countess and the
maid are of the same blood, each alike unconquerable.
My chauffeur has talked all day about the naval battle in
which five German ships were lately sunk.1 He reminded
me of the night two months ago when he drove Mrs. Page
and me to dine with Sir John and Lady Jellicoe — Jellicoe
now, you know, being in command of the British fleet.

This Kingdom has settled down to war as its one great
piece of business now in hand, and it is impossible, as the
busy, burdensome days pass, to pick out events or impres-
sions that one can be sure are worth writing. For instance
a soldier — a man in the War Office — told me to-day that
Lord Kitchener had just told him that the war may last
for several years. That, I confess, seems to me very im-
probable, and (what is of more importance) it is not the
notion held by most men whose judgment I respect. But
all the military men say it will be long. It would take
several years to kill that vast horde of Germans, but it
will not take so long to starve them out. Food here is
practically as cheap as it was three months ago and the sea
routes are all open to England and practically all closed to
Germany. The ultimate result, of course, will be Ger-
many's defeat. But the British are now going about the
business of war as if they knew they would continue it in-
definitely. The grim efficiency of their work even in small
details was illustrated to-day by the Government's in-
forming us that a German handy man, whom the German
Ambassador left at his Embassy, with the English Govern-
evidently the battle of Heligoland Bight of August 28, 1914.

332 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

merit's consent, is a spy — that he sends verbal messages
to Germany by women who are permitted to go home, and
that they have found letters written by him sewed in some
of these women's undergarments! This man has been at
work there every day under the two very good men whom
I have put in charge there and who have never suspected
him. How on earth they found this out simply passes
my understanding. Fortunately it doesn't bring any em-
barrassment to us ; he was not in our pay and he was left
by the German Ambassador with the British Government's
consent, to take care of the house. Again, when the Ger-
man Chancellor made a statement two days ago about
the causes of the war, in a few hours Sir Edward Grey
issued a statement showing that the Chancellor had mis-
stated every important historic fact. — The other day a
commercial telegram was sent (or started) by Mr. Bryan
for some bank or trading concern in the United States,
managed by Germans, to some correspondent of theirs in
Germany. It contained the words, "Where is Harry?"
The censor here stopped it. It was brought to me with
the explanation that "Harry " is one of the most notorious
of German spies — whom they would like to catch. The
English were slow in getting into full action, but now they
never miss a trick, little or big.

The Germans have far more than their match in re-
sources and in shrewdness and — in character. As the
bloody drama unfolds itself, the hollow pretence and es-
sential barbarity of Prussian militarism become plainer
and plainer: there is no doubt of that. And so does the
invincibility of this race. A well-known Englishman told
me to-day that his three sons, his son-in-law, and half his
office men are in the military service, "where they belong
in a time like this." The lady who once so sharply criti-
cized this gentleman to Mrs. Page has a son and a brother

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 333

in the army in France. It makes you take a fresh grip on
your eyelids to hear either of these talk. In fact the strain
on one's emotions, day in and day out, makes one wonder
if the world is real — or is this a Arast dream? From sheer
emotional exhaustion I slept almost all day last Sunday,
though I had not for several days lost sleep at all. Many
persons tell me of their similar experiences. The universe
seems muffled. There is a ghostly silence in London (so
it seems) ; and only dim street lights are lighted at night.
No experience seems normal. A vast organization is
working day and night down town receiving Belgian
refugees. They become the guests of the English. They
are assigned to people's homes, to boarding houses, to
institutions. They are taking care of them — this govern-
ment and this people are. I do not recall when one nation
ever did another whole nation just such a hospitable ser-
vice as this. You can't see that work going on and re-
main unmoved. An old woman who has an income of $15
a week decided that she could live on $7.50. She buys milk
with the other $7.50 and goes to meet every train at one
of the big stations with a basket filled with baby bottles,
and she gives milk to every hungry-looking baby she sees.
Our American committeeman, Hoover, saw her in trouble
the other day and asked her what was the matter. She
explained that the police would no longer admit her to the
platform because she didn't belong to any relief committee.
He took her to headquarters and said: "Do you see this
good old lady? She puts you and me and everybody else
to shame- -do you understand?' ' The old lady now gets to
the platform. Hoover himself gave $5,000 for helping
stranded Americans and he goes to the trains to meet them,
while the war has stopped his big business and his big
income. This is a sample of the noble American end of
the story.

334 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

These are the saving class of people to whom life be-
comes a bore unless they can help somebody. There's
just such a fellow in Brussels — you may have heard of
him, for his name is Whitlock. Stories of his showing
himself a man come out of that closed-up city every week.
To a really big man, it doesn't matter whether his post is a
little post, or a big post but, if I were President, I'd give
Whitlock a big post. There's another fellow somewhere
in Germany — a consul — of whom I never heard till the
other day. But people have taken to coming in my office
— English ladies — who wish to thank "you and your great
government" for the courage and courtesy of this consul.1
Stories about him will follow. Herri ck, too, in Paris,
somehow causes Americans and English and even Guate-
malans who come along to go out of their way to say what
he has done for them. Now there is a quality in the old
woman with the baby bottles, and in the consul and in
Whitlock and Hoover and Herrick and this English nation
which adopts the Belgians — a quality that is invincible.
When folk like these come down the road, I respectfully do
obeisance to them. And — it's this kind of folk that the
Germans have run up against. I thank Heaven I'm of
their race and blood.

The whole world is bound to be changed as a result of
this war. If Germany should win, our Monroe Doctrine
would at once be shot in two, and we should have to get
"out of the sun." The military party is a party of con-
quest— absolutely. If England wins, as of course she
will, it'll be a bigger and a stronger England, with no
strong enemy in the world, with her Empire knit closer
than ever — India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, Egypt; under obligations to and in alliance with

'The reference in all probability is to Mr. Charles L. Hoover, at that time
American Consul at Carlsbad.

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 335

Russia ! England will not need our friendship as much as
she now needs it; and there may come governments here
that will show they do not. In any event, you see, the
world will be changed. It's changed already: witness
Bernstorff1 and Munsterberg2 playing the part once played
by Irish agitators!

All of which means that it is high time we were con-
structing a foreign service. First of all, Congress ought
to make it possible to have half a dozen or more permanent
foreign under-secretaries — men who, after service in the
Department, could go out as Ministers and Ambassadors;
it ought generously to reorganize the whole thing. It
ought to have a competent study made of the foreign
offices of other governments. Of course it ought to get
room to work in. Then it ought at once to give its
Ambassadors and Ministers homes and dignified treat-
ment. We've got to play a part in the world whether we
wish to or not. Think of these things.

The blindest great force in this world to-day is the
Prussian War Party — blind and stupid. —Well, and the
most weary man in London just at this hour is

Your humble servant,

W. H. P
but he'll be all right in the morning.

To Arthur W. Page

[Undated]3
Dear Arthur:

. . . I recall one night when we were dining at Sir
John Jellicoe's, he told me that the Admiralty never slept
— that he had a telephone by his bed every night.

1German Ambassador in Washington.

2Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, whose openly expressed pro-
Germanism was making him exceedingly unpopular in the United States.

3Evidently written in the latter part of September, 1914.

336 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

"Did it ever ring?" I asked.
"No; but it will."

You begin to see pretty clearly how English history
has been made and makes itself. This afternoon Lady

S told your mother of her three sons, one on a warship

in the North Sea, another with the army in France, and
a third in training to go. "How brave you all are! " said
your mother, and her answer was: "They belong to their
country; we can't do anything else." One of the
daughters-in-law of the late Lord Salisbury came to see
me to find out if I could make an inquiry about her son
who was reported "missing" after the battle of Mons.
She was dry-eyed, calm, self-restrained — very grateful
for the effort I promised to make; but a Spartan woman
would have envied her self-possession. It turned out
that her son was dead.

You hear experiences like these almost every day.
These are the kinds of women and the kinds of men that
have made the British Empire and the English race. You
needn't talk of decadence. All their great qualities are
in them here and now. I believe that half the young men
who came to Katharine's1 dances last winter and who used
to drop in at the house once in a while are dead in France
already. They went as a matter of course. This is the
reason they are going to win. Now these things impress
you, as they come to you day by day.

There isn't any formal social life now — no dinners, no
parties. A few friends dine with a few friends now and
then very quietly. The ladies of fashion are hospital
nurses and Red Cross workers, or they are collecting
socks and blankets for the soldiers. One such woman
told your mother to-day that she went to one of the re-
cruiting camps every day and taught the young fellows

iMiss Katharine A. Page, the Ambassador's daughter.

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 337

what colloquial French she could. Every man, woman,
and child seems to be doing something. In the ordinary
daily life, we see few of them : everybody is at work some-
where.

We live in a world of mystery : nothing can surprise us.
The rumour is that a servant in one of the great families
sent word to the Germans where the three English cruisers1
were that German submarines blewT up the other day.
Not a German in the Kingdom can earn a penny. We're
giving thousands of them money at the German Embassy
to keep them alive. Our Austrian Embassy runs a soup
kitchen where it feeds a lot of Austrians. Your mother
went around there the other day and they showed that
they thought they owe their daily bread to her. One day
she went to one of the big houses where the English re-
ceive and distribute the thousands of Belgians who come
here, poor creatures, to be taken care of. One old woman
asked your mother in French if she were a princess. The
lady that was with your mother answered, "Une Grande
Dame." That seemed to do as well.

This government doesn't now let anybody carry any
food away. But to-day they consented on condition I'd
receive the food (for the Belgians) and consign it to Whit-
lock. This is their way of keeping it out of German hands
-have the Stars and Stripes, so to speak, to cover every
bag of flour and of salt. That's only one of 1,000 queer
activities that I engage in. I have a German princess's2
jewels in our safe — $100,000 worth of them in my keeping;
I have an old English nobleman's check for $40,000 to be
sent to men who have been building a house for his daugh-

xThe Hogur, the Cressy, and the Aboukir were torpedoed by a German submarine
September 22, 1914. This exploit first showed the world the power of the sub-
marine.

2Princess Lichnowsky, wife of the German Ambassador to Great Britain.

338 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

ter in Dresden — to be sent as soon as the German Govern-
ment agrees not to arrest the lady for debt. I have sent
Miss Latimer1 over to France to bring an Austrian baby
eight months old whose mother will take it to the United
States and bring it up an American citizen! The mother
can't go and get it for fear the French might detain her;
I've got the English Government's permission for the
family to go to the United States. Harold2 is in Belgium,
trying to get a group of English ladies home who went
there to nurse wounded English and Belgians and whom
the Germans threaten to kidnap and transport to German
hospitals — every day a dozen new kinds of jobs.

London is weird and muffled and dark and, in the West
End, deserted. Half the lamps are not lighted, and the
upper half of the globes of the street lights are painted
black — so the Zeppelin raiders may not see them. You've
no idea what a strange feeling it gives one. The papers
have next to no news. The 23rd day of the great battle
is reported very much in the same words as the 3rd day
was. Yet nobody talks of much else. The censor erases
most of the matter the correspondents write. We're in
a sort of dumb as well as dark world. And yet, of course,
we know much more here than they know in any other
European capital.

To the President

[Undated.]
Dear Mr. President:

When England, France, and Russia agreed the other
day not to make peace separately, that cooked the Kaiser's
goose. They'll wear him out. Since England thus has
Frenchmen and Russians bound, the Allies are strength-

'Private Secretary to Mrs. Page.

2Mr. Harold Fowler, the Ambassador's Secretary.

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 339

ened at their only weak place. That done, England is
now going in deliberately, methodically, patiently to do the
task. Even a fortnight ago, the people of this Kingdom
didn't realize all that the war means to them. But the
fever is rising now. The wounded are coming back, the
dead are mourned, and the agony of hearing only that
such-and-such a man is missing — these are having a pro-
digious effect. The men I meet now say in a matter-of-
fact way: "Oh, yes! we'll get em, of course; the only
question is, how long it will take us and how many of us
it will cost. But no matter, we'll get 'em."

Old ladies and gentlemen of the high, titled world now
begin by driving to my house almost every morning while
I am at breakfast. With many apologies for calling so
soon and with the fear that they interrupt me, they ask if
I can make an inquiry in Germany for "my son," or
"my nephew" "he's among the missing." They never
weep ; their voices do not falter ; they are brave and proud
and self-restrained. It seems a sort of matter-of-course
to them. Sometimes when they get home, they write
me polite notes thanking me for receiving them. This
morning the first man was Sir Dighton Probyn of Queen
Alexandra's household — so dignified and courteous that
you'd hardly have guessed his errand. And at intervals
they come all day. Not a tear have I seen yet. They
take it as a part of the price of greatness and of empire.
You guess at their grief only by their reticence. They
use as few words as possible and then courteously take
themselves away. It isn't an accident that these people
own a fifth of the world. Utterly unwarlike, they outlast
anybody else when war comes. You don't get a sense
of fighting here — only of endurance and of high resolve.
Fighting is a sort of incident in the struggle to keep their
world from German domination. . . .

340 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

To Edward M. House

October 11, 1914.
Dear House:

There is absolutely nothing to write. It's war, war,
war all the time ; no change of subject ; and, if you changed
with your tongue, you couldn't change in your thought;
war, war, war — "for God's sake find out if my son is dead
or a prisoner"; rumours — they say that two French gen-
erals were shot for not supporting French, and then they
say only one ; and people come who have helped take the
wounded French from the field and they won't even talk, it
is so horrible ; and a lady says that her own son (wounded)
told her that when a man raised up in the trench to fire,
the stench was so awful that it made him sick for an
hour; and the poor Belgians come here by the tens of
thousands, and special trains bring the English wounded ;
and the newspapers tell little or nothing — every day's
reports like the preceding days'; and yet nobody talks
about anything else.

Now and then the subject of its settlement is men-
tioned— Belgium and Serbia, of course, to be saved and
as far as possible indemnified; Russia to have the Slav-
Austrian States and Constantinople; France to have
Alsace-Lorraine, of course; and Poland to go to Russia;
Schleswig-Holstein and the Kiel Canal no longer to be
German; all the South-German States to become Austrian
and none of the German States to be under Prussian rule ;
the Hohenzollerns to be eliminated; the German fleet,
or what is left of it, to become Great Britain's ; and the
German colonies to be used to satisfy such of the Allies
as clamour for more than they get.

Meantime this invincible race is doing this revolution-
ary task marvellously — volunteering; trying to buy arms

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 341

in the United States (a Pittsburgh manufacturer is now
here trying to close a bargain with the War Office!);1
knitting socks and mufflers; taking in all the poor Bel-
gians; stopping all possible expenditure; darkening Lon-
don at night; doing every conceivable thing to win as if
they had been waging this war always and meant to do
nothing else for the rest of their lives — and not the slight-
est doubt about the result and apparently indifferent how1
long it lasts or how much it costs.

Every aspect of it gets on your nerves. I can't keep
from wondering how the world will seem after it is over —
Germany (that is, Prussia and its system) cut out like a
cancer ; England owning still more of the earth ; Belgium —
all the men dead; France bankrupt; Russia admitted to
the society of nations ; the British Empire entering on a
new lease of life ; no great navy but one ; no great army
but the Russian ; nearly all governments in Europe bank-
rupt ; Germany gone from the sea — in ten years it will be
difficult to recall clearly the Europe of the last ten years.
And the future of the world more than ever in our hands !

We here don't know what you think or what you know
at home; we haven't yet any time to read United States
newspapers, which come very, very late; nobody writes
us real letters (or the censor gets 'em, perhaps !) ; and so
the war, the war, the war is the one thing that holds our
minds.

We have taken a house for the Chancery2 — almost the
size of my house in Grosvenor Square — for the same
sum as rent that the landlord proposed hereafter to charge
us for the old hole where we've been for twenty-nine
years. For the first time Uncle Sam has a decent place

1Probably a reference to Mr. Charles M. Schwab, President of the Bethlthem
Steel Company, who was in London at this time on this errand.

2No. 4 Grosvenor Gardens.

342 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

in London. We've five times as much room and ten
times as much work. Now — just this last week or two —
I get off Sundays: that's doing well. And I don't now
often go back at night. So, you see, we've much to be
thankful for. — Shall we insure against Zeppelins? That's
what everybody's asking. I told the Spanish Ambas-
sador yesterday that I am going to ask the German Gov-
ernment for instructions about insuring their Embassy
here!

Write and send some news. I saw an American to-day
who says he's going home to-morrow. "Cable me,"
said I, "if you find the continent where it used to be."

Faithfully yours,

Walter H. Page.

P. S. It is strange how little we know what you know
on your side and just what you think, what relative value
you put on this and what on that. There's a new sort
of loneliness sprung up because of the universal absorp-
tion in the war.

And I hear all sorts of contradictory rumours about
the effect of the German crusade in the United States.
Oh well, the world has got to choose whether it will have
English or German domination in Europe ; that's the single
big question at issue. For my part I'll risk the English
and then make a fresh start ourselves to outstrip them
in the spread of well-being; in the elevation of mankind
of all classes ; in the broadening of democracy and demo-
cratic rule (which is the sheet-anchor of all men's hopes
just as bureaucracy and militarism are the destruction
of all men's hopes) ; in the spread of humane feeling and
action; in the growth of human kindness; in the tender
treatment of women and children and the old ; in litera-
ture, in art ; in the abatement of suffering; in great changes

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 343

in economic conditions which discourage poverty; and in
science which gives us new leases on life and new tools
and wider visions. These are our world tasks, with Eng-
land as our friendly rival and helper. God bless us.

W. H. P.

To Arthur W. Page

London, November 6, 1914.
Dear Arthur :

Those excellent photographs, those excellent apples,
those excellent cigars — thanks. I'm thinking of sending
Kitty1 over again. They all spell and smell and taste
of home — of the U. S. A. Even the messenger herself
seems Unitedstatesy, and that's a good quality, I assure
you. She's told us less news than you'd think she might
for so long a journey and so long a visit; but that's the
way with us all. And, I dare say, if it were all put to-
gether it would make a pretty big news-budget. And
luckily for us (I often think we are among the luckiest
families hi the world) all she says is quite cheerful. It's
a wonderful report she makes of County Line2 — the coun-
try, the place, the house, and its inhabitants. Maybe,
praise God, I'll see it myself some day — it and them.

But — but — I don't know when and can't guess out of
this vast fog of war and doom. The worst of it is nobody
knows just what is happening. I have, for an example,
known for a week of the blowing up of a British dread-
naught3 — thousands of people know it privately — and yet
it isn't published! Such secrecy makes you fear there
may be other and even worse secrets. But I don't really

JMiss Katharine A. Page had just returned from a visit to the United States.

2Mr. Arthur W. Page's country home on Long Island.

3Evidently the Audacious, sunk by mine off the North of Ireland, October 27,
1914.

344 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

believe there are. What I am trying to say is, so far as
news (and many other things) go, we are under a military
rule.

It's beginning to wear on us badly. It presses down,
presses down, presses down in an indescribable way.
All the people you see have lost sons or brothers; mourn-
ing becomes visible over a wider area all the time; peo-
ple talk of nothing else; all the books are about the war;
ordinary social life is suspended — people are visibly
growing older. And there are some aspects of it that are
incomprehensible. For instance, a group of American
and English military men and correspondents were talk-
ing with me yesterday — men who have been on both
sides — in Germany and Belgium and in France — and they
say that the Germans in France alone have had 750,000
men killed. The Allies have lost 100,000 to 500,000.
This in France only. Take the other fighting lines and
there must already be a total of 2,000,000 killed. No-
thing like that has ever happened before in the history
of the world. A flood or a fire or a wreck which has
killed 500 has often shocked all mankind. Yet we know
of this enormous slaughter and (in a way) are not greatly
moved. I don't know of a better measure of the brutal-
izing effect of war — it's bringing us to take a new and more
inhuman standard to measure events by.

As for any political or economic reckoning — that's
beyond any man's ability yet. I see strings of incom-
prehensible figures that some economist or other now and
then puts in the papers, summing up the loss in pounds
sterling. But that means nothing because we have no
proper measure of it. If a man lose $10 or $10,000 we
can grasp that. But when nations shoot away so many
million pounds sterling every day — that means nothing
to me. I do know that there's going to be no money on

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 345

this side the world for a long time to buy American se-
curities. The whole world is going to be hard up in con-
sequence of the bankruptcy of these nations, the inestim-
able destruction of property, and the loss of productive
men. I fancy that such a change will come in the eco-
nomic and financial readjustment of the world as nobody
can yet guess at. — Are Americans studying these things?
It is not only South- American trade; it is all sorts of
manufacturers; it is financial influence — if we can quit
spending and wasting, and husband our earnings. There's
no telling the enormous advantages we shall gain if we
are wise.

The extent to which the German people have permitted
themselves to be fooled is beyond belief. As a little in-
stance of it, I enclose a copy of a letter that Lord Bryce
gave me, written by an English woman who did good
social work in her early fife — a woman of sense — and
who married a German merchant and has spent her mar-
ried life in Germany. She is a wholly sincere person.
This letter she wrote to a friend in England and — she
believes every word of it. If she believes it, the great
mass of the Germans believe similar things. I have
heard of a number of such letters — sincere, as this one is.
It gives a better insight into the average German mind
than a hundred speeches by the Emperor.

This German and Austrian diplomatic business in-
volves an enormous amount of work. I've now sent one
man to Vienna and another to Berlin to straighten out
almost hopeless tangles and lies about prisoners and such
things and to see if they won't agree to swap more ci-
vilians detained in each country. On top of these, yester-
day came the Turkish Embassy! Alas, we shall never
see old Tewfik1 again! This business begins briskly to-day

xTewfik Pasha, the very popular Turkish Ambassador to Great Britain.

346 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

with the detention of every Turkish consul in the Brit-
ish Empire. Lord ! I dread the missionaries ; and I know
they're coming now. This makes four embassies. We
put up a sign, "The American Embassy," on every
one of them. Work? We're worked to death. Two
nights ago I didn't get time to read a letter or even a
telegram that had come that day till 1 1 o'clock at night.
For on top of all these Embassies, I've had to become
Commissary-General to feed 6,000,000 starving people in
Belgium; and practically all the food must come from the
United States. You can't buy food for export in any
country in Europe. The devastation of Belgium de-
feats the Germans.— I don't mean in battle but I mean
in the after-judgment of mankind. They cannot recover
from that half as soon as they may recover from the
economic losses of the war. The reducing of those people
to starvation — that will stick to damn them in history,
whatever they win or whatever they lose.

When's it going to end? Everybody who ought to
know says at the earliest next year — next summer. Many
say in two years. As for me, I don't know. I don't see
how it can end soon. Neither can lick the other to a
frazzle and neither can afford to give up till it is com-
pletely licked. This way of living in trenches and fighting
a month at a time in one place is a new thing in warfare.
Many a man shoots a cannon all day for a month without
seeing a single enemy. There are many wounded men
back here who say they haven't seen a single German.
When the trenches become so full of dead men that the
living can't stay there longer, they move back to other
trenches. So it goes on. Each side has several more
million men to lose. What the end will be — I mean when
it will come, I don't see how to guess. The Allies are
obliged to win; they have more food and more money,

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 317

and in the long run, more men. But the German fighting
machine is by far the best organization ever made — not
the best men, but the best organization; and the whole
German people believe what the woman writes whose
letter I send you. It'll take a long time to beat it.

Affectionately,

W. H. P.

The letter that Page inclosed, and another copy of
which was sent to the President, purported to be written
by the English wife of a German in Bremen. It was as
follows :

It is very difficult to write, more difficult to believe
that what I write will succeed in reaching you. My
husband insists on my urging you — it is not necessary I
am sure — to destroy the letter and all possible indications
of its origin, should you think it worth translating. The
letter will go by a business friend of my husband's to
Holland, and be got off from there. For our business
with Holland is now exceedingly brisk as you may under-
stand. Her neutrality is most precious to us.1

Well, I have of course a divided mind. I think of those
old days in Liverpool and Devonshire — how far off they
seem! And yet I spent all last year in England. It was
in March last when I was with you and we talked of the
amazing treatment of your army — I cannot any longer
call it our army — by ministers crying for the resignation
of its officers and eager to make their humiliation an
election cry! How far off that seems, too! Let me
tell you that it was the conduct of your ministers, Church-
ill especially, that made people here so confident that your

Germany was conducting her trade with the neutral world largely through
Dutch and Danish ports.

348 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Government could not fight. It seemed impossible that
Lloyd George and his following could have the effrontery
to pose as a "war" cabinet; still more impossible that
any sane people could trust them if they did ! Perhaps
you may remember a talk we had also in March about
Matthew Arnold whom I was reading again during my
convalescence at Sidmouth. You said that "Friend-
ship's Garland" and its Arminius could not be written
now. I disputed that and told you that it was still true
that your Government talked and "gassed" just as much
as ever, and were wilfully blind to the fact that your
power of action Avas wholly unequal to your words. As
in 1870 so now. Nay, worse, your rulers have always
known it perfectly well, but refused to see it or to admit
it, because they wanted office and knew that to say the
truth would bring the radical vote in the cities upon their
poor heads. It is the old hypocrisy, in the sense in which
Germans have always accused your nation: alas! and it
is half my nation too. You pride yourselves on " Keeping
your word" to Belgium. But you pride yourselves also,
not so overtly just now, on always refusing to prepare
yourselves to keep that word in deed. In the first days
of August you knew, absolutely and beyond all doubt,
that you could do nothing to make good your word. You
had not the moral courage to say so, and, having said
so, to act accordingly and to warn Belgium that your
promise was "a scrap of paper," and effectively nothing
more. It is nothing more, and has proved to be nothing
more, but you do not see that your indelible disgrace lies
just in this, that you unctuously proclaim that you are
keeping your word when all the time you know, you have
always known, that you refused utterly and completely
to take the needful steps to enable you to translate word
into action. Have you not torn up your "scrap of

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 349

paper" just as effectively as Germany has? As my
husband puts it: England gave Belgium a check, a big
check, and gave it with much ostentation, but took
care that there should be no funds to meet it! Trusting
to your check Belgium finds herself bankrupt, seques-
trated, blotted out as a nation. But I know England well
enough to foresee that English statesmen, with our old
friend, the Manchester Guardian, which we used to read
in years gone by, will always quote with pride how they
"guaranteed" the neutrality of Belgium.

As to the future. You cannot win. A nation that has
prided itself on making no sacrifice for political power or
even independence must pay for its pride. Our house
here in Bremen has lately been by way of a centre for
naval men, and to a less extent, for officers of the neigh-
bouring commands. They are absolutely confident that
they will land ten army corps in England before Christ-
mas. It is terrible to know what they mean to go for.
They mean to destroy. Every town which remotely is
concerned with war material is to be annihilated.
Birmingham, Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield,
Northampton are to be wiped out, and the men killed,
ruthlessly hunted down. The fact that Lancashire and
Yorkshire have held aloof from recruiting is not to save
them. The fact that Great Britain is to be a Reichsland
will involve the destruction of inhabitants, to enable Ger-
man citizens to be planted in your country in their place.
German soldiers hope that your poor creatures will re-
sist, as patriots should, but they doubt it very much.
For resistance will facilitate the process of clearance.
Ireland will be left independent, and its harmlessness will
be guaranteed by its inevitable civil war.

You may wonder, as I do sometimes, whether this
hatred of England is not unworthy, or a form of mental

350 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

disease. But you must know that it is at bottom not
hatred but contempt; fierce, unreasoning scorn for a
country that pursues money and ease, from aristocrat to
trade-unionist labourer, when it has a great inheritance to
defend. I feel bitter, too, for I spent half my life in your
country and my dearest friends are all English still; and
yet I am deeply ashamed of the hypocrisy and make-
believe that has initiated your national policy and brought
you down. Now, one thing more. England is, after all,
only a stepping stone. From Liverpool, Queenstown,
Glasgow, Belfast, we shall reach out across the ocean. I
firmly believe that within a year Germany will have
seized the new Canal and proclaimed its defiance of the
great Monroe Doctrine. We have six million Germans
in the United States, and the Irish-Americans behind
them. The Americans, believe me, are as a nation a
cowardly nation, and mil never fight organized strength
except in defense of their own territories. With the Nova
Scotian peninsula and the Bermudas, with the West
Indies and the Guianas we shall be able to dominate the
Americas. By our possession of the entire Western Euro-
pean seaboard America can find no outlet for its products
except by our favour. Her finance is in German hands,
her commercial capitals, New York and Chicago, are in
reality German cities. It is some years since my father
and I were in New York. But my opinion is not very
different from that of the forceful men who have planned
this war — that with Britain as a base the control of the
American continent is under existing conditions the task
of a couple of months.

I remember a conversation with Doctor Dohrn, the
head of the great biological station at Naples, some four
or five years ago. He was complaining of want of ade-
quate subventions from Berlin. "Everything is wanted

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF AVAR 351

for the Navy," he said. "And what really does Ger-
many want with such a navy?" I asked. "She is always
saying that she certainly does not regard it as a weapon
against England." At that Doctor Dohrn raised his
eyebrows. "But you, gnadige Fran, are a German?"
"Of course." "Well, then, you will understand me when
I say with all the seriousness I can command that this
fleet of ours is intended to deal with smugglers on the
shores of the Island of Riigen." I laughed. He became
graver still. "The ultimate enemy of our country is
America ;* and I pray that I may see the day of an alliance
between a beaten England and a victorious Fatherland
against the bully of the Americas." Well, Germany and
Austria were never friends until Sadowa had shown the
way. Oh ! if your country, which in spite of all I love so
much, would but "see things clearly and see them whole."
Bremen, September 25, 1914.

To Ralph W. Page2

London, Sunday, November 15, 1914.
Dear Ralph:

You were very good to sit down in Greensboro', or any-
where else, and to write me a fine letter. Do that often.
You say there's nothing to do now in the Sandhills.
Write us letters : that's a fair job !

God save us, we need 'em. We need anything from
the sane part of the w orld to enable us to keep our bal-
ance. One of the commonest things you hear about now
is the insanity of a good number of the poor fellows who
come back from the trenches as well as of a good many

JMr. Irwin Laughlin, first secretary of the American Embassy in London, fur-
nishes this note: "This statement about America was made to me more than
once in Germany, between 1910 and 1912, by German officers, military and
naval."

2Of Pinehurst, North Carolina, the Ambassador's oldest son.

352 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Belgians. The sights and sounds they've experienced un-
hinge their reason. If this war keep up long enough —
and it isn't going to end soon — people who have had no
sight of it will go crazy, too— the continuous thought of
it, the inability to get away from it by any device what-
ever— all this tells on us all. Letters, then, plenty of
them — let 'em come.

You are in a peaceful land. The war is a long, long
way off. You suffer nothing worse than a little idleness
and a little poverty. They are nothing. I hope (and
believe) that you get enough to eat. Be content, then.
Read the poets, improve a piece of land, play with the
baby, learn golf. That's the happy and philosophic and
fortunate life in these times of world-madness.

As for the continent of Europe — forget it. We have
paid far too much attention to it. It has ceased to be
worth it. And now it's of far less value to us -and will be
for the rest of your life — than it has ever been before. An
ancient home of man, the home, too, of beautiful things —
buildings, pictures, old places, old traditions, dead civili-
zations— the place where man rose from barbarism to
civilization — it is now bankrupt, its best young men dead,
its system of politics and of government a failure, its social
structure enslaving and tyrannical — it has little help for
us. The American spirit, which is the spirit that con-
cerns itself with making life better for the whole mass of
men — that's at home at its best with us. The whole
future of the race is in the new countries — our country
chiefly. This grows on one more and more and more.
The things that are best worth while are on our side of the
ocean. And we've got all the bigger job to do because of
this violent demonstration of the failure of continental
Europe. It's gone on living on a false basis till its ele-
ments got so mixed that it has simply blown itself to

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 353

pieces. It is a great convulsion of nature, as an earth-
quake or a volcano is. Human life there isn't worth
what a yellow dog's life is worth in Moore County. Don't
bother yourself with the continent of Europe any more —
except to learn the value of a real democracy and the
benefits it can confer precisely in proportion to the extent
to which men trust to it. Did you ever read my Ad-
dress delivered before the Royal Institution of Great
Britain?1 I enclose a copy. Now that's my idea of the
very milk of the word. To come down to daily, deadly
things — this upheaval is simply infernal. Parliament
opened the other day and half the old lords that sat in
their robes had lost their heirs and a larger part of the
members of the House wore khaki. To-morrow they will
vote $1,125,000,000 for war purposes. They had already
voted $500,000,000. They'll vote more, and more, and
more, if necessary. They are raising a new army of 2,000,-
000 men. Every man and every dollar they have will go
if necessary. That's what I call an invincible people.
The Kaiser woke up the wrong passenger. But for fifty
years the continent won't be worth living on. My
heavens! what bankruptcy will follow death!

Affectionately,

W. H. P.

To Frank C. Page*

Sunday, December 20th, 1914.
Dear Old Man:

I envy both you and your mother3 your chance to make
plans for the farm and the house and all the rest of it and

!On June 12, 1914. The title of the address was " Some Aspects of the American
Democracy."

2The Ambassador's youngest son.

3Mrs. W. H. Page was at this time spending a few weeks in the United States.

354 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

to have one another to talk to. And, most of all, you are
where you can now and then change the subject. You
can guess somewhat at our plight when Kitty and I con-
fessed to one another last night that we were dead tired
and needed to go to bed early and to stay long. She's
sleeping yet, the dear kid, and I hope she'll sleep till lunch
time. There isn't anything the matter with us but the
war; but that's enough, Heaven knows. It's the worst
ailment that has ever struck me. Then, if you add to that
this dark, wet, foggy, sooty, cold, penetrating climate —
you ought to thank your stars that you are not in it. I'm
glad your mother's out of it, as much as we miss her ; and
miss her? Good gracious! there's no telling the hole her
absence makes in all our life. But Kitty is a trump,
true blue and dead game, and the very best company you
can find in a day's journey. And, much as we miss your
mother, you mustn't weep for us ; we are having some fun
and are planning more. I could have no end of fun with
her if I had any time. But to work all day and till bed-
time doesn't leave much time for sport.

The farm — the farm — the farm — it's yours and Moth-
er's to plan and make and do with as you wish. I shall
be happy whatever you do, even if you put the roof in the
cellar and the cellar on top of the house.

If you have room enough (16X10 plus a fire and a bath
are enough for me), I'll go down there and write a book.
If you haven't it, I'll go somewhere else and write a book.
I don't propose to be made unhappy by any house or by
the lack of any house nor by anything whatsoever.

All the details of life go on here just the same. The war
goes as slowly as death because it is death, death to
millions of men. We've all said all we know about it to one
another a thousand times; nobody knows anything else;
nobody can guess when it will end ; nobody has any doubt

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR 355

about how it will end, unless some totally improbable and
unexpected thing happens, such as the falling out of the
Allies, which can't happen for none of them can afford it ;
and we go around the same bloody circle all the time.
The papers never have any news ; nobody ever talks about
anything else; everybody is tired to death; nobody is
cheerful; when it isn't sick Belgians, it's aeroplanes; and
when it isn't aeroplanes, it's bombarding the coast of Eng-
land. When it isn't an American ship held up, it's a fool
American-German arrested as a spy; and when it isn't a
spy it's a liar who knows the Zeppelins are coming to-
night. We don't know anything; we don't believe any-
body ; we should be surprised at nothing ; and at 3 o'clock
I'm going to the Abbey to a service in honour of the 100
years of peace ! The world has all got itself so jumbled up
that the bays are all promontories, the mountains are all
valleys, and earthquakes are necessary for our happiness.
We have disasters for breakfast ; mined ships for luncheon ;
burned cities for dinner ; trenches in our dreams, and bom-
barded towns for small talk.

Peaceful seems the sandy landscape where you are, glad
the very blackjacks, happy the curs, blessed the sheep, in-
teresting the chin-whiskered clodhopper, innocent the fool
darkey, blessed the mule, for it knows no war. And you
have your mother — be happy, boy ; you don't know how
much you have to be thankful for.

Europe is ceasing to be interesting except as an example
of how-not-to-do-it. It has no lessons for us except as a
warning. When the whole continent has to go fighting —
every blessed one of them — once a century, and half of
them half the time between and all prepared even when
they are not fighting, and when they shoot away all their
money as soon as they begin to get rich a little and every-
body else's money, too, and make the whole world poor,

356 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

and when they kill every third or fourth generation of the
best men and leave the worst to rear families, and have to
start over afresh every time with a worse stock — give me
Uncle Sam and his big farm. We don't need to catch
any of this European life. We can do without it all as well
as we can do without the judges' wigs and the court cos-
tumes. Besides, I like a land where the potatoes have
some flavour, where you can buy a cigar, and get your hair
cut and have warm bathrooms.

Build the farm, therefore; and let me hear at every
stage of that happy game. May the New Year be the
best that has ever come for you !

Affectionately,

W. H. P.

CHAPTER XII

WAGING NEUTRALITY

THE foregoing letters sufficiently portray Page's
attitude toward the war; they also show the extent
to which he suffered from the daily tragedy. The great
burdens placed upon the Embassy in themselves would
have exhausted a physical frame that had never been
particularly robust; but more disintegrating than these
was the mental distress — the constant spectacle of a
civilization apparently bent upon its own destruction.
Indeed there were probably few men in Europe upon whom
the war had a more depressing effect. In the first few
weeks the Ambassador perceptibly grew older; his face
became more deeply fined, his hair became grayer, his
body thinner, his step lost something of its quickness,
his shoulders began to stoop, and his manner became more
and more abstracted. Page's kindness, geniality, and
consideration had long since endeared him to all the em-
bassy staff, from his chief secretaries to clerks and door-
men ; and all his associates now watched with affectionate
solicitude the extent to which the war was wearing upon
him. "In those first weeks," says Mr. Irwin Laughfin,
Page's most important assistant and the man upon whom
the routine work of the Embassy largely fell, "he acted
like a man who was carrying on his shoulders all the sins
and burdens of the world. I know no man who seemed to
realize so poignantly the misery and sorrow of it all. The
sight of an England which he loved bleeding to death in

357

358 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

defence of the things in which he most believed was a grief
that seemed to be sapping his very life."

Page's associates, however, noted a change for the better
after the Battle of the Marne. Except to his most inti-
mate companions he said little, for he represented a nation
that was "neutral " ; but the defeat of the Germans added
liveliness to his step, gave a keener sparkle to his eye, and
even brought back some of his old familiar gaiety of spirit.
One day the Ambassador was lunching with Mr. Laughlin
and one or two other friends.

"We did pretty well in that Battle of the Marne, didn't
we?" he said.

"Isn't that remark slightly unneutral, Mr. Ambassa-
dor?" asked Mr. Laughlin.

At this a roar of laughter went up from the table that
could be heard for a considerable distance.

About this same time Page's personal secretary, Mr.
Harold Fowler, came to ask the Ambassador's advice
about enlisting in the British Army. To advise a young
man to take a step that might very likely result in his
death was a heavy responsibility, and the Ambassador re-
fused to accept it. It was a matter that the Secretary
could settle only with his own conscience. Mr. Fowler
decided his problem by joining the British Army; he had a
distinguished career in its artillery and aviation service
as he had subsequently in the American Army. Mr.
Fowler at once discovered that his decision had been
highly pleasing to his superior.

"I couldn't advise you to do this, Harold," Page said,
placing his hand on the young man's shoulder, "but now
that you've settled it yourself I'll say this — if I were a
young man like you and in your circumstances, I should
enlist myself."

Yet greatly as Page abhorred the Prussians and greatly

"waging neutrality" 359

as his sympathies from the first day of the war were en-
listed on the side of the Allies, there was no diplomat in
the American service who was more "neutral" in the
technical sense. "Neutral!" Page once exclaimed.
"There's nothing in the world so neutral as this embassy.
Neutrality takes up all our time." When he made this
remark he was, as he himself used to say, "the German
Ambassador to Great Britain." And he was performing
the duties of this post with the most conscientious fidelity.
These duties were onerous and disagreeable ones and were
made still more so by the unreasonableness of the German
Government. Though the American Embassy was car-
ing for the more than 70,000 Germans who Avere then
living in England and was performing numerous other
duties, the Imperial Government never realized that Page
and the Embassy staff were doing it a service. With
characteristic German tactlessness the German Foreign
Office attempted to be as dictatorial to Page as though he
had been one of its own junior secretaries. The business
of the German Embassy in London was conducted with
great ability; the office work was kept in the most ship-
shape condition; yet the methods were American methods
and the Germans seemed aggrieved because the routine
of the Imperial bureaucracy was not observed. With
unparallelled insolence they objected to the American
system of accounting — not that it was unsound or did
not give an accurate picture of affairs — but simply that
it was not German. Page quietly but energetically
informed the German Government that the American dip-
lomatic service was not a part of the German organiza-
tion, that its bookkeeping system was American, not
German, that he was doing this work not as an obligation
but as a favour, and that, so long as he continued to do it,
he would perform the duty in his own way. At this the

360 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Imperial Government subsided. Despite such annoy-
ances Page refused to let his own feelings interfere with
the work. The mere fact that he despised the Germans
made him over-scrupulous in taking all precautions that
they obtained exact justice. But this was all that the
German cause in Great Britain did receive. His admin-
istration of the German Embassy was faultless in its
technique, but it did not err on the side of over-enthu-
siasm.

His behaviour throughout the three succeeding years
was entirely consistent with his conception of "neutral-
ity." That conception, as is apparent from the letters
already printed, was not the Wilsonian conception.
Probably no American diplomat was more aggrieved at
the President's definition of neutrality than his Am-
bassador to Great Britain. Page had no quarrel with
the original neutrality proclamation; that was purely a
routine governmental affair, and at the time it was issued
it represented the proper American attitude. But the
President's famous emendations filled him with aston-
ishment and dismay. "We must be impartial in thought
as well as in action," said the President on August 19th,1
"we must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon
every transaction that might be construed as a prejudice
of one party to the prejudice of another." Page was
prepared to observe all the traditional rules of neutrality,
to insist on American rights with the British Government,
and to do full legal justice to the Germans, but he de-
clined to abrogate his conscience where his personal
judgment of the rights and wrongs of the conflict were
concerned. "Neutrality," he said in a letter to his
brother, Mr. Henry A. Page, of Aberdeen, N. C., "is a

!In a letter addressed to "My fellow Countrymen" and presented to the Senate
by Mr. Chilton.

WAGING NEUTRALITY" 361

quab'ty of government — an artificial unit. When a war
comes a government must go in it or stay out of it. It
must make a declaration to the world of its attitude.
That's all that neutrality is. A government can be
neutral, but no man can be."

"The President and the Government," Page after-
ward wrote, "in their insistence upon the moral quality
of neutrality, missed the larger meaning of the war. It
is at bottom nothing but the effort of the Berlin absolute
monarch and his group to impose their will on as large a
part of the world as they can overrun. The President
started out with the idea that it was a war brought on by
many obscure causes — economic and the like; and he
thus missed its whole meaning. We have ever since
been dealing with the chips which fly from the war ma-
chine and have missed the larger meaning of the conflict.
Thus we have failed to render help to the side of Liberal-
ism and Democracy, which are at stake in the world."

Nor did Page think it lus duty, in his private communi-
cations to his Government and his friends, to maintain
that attitude of moral detachment which Mr. Wilson's
pronouncement had evidently enjoined upon him. It
was not his business to announce his opinions to the world,
for he was not the man who determined the policy of the
United States ; that was the responsibility of the President
and his advisers. But an ambassador did have a certain
role to perform. It was Ins duty to collect information
and impressions, to discover what important people
thought of the United States and of its policies, and to
send forward all such data to Washington. According
to Page's theory of the Ambassadorial office, he was a
kind of listening post on the front of diplomacy, and he
would have grievously failed had he not done his best to
keep headquarters informed. He did not regard it as

362 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

"loyalty" merely to forward only that kind of material
which Washington apparently preferred to obtain; with
a frankness which Mr. Wilson's friends regarded as al-
most ruthless, Page reported what he believed to be the
truth. That this practice was displeasing to the powers
of Washington there is abundant evidence. In early
December, 1914, Colonel House was compelled to trans-
mit a warning to the American Ambassador at London.
"The President wished me to ask you to please be more
careful not to express any unneutral feeling, either by
word of mouth, or by letter and not even to the State
Department. He said that both Mr. Bryan and Mr.
Lansing had remarked upon your leaning in that di-
rection and he thought that it would materially lessen
your influence. He feels very strongly about this."

Evidently Page did not regard his frank descriptions of
England under war as expressing unneutral feeling; at any
rate, as the war went on, his letters, even those which he
wrote to President Wilson, became more and more out-
spoken. Page's resignation was always at the Presi-
dent's disposal; the time came, as will appear, when it
was offered; so long as he occupied his post, however,
nothing could turn him from his determination to make
what he regarded as an accurate record of events. This
policy of maintaining an outward impartiality, and, at
the same time, of bringing pressure to bear on Washington
in behalf of the Allies, he called "waging neutrality."

Such was the mood in which Page now prepared to
play his part in what was probably the greatest diplo-
matic drama in history. The materials with which this
drama concerned itself were such apparently lifeless sub-
jects as ships and cargoes, learned discourses on such
abstract matters as the doctrine of continuous voyage,
effective blockade, and conditional contraband; vet the

"waging neutrality" 363

struggle, which lasted for three years, involved the
greatest issue of modern times — nothing less than the sur-
vival of those conceptions of liberty, government, and
society which make the basis of English-speaking civili-
zation. To the newspaper reader of war days, shipping
difficulties signified little more than a newspaper head-
line which he hastily read, or a long and involved lawyer's
note which he seldom read at all — or, if he did, practically
never understood. Yet these minute and neglected con-
troversies presented to the American Nation the greatest
decision in its history. Once before, a century ago, a
European struggle had laid before the United States
practically the same problem. Great Britain fought
Napoleon, just as it had now been compelled to fight the
Hohenzollern, by blockade; such warfare, in the early
nineteenth century, led to retaliations, just as did the
maritime warfare in the recent conflict, and the United
States suffered, in 1812, as in 1914, from what were re-
garded as the depredations of both sides. In Napo-
leon's days France and Great Britain, according to the
international lawyers, attacked American commerce in
illegal ways; on strictly technical grounds this infant
nation had an adequate cause of war against both bel-
ligerents; but the ultimate consequence of a very con-
fused situation was a declaration of war against Great
Britain. Though an England which was ruled by a
George III or a Prince Regent — an England of rotten
boroughs, of an ignorant and oppressed peasantry, and of
a social organization in which caste was almost as def-
initely drawn as in an Oriental despotism — could hardly
appeal to the enthusiastic democrat as embodying all the
ideals of his system, yet the England of 1800 did repre-
sent modern progress when compared with the mediaeval
autocracy of Napoleon. If we take tins broad view,

364 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

therefore, we must admit that, in 1812, we fought on the
side of darkness and injustice against the forces that were
making for enlightenment. The war of 1914 had not
gone far when the thinking American foresaw that it
would present to the American people precisely this same
problem. What would the decision be? Would Amer-
ica repeat the experience of 1812, or had the teachings of a
century so dissipated hatreds that it would be able to
exert its influence in a way more worthy of itself and more
helpful to the progress of mankind?

There was one great difference, however, between the
position of the United States in 1812 and its position in
1914. A century ago we were a small and feeble nation,
of undeveloped industries and resources and of immature
character; our entrance into the European conflict, on
one side or the other, could have little influence upon its
results, and, in fact, it influenced it scarcely at all; the
side we fought against emerged triumphant. In 1914,
we had the greatest industrial organization and the
greatest wealth of any nation and the largest white
population of any country except Russia; the energy of
our people and our national talent for success had long
been the marvel of foreign observers. It mattered little
in 1812 on which side the United States took its stand;
in 1914 such a decision would inevitably determine the
issue. Of all European statesmen there was one man
who saw this point with a definiteness which, in itself,
gives him a clear title to fame. That was Sir Edward
Grey. The time came when a section of the British
public was prepared almost to stone the Foreign Secretary
in the streets of London, because they believed that his
"subservience" to American trade interests was losing
the war for Great Britain; his tenure of office was a
constant struggle with British naval and military chiefs

WAGING neutrality" 365

who asserted that the Foreign Office, in its efforts to
maintain harmonious relations with America, was ham-
stringing the British fleet, was rendering almost impo-
tent its control of the sea, and was thus throwing away
the greatest advantage which Great Britain possessed
in its life and death struggle. "Some blight has been
at work in our Foreign Office for years," said the Quar-
terly Review , "steadily undermining our mastery of the
sea."

"The fleet is not allowed to act," cried Lord Charles
Beresford in Parliament; the Foreign Office was con-
stantly interfering with its operations. The word "trai-
tor" was not infrequently heard; there were hints that
pro-Germanism was rampant and that officials in the
Foreign Office were drawing their pay from the Kaiser.
It was constantly charged that the navy was bringing in
suspicious cargoes only to have the Foreign Office order
their release. "I fight Sir Edward about stopping car-
goes," Page wrote to Colonel House in December, 1914;
"literally fight. He yields and promises this or that.
This or that doesn't happen or only half happens. I
know why. The military ministers balk him. I in-
quire through the back door and hear that the Admiralty
and the War Office of course value American good-will,
but they'll take their chances of a quarrel with the United
States rather than let copper get to Germany. The
cabinet has violent disagreements. But the military
men yield as little as possible. It was rumoured the
other day that the Prime Minister threatened to resign;
and I know that Kitchener's sister told her friends, with
tears in her eyes, that the cabinet shamefully hindered
her brother."

These criticisms unquestionably caused Sir Edward
great unhappiness, but this did not for a moment move

366 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

him from his course. His vision was fixed upon a much
greater purpose. Parliamentary orators might rage be-
cause the British fleet was not permitted to make indis-
criminate warfare on commerce, but the patient and far-
seeing British Foreign Secretary was the man who was
really trying to win the war. He was one of the few
Englishmen who, in August, 1914, perceived the tre-
mendous extent of the struggle in which Great Britain
had engaged. He saw that the English people were
facing the greatest crisis since William of Normandy, in
1066, subjected their island to foreign rule. Was England
to become the "Reichsland" of a European monarch, and
was the British Empire to pass under the sway of Ger-
many? Proud as Sir Edward Grey was of his country, he
was modest in the presence of facts ; and one fact of which
he early became convinced was that Great Britain could
not win unless the United States was ranged upon its
side. Here was the country — so Sir Edward reasoned —
that contained the largest effective white population
in the world; that could train armies larger than those
of any other nation; that could make the most muni-
tions, build the largest number of battleships and mer-
chant vessels, and raise food in quantities great enough to
feed itself and Europe besides. This power, the Foreign
Secretary believed, could determine the issue of the war.
If Great Britain secured American sympathy and sup-
port, she would win; if Great Britain lost this sympa-
thy and support, she would lose. A foreign policy that
would estrange the United States and perhaps even throw
its support to Germany would not only lose the war to
Great Britain, but it would be perhaps the blackest crime
in history, for it would mean the collapse of that British-
American cooperation, and the destruction of those
British-American ideals and institutions which are the

"waging neutrality" 367

greatest facts in the modern world. This conviction
was the basis of Sir Edward's policy from the day that
Great Britain declared war. Whatever enemies he might
make in England, the Foreign Secretary was determined
to shape his course so that the support of the United
States would be assured to his country. A single illus-
tration shows the skill and wisdom with which he pursued
this great purpose.

Perhaps nothing in the early days of the war enraged
the British military chiefs more than the fact that cotton
was permitted to go from the United States to Germany.
That Germany was using this cotton in the manufacture
of torpedoes to sink British ships and of projectiles to kill
British soldiers in trenches was well known ; nor did many
people deny that Great Britain had the right to put
cotton on the contraband list. Yet Grey, in the pursuit
of his larger end, refused to take this step. He knew
that the prosperity of the Southern States depended
exclusively upon the cotton crop. He also knew that the
South had raised the 1914 crop with no knowledge that a
war was impending and that to deny the Southern plant-
ers their usual access to the German markets would all
but ruin them. He believed that such a ruling would im-
mediately alienate the sympathy of a large section of the
United States and make our Southern Senators and Con-
gressmen enemies of Great Britain. Sir Edward was also
completely informed of the extent to which the German-
Americans and the Irish-Americans were active and he
was familiar with the aims of American pacifists. He be-
lieved that declaring cotton contraband at this time would
bring together in Congress the Southern Senators and
Congressmen, the representatives of the Irish and the
German causes and the pacifists, and that this combina-
tion would exercise an influence that would be disastrous

368 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

to Great Britain. Two dangers constantly haunted Sir
Edward's mind at this time. One was that the enemies of
Great Britain would assemble enough votes in Congress
to place an embargo upon the shipment of munitions from
this country. Such an embargo might well be fatal to
Great Britain, for at this time she was importing muni-
tions, especially shells, in enormous quantities from the
United States. The other was that such pressure might
force the Government to convoy American cargoes with
American warships. Great Britain then could stop the
cargoes only by attacking our cruisers, and to attack a
cruiser is an act of war. Had Congress taken either
one of these steps the Allies would have lost the war
in the spring of 1915. At a cabinet meeting held to
consider this question, Sir Edward Grey set forth this
view and strongly advised that cotton should not be
made contraband at that time.1 The Cabinet supported
him and events justified the decision. Afterward, in
Washington, several of the most influential Senators in-
formed Sir Edward that this action had averted a great
crisis.

This was the motive, which, as will appear as the story
of our relations with Great Britain progresses, inspired
the Foreign Secretary in all his dealings with the United
States. His purpose was to use the sea power of Great
Britain to keep war materials and foodstuffs out of Ger-
many, but never to go to the length of making an un-
bridgeable gulf between the United States and Great
Britain. The American Ambassador to Great Britain
completely sympathized with this programme. It was
Page's business to protect the rights of the United States,
just as it was Grey's to protect the rights of Great Britain.

JThis was in October, 1914. In August, 1915, when conditions had changed,
cotton was declared contraband.

"waging neutrality" 369

Both were vigilant in protecting such rights, and animated
differences between the two men on this point were not
infrequent. Great Britain did many absurd and high-
handed things in intercepting American cargoes, and Page
was always active in "protesting" when the basis for the
protest actually existed. But on the great overhanging
issue the two men were at one. Like Grey, Page be-
lieved that there were more important things involved than
an occasional cargo of copper or of oil cake. The Amer-
ican Ambassador thought that the United States should
protect its shipping interests, but that it should realize
that maritime law was not an exact science, that its
principles had been modified by every great conflict in
which the blockade had been an effective agency, and
that the United States itself, in the Civil War, had not
hesitated to make such changes as the changed methods
of modern transportation had required. In other words
he believed that we could safeguard our rights in a way
that would not prevent Great Britain from keeping war
materials and foodstuffs out of Germany. And like Sir
Edward Grey, Page was obliged to contend with forces at
home which maintained a contrary view. In this early
period Mr. Bryan was nominally Secretary of State, but
the man who directed the national policy in shipping
matters was Robert Lansing, then counsellor of the De-
partment. It is somewhat difficult to appraise Mr. Lansing
justly, for in his conduct of his office there was not the
slightest taint of malice. His methods were tactless, the
phrasing of his notes lacked deftness and courtesy, his
literary style was crude and irritating; but Mr. Lansing
was not anti-British, he was not pro-German ; he was noth-
ing more nor less than a lawyer. The protection of Ameri-
can rights at sea was to him simply a "case" in which he
had been retained as counsel for the plaintiff. As a

370 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

good lawyer it was his business to score as many points as
possible for his client and the more weak joints he found
in the enemy's armour the better did he do his job. It was
his duty to scan the law books, to look up the precedents,
to examine facts, and to prepare briefs that would be
unassailable from a technical standpoint. To Mr. Lan-
sing this European conflict was the opportunity of a life-
time. He had spent thirty years studying the intricate
problems that now became his daily companions. His
mind revelled in such minute details as ultimate destin-
ation, the continuous voyage as applied to conditional
contraband, the searching of cargoes upon the high seas,
belligerent trading through neutral ports, war zones,
orders in council, and all the other jargon of maritime
rights in time of war. These topics engrossed him as
completely as the extension of democracy and the signifi-
cance of British-American cooperation engrossed all the
thoughts of Page and Grey.

That Page took this larger view is evident from the
communications which he now began sending to the
President. One that he wrote on October 15, 1914, is
especially to the point. The date is extremely important ;
so early had Page formulated the standards that should
guide the United States and so early had he begun his
work of attempting to make President Wilson understand
the real nature of the conflict. The position which Page
now assumed was one from which he never departed.

To the President

In this great argument about shipping I cannot help
being alarmed because we are getting into deep water
uselessly. The Foreign Office has yielded unquestion-
ingly to all our requests and has shown the sincerest wish

"waging neutrality" 371

to meet all our suggestions, so long as it is not called
upon to admit war materials into Germany. It will
not give way to us in that. We would not yield it if we
were in their place. Neither would the Germans. Eng-
land will risk a serious quarrel or even hostilities with
us rather than yield. You may look upon this as the final
word.

Since the last lists of contraband and conditional contra-
band were published, such materials as rubber and copper
and petroleum have developed entirely new uses in war.
The British simply will not let Germany import them.
Nothing that can be used for war purposes in Germany
now will be used for anything else. Representatives of
Spain, Holland, and all the Scandinavian states agree that
they can do nothing but acquiesce and file protests and
claims, and they admit that Great Britain has the right to
revise the fist of contraband. This is not a war in the
sense in which we have hitherto used that word. It is a
world-clash of systems of government, a struggle to the
extermination of English civilization or of Prussian mili-
tary autocracy. Precedents have gone to the scrap heap.
We have a new measure for military and diplomatic action.
Let us suppose that we press for a few rights to which the
shippers have a theoretical claim. The American people
gain nothing and the result is friction with this country ;
and that is ^Yhat a very small minority of the agitators in
the United States would like. Great Britain can any day
close the Channel to all shipping or can drive Holland to
the enemy and blockade her ports.

Let us take a little farther view into the future. If
Germany win, will it make any difference what position
Great Britain took on the Declaration of London? The
Monroe Doctrine will be shot through. We shall have
to have a great army and a great navy. But suppose that

372 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

England win. We shall then have an ugly academic dis-
pute with her because of this controversy. Moreover,
we shall not hold a good position for helping to compose
the quarrel or for any other service.

The present controversy seems here, where we are close
to the struggle, academic. It seems to us a petty matter
when it is compared with the grave danger we incur of
shutting ourselves off from a position to be of some service
to civilization and to the peace of mankind.

In Washington you seem to be indulging in a more or
less theoretical discussion. As we see the issue here, it is
a matter of life and death for English-speaking civilization.
It is not a happy time to raise controversies that can be
avoided or postponed. We gain nothing, we lose every
chance for useful cooperation for peace. In jeopardy also
are our friendly relations with Great Britain in the sorest
need and the greatest crisis in her history. I know that
this is the correct view. I recommend most earnestly
that we shall substantially accept the new Order in Coun-
cil or acquiesce in it and reserve whatever rights we may
have. I recommend prompt information be sent to the
British Government of such action. I should like to in-
form Grey that this is our decision.

So far as our neutrality obligations are concerned, I do
not believe that they require us to demand that Great
Britain should adopt for our benefit the Declaration of
London. Great Britain has never ratified it, nor have
any other nations except the United States. In its
application to the situation presented by this war it is
altogether to the advantage of Germany.

I have delayed to write you this way too long. I have
feared that I might possibly seem to be influenced by
sympathy with England and by the atmosphere here.
But I write of course solely with reference to our own

"waging neutrality" 373

country's interest and its position after the reorganization
of Europe.

Anderson1 and Laughlin2 agree with me emphatically.

Walter H. Page.

The immediate cause of this protest was, as its con-
text shows, the fact that the State Department was
insisting that Great Britain should adopt the Declaration
of London as a code of law for regulating its warfare on
German shipping. Hostilities had hardly started when
Mr. Bryan made this proposal; his telegram on this sub-
ject is dated August 7, 1914. "You will further state,'*
said Mr. Bryan, "that this Government believes that the
acceptance of these laws by the belligerents would pre-
vent grave misunderstandings which may arise as to the
relations between belligerents and neutrals. It therefore
hopes that this inquiry may receive favourable consider-
ation." At the same time Germany and the other bel-
ligerents were asked to adopt this Declaration.

The communication was thus more than a suggestion;
it was a recommendation that was strongly urged. Ac-
cording to Page this telegram was the first great mistake
the American Government made in its relations with
Great Britain. In September, 1916, the Ambassador
submitted to President Wilson a memorandum which he
called "Rough notes toward an explanation of the British
feeling toward the United States." "Of recent years,"
he said, "and particularly during the first year of the
present Administration, the British feeling toward the
United States was most friendly and cordial. About

'Mr. Chandler P. Anderson, of New York, at this time advising the Americar
Embassy on questions of international law.

•Mr. Irwin Laughlin, first secretary of the Embassy.

374 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the time of the repeal of the tolls clause in the Panama Act,
the admiration and friendliness of the whole British
public (governmental and private) reached the highest
point in our history. In considering the change that has
taken place since, it is well to bear this cordiality in mind
as a starting point. When the war came on there ^Yas at
first nothing to change this attitude. The hysterical hope
of many persons that our Government might protest
against the German invasion of Belgium caused some
feeling of disappointment, but thinking men did not share
it; and, if this had been the sole cause of criticism of us.,
the criticism would have died out. The unusually high
regard in which the President — and hence our Govern-
ment— was then held was to a degree new. The British
had for many years held the people of the United States
in high esteem: they had not, as a rule, so favourably re-
garded the Government at Washington, especially in its
conduct of foreign relations. They had long regarded
our Government as ignorant of European affairs and ama-
teurish in its cockiness. When I first got to London I
found evidence of this feeling, even in the most friendly
atmosphere that surrounded us. Mr. Bryan was looked
on as a joke. They forgot him — rather, they never took
serious notice of him. But, when the Panama tolls inci-
dent was closed, they regarded the President as his own
Foreign Secretary; and thus our Government as well as
our Nation came into this high measure of esteem.

"The war began. We, of course, took a neutral atti-
tude, wholly to their satisfaction. But we at once inter-
fered— or tried to interfere — by insisting on the Declara-
tion of London, which no Great Power but the United
States (I think) had ratified and which the British House
of Lords had distinctly rejected. That Declaration
would probably have given a victory to Germany if the

WAGING NEUTRALITY 375

Allies had adopted it. In spite of our neutrality we in-
sisted vigorously on its adoption and aroused a distrust in
our judgment. Thus we started in wrong, so far as the
British Government is concerned."

The rules of maritime warfare which the American State
Department so disastrously insisted upon were the direct
outcome of the Hague Conference of 1907. That as-
sembly of the nations recognized, what had long been a
palpable fact, that the utmost confusion existed in the
operations of warring powers upon the high seas. About
the fundamental principle that a belligerent had the right,
if it had the power, to keep certain materials of commerce
from reaching its enemy, there was no dispute. But as to
the particular articles which it could legally exclude there
were as many different ideas as there were nations.
That the blockade, a term which means the complete
exclusion of cargoes and ships from an enemy's ports,
was a legitimate means of warfare, was also an accepted
fact, but as to the precise means in which the blockade
could be enforced there was the widest difference of opin-
ion. The Hague Conference provided that an attempt
should be made to codify these laws into a fixed system,
and the representatives of the nations met in London in
1908, under the presidency of the Earl of Desart, for this
purpose. The outcome of their two months' deliberations
was that document of seven chapters and seventy articles
which has ever since been known as the Declaration of
London. Here at last was the thing for which the world
had been waiting so long — a complete system of maritime
law for the regulation of belligerents and the protection
of neutrals, which would be definitely binding upon all
nations because all nations were expected to ratify it.

But the work of all these learned gentlemen was thrown
away. The United States was the only party to the nego-

376 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

tiations that put the stamp of approval upon its labours.
All other nations declined to commit themselves. In
Great Britain the Declaration had an especially interesting
course. In that country it became a football of party
politics. The Liberal Government was at first inclined to
look upon it favourably ; the Liberal House of Commons
actually ratified it. It soon became apparent, however,
that this vote did not represent the opinion of the British
public. In fact, few measures have eArer aroused such
hostility as this Declaration, once its details became
known. For more than a year the hubbub against it
filled the daily press, the magazines, the two Houses of
Parliament and the hustings ; Rudyard Kipling even wrote
a poem denouncing it. The adoption of the Declaration,
these critics asserted, would destroy the usefulness of the
British fleet. In many quarters it was described as a
German plot — as merely a part of the preparations which
Germany was making for world conquest. The fact is
that the Declaration could not successfully stand the
analysis to which it was now mercilessly submitted; the
House of Lords rejected it, and this action met with more
approbation than had for years been accorded the legis-
lative pronouncements of that chamber. The Liberal
House of Commons was not in the least dissatisfied with
this conclusion, for it realized that it had made a mistake
and it was only too happy to be permitted to forget it.

When the war broke out there was therefore no single
aspect of maritime law which was quite so odious as the
Declaration of London. Great Britain realized that she
could never win unless her fleet were permitted to keep
contraband out of Germany and, if necessary, completely
to blockade that country. The two greatest conflicts of
the nineteenth century were the European struggle with
Napoleon and the American Civil War. In both the

"waging neutrality' 377

blockade had been the decisive element, and that this great
agency would similarly determine events in this even
greater struggle was apparent. What enraged the British
public against any suggestion of the Declaration was that
it practically deprived Great Britain of this indispensable
means of weakening the enemy. In this Declaration were
drawn up lists of contraband, non-contraband, and con-
ditional contraband, and all of these, in English eyes,
worked to the advantage of Germany and against the ad-
vantage of Great Britain. How absurd this classification
was is evident from the fact that airplanes were not listed
as absolute contraband of war. Germany's difficulty in
getting copper was one of the causes of her collapse ; yet
the Declaration put copper for ever on the non-contraband
list ; had this new code been adopted, Germany could have
imported enormous quantities from this country, instead
of being compelled to reinforce her scanty supply by
robbing housewives of their kitchen utensils, buildings of
their hardware, and church steeples of their bells. Ger-
many's constant scramble for rubber formed a diverting
episode in the struggle; there are indeed few things so
indispensable in modern warfare; yet the Declaration in-
cluded rubber among the innocent articles and thus opened
up to Germany the ^world's supply. But the most serious
matter was that the Declaration would have prevented
Great Britain from keeping foodstuffs out of the Father-
land.

When Mr. Bryan, therefore, blandly asked Great Britain
to accept the Declaration as its code of maritime warfare,
he was asking that country to accept a document which
Great Britain, in peace time, had repudiated and which
would, in all probability, have caused that country to
lose the war. The substance of this request was bad
enough, but the language in which it was phrased made

378 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

matters much worse. It appears that only the inter-
vention of Colonel House prevented the whole thing from
becoming a tragedy.

From Edward M. House

115 East 53rd Street,

New York City.
October 3, 1914.
His Excellency,

The American Ambassador, London, England.
Dear Page:

. . . I have just returned from Washington where
I was with the President for nearly four days. He is
looking well and is well. Sometimes his spirits droop, but
then, again, he is his normal self.

I had the good fortune to be there at a time when the
discussion of the Declaration of London had reached a
critical stage. Bryan was away and Lansing, who had
not mentioned the matter to Sir Cecil,1 prepared a long
communication to you which he sent to the President
for approval. The President and I went over it and I
strongly urged not sending it until I could have a confer-
ence with Sir Cecil. I had this conference the next day
without the knowledge of any one excepting the President,
and had another the day following. Sir Cecil told me that
if the dispatch had gone to you as written and you had
shown it to Sir Edward Grey, it would almost have been
a declaration of war; and that if, by any chance, the neAvs-
papers had got hold of it as they so often get things from
our State Department, the greatest panic would have pre-
vailed. He said it would have been the Venezuela inci-
dent magnified by present conditions.

At the President's suggestion, Lansing then prepared a

'Sir Cecil Spring Rice, British Ambassador at Washington.

"waging neutrality" 379

cablegram to you. This, too, was objectionable and the
President and I together softened it down into the one you
received.

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

In justice to Mr. Lansing, a passage in a later letter of
Colonel House must be quoted: "It seems that Lansing
did not write the particular dispatch to you that was ob-
jected to. Someone else prepared it and Lansing rather
too hastily submitted it to the President, with the result
you know."

This suppressed communication is probably for ever
lost, but its tenor may perhaps be gathered from instruc-
tions which were actually sent to the Ambassador about
this time. After eighteen typewritten pages of not too
urbanely expressed discussion of the Declaration of Lon-
don and the general subject of contraband, Page was in-
structed to call the British Government's attention to the
consequences which followed shipping troubles in previous
times. It is hard to construe this in any other way than
as a threat to Great Britain of a repetition of 1812:

Confidential. You will not fail to impress upon His
Excellency1 the gravity of the issues which the enforce-
ment of the Order in Council seems to presage, and say to
him in substance as follows:

It is a matter of grave concern to this Government that
the particular conditions of this unfortunate war should
be considered by His Britannic Majesty's Government to
be such as to justify them in advancing doctrines and ad-
vocating practices which in the past aroused strong op-
position on the part of the Government of the United

'Sir Edward Grey-

380 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

States, and bitter feeling among the American people.
This Government feels bound to express the fear, though
it does so reluctantly, that the publicity, which must be
given to the rules which His Majesty's Government an-
nounce that they intend to enforce, will awaken memories
of controversies, which it is the earnest desire of the United
States to forget or to pass over in silence. . . .

Germany, of course, promptly accepted the Decla-
ration, for the suggestion fitted in perfectly with her pro-
gramme; but Great Britain was not so acquiescent.
Four times was Page instructed to ask the British Govern-
ment to accede unconditionally, and four times did the
Foreign Office refuse. Page was in despair. In the fol-
lowing letter he notified Colonel House that if he were in-
structed again to move in this matter he would resign his
ambassadorship.

To Edward M. House

American Embassy, London,
October 22, 1914.
Dear House :

This is about the United States and England. Let's
get that settled before we try our hands at making peace
in Europe.

One of our greatest assets is the friendship of Great
Britain, and our friendship is a still bigger asset for her,
and she knows it and values it. Now, if either country
should be damfool enough to throw this away because old
Stone1 roars in the Senate about something that hasn't
happened, then this crazy world would be completely mad

1 Senator William J. Stone, perhaps the leading spokesman of the pro-German
cause in the United States Senate. Senator Stone represented Missouri, a state
with a large German-American element.

"waging neutrality" 381

all round, and there would be no good-will left on earth at
all.

The case is plain enough to me. England is going to
keep war-materials out of Germany as far as she can.
We'd do it in her place. Germany would do it. Any
nation would do it. That's all she has declared her in-
tention of doing. And, if she be let alone, she'll do it in a
way to give us the very least annoyance possible; for she'll
go any length to keep our friendship and good will. And
she has not confiscated a single one of our cargoes even of
unconditional contraband. She has stopped some of them
and bought them herself, but confiscated not one. All
right; what do we do? We set out on a comprehensive
plan to regulate the naval warfare of the world and we up
and ask 'em all, "Now, boys, all be good, damn you, and
agree to the Declaration of London."

"Yah," says Germany, "if England will."
Now Germany isn't engaged in naval warfare to count,
and she never even paid the slightest attention to the
Declaration all these years. But she saw that it would
hinder England and help her now, by forbidding England
to stop certain very important war materials from reaching
Germany. "Yah," said Germany. But England said
that her Parliament had rejected the Declaration in times
of peace and that she could now hardly be expected to
adopt it in the face of this Parliamentary rejection. But,
to please us, she agreed to adopt it with only two
changes.

Then Lansing to the bat:

"No, no," says Lansing, "you've got to adopt it all."
Four times he's made me ask for its adoption, the last
time coupled with a proposition that if England would
adopt it, she might issue a subsequent proclamation say-
ing that, since the Declaration is contradictory, she will

382 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

construe it her own way, and the United States ayIII raise
no objection!

Then he sends eighteen pages of fine-spun legal argu-
ments (not all sound by any means) against the sections
of the English proclamations that have been put forth,
giving them a strained and unfriendly interpretation.

In a word, England has acted in a friendly way to us
and will so act, if we allow her. But Lansing, instead of
trusting to her good faith and reserving all our rights
under international law and usage, imagines that he can
force her to agree to a code that the Germans now agree
to because, in Germany's present predicament, it will be
especially advantageous to Germany. Instead of trust-
ing her, he assumes that she means to do wrong and pro-
ceeds to try to bind her in advance. He hauls her up and
tries her in court — that's his tone.

Now the relations that I have established with Sir
Edward Grey have been built up on frankness, fairness
and friendship. I can't have relations of any other sort
nor can England and the United States have relations of
any other sort. This is the place we've got to now. Lan-
sing seems to assume that the way to an amicable agree-
ment is through an angry controversy.

Lansing's method is the trouble. He treats Great
Britain, to start with, as if she were a criminal and an op-
ponent. That's the best way I know to cause trouble to
American shipping and to bring back the good old days of
mutual hatred and distrust for a generation or two. If
that isn't playing into the hands of the Germans, what
would be? And where's the "neutrality" of this kind of
action?

See here: If we let England go on, we can throw the
whole responsibility on her and reserve all our rights under
international law and usage and claim damages (and get

"waging neutrality" 383

'em) for every act of injury, if acts of injury occur; and
we can keep her friendship and good-will. Every other
neutral nation is doing that. Or we can insist on regulat-
ing all naval warfare and have a quarrel and refer it to a
Bryan-Peace-Treaty Commission and claim at most the
jelfsame damages with a less chance to get 'em. We can
get damages without a quarrel; or we can have a quarrel
and probably get damages. Now, why, in God's name,
should we provoke a quarrel?

The curse of the world is little men who for an imagined
small temporary advantage throw awa\ the long growth
of good-will nurtured by wise and patient men and who
cannot see the lasting and far greater future evil they do.
Of all the years since 1776 this great war-year is the worst
to break the 100 years of our peace, or even to ruffle it.
I pray you, good friend, get us out of these incompetent
lawyer-hands.

Now about the peace of Europe. Nothing can yet be
done, perhaps nothing now can ever be done by us. The
Foreign Office doubts our wisdom and prudence since
Lansing came into action. The whole atmosphere is
changing. One more such move and they will conclude
that Dernburg and Bernstorff have seduced us — without
our knowing it, to be sure; but their confidence in our
judgment will be gone. God knows I have tried to keep
this confidence intact and our good friendship secure.
But I have begun to get despondent over the outlook since
the President telegraphed me that Lansing's proposal
would settle the matter. I still believe he did not under-
stand it — he couldn't have done so. Else he could not
have approved it. But that tied my hands. If Lansing
again brings up the Declaration of London — after four
flat and reasonable rejections — I shall resign. I will not
be the instrument of a perfectly gratuitous and ineffective

384 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

insult to this patient and fair and friendly government and
people who in my time have done us many kindnesses and
never an injury but Carden,1 and who sincerely try now
to meet our wishes. It would be too asinine an act ever
to merit forgiveness or ever to be forgotten. I should
blame myself the rest of my life. It would grieve Sir
Edward more than anything except this war. It would
knock the management of foreign affairs by this Adminis-
tration into the region of sheer idiocy. I'm afraid any
peace talk from us, as it is, would merely be whistling down
the wind. If we break with England — not on any case or
act of violence to our shipping — but on a useless discussion,
in advance, of general principles of conduct during the
war — just for a discussion — we've needlessly thrown away
our great chance to be of some service to this world gone
mad. If Lansing isn't stopped, that's what he will do.
Why doesn't the President see Spring Rice? Why don't
you take him to see him?

Good night, my good friend. I still have hope that the
President himself will take this in hand.

Yours always,

W. H. P.

The letters and the cablegrams which Page was sending
to Colonel House and the State Department at this time
evidently ended the matter. By the middle of October
the two nations were fairly deadlocked. Sir Edward
Grey's reply to the American proposal had been an ac-
ceptance of the Declaration of London with certain
modifications. For the list of contraband in the Declar-
ation he had submitted the list already adopted by Great
Britain in its Order in Council, and he had also rejected
that article which made it impossible for Great Britain

•See Chapter VII.

"waging neutrality" 385

to apply the doctrine of "continuous voyage" to condi-
tional contraband. The modified acceptance, declared
Mr. Lansing, was a practical rejection— as of course it
was, and as it was intended to be. So the situation re-
mained for several exciting weeks, the State Department
insisting on the Declaration in full, precisely as the legal
luminaries had published it five years before, the For-
eign Office courteously but inflexibly refusing to accede.
Only the cordial personal relations which prevailed be-
tween Grey and Page prevented the crisis from producing
the most disastrous results. Finally, on October 17th,
Page proposed by cable an arrangement which he hoped
would settle the matter. This was that the King should
issue a proclamation accepting the Declaration with prac-
tically the modifications suggested above, and that a new
Order in Council should be issued containing a new list of
contraband. Sir Edward Grey was not to ask the Amer-
ican Government to accept this proclamation; all that he
asked was that Washington should offer no objections to
it. It was proposed that the United States at the same
time should publish a note withdrawing its suggestion
for the adoption of the Declaration, and explaining that
it proposed to rest the rights of its citizens upon the exist-
ing rules of international law and the treaties of the United
States. This solution was accepted. It was a defeat
for Mr. Lansing, of course, but he had no alternative.
The relief that Page felt is shown in the following memo-
randum, written soon after the tension had ceased:

"That insistence on the Declaration entire came near
to upsetting the whole kettle of fish. It put on me the
task of insisting on a general code — at a time when the
fiercest war in history was every day becoming fiercer and
more desperate — which would have prevented the British

386 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

from putting on their contraband list several of the most
important war materials — accompanied by a proposal
that would have angered every neutral nation through
which supplies can possibly reach Germany and prevented
this Government from making friendly working arrange-
ments with them; and, after Sir Edward Grey had flatly
declined for these reasons, I had to continue to insist. I
confess it did look as if we were determined to dictate to
him how he should conduct the war — and in a way that
distinctly favoured the Germans.

"I presented every insistence; for I should, of course,
not have been excusable if I had failed in any case vigor-
' usly to carry out my instructions. But every time I
plainly saw matters getting worse and worse; and I should
have failed of my duty also if I had not so informed the
President and the Department. I can conceive of no
more awkward situation for an Ambassador or for any
other man under Heaven. I turned the whole thing over
in my mind backward and forward a hundred times every
day. For the first time in this stress and strain, I lost
my appetite and digestion and did not know the day of
the week nor what month it was — seeing the two govern-
ments rushing toward a very serious clash, which would
have made my mission a failure and done the Adminis-
tration much hurt, and have sowed the seeds of bitterness
for generations to come.

"One day I said to Anderson (whose assistance is in
many ways invaluable) : ' Of course nobody is infallible —
least of all we. Is it possible that we are mistaken? You
and Laughlin and I, who are close to it all, are absolutely
agreed. But may there not be some important element in
the problem that we do not see? Summon and muse
every doubt that you can possibly muster up of the cor-
rectness of our view, put yourself on the defensive, recall

"waging neutrality" 387

every mood you may have had of the slightest hesitation,
and tell me to-morrow of every possible weak place there
may be in our judgment and conclusions.' The next day
Anderson handed me seventeen reasons why it was unwise
to persist in this demand for the adoption of the Declara-
tion of London. Laughlin gave a similar opinion. I
swear I spent the night in searching every nook and corner
of my mind and I was of the same opinion the next morn-
ing. There was nothing to do then but the most unw el-
come double duty: (1) Of continuing to carry out instruc-
tions, at every step making a bad situation worse and
running the risk of a rupture (which would be the only
great crime that now remains uncommitted in the world) ;
and (2) of trying to persuade our own Government that
this method was the wTong method to pursue. I knowT it
is not my business to make policies, but I conceive it to be
my business to report when they fail or succeed. Now
if I were commanded to look throughout the whole uni-
verse for the most unw elcome task a man may have, I
think I should select this. But, after all, a man has
nothing but his own best judgment to guide him; and, if
he follow that and fail — that's all he can do. I do rever-
ently thank God that we gave up that contention. We
may have trouble yet, doubtless we shall, but it will not
be trouble of our own making, as that was.

"Tyrrell1 came into the reception room at the Foreign
Office the day after our withdrawal, while I was waiting
to see Sir Edward Grey, and he said: 'I wish to tell you
personally — just privately between you and me — how in-
finite a relief it is to us all that your Government has with-
drawn that demand. We couldn't accept it; our refusal
was not stubborn nor pig-headed : it was a physical neces-
sity in order to carry on the war with any hope of success.'

1Private secretary to Sir Edward Grey.

388 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Then, as I was going out, he volunteered this remark : ' I
make this guess — that that programme was not the work
of the President but of some international prize court
enthusiast (I don't know who) who had failed to secure
the adoption of the Declaration when parliaments and
governments could discuss it at leisure and who hoped to
jam it through under the pressure of war and thus get
his prize court international.' I made no answer for
several reasons, one of which is, I do not know whose pro-
gramme it was. All that I know is that I have here, on
my desk at my house, a locked dispatch book half full of
telegrams and letters insisting on it, which I do not wish
(now at least) to put in the Embassy files, and the sight
of which brings the shuddering memory of the worst
nightmare I have ever suffered.

"Now we can go on, without being a party to any gen-
eral programme, but in an independent position vigorously
stand up for every right and privilege under law and usage
and treaties; and we have here a government that we can
deal with frankly and not (I hope) hi a mood to suspect us
of wishing to put it at a disadvantage for the sake of a
general code or doctrine. A land and naval and air and
submarine battle (the greatest battle in the history of the
belligerent race of man) within 75 miles of the coast of
England, which hasn't been invaded since 1066 and is now
in its greatest danger since that time; and this is no time
I fear, to force a great body of doctrine on Great Britain.
God knows I'm afraid some American boat will run on a
mine somewhere in the Channel or the North Sea.
There's war there as there is on land in Germany. No-
body tries to get goods through on land on the continent,
and they make no complaints that commerce is stopped.
Everybody tries to ply the Channel and the North Sea
as usual, both of which have German and English mines

"waging neutrality" 389

and torpedo craft and submarines almost as thick as
batteries along the hostile camps on land. The British
Government (which now issues marine insurance) will not
insure a British boat to carry food to Holland en route to
the starving Belgians; and I hear that no government
and no insurance company will write insurance for any-
thing going across the North Sea. I wonder if the extent
and ferocity and danger of this war are fully realized in
the United States?

"There is no chance yet effectively to talk of peace.1
The British believe that their civilization and their Em-
pire are in grave danger. They are drilling an army of a
million men here for next spring; more and more troops
come from all the Colonies, where additional enlistments
are going on. They feel that to stop before a decisive
result is reached would simply be provoking another war,
a/ter a period of dread such as they have lived through
the last ten years ; a large and increasing proportion of the
letters you see are on black-bordered paper and this whole
island is becoming a vast hospital and prisoners' camp —
all which, so far from bringing them to think of peace,
urges them to renewed effort; and all the while the bitter-
ness grows.

The Straus incident1 produced the impression here that
it was a German trick to try to shift the responsibility
of continuing the war, to the British shoulders. Mr.
Sharp's bare mention of peace in Paris caused the French
censor to forbid the transmission of a harmless interview ;
and our insistence on the Declaration left, for the time
being at least, a distinct distrust of our judgment and
perhaps even of our good-will. It was suspected — I am

xThe reference is to an attempt by Germany to start peace negotiations in
September, 1914, after the Battle of the Marne. This is described in the next
chapter.

390 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

sure — that the German influence in Washington had un-
wittingly got influence over the Department. The atmos-
phere (toward me) is as different now from what it was a
week ago as Arizona sunshine is from a London fog, as
much as to say, 'After all, perhaps, you don't mean to try
to force us to play into the bands of our enemies!' "

And so this crisis was passed; it was the first great ser-
vice that Page had rendered the cause of the Allies
and his own country. Yet shipping difficulties had their
more agreeable aspects. Had it not been for the fact that
both Page and Grey had an understanding sense of humour,
neutrality would have proved a more difficult path than
it actually was. Even amid the tragic problems with
which these two men were dealing there was not lacking
an occasional moment's relaxation into the fighter aspect
of things. One of the curious memorials preserved in the
British Foreign Office is the cancelled $15,000,000 check
with which Great Britain paid the Alabama claims. That
the British should frame this memento of their great diplo-
matic defeat and hang it in the Foreign Office is an evi-
dence of the fact that in statesmanship, as in less exalted
matters, the English are excellent sportsmen. The real
justification of the honour paid to this piece of paper, of
course, is that the settlement of the Alabama claims by
arbitration signalized a great forward step in international
relations and did much tc heal a century's troubles be-
tween the United States and Great Britain. Sir Edward
Grey used frequently to call Page's attention to this docu-
ment. It represented the amount of money, then con-
sidered large, which Great Britain had paid the United
States for the depredations on American shipping for
which she was responsible during the Civil War.

"waging neutrality" 391

One day the two men were discussing certain detentions
of American cargoes — high-handed acts which, in Page's
opinion, were unwarranted. Not infrequently, in the heat
of discussion, Page would get up and pace the floor. And
on this occasion his body, as well as his mind, was in a
state of activity. Suddenly his eye was attracted by the
framed Alabama check. He leaned over, peered at it
intensely, and then quickly turned to the Foreign Sec-
retary :

"If you don't stop these seizures, Sir Edward, some day
you'll have your entire room papered with things like
that!"

Not long afterward Sir Edward in his turn scored on
Page. The Ambassador called to present one of the many
State Department notes. The occasion was an embar-
rassing one, for the communication was written in the
Department's worst literary style. It not infrequently
happened that these notes, in the form in which Page re-
ceived them, could not be presented to the British Govern-
ment; they were so rasping and undiplomatic that Page
feared that he would suffer the humiliation of having them
returned, for there are certain things which no self-respect-
ing Foreign Office will accept. On such occasions it was
the practice of the London Embassy to smooth down
the language before handing the paper to the Foreign
Secretary. The present note was one of this kind;
but Page, because of his friendly relations with Grey,
decided to transmit the communication in its original
shape.

Sir Edward glanced over the document, looked up, and
remarked, with a twinkle in his eye, —

"This reads as though they thought that they are still
talking to George the Third."

The roar of laughter that followed was something quite

392 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

unprecedented amid the thick and dignified walls of the
Foreign Office.

One of Page's most delicious moments came, however,
after the Ministry of Blockade had been formed, with
Lord Robert Cecil in charge. Lord Robert was high
minded and conciliatory, but his knowledge of American
history was evidently not without its lapses. One day,
in discussing the ill-feeling aroused in the United States
by the seizure of American cargoes, Page remarked ban-
teringly :

"You must not forget the Boston Tea Party, Lord
Robert."

The Englishman looked up, rather puzzled.

"But you must remember, Mr. Page, that I have
never been in Boston. I have never attended a tea party
there."

It has been said that the tact and good sense of Page
and Grey, working sympathetically for the same end,
avoided many an impending crisis. The trouble caused
early in 1915 by the ship Dacia and the way in which the
difficulty was solved, perhaps illustrate the value of this
cooperation at its best. In the early days of the War
Congress passed a bill admitting foreign ships to American
registry. The wisdom and even the "neutrality " of such
an act were much questioned at the time. Colonel House,
in one of his early telegrams to the President, declared that
this bill "is full of lurking dangers." Colonel House was
right. The trouble was that many German merchant
ships were interned in American harbours, fearing to put
to sea, where the watchful British warships lay waiting
for them. Any attempt to place these vessels under the
American flag, and to use them for trade between Amer-
ican and German ports, would at once cause a crisis
witli the Allies, for such a paper change in ownership

' WAGING NEUTRALITY 393

would be altogether too transparent. Great Britain
viewed this legislation with disfavour, but did not think it
politic to protest such transfers generally; Spring Rice
contented himself with informing the State Department
that his government would not object so long as this
changed status did not benefit Germany. If such German
ships, after being transferred to the American flag, en-
gaged in commerce between American ports and South
American ports, or other places remotely removed from
the Fatherland, Great Britain would make no difficulty.
The Dacia, a merchantman of the Hamburg- America
line, had been lying at her wharf in Port Arthur, Texas,
since the outbreak of the war. In early January, 1915,
she was purchased by Mr. E. N. Breitung, of Marquette,
Michigan. Mr. Breitung caused great excitement in the
newspapers when he announced that he had placed the
Dacia under American registry, according to the terms of
this new law, had put upon her an American crew, and
that he proposed to load her with cotton and sail for Ger-
many. The crisis had now arisen which the well-wishers
of Great Britain and the United States had so dreaded.
Great Britain's position was a difficult one. If it ac-
quiesced, the way would be opened for placing under Amer-
ican registry all the German and Austrian ships that were
then lying unoccupied in American ports and using them
in trade between the United States and the Central Powers.
If Great Britain seized the Dacia, then there was the
likelihood that this would embroil her with the American
Government — and this would serve German purposes
quite as well.

Sir Cecil Spring Rice, the British Ambassador at Wash-
ington, at once notified Washington that the Dacia would
be seized if she sailed for a German port. The cotton
which she intended to carry was at that time not contra-

394 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

band, but the vessel itself was German and was thus sub-
ject to apprehension as enemy property. The seriousness
of this position was that technically the Dacia was now an
American ship, for an American citizen owned her, she
carried an American crew, she bore on her flagstaff the
American flag, and she had been admitted to American
registry under a law recently passed by Congress. How
could the United States sit by quietly and permit
this seizure to take place? When the Dacia sailed on
January 23rd the excitement was keen; the voyage had
obtained a vast amount of newspaper advertising, and the
eyes of the world were fixed upon her. German sym-
pathizers attributed the attitude of the American Govern-
ment in permitting the vessel to sail as a "dare" to Great
Britain, and the fact that Great Britain had announced
her intention of taking up this "dare" made the situation
still more tense.

When matters had reached this pass Page one day
dropped into the Foreign Office.

" Have you ever heard of the British fleet, Sir Edward? "
he asked.

Grey admitted that he had, though the question obvi-
ously puzzled him.

"Yes," Page went on musingly. "We've all heard of
the British fleet. Perhaps we have heard too much
about it. Don't you think it's had too much advertis-
mg?

The Foreign Secretary looked at Page with an expres-
sion that implied a lack of confidence in his sanity.

"But have you ever heard of the French fleet?" the
American went on. "France has a fleet too, I believe."

Sir Edward granted that.

" Don't you think that the French fleet ought to have a
little advertising?"

WAGING NEUTRALITY 395

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"Well," said Page, "there's the Dacia. Why not let
the French fleet seize it and get some advertising?"

A gleam of understanding immediately shot across
Grey's face. The old familiar twinkle came into his eye.

"Yes," he said, "why not let the Belgian royal yacht
seize it?"

This suggestion from Page was one of the great inspira-
tions of the war. It amounted to little less than genius.
By this time Washington was pretty wearied of the Dacia,
for mature consideration had convinced the Department
that Great Britain had the right on its side. Washington
would have been only too glad to find a way out of
the difficult position into which it had been forced, and
this Page well understood. But this government always
finds itself in an awkward plight in any controversy with
Great Britain, because the hyphenates raise such a noise
that it has difficulty in deciding such disputes upon their
merits. To ignore the capture of this ship by the British
would have brought all this hullabaloo again about the
ears of the Administration. But the position of France is
entirely different ; the memories of Lafayette and Rocham-
beau still exercise a profound spell on the American mind;
France does not suffer from the persecution of hyphenate
populations, and Americans will stand even outrages from
France without getting excited. Page knew that if the
British seized the Dacia, the cry would go up in certain
quarters for immediate war, but that, if France committed
the same crime, the guns of the adversary would be spiked.
It was purely a case of sentiment and "psychology." And
so the event proved. His suggestion was at once acted
on; a French cruiser went out into the Channel, seized
the offending ship, took it into port, where a French prize
court promptly condemned it. The proceeding did not

396 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

cause even a ripple of hostility. The Dacia was sold to
Frenchmen, rechristened the Yser and put to work in the
Mediterranean trade. The episode was closed in the lat-
ter part of 1915 when a German submarine torpedoed the
vessel and sent it to the bottom.

Such was the spirit which Page and Sir Edward Grey
brought to the solution of the shipping problems of 1914-
1917. There is much more to tell of this great task of
"waging neutrality," and it will be told in its proper
place. But already it is apparent to what extent these
two men served the cause of English-speaking civili-
zation. Neither would quibble or uphold an argument
which he thought unjust, even though his nation might
gain in a material sense, and neither would pitch the dis-
cussion in any other key than forbearance and mutual
accommodation and courtliness. For both men had the
same end in view. They were both thinking, not of the
present, but of the coming centuries. The cooperation
of the two nations in meeting the dangers of autocracy
and Prussian barbarism, in laying the foundations of a
future in which peace, democracy, and international
justice should be the directing ideas of human society —
such was the ultimate purpose at which these two states-
men aimed. And no men have ever been more splendidly
justified by events. The Anglo-American situation of
1914 contained dangers before which all believers in real
progress now shudder. Had Anglo-American diplomacy
been managed with less skill and consideration, the United
States and Great Britain would have become involved in
a quarrel beside which all their previous differences would
have appeared insignificant. Mutual hatreds and hos-
tilities would have risen that would have prevented the
entrance of the United States into the war on the side of the
Allies. It is not inconceivable that the history of 1812

"waging neutrality" 397

would have been repeated, and that the men and resources
of this country might have been used to support purposes
which have always been hateful to the American con-
science. That the world was saved from this calamity is
owing largely to the fact that Great Britain had in its
Foreign Office a man who was always solving temporary
irritations with his eyes constantly fixed upon a great
goal, and that the United States had as ambassador in
London a man who had the most exalted view of the mis-
sion of his country, who had dedicated his life to the world-
wide spread of the American ideal, and who believed that
an indispensable part of this work was the maintenance of
a sympathetic and helpful cooperation with the English-
speaking peoples.

CHAPTER XIII

Germany's first peace drives

THE Declaration of London was not the only problem
that distracted Page in these early months of the war.
Washington's apparent determination to make peace also
added to his daily anxieties. That any attempt to end
hostilities should have distressed so peace-loving and
humanitarian a statesman as Page may seem surprising;
it was, however, for the very reason that he was a man of
peace that these Washington endeavours caused him end-
less worry. In Page's opinion they indicated that Presi-
dent Wilson did not have an accurate understanding of
the war. The inspiring force back of them, as the Am-
bassador well understood, was a panic-stricken Germany.
The real purpose was not a peace, but a truce; and the
cause which was to be advanced was not democracy but
Prussian absolutism. Between the Battle of the Maine
and the sinking of the Lusitania four attempts were made
to end the war; all four were set afoot by Germany.
President Wilson was the man to whom the Germans ap-
pealed to rescue them from their dilemma. It is no longer
a secret that the Germans at this time regarded their
situation as a tragic one; the success that they had
anticipated for forty years had proved to be a disaster.
The attempt to repeat the great episodes of 1864, 1866,
and 1870, when Prussia had overwhelmed Denmark,
Austria, and France in three brief campaigns, had igno-
miniously failed. Instead of beholding a conquered Eu-
rope at her feet, Germany awoke from her illusion to find

398

Germany's first peace drives 399

herself encompassed by a ring of resolute and powerful
foes. The fact that the British Empire, with its immense
resources, naval, military, and economic, was now lead-
ing the alliance against them, convinced the most intelli-
gent Germans that the Fatherland was face to face with
the greatest crisis in its history.

Peace now became the underground Germanic pro-
gramme. Yet the Germans did not have that inexorable
respect for facts which would have persuaded them to
accept terms to which the Allies could consent. The
military oligarchy were thinking not so much of saving
the Fatherland as of saving themselves; a settlement
which would have been satisfactory to their enemies
would have demanded concessions which the German
people, trained for forty years to expect an unparalleled
victory, would have regarded as a defeat. The collapse
of the militarists and of Hohenzollernism would have en-
sued. What the German oligarchy desired was a peace
which they could picture to their deluded people as a
triumph, one that would enable them to extricate them-
selves at the smallest possible cost from what seemed a
desperate position, to escape the penalties of their crimes,
to emerge from their failure with a Germany still power-
ful, both in economic resources and in arms, and to set to
work again industriously preparing for a renewal of the
struggle at a more favourable time. If negotiations re-
sulted in such a truce, the German purpose would be splen-
didly served; even if they failed, however, the gain for
Germany would still be great. Germany could appear as
the belligerent which desired peace and the Entente could
perhaps be manoeuvred into the position of the side
responsible for continuing the war. The consideration
which was chiefly at stake in these tortuous proceedings
was public opinion in the United States. Americans do

400 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

not yet understand the extent to which their country was
regarded as the determining power. Both the German
and the British Foreign Offices clearly understood, in
August, 1914, that the United States, by throwing its
support, especially its economic support, to one side or
the other, could settle the result. Probably Germany
grasped this point even more clearly than did Great
Britain, for, from the beginning, she constantly nourished
the hope that she could embroil the United States and
Great Britain — a calamity which would have given vic-
tory to the German arms. In every German move there
were thus several motives, and one of the chief purposes
of the subterranean campaigns which she now started
for peace was the desire of putting Britain in the false
light of prolonging the war for aggressive purposes,
and thus turning to herself that public opinion in this
country which was so outspoken on the side of the
Allies. Such public opinion, if it could be brought to
regard Germany in a tolerant spirit, could easily be
fanned into a flame by the disputes over blockades and
shipping, and the power of the United States might thus
be used for the advancement of the Fatherland. On
the other hand, if Germany could obtain a peace which
would show a profit for her tremendous effort, then the
negotiations would have accomplished their purpose.

Conditions at Washington favoured operations of this
kind. Secretary Bryan was an ultra-pacifist; like men of
one idea, he saw only the fact of a hideous war, and he was
prepared to welcome anything that would end hostilities.
The cessation of bloodshed was to him the great purpose to
be attained : in the mind of Secretary Bryan it was more
important that the war should be stopped than that the
Allies should win. To President Wilson the European
disaster appeared to be merely a selfish struggle for

Germany's first peace drives 401

power, in which both sides were almost equally to blame.
He never accepted Page's obvious interpretation that the
single cause was Germany's determination to embark
upon a war of world conquest. From the beginning,
therefore, Page saw that he would have great difficulty in
preventing intervention from Washington in the interest
of Germany, yet this was another great service to which
he now unhesitatingly directed his efforts.

The Ambassador w as especially apprehensive of these
peace moves in the early days of September, when the
victorious German armies were marching on Paris. In
London, as in most parts of the world, the capture of the
French capital was then regarded as inevitable. Sep-
tember 3, 1914, was one of the darkest days in modern
times. The population of Paris was fleeing southward;
the Government had moved its headquarters to Bordeaux;
and the moment seemed to be at hand when the German
Emperor would make his long anticipated entry into the
capital of France. It was under these circumstances that
the American Ambassador to Great Britain sent the fol-
lowing message directly to the President:

To the President

American Embassy, London,

Sep. 3, 4 a. m.
Everybody in this city confidently believes that the
Germans, if they capture Paris, will make a proposal for
peace, and that the German Emperor will send you a
message declaring that he is unwilling to shed another
drop of blood. Any proposal that the Kaiser makes will
be simply the proposal of a conqueror. His real purpose
will be to preserve the Hohenzollern dynasty and the
imperial bureaucracy. The prevailing English judgment
is that, if Germany be permitted to stop hostilities, the

402 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

war will have accomplished nothing. There is a determi-
nation here to destroy utterly the German bureaucracy,
and Englishmen are prepared to sacrifice themselves to
any extent in men and money. The preparations that
are being made here are for a long war ; as I read the dis-
position and the character of Englishmen they will not
stop until they have accomplished their purpose. There
is a general expression of hope in this country that neither
the American Government nor the public opinion of our
country will look upon any suggestion for peace as a
serious one which does not aim, first of all, at the absolute
destruction of the German bureaucracy.

From such facts as I can obtain, it seems clear to me
that the opinion of Europe — excluding of course, Ger-
many— is rapidly solidifying into a severe condemnation
of the German Empire. The profoundest moral judg-
ment of the world is taking the strongest stand against
Germany and German methods. Such incidents as the
burning of Louvain and other places, the slaughter of
civilian populations, the outrages against women and
children — outrages of such a nature that they cannot be
printed, but which form a matter of common conversation
everywhere — have had the result of arousing Great
Britain to a mood of the grimmest determination.

Page.

This message had hardly reached Washington when
the peace effort of which it warned the President began to
take practical form. In properly estimating these ma-
noeuvres it must be borne in mind that German diplomacy
always worked underground and that it approached its
negotiations in a way that would make the other side
appear as taking the initiative. This was a phase of
German diplomatic technique with which every Euro-

Germany's first peace drives 403

pean Foreign Office had long been familiar. Count Bern-
storff arrived in the United States from Germany in the
latter part of August, evidently with instructions from
his government to secure the intercession of the United
States. There were two unofficial men in New York who
were ideally qualified to serve the part of intermediaries.
Mr. James Speyer had been born in New York; he had
received his education at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Ger-
many, and had spent his apprenticeship also in the family
banking house in that city. As the head of an American
banking house with important German affiliations, his
interests and sympathies were strong on the side of the
Fatherland; indeed, he made no attempt to conceal his
strong pro-Germanism.

Mr. Oscar S. Straus had been born in Germany; his
father had been a German revolutionist of 'Forty-eight;
like Carl Schurz, Abraham Jacobi, and Franz Sigel,
he had come to America to escape Prussian militarism and
the Prussian autocracy, and his children had been edu-
cated in a detestation of the things for which the German
Empire stood. Mr. Oscar Straus was only two years old
when he was brought to this country, and he had given
the best evidences of his Americanism in a distinguished
public career. Three times he had served the United
States as Ambassador to Turkey ; he had filled the post of
Secretary of Commerce and Labour in President Roose-
velt's cabinet, and had held other important public
commissions. Among his other activities, Mr. Straus
had played an important part in the peace movement of
the preceding quarter of a century and he had been a
member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The
Hague. Mr. Straus was on excellent terms with the
German, the British, and the French ambassadors at
Washington. As far back as 1888, when he was American

404 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Minister at Constantinople, Bernstorff, then a youth,
was an attache at the German Embassy; the young Ger-
man was frequently at the American Legation and used
to remind Mr. Straus, whenever he met him in later
years, how pleasantly he remembered his hospitality.
With Sir Cecil Spring Rice, the British Ambassador, and
M. Jules Jusserand, the French Ambassador, Mr. Straus
had also become friendly in Constantinople and in Wash-
ington. This background, and Mr. Straus's well-known
pro-British sentiments, would have made him a desirable
man to act as a liaison agent between the Germans and
the Allies, but there were other reasons why this ex-
ambassador would be useful at this time. Mr. Straus
had been in Europe at the outbreak of the war; he had
come into contact with the British statesmen in those
exciting early August days ; in particular he had discussed
all phases of the conflict with Sir Edward Grey, and before
leaving England, he had given certain interviews which
the British statesmen declared had greatly helped their
cause in the United States. Of course, the German
Government knew all about these activities.

On September 4th, Mr. Straus arrived at NewT York on
the Mauretania. He had hardly reached this country
when he was called upon the telephone by Mr. Speyer, a
friend of many years' standing. Count Bernstorff, the
German Ambassador, Mr. Speyer said, was a guest at
his country home, Waldheim, at Scarboro, on the Hud-
son; Mr. Speyer was giving a small, informal dinner
the next evening, Saturday, September 5th, and he asked
Mr. and Mrs. Straus to come. The other important
guests were Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip, president of the
National City Bank, and Mrs. Vanderlip. Mr. Straus
accepted the invitation, mentally resolving that he would
not discuss the war himself, but merely listen. It would

Germany's first peace drives 405

certainly have been a difficult task for any man to avoid
this subject on this particular evening; the date was
September 5th, the day when the German Army sud-
denly stopped in its progress toward Paris, and began
retreating, the French and the British forces in pursuit.
A fewr minutes before Count BernstorfF sat down at Mr.
Speyer's table, with Mr. Straus opposite, he had learned
that the magnificent enterprise which Germany had
planned for forty years had failed, and that his country
was facing a monstrous disaster. The Battle of the
Marne was raging in all its fury while this pacific con-
versation at Mr. Speyer's house was taking place.

Of course the war became the immediate topic of dis-
cussion. Count Bernstorff at once plunged into the
usual German point of view — that Germany did not want
war in the first place, that the Entente had forced the
issue, and the like.

"The Emperor and the German Government stood
for peace," he said.

Naturally, a man who had spent a considerable part of
his life promoting the peace cause pricked up his ears at
this statement.

"Does that sentiment still prevail in Germany?"
asked Mr. Straus.

"Yes," replied the German Ambassador.

"Would your government entertain a proposal for
mediation now?" asked Mr. Straus.

"Certainly," Bernstorff promptly replied. He has-
tened to add, however, that he was speaking unofficially.
He had had no telegraphic communication from Berlin
for five days, and therefore could not definitely give the
attitude of his government. But he was quite sure that
the Kaiser would be glad to have President Wilson take
steps to end the war.

406 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

The possibility that he might play a part in bringing
hostilities to a close now occurred to Mr. Straus. He had
come to the dinner determined to avoid the subject alto-
gether, but Count Bernstorff had precipitated the issue
in a way that left the American no option. Certainly
Mr. Straus would have been derelict if he had not reported
this conversation to the high quarters for which Count
Bernstorff had evidently intended it.

"That is a very important statement you have made,
Mr. Ambassador," said Mr. Straus, measuring every
word. "May I make use of it?"
"Yes."

"May I use it in any way I choose?"
"You may," replied Bernstorff.

Mr. Straus saw in this acquiescent mood a chance to
appeal directly to President Wilson.

"Do you object to my laying this matter before our
government?"
"No, I do not."

Mr. Straus glanced at his watch; it was 10:15 o'clock.
"I think I shall go to Washington at once— this very
night. I can get the midnight train."

Mr. Speyer, who has always maintained that this pro-
ceeding was casual and in no way promoted by himself
and Bernstorff, put in a word of caution.
"I would sleep on it," he suggested.
But, in a few moments, Mr. Straus was speeding in his
automobile through Westchester County in the direction
of the Pennsylvania Station. He caught the express,
and, the next morning, which was Sunday the sixth, he
was laying the whole matter before Secretary Bryan at the
latter's house. Naturally, Mr. Bryan was overjoyed at
the news; he at once summoned Bernstorff from New
York to Washington, and went over the suggestion per-

GERMANY S FIRST PEACE DRIVES 407

sonally. The German Ambassador repeated the state-
ments which he had made to Mr. Straus — always guard-
edly qualifying his remarks by saying that the proposal
had not come originally from him but from his Ameri-
can friend. Meanwhile Mr. Bryan asked Mr. Straus to
discuss the matter with the British and French ambas-
sadors.

The meeting took place at the British Embassy. The
two representatives of the Entente, though only too glad
to talk the matter over, were more skeptical about the
attitude of BernstorfT than Mr. Bryan had been.

"Of course, Mr. Straus," said Sir Cecil Spring Rice,
"you know that this dinner was arranged purposely so
that the German Ambassador could meet you?"

Mr. Straus demurred at this statement, but the Eng-
lishman smiled.

"Do you suppose," Sir Cecil asked, "that any am-
bassador would make such a statement as BernstorfF
made to you without instructions from his govern-
ment?"

"You and M. Jusserand," replied the American, "have
devoted your whole lives to diplomacy with distinguished
ability and you can therefore answer that question better
than I."

"I can assure you," replied M. Jusserand, "that no
ambassador under the German system would dare for a
moment to make such a statement without being author-
ized to do so."

"The Germans," added Sir Cecil, "have a way of
making such statements unofficially and then denying
that they have ever made them."

Both the British and French ambassadors, however,
thought that the proposal should be seriously considered.

"If it holds out one chance in a hundred of lessening

408 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

the length of the war, we should entertain it," said Am-
bassador Jusserand.

"I certainly hope that you will entertain it cordially,"
said Mr. Straus.

"Not cordially — that is a little too strong."

' ' Well, sympathetically ? ' '

"Yes, sympathetically," said M. Jusserand, with a
smile.

These facts were at once cabled to Page, who took the
matter up with Sir Edward Grey. A despatch from the
latter to the British Ambassador in Washington gives a
splendid summary of the British attitude on such ap-
proaches at this time.

Sir Edward Jrey to Sir Cecil Spring Rice

Foreign Office,

September 9, 1914.
Sir:

The American Ambassador showed me to-day a com-
munication that he had from Mr. Bryan. It was to the
effect that Mr. Straus and Mr. Speyer had been talking
with the German Ambassador, who had said that, though
he was without instructions, he thought that Germany
might be disposed to end the war by mediation. This
had been repeated to Mr. Bryan, who had spoken to the
German Ambassador, and had heard the same from
him. Mr. Bryan had taken the matter up, and was
asking direct whether the German Emperor would ac-
cept mediation if the other parties who were at war would
do the same.

The American Ambassador said to me that this in-
formation gave him a little concern. He feared that,
coming after the declaration that we had signed last week
with France and Russia about carrying on the war in

Germany's first peace drives 409

common,1 the peace parties in the United States might
be given the impression that Germany was in favour of
peace, and that the responsibility for continuing the war
was on others.

I said that the agreement that we had made with
France and Russia was an obvious one; when three
countries were at war on the same side, one of them could
not honourably make special terms for itself and leave
the others in the lurch. As to mediation, I was favour-
able to it in principle, but the real question was: On
what terms could the war be ended? If the United
States could devise anything that would bring this war
to an end and prevent another such war being forced on
Europe I should welcome the proposal.

The Ambassador said that before the war began I had
made suggestions for avoiding it, and that these sugges-
tions had been refused.

I said that this was so, but since the war began there
were two further considerations to be borne in mind : We
were fighting to save the west of Europe from being dom-
inated by Prussian militarism; Germany had prepared to
the day for this war, and we could not again have a great
military power in the middle of Europe preparing war in
this way and forcing it upon us ; and the second thing was
that cruel wrong had been done to Belgium, for which
there should be some compensation. I had no indication
whatever that Germany was prepared to make any
reparation to Belgium, and, while repeating that in
principle I was favourable to mediation, I could see
nothing to do but to wait for the reply of the German
Emperor to the question that Mr. Bryan had put to him

*On September 5, 1914, Great Britain, France, and Russia signed the Pact of
London, an agreement which bound the three powers of the Entente to make war
and peace as a unit. Each power speciflcally pledged itself not to make a separate
peace.

410 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

and for the United States to ascertain on what terms
Germany would make peace if the Emperor's reply was
favourable to mediation.

The Ambassador made it quite clear that he regarded
what the German Ambassador had said as a move in the
game. He agreed with what I had said respecting terms
of peace, and that there seemed no prospect at present of
Germany being prepared to accept them.

I am, &c,

E. Grey.

A letter from Page to Colonel House gives Page's in-
terpretation of this negotiation :

To Edward M. House

London, September 10, 1914.
My dear House:

A rather serious situation has arisen: The Germans of
course thought that they would take Paris. They were
then going to propose a conqueror's terms of peace, which
they knew would not be accepted. But they would use
their so-called offer of peace purely for publicity pur-
poses. They would say, "See, men of the world, we want
peace; we offer peace; the continuance of this awful war
is not our doing." They are using Hearst for this pur-
pose. I fear they are trying to use so good a man as
Oscar Straus. They are fooling the Secretary.

Every nation was willing to accept Sir Edward Grey's
proposals but Germany. She was bent on a war of
conquest. Now she's likely to get licked — lock, stock
and barrel. She is carrying on a propaganda and a pub-
licity campaign all over the world. The Allies can't and
won't accept any peace except on the condition that Ger-
man militarism be uprooted. They are not going to live

GERMANY S FIRST PEACE DRIVES 411

again under that awful shadow and fear. They say
truly that life on such terms is not worth living. More-
over, if Germany should win the military control of
Europe, she would soon — that same war-party — attack
the United States. The war will not end until this con-
dition can be imposed — that there shall be no more mili-
tarism.

But in the meantime, such men as Straus (a good
fellow) may be able to let (by helping) the Germans ap-
pear to the Peace people as really desiring peace. Of
course, what they want is to save their mutton.

And if we begin mediation talk now on that basis, we
shall not be wanted when a real chance for mediation
comes. If we are so silly as to play into the hands of the
German-Hearst publicity bureau, our chance for real
usefulness will be thrown away.

Put the President on his guard.

W. H. P.

In the latter part of the month came Germany's reply.
One would never suspect, when reading it, that Germany
had played any part in instigating the negotiation. The
Kaiser repeated the old charges that the Entente had
forced the war on the Fatherland, that it was now de-
termined to annihilate the Central Powers and that con-
sequently there was no hope that the warring countries
could agree upon acceptable terms for ending the struggle.

So ended Germany's first peace drive, and in the only
possible way that it could end. But the Washington ad-
ministration continued to be most friendly to mediation.
A letter of Colonel House's, dated October 4, 1914, pos-
sesses great historical importance. It was written after
a detailed discussion with President Wilson, and it in-
dicates not only the President's desire to bring the struggle

412 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

to a close, but it describes in some detail the principles
which the President then regarded as essential to a per-
manent peace. It furnishes the central idea of the pres-
idential policy for the next four years ; indeed, it contains
the first statement of that famous "Article X" of the
Covenant of the League of Nations which was Mr. Wil-
son's most important contribution to that contentious
document. This was the article which pledges the
League "to respect and preserve as against external ag-
gression the territorial integrity and existing political in-
dependence" of all its members; it was the article which,
more than any other, made the League obnoxious to
Americans, who interpreted it as an attempt to involve
them perpetually in the quarrels of Europe; and it was
the one section of the Treaty of Versailles which was most
responsible for the rejection of that document by the
United States Senate. There are other suggestions in
Colonel House's letter which apparently bore fruit in the
League Covenant. It is somewhat astonishing that a let-
ter of Colonel House's, written as far back as October 3,
1914, two months after the outbreak of the war, should
contain "Article X" as one of the essential terms of
peace, as well as other ideas afterward incorporated in
that document, accompanied by an injunction that Page
should present the suggestion to Sir Edward Grey:

From Edward M. House

115 East 53rd Street,
New York City.
October 3rd, 1914.
Dear Page:

Frank [the Ambassador's son] has just come in and has
given me your letter of September 22nd1 which is of ab-

jPublishcd in Chapter XI, page 327.

Germany's first peace drives 413

sorbing interest. You have never done anything better
than this letter, and some day, when you give the word,
it must be published. But in the meantime, it will repose
in the safe deposit box along with your others and with
those of our great President.

I have just returned from Washington where I was with
the President for nearly four days. He is looking well
and is well. Sometimes his spirits droop, but then again,
he is his normal self.

Before I came from Prides1 I was fearful lest Straus,
BernstorfF, and others would drive the President into
doing something unwise. I have always counselled him
to remain quiet for the moment and let matters unfold
themselves further. In the meantime, I have been con-
ferring with BernstorfF, with Dumba,2 and, of course,
Spring Rice. The President now wants me to keep in
touch with the situation, and I do not think there is
any danger of any one on the outside injecting liimself
into it unless Mr. Bryan does something on his own
initiative.

Both Bernstorff and Dumba say that their countries
are ready for peace talks, but the difficulty is with Eng-
land. Sir Cecil says their statements are made merely to
place England in a false position.

The attitude, I think, for England to maintain is the
one which she so ably put forth to the world. That is,
peace must come only upon condition of disarmament
and must be permanent. I have a feeling that Germany
will soon be willing to discuss terms. I do not agree
that Germany has to be completely crushed and that
terms must be made either in Berlin or London. It is
manifestly against England's interest and the interest of

Colonel House's summer home in Massachusetts.
2Amhassador from Austria-Hungary to the United States.

414 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

Europe generally for Russia to become the dominating
military force in Europe, just as Germany was. The
dislike which England has for Germany should not blind
her to actual conditions. If Germany is crushed, Eng-
land cannot solely write the terms of peace, but Russia's
wishes must also largely prevail.

With Russia strong in militarism, there is no way by
which she could be reached. Her government is so con-
stituted that friendly conversations could not be had with
her as they might be had even with such a power as Ger-
many, and the world would look forward to another cat-
aclysm and in the not too distant future.

When peace conversations begin, at best, they will
probably continue many months before anything tangible
comes from them. England and the Allies could readily
stand on the general proposition that only enduring peace
will satisfy them and I can see no insuperable obstacle
in the way.

The Kaiser did not want war and was not responsible
for it further than his lack of foresight which led him to
build up a formidable engine of war which later domi-
nated him. Peace cannot be made until the war party
in Germany find that their ambitions cannot be realized,
and this, I think, they are beginning to know.

When the war is ended and the necessary territorial
alignments made, it seems to me, the best guaranty of
peace could be brought by every nation in Europe guar-
anteeing the territorial integrity of every other nation.1
By confining the manufacture of arms to the governments
themselves and by permitting representatives of all
nations to inspect, at any time, the works.2

!This, with certain modifications is Article 10 of the Covenant of the League
«f Nations.

-There is a suggestion of these provisions in Article 8 of the League Covenant.

Germany's first peace drives 415

Then, too, all sources of national irritation should be
removed so what at first may be a sore spot cannot grow
into a malignant disease.1 It will not be too difficult, I
think, to bring about an agreement that will insure per-
manent peace, provided all the nations of Europe are
honest in their desire for it.

I am writing this to you with the President's knowl-
edge and consent and with the thought that it will be
conveyed to Sir Edward. There is a growing impatience
in this country because of this war and there is constant
pressure upon the President to use his influence to bring
about normal conditions. He does not wish to do any-
thing to irritate or offend any one of the belligerent na-
tions, but he has an abiding faith in the efficacy of open
and frank discussion between those that are now at war.

As far as I can see, no harm can be done by a dispas-
sionate discussion at this stage, even though nothing
comes of it. In a way, it is perhaps better that informal
and unofficial conversations are begun and later the
principals can take it up themselves.

I am sure that Sir Edward is too great a man to let any
prejudices deter him from ending, as soon as possible, the
infinite suffering that each day of war entails.

Faithfully yours,
E. M. House.

It is apparent that the failure of this first attempt at
mediation discouraged neither Bernstorff nor the Wash-
ington administration. Colonel House was constantly
meeting the German and the British Ambassadors; he
was also, as his correspondence shows, in touch with
Zimmermann, the German Under Foreign Secretary.
The German desire for peace grew stronger in the autumn

1 Article 11 of the League Covenant reflects the influence of this idea.

416 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

and winter of 1914-1915, as the fact became more and
more clear that Great Britain was summoning all her re-
sources for the greatest effort in her history, as the stale-
mate on the Aisne more and more impressed upon the
German chieftains the impossibility of obtaining any de-
cision against the French Army, and as the Russians
showed signs of great recuperation after the disaster of
Tannenberg. By December 4th Washington had evidently
made up its mind to move again.

From Edward M. House

115 East 53rd Street,

New York City.
December 4th, 1914.
Dear Page:

The President desires to start peace parleys at the very
earliest moment, but he does not wish to offend the sensi-
bilities of either side by making a proposal before the
time is opportune. He is counting upon being given a
hint, possibly through me, in an unofficial way, as to when
a proffer from him will be acceptable.

Pressure is being brought upon him to offer his ser-
vices again, for this country is suffering, like the rest of
the neutral world, from the effects of the war, and our
people are becoming restless.

Would you mind conveying this thought delicately to
Sir Edward Grey and letting me know what he thinks?

Would the Allies consider parleys upon a basis of in-
demnity for Belgium and a cessation of militarism? If
so, then something may be begun with the Dual Alliance.

I have been told that negotiations between Russia and
Japan were carried on several months before they agreed
to meet at Portsmouth. The havoc that is being wrought
in human lives and treasure is too great to permit racial

Germany's first peace drives 417

feeling or revenge to enter into the thoughts of those who
govern the nations at war.

I stand ready to go to Germany at any moment in
order to sound the temper of that government, and I
would then go to England as I did last June.

This nation would not look with favour upon a policy
that held nothing but the complete annihilation of the
enemy.

Something must be done sometime, by somebody, to
initiate a peace movement, and I can think of no way, at
the moment, than the one suggested.

I will greatly appreciate your writing me fully and
freely in regard to this phase of the situation.

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

To this Page immediately replied :

To Edward M. House

December 12th, 1914.
My dear House:

The English rulers have no feeling of vengeance. I
have never seen the slightest traces of that. But they
are determined to secure future safety. They will not
have this experience repeated if they can help it. They
realize now that they have been living under a sort of
fear — or dread — for ten years: they sometimes felt that
it was bound to come some time and then at other times
they could hardly believe it. And they will spend all the
men and all the money they have rather than suffer that
fear again or have that danger. Now, if anybody could
fix a basis for the complete restoration of Belgium, so far
as restoration is possible, and for the elimination of mili-
tarism, I am sure the English would talk on that basis.

418 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

But there are two difficulties — Russia wouldn't talk till
she has Constantinople, and I haven't found anybody
who can say exactly what you mean by the ''elimination
of militarism." Disarmament? England will have her
navy to protect her incoming bread and meat. How,
then, can she say to Germany, "You can't have an army"P
You say the Americans are becoming "restless." The
plain fact is that the English people, and especially the
English military and naval people, don't care a fig what
the Americans think and feel. They say, "We're fight-
ing their battle, too — the battle of democracy and free-
dom from bureaucracy — why don't they come and help
us in our life-and-death struggle?" I have a drawer
full of letters saying this, not one of which I have ever
answered. The official people never say that of course —
nor the really responsible people, but a vast multitude of
the public do. This feeling comes out even in the pres-
ent military and naval rulers of this Kingdom — comes
indirectly to me. A part of the public, then, and the
military part of the Cabinet, don't longer care for Amer-
ican opinion and they resent even such a reference to
peace as the President made in his Message to Congress.1
But the civil part of the Cabinet and the responsible and
better part of the public do care very much. The Presi-
dent's intimation about peace, however, got no real
response here. They think he doesn't understand the
meaning of the war. They don't want war ; they are not
a warlike people. They don't hate the Germans. There
is no feeling of vengeance. They constantly say: "Why

'From the President's second message to Congress, December 8. 1914: "It is
our dearest present hope that this character and reputation may presently, in
God's providence, bring us an opportunity, such as has seldom been vouchsafed
any nation, to counsel and obtain peace in the world and reconciliation and a
healing settlement of many a matter that has cooled and interrupted the friend-
ship of nations."

Germany's first peace drives 419

do the Germans hate us? We don't hate them." But,
since Germany set out to rule the world and to conquer
Great Britain, they say, "We'll all die first." That's
"all there is to it." And they will all die unless they can
so fix things that this war cannot be repeated. Lady
K — , as kindly an old lady as ever lived, said to me the other
day: "A great honour has come to us. Our son has
been killed in battle, fighting for the safety of England."

Now, the question which nobody seems to be able to
answer is this: How can the military party and the
military spirit of Germany be prevented from continuing
to prepare for the conquest of Great Britain and from
going to work to try it again? That implies a change in
the form, spirit, and control of the German Empire. If
they keep up a great army, they will keep it up with that
end more or less in view. If the military party keeps in
power, they will try it again in twenty-five or forty years.
This is all that the English care about or think about.

They don't see how it is to be done themselves. All
they see yet is that they must show the Germans that
they can't whip Great Britain. If England wins de-
cisively the English hope that somehow the military
party will be overthrown in Germany and that the
Germans, under peaceful leadership, will go about their
business — industrial, political, educational, etc. — and quit
dreaming of and planning for universal empire and quit
maintaining a great war-machine, which at some time,
for some reason, must attack somebody to justify its ex-
istence. This makes it difficult for the English to make
overtures to or to receive overtures from this military
war-party which now is Germany. But, if it be possible
so completely to whip the war party that it will somehow
be thrown out of power at home — that's the only way
they now see out of it. To patch up a peace, leaving the

420 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

German war party in power, they think, would be only to
invite another war.

If you can get over this point, you can bring the Eng-
lish around in ten minutes. But they are not going to
take any chances on it. Read English history and
English literature about the Spanish Armada or about
Napoleon. They are acting those same scenes over
again, having the same emotions, the same purpose:
nobody must invade or threaten England. "If they do,
we'll spend the last man and the last shilling. We value,"
they say truly, "the good-will and the friendship of the
United States more than we value anything except our
own freedom, but we'll risk even that rather than admit
copper to Germany, because every pound of copper pro-
longs the war."

There you are. I've blinked myself blind and talked
myself hoarse to men in authority — from Grey down — to
see a way out — without keeping this intolerable slaughter
up to the end. But they stand just where I tell you.

And the horror of it no man knows. The news is sup-
pressed. Even those who see it and know it do not
realize it. Four of the crack regiments of this kingdom
— regiments that contained the flower of the land and to
which it was a distinction to belong — have been practi-
cally annihilated, one or two of them annihilated twice.
Yet their ranks are filled up and you never hear a mur-
mur. Presently it'll be true that hardly a title or an
estate in England will go to its natural heir — the heir has
been killed. Yet, not a murmur; for England is threat-
ened with invasion. They'll all die first. It will pres-
ently be true that more men will have been killed in this
war than were killed before in all the organized wars since
the Christian era began. The English are willing and
eager to stop it if things can be so fixed that there will be

Germany's first peace drives 421

no military power in Europe that wishes or prepares to
attack and invade England.

I've had many one-hour, two-hour, three-hour talks
with Sir Edward Grey. He sees nothing further than I
have written. He says to me often that if the United
States could see its way to cease to protest against
stopping war materials from getting into Germany, they
could end the war more quickly — all this, of course, in-
formally; and I say to him that the United States will
consider any proposal you will make that does not in-
fringe on a strict neutrality. Violate a rigid neutrality
we will not do. And, of course, he does not ask that. I
give him more trouble than all the other neutral Powers
combined; they all say this. And, on the other side, his
war-lord associates in the Cabinet make his way hard.

So it goes — God bless us, it's awful. I never get away
from it — war, war, war every waking minute, and the
worry of it; and I see no near end of it. I've had only
one thoroughly satisfactory experience in a coon's age,
and this was this: Two American ships were stopped the
other day at Falmouth. I telegraphed the captains to
come here to see me. I got the facts from them — all the
facts. I telephoned Sir Edward that I wished to see him
at once. I had him call in one of his ship-detaining
committee. I put the facts on the table. I said, "By
what right, or theory of right, or on what excuse, are those
ships stopped? They are engaged in neutral commerce.
They fly the American flag." One of them was released
that night — no more questions asked. The other was
allowed to go after giving bond to return a lot of kerosene
which was loaded at the bottom of the ship.

If I could get facts, I could do many things. The State
Department telegraphs me merely what the shipper says
— a partial statement. The British Government tells me

422 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

(after infinite delay) another set of facts. The British
Government says, "We're sorry, but the Prize Court
must decide." Our Government wires a dissertation on
International Law— Protest, protest: (I've done nothing
else since the world began!) One hour with a sensible
ship captain does more than a month of cross-wrangling
with Government Departments.

I am trying my best, God knows, to keep the way as
smooth as possible; but neither government helps me.
Our Government merely sends the shipper's ex-parte state-
ment. This Government uses the Navy's excuse. . . .
At present, I can't for the life of me see a way to peace,
for the one reason I have told you. The Germans wish
to whip England, to invade England. They started with
their army toward England. Till that happened England
didn't have an army. But I see no human power that
can give the English now what they are determined to
have — safety for the future — till some radical change is
made in the German system so that they will no longer
have a war-party any more than England has a war-
party. England surely has no wish to make conquest of
Germany. If Germany will show that she has no wish
to make conquest of England, the war would end to-
morrow.

What impresses me through it all is the backwardness
of all the Old World in realizing the true aims of govern-
ment and the true methods. I can't see why any man
who has hope for the progress of mankind should care
to live anywhere in Europe. To me it is all infinitely sad.
This dreadful war is a logical outcome of their condition,
their thought, their backwardness. I think I shall never
care to see the continent again, which of course is com-
mitting suicide and bankruptcy. When my natural
term of service is done here, I shall go home with more

Germany's first peace drives 423

joy than you can imagine. That's the only home for a
man who wishes his horizon to continue to grow wider.
All this for you and me only — nobody else.

Heartily yours,

Walter H. Page.

Probably Page thought that this statement of the case
— and it was certainly a masterly statement — would end
any attempt to get what he regarded as an unsatisfactory
and dangerous peace. But President Wilson could not
be deterred from pressing the issue. His conviction was
firm that this winter of 1914-1915 represented the most
opportune time to bring the warring nations to terms,
and it was a conviction from which he never departed.
After the sinking of the Lusitania the Administration
gazed back regretfully at its frustrated attempts of the
preceding winter, and it was inclined to place the re-
sponsibility for this failure upon Great Britain and
France. "The President's judgment," wrote Colonel
House on August 4, 1915, three months after the Lusi-
tania went down, "was that last autumn was the time to
discuss peace parleys, and we both saw present possibili-
ties. War is a great gamble at best, and there was too
much at stake in this one to take chances. I believe if
one could have started peace parleys in November, we
could have forced the evacuation of both France and
Belgium, and finally forced a peace which would have
eliminated militarism on land and sea. The wishes of
the Allies were heeded with the result that the war has
now fastened itself upon the vitals of Europe and what
the end may be is beyond the knowledge of man."

This shows that the efforts which the Administration
was making were not casual or faint-hearted, but that
they represented a most serious determination to bring

424 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

hostilities to an end. This letter and the correspondence
which now took place with Page also indicate the general
terms upon which the Wilson Administration believed
that the mighty differences could be composed. The
ideas which Colonel House now set forth were probably
more the President's than his own; he was merely the
intermediary in their transmission. They emphasized
Mr. Wilson's conviction that a decisive victory on either
side would be a misfortune for mankind. As early as
August, 1914, this was clearly the conviction that
underlay all others in the President's interpretation of
events. His other basic idea was that militarism should
come to an end "on land and sea"; this could mean
nothing except that Germany was expected to abandon
its army and that Great Britain was to abandon its navy.

From Edward M. House

115 East 53rd Street,
New York City.
January 4th, 1915.
Dear Page:

I believe the Dual Alliance is thoroughly ready for
peace and I believe they would be willing to agree upon
terms England would accept provided Russia and France
could be satisfied.

They would, in my opinion, evacuate both Belgium and
France and indemnify the former, and they would, I think,
be willing to begin negotiations upon a basis looking to
permanent peace.

It would surprise me if the Germans did not come out
in the open soon and declare that they have always been
for peace, that they are for peace now, and that they are
willing to enter into a compact which would insure peace
for all time; that they have been misrepresented and

Germany's first peace drives 425

maligned and that they leave the entire responsibility
for the continuation of the war with the Allies.

If they should do this, it would create a profound im-
pression, and if it was not met with sympathy by the Allies,
the neutral sentiment, which is now almost wholly against
the Germans, would veer toward them.

Will you not convey this thought to Sir Edward and let
me know what he says?

The President is willing and anxious for me to go to
England and Germany as soon as there is anything
tangible to go on, and whenever my presence will be wel-
come. The Germans have already indicated this feeling
but I have not been able to get from Spring Rice any
expression from his Government.

As I told you before, the President does not wish to
offend the sensibilities of any one by premature action,
but he is, of course, enormously interested in initiating at
least tentative conversations.

Will you not advise me in regard to this?

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

From Edward M. House

115 East 53rd Street,
New York City.
January 18, 1915.
Dear Page:

The President has sent me a copy of your confidential
dispatch No. 1474, January 15th.

The reason you had no information in regard to what

General French mentioned was because no one knew of it

outside of the President and myself and there was no safe

way to inform you.

As a matter of fact, there has been no direct proposal

426 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

made by anybody. I have had repeated informal talks
with the different ambassadors and I have had direct
communication with Zimmermann, which has led the
President and me to believe that peace conversations may
be now initiated in an unofficial way.

This is the purpose of my going over on the Lusitania,
January 30th. When I reach London I will be guided by
circumstances as to whether I shall go next to France or
Germany.

The President and I find that we are going around in a
circle in dealing with the representatives in Washington,
and he thinks it advisable and necessary to reach the
principals direct. When I explain just what is in the
President's mind, I believe they will all feel that it was
wise for me to come at this time.

I shall not write more fully for the reason I am to see
you so soon.

I am sending tins through the kindness of Sir Horace

Plunkett. Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

P. S. We shall probably say, for public consumption,
that I am coming to look into relief measures, and see what
further can be done. Of course, no one but you and Sir
Edward must know the real purpose of my visit.

Why was Colonel House so confident that the Dual
Affiance was prepared at this time to discuss terms of
peace? Colonel House, as his letter shows, was in com-
munication with Zimmermann, the German Under For-
eign Secretary. But a more important approach had
just been made, though information bearing on this had
not been sent to Page. The Kaiser had asked President
Wilson to transmit to Great Britain a suggestion for mak-
ing peace on the basis of surrendering Belgium and of

Germany's first peace drives 427

paying for its restoration. It seems incredible that the
Ambassador should not have been told of this, but Page
learned of the proposal from Field Marshal French, then
commanding the British armies in the field, and this ac-
counts for Colonel House's explanation that, "the reason
you had no information, in regard to what General French
mentioned was because no one knew of it outside of the
President and myself and there was no safe way to inform
you." Page has left a memorandum which explains the
whole strange proceeding — a paper which is interesting
not only for its contents, but as an illustration of the un-
official way in which diplomacy was conducted in Wash-
ington at this time :

Field Marshal Sir John French, secretly at home from
Ins command of the English forces in France, invited me
to luncheon. There were his especially confidential friend
Moore, the American who lives with him, and Sir John's
private secretary. The military situation is this : a trench
stalemate in France. Neither army has made appreciable
progress in three months. Neither can advance without
a great loss of men. Neither is whipped. Neither can
conquer. It would require a million more men than the
Allies can command and a very long time to drive the
Germans back across Belgium. Presently, if the Russians
succeed in driving the Germans back to German soil,
there will be another trench stalemate there. Thus the
war wears a practically endless outlook so far as military
operations are concerned. Germany has plenty of men
and plenty of food for a long struggle yet; and, if she use
all the copper now in domestic use in the Empire, she will
probably have also plenty of ammunition for a long strug-
gle. She is not nearly at the end of her rope either in a
military or an economic sense.

428 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

What then? The Allies are still stronger — so long as
they hold together as one man. But is it reasonable to
assume that they can? And, even if they can, is it worth
while to win a complete victory at such a cost as the lives
of practically all the able-bodied men in Europe? But
can the Allies hold together as one man for two or three
or four years? Well, what are we going to do? And here
came the news of the lunch. General French informed
me that the President had sent to England, at the request
of the Kaiser, a proposal looking toward peace, Germany
offering to give up Belgium and to pay for its restoration.

"This," said Sir John, "is their fourth proposal."

"And," he went on, "if they will restore Belgium and
give Alsace-Lorraine to France and Constantinople will
go to Russia, I can't see how we can refuse it."

He scouted the popular idea of "crushing out mili-
tarism " once for all. It would be desirable, even if it were
not necessary, to leave Germany as a first-class power.
We couldn't disarm her people forever. We've got to
leave her and the rest to do what they think they must
do; and we must arm ourselves the best we can against
them.

Now — did General French send for me and tell me this
just for fun and just because he likes me? He was very
eager to know my opinion whether this peace offer were
genuine or whether it was a trick of the Germans to —
publish it later and thereby to throw the blame for con-
tinuing the war on England?

It occurs to me as possible that he was directed to tell
me what he told, trusting to me, in spite of his protesta-
tions of personal confidence, etc., to get it to the President.
Assuming that the President sent the Kaiser's message
to the King, this may be a suggested informal answer —
that if the offer be extended to give France and Russia

Germany's first peace drives 429

what they want, it will be considered, etc. This may or
may not be true. Alas! the fact that I know nothing
about the offer has no meaning; for the State Depart-
ment never informs me of anything it takes up with the
British Ambassador in Washington. Well, I'll see.

These were therefore the reasons why Colonel House
had decided to go to Europe and enter into peace nego-
tiations with the warring powers. Colonel House was
wise in taking all possible precautions to conceal the pur-
pose of this visit. His letter intimates that the German
Government was eager to have him cross the ocean on
this particular mission; it discloses, on the other hand,
that the British Government regarded the proposed
negotiations with no enthusiasm. Sir Edward Grey
and Mr. Asquith would have been glad to end hostili-
ties on terms that would permanently establish peace
and abolish the vices which were responsible for the
war, and they were ready to welcome courteously the
President's representative and discuss the situation with
him in a fair-minded spirit. But they did not believe
that such an enterprise could serve a useful purpose.
Possibly the military authorities, as General French's
remarks to Page may indicate, did not believe that either
side could win a decisive victory, but this was not the be-
lief of the British public itself. The atmosphere in Eng-
land at that time was one of confidence in the success of
British arms and of suspicion and distrust of the British
Government. A strong expectation prevailed in the
popular mind, that the three great Powers of the Entente
would at an early date destroy the menace which had
enshrouded Europe for forty years, and there was no in-
tention of giving Germany a breathing spell during which
she could regenerate her forces to resume the onslaught.

430 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

In the winter of 1915 Great Britain was preparing for the
naval attack on the Dardanelles, and its success was re-
garded as inevitable. Page had an opportunity to observe
the state of optimism which prevailed in high British
circles. In March of 1915 he was visiting the Prime
Minister at Walmer Castle; one afternoon Mr. Asquith
took him aside, informed him of the Dardanelles prepara-
tions and declared that the Allies would have possession
of Constantinople in two weeks. The Prime Minister's
attitude was not one of hope; it was one of confidence.
The capture of Constantinople, of course, would have
brought an early success to the allied army on all fronts.1
This was the mood that was spurring on the British public
to its utmost exertions, and, with such a determination
prevailing everywhere, a step in the direction of peace was
the last thing that the British desired; such a step could
have been interpreted only as an attempt to deprive the
Allies of their victory and as an effort to assist Germany
in escaping the consequences of her crimes. Combined
with this stout popular resolve, however, there was a lack
of confidence in the Asquith ministry. An impression
was broadcast that it was pacifist, even "defeatist," in its
thinking, and that it harboured a weak humanitarianism
which was disposed to look gently even upon the behaviour
of the Prussians. The masses suspected that the ministry
would welcome a peace with Germany which would mean
little more than a cessation of hostilities and which would
leave the great problems of the war unsolved. That this
opinion was unjust, that, on the contrary, the British
Foreign Office was steadily resisting all attempts to end the

!The opening of the Dardanelles would have given Russian agricultural products
access to the markets of the world and thus have preserved the Russian economic
structure. It would also have enabled the Entente to munition the Russian
Army. With a completely equipped Russian Army in the East and the Entente
Army in the West, Germany could not long have survived the pressure.

Germany's first peace drives 431

war on an unsatisfactory basis, Page's correspondence, al-
ready quoted, abundantly proves, but this unreasoning
belief did prevail and ikwas an important element in the
situation. This is the reason why the British Cabinet re-
garded Colonel House's visit at that time with positive
alarm. It feared that, should the purpose become known,
the British public and press would conclude that the
Government had invited a peace discussion. Had any
such idea seized the popular mind in February and March,
1915, a scandal would have developed which would prob-
ably have caused the downfall of the Asquith Ministry.
"Don't fool yourself about peace," Page writes to his
son Arthur, about this time. "If any one should talk
about peace, or doves, or ploughshares here, they'd shoot
him."

Colonel House reached London early in February and
was soon in close consultation with the Prime Minister
and Sir Edward Grey. He made a great personal success ;
the British statesmen gained a high regard for his dis-
interestedness and his general desire to serve the cause of
decency among nations; but he made little progress in his
peace plans, simply because the facts were so discouraging
and so impregnable. Sir Edward repeated to him what he
had already said to Page many times : that Great Britain
was prepared to discuss a peace that would really safe-
guard the future of Europe, but was not prepared to dis-
cuss one that would merely reinstate the regime that had
existed before 1914. The fact that the Germans were
not ready to accept such a peace made discussion use-
less. Disappointed at this failure, Colonel House left for
Berlin. His letters to Page show that the British judg-
ment of Germany was not unjust and that the warn-
ings which Page had sent to Washington were based on
facts :

432 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

From Edward M. House

Embassy of the United States of America,

Berlin, Germany,
March 20, 1915.
Dear Page:

I arrived yesterday morning and I saw Zimmermann1
almost immediately. He was very cordial and talked to
me frankly and sensibly.

I tried to bring about a better feeling toward England,
and told him how closely their interests touched at certain
points. I also told him of the broad way in which Sir
Edward was looking at the difficult problems that con-
fronted Europe, and I expressed the hope that this view
would be reciprocated elsewhere, so that, when the final
settlement came, it could be made in a way that would
be to the advantage of mankind.

The Chancellor is out of town for a few days and I shall
see him when he returns. I shall also see Ballin, Von
Gwinner, and many others. I had lunch yesterday with
Baron von Wimpsch who is a very close friend of the
Emperor.

Zimmermann said that it was impossible for them to
make any peace overtures, and he gave me to understand
that, for the moment, even what England would perhaps
consent to now, could not be accepted by Germany, to say
nothing of what France had in mind.

I shall hope to establish good relations here and
then go somewhere and await further developments. I
even doubt whether more can be done until some decisive
military result is obtained by one or other of the bellig-
erents.

German Under Foreign Secretary.

Germany's first peace drives 433

I will write further if there is any change in the situation.
I shall probably be here until at least the 27th.

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

From Edward M. House

Embassy of the United States of America,

Berlin, Germany.

March 26, 1915.
Dear Page:

While I have accomplished here much that is of value,
yet I leave sadly disappointed that no direct move can be
made toward peace.

The Civil Government are ready, and upon terms that
would at least make an opening. There is also a large
number in military and naval circles that I believe would
be glad to begin parleys, but the trouble is mainly with
the people. It is a very dangerous thing to permit a peo*
pie to be misled and their minds inflamed either by the
press, by speeches, or otherwise.

In my opinion, no government could live here at this
time if peace was proposed upon terms that would have
any chance of acceptance. Those in civil authority
that I have met are as reasonable and fairminded as their
counterparts in England or America, but, for the mo-
ment, they are impotent.

I hear on every side the old story that all Germany
wants is a permanent guaranty of peace, so that she may
proceed upon her industrial career undisturbed.

I have talked of the second convention,1 and it has been
cordially received, and there is a sentiment here, as well as

Ut was the Wilson Administration's plan that there should be two peace gather-
ings, one of the belligerents to settle the war, and the other of belligerents and
neutrals, to settle questions of general importance growing out of the war. This
latter is what Colonel House means by "the second convention."

434 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

elsewhere, to make settlement upon lines broad enough to
prevent a recurrence of present conditions.

There is much to tell you verbally, which I prefer not
to write.

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

Colonel House's next letter is most important, for it
records the birth of that new idea which afterward be-
came a ruling thought with President Wilson and the
cause of almost endless difficulties in his dealings with
Great Britain. The "new phase of the situation" to
which he refers is "the Freedom of the Seas" and this
brief note to Page, dated March 27, 1915, contains the
first reference to this idea on record. Indeed, it is evident
from the letter itself that Colonel House made this no-
tation the very day the plan occurred to him.

From Edward M. House

Embassy of the United States of America,

Berlin, Germany.
March 27, 1915.
Dear Page:

I have had a most satisfactory talk with the Chancellor.
After conferring with Stovall,1 Page,2 and Willard,3 I shall
return to Paris and then to London to discuss with Sir
Edward a phase of the situation which promises results.

I did not think of it until to-day and have mentioned it
to both the Chancellor and Zimmermann, who have re-
ceived it cordially, and who join me in the belief that it
may be the first thread to bridge the chasm ,

'Mr. Pleasant A. Stovall, American Minister to Switzerland.
2Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, American Ambassador to Italy.
3Mr. Joseph E. Willard, American Ambassador to Spain.

GERMANY S FIRST PEACE DRIVES 435

I am writing hastily, for the pouch is waiting to be
closed.

Faithfully yours,

E. M. House.

The "freedom of the seas "was merely a proposal to make
all merchant shipping, enemy and neutral, free from at-
tack in time of war. It would automatically have ended
all blockades and all interference with commerce. Ger-
many would have been at liberty to send all her merchant
ships to sea for undisturbed trade with all parts of the
world in war time as in peace, and, in future, navies would
be used simply for fighting. Offensively, their purpose
would be to bombard enemy fortifications, to meet enemy
ships in battle, and to convoy ships which were transport-
ing troops for the invasion of enemy soil; defensively,
their usefulness would consist in protecting the homeland
from such attacks and such invasions. Perhaps an argu-
ment can be made for this new rule of warfare, but it is at
once apparent that it is the most startling proposal
brought forth in modern times in the direction of disarma-
ment. It meant that Great Britain should abandon that
agency of warfare with which she had destroyed Napoleon,
and with which she expected to destroy Germany in the
prevailing struggle — the blockade. From a defensive
standpoint, Colonel House's proposed reform would have
been a great advantage to Britain, for an honourable ob-
servance of the rule would have insured the British people
its food supply in wartime. With Great Britain, however,
the blockade has been historically an offensive measure:
it is the way in which England has always made war.
Just what reception this idea would have had with official
London, in April, 1915, had Colonel House been able to
present it as his own proposal, is not clear, but the Germans,

436 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE

with characteristic stupidity, prevented the American
from having a fair chance. The Berlin Foreign Office at
once cabled to Count BernstorfF and Bernhard Dernburg
— the latter a bovine publicity agent who was then pro-
moting the German cause in the American press— with
instructions to start a "propaganda" in behalf of the
"freedom of the seas." By the time Colonel House
reached London, therefore, these four words had been
adorned with the Germanic label. British statesmen
regarded the suggestion as coming from Germany and not
from America, and the reception was worse than cold.

And another horror now roughly interrupted President
Wilson's attempts at mediation. Page's letters have dis-
closed that he possessed almost a clairvoyant faculty of
foreseeing approaching events. The letters of the latter
part of April and of early May contain many forebodings
of tragedy. "Peace? Lord knows when!" he writes to
his son Arthur on May 2nd. "The blowing up of a liner
with American passengers may be the prelude. I almost
expect such a thing." And again on the same date: "If
a British liner full of American passengers be blown up,
what will Uncle Sam do? That's what's going to happen."

"We all have the feeling here," the Ambassador writes
on May 6th, "that more and more frightful things are
about to happen."

The ink on those words was scarcely dry when a message
from Queenstown was handed to the American Ambassa-
dor. A German submarine had torpedoed and sunk the
Lusitania off the Old Head of Kinsale, and one hundred
and twenty -four American men, women, and children had
been drowned.

END OF VOLUME I

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