f the war, dealt only with the attempts
of these nations to prevent the war. None of the nations has as yet
published white books to show how it prepared for war, and still, every
nation in Europe had been expecting and preparing for a European
conflagration. Winston Churchill, when he was First Lord of the
Admiralty, stated at the beginning of the war that England's fleet was
mobilised. France had contributed millions of francs to fortify the
Russian border in Poland, although Germany had made most of the guns.
Belgium had what the Kaiser called, "a contemptible little army" but
the soldiers knew how to fight when the invaders came. Germany had new
42 cm. guns and a network of railroads which operated like shuttles
between the Russian and French and Belgian frontiers. Ever since 1870
Europe had been talking war. Children were brought up and educated
into the belief that some day war would come. Most people considered
it inevitable, although not every one wanted it.

During the exciting days of August, 1914, I was calling at the
belligerent embassies and legations in Washington. Neither M.
Jusserand, the French Ambassador, nor Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, the
British Ambassador, nor Count von Bernstorff, the Kaiser's
representative, were in Washington then. But it was not many weeks
until all three had hastened to this country from Europe. Almost the
first act of the belligerents was to send their envoys to Washington.

As I met these men I was in a sense an agent of public opinion who
called each day to report the opinions of the belligerents to the
readers of American newspapers. One day at the British Embassy I was
given copies of the White Book and of many other documents which Great
Britain had issued to show how she tried to avoid the war. In
conversations later with Ambassador von Bernstorff, I was given the
German viewpoint.

The thing which impressed me at the time was the desire of these
officials to get their opinions before the American people. But why
did these ambassadors want the standpoints of their governments
understood over here? Why was the United States singled out of all
other neutrals? If all the belligerents really wanted to avoid war,
why did they not begin twenty years before, to prevent it, instead of,
to prepare for it?

All the powers issued their official documents for one primary
purpose--to win public opinion. First, it was necessary for each
country to convince its own peo