ment in this matter was based first of all upon the merits of the
case; besides this, his admiration for Mr. Wilson as a public man was
strong. To think otherwise of the President would have been a great
grief to the Ambassador and to differ with his chief on the tremendous
issue of the war would have meant for Page the severance of one of the
most cherished associations of his life. The interest which he had shown
in advocating Wilson's presidential candidacy has already been set
forth; and many phases of the Wilson administration had aroused his
admiration. The President's handling of domestic problems Page regarded
as a masterpiece in reconciling statesmanship with practical politics,
and his energetic attitude on the Panama Tolls had introduced new
standards into American foreign relations. Page could not sympathize
with all the details of the Wilsonian Mexican policy, yet he saw in it a
high-minded purpose and a genuine humanitarianism. But the outbreak of
war presented new aspects of Mr. Wilson's mind. The President's attitude
toward the European struggle, his conception of "neutrality," and his
failure to grasp the meaning of the conflict, seemed to Page to show a
lack of fundamental statesmanship; still his faith in Wilson was
deep-seated, and he did not abandon hope that the President could be
brought to see things as they really were. Page even believed that he
might be instrumental in his conversion.

But in the summer and autumn of 1915 one agony followed another. The
"too proud to fight" speech was in Page's mind nothing less than a
tragedy. The president's first _Lusitania_ note for a time restored the
Ambassador's confidence; it seemed to show that the President intended
to hold Germany to that "strict accountability" which he had threatened.
But Mr. Wilson's course now presented new difficulties to his
Ambassador. Still Page believed that the President, in his own way and
in his own time, would find a path out of his dilemma that would protect
the honour and the safety of the United States. If any of the Embassy
subordinates became impatient over the procedure of Washington, he did
not find a sympathetic listener in the Ambassador. The whole of London
and of Europe might be resounding with denunciations of the White House,
but Page would tolerate no manifestations of hostility in his presence.
"The problem appears different to Washington than it does to us," he
would say to his confidants. "We see only on