ans through which
American public opinion could be crystallized and aroused to the point
where it will insistently demand that these warring nations come
together and, with the experience they have made to their great cost,
make at least an attempt to find a way out. I cannot but believe that
the Governments of England, France, and Germany--if not Russia--will
have to listen, if the American people speak with no uncertain voice.
Do it, and you will deserve and receive the blessing of this and of
coming generations! Yours most faithfully,

JACOB H. SCHIFF.

Dr. Eliot to Mr. Schiff.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 8, 1914.

Dear Mr. Schiff:

I thank you for your letter of Dec. 1 and its interesting inclosure.

Although every thoughtful person must earnestly desire that the waste
and destruction of this greatest of wars should be stopped as soon as
possible, there is an overpowering feeling that the war should go on
until all the combatants, including Germany, have been brought to see
that the Governmental regime and the state of the public mind in Germany
which have made this war possible are not consistent with the security
and well-being of Europe in the future.

Personally, I feel strongly that the war ought to go on so long as
Germany persists in its policies of world empire, dynastic rule,
autocratic bureaucracy, and the use of force in international dealings.
If the war stops before Germany sees that those policies cannot prevail
in twentieth-century Europe, the horrible wrongs and evils which we are
now witnessing will recur; and all the nations will have to continue the
destructive process of competitive armaments. If peace should be made
now, before the Allies have arrived at attacking Germany on her own
soil, there would result only a truce of moderate length, and then a
renewal of the present horrors.

I cannot but think that Europe now has a chance to make a choice between
the German ideal of the State and the Anglo-American ideal. These two
ideals are very different; and the present conflict shows that they
cannot coexist longer in modern Europe.

In regard to the suggestion which your correspondent made to you that a
conference of private persons should now be called in the hope of
arriving at an agreed-upon appeal to the combatants to desist from
fighting and consider terms of settlement, I cannot but feel (1) that
such a conference would have no assured status; (2) that the combatants
would not liste