CHARLES W. ELIOT.

Jacob H. Schiff, Esq.

Mr. Schiff to Dr. Eliot.

NEW YORK, Nov. 25, 1914.

My Dear Dr. Eliot: 

I am just in receipt of your thoughtful letter of yesterday, which it has given me genuine pleasure to receive.  While it is true that I have not found myself in accord with many of the views to which you have given public expression concerning the responsibility for this deplorable conflict and the unfortunate conditions it has created, I never doubted that as to its desirable outcome we would find ourselves in accord, and I am very glad to have this confirmed by you, though as to this our views could not have diverged.

As to the means by which a desirable result toward European order and peace may be brought about out of the chaos which has become created, it is, I confess, difficult to give guidance at present.  What needs first, in my opinion, to be done is to bring forth a healthy and insistent public opinion here for an early peace without either side becoming first exhausted, and it was my purpose in the interview I have given to set the American people thinking concerning this.  I have no idea that I shall have immediate success; but if men like you and others follow in the same line, I am sure American public opinion can before long be made to express itself emphatically and insistently in favor of an early peace.  Without this it is not unlikely that this horrible slaughter and destruction may continue for a very, very long time.

Yours most faithfully,

JACOB H. SCHIFF.

President Emeritus Charles W. Eliot, Cambridge, Mass.

Dr. Eliot to Mr. Schiff.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 28, 1914.

Dear Mr. Schiff: 

I think, just as you do, that the thing which most needs to be done is to induce Germany to modify its present opinion that the nation must fight for its very life to its last mark and the last drop of its blood.  Now, every private letter that I have received from Germany, and every printed circular, pamphlet, or book on the war which has come to me from German sources insists on the view that, for Germany, it is a question between world empire or utter downfall.  There is no sense or reason in this view, but the German philosophers, historians, and statesmen are all maintaining it at this moment.

England, France, and Russia have no such expectations or desires as regards the fate of Germany.  What they propose to do is to put a stop to Germany’s plan of attaining world empire by militarism.  Have you any means of getting into the minds of some of the present rulers of Germany the idea that no such alternative as life or death is presented to Germany in this war, and that the people need only abandon their world-empire ambitions while securing safety in the heart of Europe and a chance to develop all that is good in German civilization?  Sincerely yours,

CHARLES W. ELIOT.