Volume II Part 21 (1/2)

It's been four years ago to-day since I was first asked to come here. G.o.d knows I've done my poor best to save our country and to help. It'll be four years in the middle of May since I sailed. I shall still do my best. I'll not be able to start back by May 15th, but I have a feeling, if we do our whole duty in the United States, that the end may not be very many months off. And how long off it may be may depend to a considerable degree on our action.

We are faring very well on army rations. None of us will live to see another time when so many big things are at stake nor another time when our country can play so large or important a part in saving the world. Hold up your end. I'm doing my best here.

I think of you engaged in the peaceful work of instructing the people, and I think of the garden and crocuses and the smell of early spring in the air and the earth and--push on; I'll be with you before we grow much older or get much grayer; and a great and prosperous and peaceful time will lie before us. Pity me and hold up your end for real American partic.i.p.ation. Get together? Yes; but the way to get together is to get in!

Affectionately,

W.H.P.

_To David F. Houston_[54]

Emba.s.sy of the United States of America, April 1, 1917.

DEAR HOUSTON:

The Administration can save itself from becoming a black blot on American history only by vigorous action--acts such as these:

Putting our navy to work--vigorous work--wherever and however is wisest. I have received the Government's promise to send an Admiral here at once for a conference. We must work out with the British Navy a programme whereby we can best help; and we must carry it without hesitancy or delay.

Sending over an expeditionary military force immediately--a small one, but as large as we can, as an earnest of a larger one to come.

This immediate small one will have a good moral effect; and we need all the moral reinstatement that we can get in the estimation of the world; our moral stock is lower than, I fear, any of you at home can possibly realize. As for a larger expeditionary force later--even that ought to be sent quite early. It can and must spend some time in training in France, whatever its training beforehand may have been. All the military men agree that soldiers in France back of the line can be trained in at least half the time that they can be trained anywhere else. The officers at once take their turn in the trenches, and the progress that they and their men make in close proximity to the fighting is one of the remarkable discoveries of the war. The British Army was so trained and all the colonial forces. Two or three or four hundred thousand Americans could be sent over as soon almost as they are organized and equipped-provided transports and a continuous supply of food and munition s.h.i.+ps can be got. They can be trained into fighting men--into an effective army--in about one third of the time that would be required at home.

I suppose, of course, we shall make at once a large loan to the Allies at a low rate of interest. That is most important, but that alone will not save us. We must also _fight_.

All the s.h.i.+ps we can get--build, requisition, or confiscate--are needed immediately.

Navy, army, money, s.h.i.+ps--these are the first things, but by no means all. We must make some expression of a conviction that there is a moral question of right and wrong involved in this war--a question of humanity, a question of democracy. So far we have (officially) spoken only of the wrongs done to our s.h.i.+ps and citizens. Deep wrongs have been done to all our moral ideas, to our ideals. We have sunk very low in European opinion because we do not seem to know even yet that a German victory would be less desirable than (say) a Zulu victory of the world.

We must go in with the Allies, not begin a mere single fight against submarines. We must sign the pact of London--not make a separate peace.

We mustn't longer spin dreams about peace, nor leagues to enforce peace, nor the Freedom of the Seas. These things are mere intellectual diversions of minds out of contact with realities.

Every political and social ideal we have is at stake. If we make them secure, we'll save Europe from destruction and save ourselves, too. I pray for vigour and decision and clear-cut resolute action.

(1) The Navy--full strength, no ”grapejuice” action.

(2) An immediate expeditionary force.

(3) A larger expeditionary force very soon.

(4) A large loan at a low interest.

(5) s.h.i.+ps, s.h.i.+ps, s.h.i.+ps.

(6) A clear-cut expression of the moral issue. Thus (and only thus) can we swing into a new era, with a world born again.

Yours in strictest confidence,

W.H.P.

A memorandum, written on April 3rd, the day after President Wilson advised Congress to declare a state of war with Germany:

_The Day_