le that way, but I beg to enter a protest against this
interpretation of the conflict.

Liberal or less liberal institutions have nothing to do with it in the
west; the progress of democracy in Germany will not be stopped by her
victory, it will rather be promoted by it, because the masses are
conscious of bearing the burden of war and of being the main force of
its vigorous prosecution, and they are enlightened and strong enough to
insist on a proper reward. Rights cannot be denied to those who
fulfilled duties involving self-sacrifice of the sublimest kind with
unflinching devotion. No practical interest of democracy then is
involved in the conflict of the western powers.

As to their representing liberal institutions in a higher or lower
degree, I am perfectly willing to admit England's superior claims in
that respect, but I am not at all inclined to recognize such superiority
in modern France, republic though she calls herself. The omnipresence
and omnipotence of an obtruding bureaucratic officialism is just what it
has been under the old monarchy; religious oppression has only changed
sides, but it still flourishes as before. In former times the Roman
Catholic religion was considered as a State religion and in her name
were dissent and Freemasonry oppressed; today atheism is the official
creed, and on its behalf are Catholic believers oppressed.

Separation of Church and State, honestly planned and loyally fulfilled
in America has been perverted in modern France into a network of
vexations and unfair measures against the Church and her faithful
servants; the same term is used and this misleads you to cover widely
different meanings. In a word, it is a perfect mistake to consider
modern France as the "sweet land of liberty" which America is. A German
citizen, with less show of political rights, enjoys more personal
freedom than is granted to a French one, if he happens to differ from
the ruling mentality.

So stand things in the western area of conflict. But how about the east?
You are kind enough to admit in your letter that "from this (the
aforementioned) standpoint of course the appearance of Russia among the
allies is an anomaly and must be explained on other grounds." Anomaly is
a rather tame word to characterize the meaning of this appearance of
Russia. I should hardly designate it by this term.

She does not "appear among the allies." She is the leading power among
them; it is her war, as Mr. Tsvolski, t