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Life and Letters of Walter H. Page
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General SummaryThe American ambassador to Great Britain from 1913 to 1918 was Walter Hines Page, author, editor, publisher, and scholar. No one could have done more than he did during his tenure of office to promote the cause of Anglo-American friendship. He held a delicate position after the outbreak of the World War, when German and Austrian interests in Great Britain were placed under his charge. Though thoroughly loyal to his country, Page never disguised his sympathy with the Allies throughout the period of American neutrality. Our entrance into the war brought to him unfeigned satisfaction. His strenuous labors resulted in a physical break-down, and he died a few months after resigning the ambassadorship. Page’s letters to friends, business associates, and President Wilson light up in a vivid way many aspects of the war, as viewed from London by one who was behind the scenes and who had access to much information withheld from the general public.
CHAPTER XLII
The United States at War1
198. On the Eve of War2
It’s very hard, not to say impossible, to write in these swiftly
moving days. Anything written to-day3 a is out of date tomorrow — even
if it be not wrong to start with. The impression
becomes stronger here every day that we shall go into the war
"with both feet" — that the people have pushed the president
over in spite of his vision of the Great Peacemaker, and that,
being pushed over, his idea now will be to show how he led
them into a glorious war in defense of democracy. That’s
my reading of the situation, and I hope I am not wrong. At
any rate, ever since the call of Congress for April 2nd,1 I have
been telegraphing tons of information and plans that can be of
use only if we go to war. Habitually they never acknowledge
the receipt of anything at Washington. I don’t know, therefore,
whether they like these pieces of information or not. I have my
staff of twenty-five good men getting all sorts of warlike information;
and I have just organized twenty-five or thirty more — the
best business Americans in London — who are also at
work. I am trying to get the government at Washington to
send over a committee of conference — a general, an admiral, a
Reserve Board man, etc., etc. If they do half the things that
I recommend we’ll be in at the final lickin’ big, and will save
our souls yet.
There’s lots of human nature in this world. A note is now
sometimes heard here in undertone . . . that they don’t want
the Americans in the war. This means that if we come in just as
the Allies finish the job we’ll get credit, in part, for the victory,
which we did little to win! But that’s a minor note. The
great mass of people do want us in, quick, hard, and strong — our
money and our guns and our ships. . . .
1 , by B. J. Hendrick. 3 vols. New York.
1922–1925. Doubleday, Page, and Company.
2 , vol. ii, pp. 217–218.
3 This letter was written on March 25, 1917.
1 The day when President Wilson advised Congress to declare war against
Germany.
Contents:
Chicago: B. J. Hendrick, ed., "On the Eve of War," Life and Letters of Walter H. Page in Readings in Modern European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1926), 503. Original Sources, accessed May 6, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=SGV6V2A12UDBIZ3.
MLA: . "On the Eve of War." Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, edited by B. J. Hendrick, Vol. ii, in Readings in Modern European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, D.C. Heath, 1926, page 503. Original Sources. 6 May. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=SGV6V2A12UDBIZ3.
Harvard: (ed.), 'On the Eve of War' in Life and Letters of Walter H. Page. cited in 1926, Readings in Modern European History, ed. , D.C. Heath, Boston, pp.503. Original Sources, retrieved 6 May 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=SGV6V2A12UDBIZ3.
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