n of the United States of an increased powerful
navy and for the erection of vast coast defenses, both on the Atlantic
and Pacific shores, will become so insistent that it cannot be
withstood. What this will mean to the American people in lavish
expenditures and in increased taxation I need not here further go into.

Yes, my dear and revered friend, I can see nought but darkness if a way
cannot be soon found out of the present deplorable situation as it
exists in Europe.

But even if the Allies are victorious it will mean, as I am convinced,
the beginning of the descent of England as the world's leader and the
hastened ascendency of Russia, who, not today or tomorrow, but in times
to come, is sure to crowd out England from the world's leadership. A
Russia that will have become democratic in its government, be it as a
republic or under a truly constitutional monarchy; a Russia in which
education will be as free as it is in our own country; a Russia in which
the people can move about and make homes in the vast territory she
possesses wherever they can find most happiness and prosperity; a Russia
with its vast natural resources of every kind fully developed, is bound
to be the greatest and most powerful nation on the earth.

But I am going too far into the future and I must return to the sad and
deplorable present. I only wanted to show how England's alliance with
this present-day Russia and its despotic, autocratic, and inhuman
Government may, if the Allies shall be victorious, prove possibly in the
nearer future, but certainly in the long run, England's Nemesis.

Before closing I want to correct the impression you appear to have
received that I have meant to suggest a conference of private persons
for the purpose of agreeing upon an appeal by them to the nations of
Europe to desist from fighting and consider terms of settlement. I know
this would be entirely impracticable and useless, but what I meant to
convey to you was my conviction that if you and men like you, of whom I
confess there are but too few, were to make the endeavor to rouse public
opinion in the United States to a point where it should insistently
demand that this terrific carnage of blood and destruction cease, it
would not be long before these warring Governments would take notice of
such sentiments on the part of the American people; and what should be
done at once is the stoppage of the furnishing of munitions of war to
any of the belligerents, as