of broader ideals. The process of
education was slow and difficult. It was hampered by the confusion of
foreign issues. Propagandists took advantage of the controversy with
Great Britain in order to obscure the principles upon which the
discussions with Germany were based. The increasing stringency of British
control of commerce and the blacklisting of various American firms by the
British authorities resulted in numerous American protests and to some
warmth of feeling. Wilson was no particular friend of the British, but he
rightly insisted upon the distinction between the dispute with Germany,
which involved the common right of humanity to life, and that with Great
Britain, which involved merely rights of property. Nevertheless that
distinction was blurred in the minds of many Americans, and their
perception of the new ideals of foreign policy was necessarily confused.

The education of the American people to the significance of the issue was
also hampered by the material change that came over the country during
the latter part of 1915 and the spring of 1916. The influx of gold and
the ease with which fortunes were accumulated could not but have
widespread effects. The European war came at a moment when the United
States was passing through a period of comparatively hard times.
Stringency was naturally increased by the liquidation of foreign
investments in 1914 and the closing of European markets to American
commerce. Business was dull. But this condition was rapidly altered
through the placing of large contracts by the Entente Governments and the
most extensive buying by foreign purchasers. New markets were found among
the neutral states, which were unable to buy in Europe. Naturally there
developed a rapid extension of industrial activities. New manufacturing
concerns grew up, large and small, as a result of these adventitious
conditions, which paid enormous returns. Activities upon the stock market
were unparalleled. New and sudden fortunes were made; millionaires
became common. The whole world was debtor to America and a golden stream
flowed across the Atlantic. Prices rose rapidly and wages followed.

Inevitably materialism conquered, at least for the moment. The demand for
luxuries was only equaled by the craze for entertainment. Artisans and
shopgirls invaded the jewelry stores of Fifth Avenue. Metropolitan life
was a succession of luncheons and teas, where fertile brains were busied
with the invention of new d