tremendously important position. As neutrals we are able to observe
events and to learn the lesson that they teach. If we learn rightly we
shall gain for ourselves and be able to confer upon others benefits far
more important than any of the material advantages which may come to us
through a shrewd handling of the new possibilities in international
trade.

"I hesitate to discuss any phase of the great conflict now raging in
Europe. By today's mail, for example, I received long, personal letters
from Lord Haldane, from Lord Morley, from Lord Weardale, and from Lord
Bryce. Another has just come from Prof. Schiemann of Berlin, perhaps the
Emperor's most intimate adviser; another from Prof. Lamasch of Austria,
who was the Presiding Judge of the British-American arbitration in
relation to the Newfoundland fisheries a few years ago, and is a member
of the Austrian House of Peers. Still others are from M. Ribot, Minister
of Finance in France, and M. d'Estournelles de Constant. These
confidential letters give a wealth of information as to the intellectual
and political forces that are behind the conflict.

"You will understand, then, that without disloyalty to my many friends
in Europe, I could not discuss with freedom the causes or the progress
of the war, or speculate in detail about the future of the European
problem. My friends in Germany, France, and England all write to me with
the utmost freedom and not for the public eye; so you see that my great
difficulty, when you ask me to talk about the meaning of the struggle,
arises from the obligation that I am under to preserve a proper personal
reserve regarding the great figures behind the vast intellectual and
political changes which really are in the background of the war.

"If such reserve is necessary in my case, it seems to me that it also is
necessary for the country as a whole. The attitude of the President has
been impeccable. That of the whole American press and people should be
the same.

"Especially is it true that all Americans who hope to have influence, as
individuals, in shaping the events which will follow the war, must avoid
any expression which even might be tortured into an avowal of
partisanship or final judgment.

"Even the free expression of views criticising particular details of the
war, which might, in fact, deserve criticism, might destroy one's chance
of future possible usefulness. A statement which might be unquestionably
true might also be r