The second is that Sir Edward Grey should have followed the suggestion of Sazonof and threatened Germany with war at a certain stage of the correspondence.  This can now be only a matter of opinion, but it may be confidently affirmed that of all nations the Germany of this day would be the last to back down in face of a threat.  It may be also said generally that an open threat is about the surest way to bring on a war.  Austria threatened Servia and war ensued.  Germany threatened Russia and war ensued.  Germany threatened Belgium—­in the form of a notification that she intended to invade her territory—­and war ensued.

Mr. Shaw’s contentions are grotesque.

Flushing, Nov. 16.  SAM TEST.

* * * * *

"Junkers” Controlled Old World Ages Before Shaw.

To the Editor of The New York Times:

With regard to the article by Mr. Bernard Shaw, the gist of the matter can be compressed in fewer words.  The ideas expressed are not the exclusive property of Mr. Shaw.  The Old World for indefinite ages has been controlled and directed by what he calls the “Junker” class, the rich and idle aristocrats who want for nothing, and, being born to rule, do not find it worth while to exert themselves mentally, and for whom there is no suitable profession but the army and diplomacy.

The mass of the people are to them the great unwashed, and those a little higher in the scale “cads and bounders,” or the German equivalent, in fact the canaille of the French who at the time of the Revolution took things into their own hands to the great surprise of everybody.  This substratum is not considered in the scheme of the “Junker’s” existence, though the lower orders alone are the workers and producers and make ease and luxury possible.

Mr. Shaw.  I believe, intends to intimate that there might be a use for the intellectual class, the thinkers and writers with the imagination that can put them mentally in the place of the individuals who make up the masses, think the thoughts and live the lives vicariously of the people who are the nation, and if the “Junker” class of England and Germany and kindred nations who govern and dictate its policies were leavened with the brains and broad-mindedness of the thinkers there might be found a better use for men than killing each other and a brighter outlook for the world which is now filled with widows and orphans.

Mrs. F.B.  WILLIAMSON.

Elizabeth, N.J., Nov, 16.

Open Letter to President Wilson[A]

By George Bernard Shaw.