ama tolls repeal up to the time of Page's visit to Shadow
Lawn. Quotations have already been made from it in preceding chapters,
and the ideas which it contains have abundantly appeared in letters
already printed. The document was an eloquent plea for American
cooeperation with the Allies--for the dismissal of Bernstorff, for the
adoption of a manly attitude toward Germany, and for the vindication of
a high type of Americanism.

Page showed the President the _Lusitania_ medal, but that did not
especially impress him. "The President said to me," wrote Page in
reference to this visit, "that when the war began he and all the men he
met were in hearty sympathy with the Allies; but that now the sentiment
toward England had greatly changed. He saw no one who was not vexed and
irritated by the arbitrary English course. That is, I fear, true--that
he sees no one but has a complaint. So does the Secretary of State, and
the Trade Bureau and all the rest in Washington. But in Boston, in New
York, and in the South and in Auburn, N.Y., I saw no one whose sympathy
with the Allies had undergone any fundamental change. I saw men who felt
vexed at such an act as the blacklist, but that was merely vexation, not
a fundamental change of feeling. Of course, there came to see me men who
had 'cases.' Now these are the only kind of men, I fear, whom the
Government at Washington sees--these and the members of Congress whom
the Germans have scared or have 'put up' to scare the Government--who
are 'twisting the lion's tail,' in a word."

"The President said," wrote Page immediately after coming from Shadow
Lawn, "Tell those gentlemen for me'--and then followed a homily to the
effect that a damage done to any American citizen is a damage to him,
etc. He described the war as a result of many causes, some of long
origin. He spoke of England's having the earth and of Germany wanting
it. Of course, he said, the German system is directly opposed to
everything American. But I do not gather that he thought that this
carried any very great moral reprehensibility.

"He said that he wouldn't do anything with the retaliatory act till
after election lest it might seem that he was playing politics. But he
hinted that if there were continued provocation afterward (in case he
were elected) he would. He added that one of the worst provocations was
the long English delay in answering our Notes. Was this delay due to
fear or shame? He evidently felt that such a d