“I hesitate to discuss any phase of the great conflict now raging in Europe.  By today’s mail, for example, I received long, personal letters from Lord Haldane, from Lord Morley, from Lord Weardale, and from Lord Bryce.  Another has just come from Prof.  Schiemann of Berlin, perhaps the Emperor’s most intimate adviser; another from Prof.  Lamasch of Austria, who was the Presiding Judge of the British-American arbitration in relation to the Newfoundland fisheries a few years ago, and is a member of the Austrian House of Peers.  Still others are from M. Ribot, Minister of Finance in France, and M. d’Estournelles de Constant.  These confidential letters give a wealth of information as to the intellectual and political forces that are behind the conflict.

“You will understand, then, that without disloyalty to my many friends in Europe, I could not discuss with freedom the causes or the progress of the war, or speculate in detail about the future of the European problem.  My friends in Germany, France, and England all write to me with the utmost freedom and not for the public eye; so you see that my great difficulty, when you ask me to talk about the meaning of the struggle, arises from the obligation that I am under to preserve a proper personal reserve regarding the great figures behind the vast intellectual and political changes which really are in the background of the war.

“If such reserve is necessary in my case, it seems to me that it also is necessary for the country as a whole.  The attitude of the President has been impeccable.  That of the whole American press and people should be the same.

“Especially is it true that all Americans who hope to have influence, as individuals, in shaping the events which will follow the war, must avoid any expression which even might be tortured into an avowal of partisanship or final judgment.

“Even the free expression of views criticising particular details of the war, which might, in fact, deserve criticism, might destroy one’s chance of future possible usefulness.  A statement which might be unquestionably true might also be remembered to the damage of some important cause later on.

“There are reasons why my position is, perhaps, more difficult than that of some others.  Talking is often a hazardous practice, and never more so than now.

“The World is at crossroads, and everything may depend upon the United States, which has been thrust by events into a unique position of moral leadership.  Whether the march of the future is to be to the right or to the left, uphill or down, after the war is over, may well depend upon the course this nation shall then take, and upon the influence which it shall exercise.

“If we keep our heads clear there are two things that we can bring insistently to the attention of Europe—­each of vast import at such a time as that which will follow the ending of this war.

“The first of these is the fact that race antagonisms die away and disappear under the influence of liberal and enlightened political institutions.  This has been proved in the United States.