[Footnote 45:  This was the designation Mr. Bryan’s admirers sometimes gave him.]

[Footnote 46:  The reference is to President Roosevelt’s speech at the Guildhall in June, 1910.]

[Footnote 47:  This refers to the declination of the British Government to be represented at the San Francisco world exhibition, held in 1915.]

[Footnote 48:  John Bassett Moore, at that time the very able counsellor of the State Department.]

[Footnote 49:  Mr. Root’s masterly speech on Panama tolls was made in the United States Senate, January 21, 1913.]

[Footnote 50:  Ante:  page 202.]

[Footnote 51:  This is the fact that is too frequently lost sight of in current discussions of the melting pot.  In the Atlantic Monthly for August, 1920, Mr. William S. Rossiter, for many years chief clerk of the United States Census and a statistician of high standing, shows that, of the 95,000,000 white people of the United States, 55,000,000 trace their origin to England, Scotland, and Wales.]

[Footnote 52:  The Ambassador’s letter is dated March 18th.]

[Footnote 53:  Mr. Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, was one of the most blatant opponents of Panama repeal.]

CHAPTER IX

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT THE EUROPEAN WAR

Page’s mind, from the day of his arrival in England, had been filled with that portent which was the most outstanding fact in European life.  Could nothing be done to prevent the dangers threatened by European militarism?  Was there no way of forestalling the war which seemed every day to be approaching nearer?  The dates of the following letters, August, 1913, show that this was one of the first ideas which Page presented to the new Administration.

     To Edward M. House
     Aug. 28, 1913.

     MY DEAR HOUSE: 

. . .  Everything is lovely and the goose hangs high.  We’re having a fine time.  Only, only, only—­I do wish to do something constructive and lasting.  Here are great navies and armies and great withdrawals of men from industry—­an enormous waste.  Here are kings and courts and gold lace and ceremonies which, without producing anything, require great cost to keep them going.  Here are all the privileges and taxes that this state of things implies—­every one a hindrance to human progress.  We are free from most of these.  We have more people and more capable people and many times more territory than both England and Germany; and we have more potential wealth than all Europe.  They know that.  They’d like to find a way to escape.  The Hague programmes, for the most part, just lead them around a circle in the dark back to the place where they started.  Somebody needs to do something.  If we could find some friendly use for these navies and armies and kings and things—­in the service of humanity—­they’d