g the extent to which it would injure their own interests, and
their support has been one of the most formidable political obstacles
to American participation. The effective and decisive work on behalf
of war has been accomplished by an entirely different class--a class
which must be comprehensively but loosely described as the
'intellectuals.'

"The American nation is entering this war under the influence of a
moral verdict reached, after the utmost deliberation by the more
thoughtful members of the community. They gradually came to a decision
that the attack made by Germany on the international order was
sufficiently flagrant and dangerous to justify this country in
abandoning its cherished isolation and in using its resources to bring
about German defeat. But these thoughtful people were always a small
minority. They were able to impose their will upon a reluctant or
indifferent majority partly because the increasingly offensive nature
of German military and diplomatic policy made plausible opposition to
American participation very difficult, but still more because of the
overwhelming preponderance of pro-Ally conviction in the intellectual
life of the country. If the several important professional and social
groups could have voted separately on the question of war and peace,
the list of college professors would probably have yielded the largest
majority in favour of war, except perhaps that contained in the Social
Register. A fighting anti-German spirit was more general among
physicians, lawyers and clergymen than it was among business
men--except those with Wall Street and banking connections. Finally,
it was not less general among writers on magazines and in the
newspapers. They popularised what the college professors had been
thinking. Owing to this consensus of influences opposition to pro-Ally
orthodoxy became intellectually somewhat disreputable, and when a final
decision had to be made this factor counted with unprecedented and
overwhelming force. College professors headed by a President who had
himself been a college professor contributed more effectively to the
decision in favour of war than did the farmers, the business men or the
politicians.

"When one considers the obstacles to American entrance into the war,
the more remarkable and unprecedented does the final decision become.
Every other belligerent had something immediate and tangible to gain by
participating and to lose by not participa