ng to these erring
children. This was strong in his hopes and ambitions. There was a
condescension in this attitude that was offensive.

He shut himself up with these two ideas and engaged in what he
called "thought." The air currents of the world never ventilated
his mind.

This inactive position he has kept as long as public sentiment
permitted. He seems no longer to regard himself nor to speak as a
leader--only as the mouthpiece of public opinion after opinion has
run over him.

He has not breathed a spirit into the people: he has encouraged
them to supineness. He is _not_ a leader, but rather a stubborn
phrasemaker.

And now events and the aroused people seem to have brought the
President to the necessary point of action; and even now he may act
timidly.

* * * * *

"One thing pleases me," Page wrote to his son Arthur, "I never lost
faith in the American people. It is now clear that I was right in
feeling that they would have gladly come in any time after the
_Lusitania_ crime. Middle West in the front, and that the German hasn't
made any real impression on the American nation. He was made a bug-a-boo
and worked for all he was worth by Bernstorff; and that's the whole
story. We are as Anglo-Saxon as we ever were. If Hughes had had sense
and courage enough to say: 'I'm for war, war to save our honour and to
save democracy,' he would now be President. If Wilson had said that,
Hughes would have carried no important states in the Union. The
suppressed people would have risen to either of them. That's God's truth
as I believe it. The real United States is made up of you and Frank and
the Page boys at Aberdeen and of the 10,000,000 other young fellows who
are ready to do the job and who instinctively see the whole truth of the
situation. But of course what the people would not have done under
certain conditions--that water also has flowed over the dam; and I
mention it only because I have resolutely kept my faith in the people
and there has been nothing in recent events that has shaken it."

Two letters which Page wrote on this same April 1st are interesting in
that they outline almost completely the war policy that was finally
carried out:

_To Frank N. Doubleday_

Embassy of the United States of America,
April 1, 1917.

DEAR EFFENDI:

Here's the programme:

(1) Our nav