he earnest hope that our guns and ammunition
would match either the British or the French. Else if we happened to run
out of ammunition we could not borrow from anybody. He thought it most
unfortunate that the British and French guns and rifles were of
different calibres."

_To Arthur W. Page_

Brighton, England,

April 28, 1917.

DEAR ARTHUR:

... Well, the British have given us a very good welcome into the
war. They are not very skillful at such a task: they do not know
how to say "Welcome" very vociferously. But they have said it to
the very best of their ability. My speeches (which I send you, with
some comment) were very well received indeed. Simple and obvious as
they were, they meant a good deal of work.

I cannot conceal nor can I express my gratification that we are in
the war. I shall always wonder but never find out what influence I
had in driving the President over. All I know is that my letters
and telegrams for nearly two years--especially for the last twelve
months--have put before him every reason that anybody has expressed
why we should come in--in season and out of season. And there is no
new reason--only more reason of the same old sort--why we should
have come in now than there was why we should have come in a year
ago. I suspect that the pressure of the press and of public opinion
really became too strong for him. And, of course, the Peace-Dream
blew up--was torpedoed, mined, shot, captured, and killed. I trust,
too, much enlightenment will be furnished by the two Commissions
now in Washington[56]. Yet it's comical to think of the attitude of
the poor old Department last September and its attitude now. But
thank God for it! Every day now brings a confession of the blank
idiocy of its former course and its long argument! Never mind that,
so long as we are now right.

I have such a sense of relief that I almost feel that my job is now
done. Yet, I dare say, my most important work is still to come.

The more I try to reach some sort of rational judgment about the
war, the more I find myself at sea. It does look as if the very
crisis is near. And there can be no doubt now--not even, I hope, in
the United States--about the necessity of a clear and decisive
victory, nor about punishment. All the devastation of Northern
Fran