On all sides they are frank in telling of their distress.  We did not come in a minute too soon.  England and France, I believe, were gone if we had not come in.  It delights me to see how much sympathy there is with England as well as with France.  The Irish alone seem to be unreconciled with England as our ally.

Ned got your letter, and I suppose in time will answer it, I had the question put to me by Baker yesterday as to whether I wished him to go to the other side, and I had to say frankly that I did.  It was to me the most momentous decision that I have made in the war.  He has passed his final test, and I hope that he will get his commission in a few days.

To-night we give a dinner to the Canadians, Sir George Foster, the acting Premier, and Sir Joseph Polk, the Under Secretary of External Affairs, who, by the way, was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and says he heard our father preach.

The country’s crops are going to be short, I fear, and we have had little rain.  Ships and grain—­these are the two things that we must get.  Ships, to carry our grain and our locomotives and rails, and grain to keep the fighters alive.  The U-boats are destroying twice as much as the producing tonnage of the world.  We need every bushel that California can produce.  With much love, affectionately yours,

F.K.L.

To Frank I. Cobb New York World

Washington, May 5, 1917

My dear Cobb,—­I had a long talk with Hoover yesterday.  He tells me that the U-boat situation is really worse than I stated it.  There is no question but that the actual sinkings amounted to more than 300,000 tons in a week, and if we add those put out of business by mines, they will exceed 400,000 tons.  The French are absolutely desperate.  One of the French ministers told Hoover that they had fixed on the first of November as their last day, if the United States had not come in.  Admiral Chocheprat told me, with tears in his eyes, three nights ago, that they felt themselves helpless.  They were absolutely at the mercy of the submarines because of their lack of destroyers, and they had feared we were preparing to defend our own shores rather than fight across the water.  I know that the latter has been the policy of the heads of the Navy Department.

Do not, I beg of you, minimize the immediate danger.  This is the time to defend the United States; and the United States is woefully indifferent to its dangers and to the needs of the situation.  We have been carrying on a ship-building program with reference to conditions after the war.  It is only within ten days that we have realized that the end of the war will be one of defeat unless we build twice as fast as we proposed to build.  You know that I am not pessimistic.  It is not my habit to look upon the gloomy side of things.  It is no kindness to the American people or to France or England to give them words of good cheer now.  This war is right at this minute a challenge to every particle of brains and inventive skill that we have got.