England is sending over Mr. Balfour with a very high Commission.  These gentlemen will arrive here this week, and I expect with them Viviani and Joffre, from France.  We will have intimate talks with them and gain the benefit of their experience.  I expect Mr. Balfour to make some speeches that will put England in a more favorable light, and the presence of Joffre will stimulate recruiting in our Army and Navy.  He is the one real figure who has come out of the war so far.

We are raising seven billions; three billions to go to the Allies, largely for purchases to be made here.  Money contributions pass unanimously, but there is to be trouble over our war measures respecting conscription and the raising of an adequate army.  Some pacifists and other pro-Germans are cultivating the idea that none but volunteers should be sent to Europe.  Some are also saying Germany can have peace with us if she stops her submarine warfare.  I doubt if that line of agitation will be successful before Congress.  Certainly it will not be successful with the President or the Cabinet.  We are now very happily united upon following every course that will lead to the quickest and most complete victory.

The greatest impending danger is the drive on the east front into Russia, possibly the taking of Petrograd, and the weakness on the part of the Russians because of so large a socialistic element now in control of Russian affairs.  We offered Russia a commission of railroad men to look over their railroad systems and advise with them as to the best means of operating them.  At first Russia inclined to welcome such a commission, but later the offer was declined because of local feeling.  We intend to send a commission ourselves to Russia, possibly headed by McAdoo or Root, and on this commission we will have a railroad man with expert knowledge who can be of some service to them, I hope.  The Russian and the French governments have ordered hundreds of locomotives and tens of thousands of cars in this country, a large part of which are ready for shipment, but which cannot be shipped because of lack of shipping facilities.  Affectionately yours,

F.K.L.

Grosvenor Clarkson, who was first Secretary and then Director of the Council of National Defense, writes in February, 1922, this account of the work of the Council:—­

“As early as February 12, 1917, or nearly two months before we went into the war, Secretary Lane presented resolutions at a joint meeting of the Council of National Defense and its Advisory Commission, to the effect that the Council ’Call a series of conferences with the leading men in each industry, fundamentally necessary to the defense of the country in the event of war.’  The resolutions also proposed that the Council at once proceed to confer with those familiar with the manner by which foreign governments in the war enlisted their industries and, further, that the Council should establish a committee to investigate and report upon such regulations as to hours and safety of labor as should apply to all war labor.