d the speech felt anything
but admiration for it. It is very astonishing to me how some
Democrats in the Senate themselves bring these artificial
difficulties on the Administration, and it distresses me not a
little. Mr. Bryan read your speech yesterday to the Cabinet, who
greatly enjoyed it. It was at once sent to the Senate and I hope
will there be given out for publication in full.

I want you to feel constantly how I value the intelligent and
effective work you are doing in London. I do not know what I should
do without you.

The fight is on now about the tolls, but I feel perfectly confident
of winning in the matter, though there is not a little opposition
in Congress--more in the House, it strangely turns out, where a
majority of the Democrats originally voted against the exemption,
than in the Senate, where a majority of the Democrats voted for it.
The vicissitudes of politics are certainly incalculable.

With the warmest regard, in necessary haste,

Cordially and faithfully yours,
WOODROW WILSON.

HON. WALTER H. PAGE,
American Embassy,
London, England.

_To the President_

American Embassy, London,
March 2, 1914.

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:

I have read in the newspapers here that, after you had read my
poor, unfortunate speech, you remarked to callers that you regarded
it as proper. I cannot withhold this word of affectionate thanks.

I do not agree with you, heartily as I thank you. The speech
itself, in the surroundings and the atmosphere, was harmless and
was perfectly understood. But I ought not to have been betrayed
into forgetting that the subject was about to come up for fierce
discussion in Congress. . . .

Of course, I know that the whole infernal thing is cooked up to
beat you, if possible. But that is the greater reason why you must
win. I am willing to be sacrificed, if that will help--for
forgetting the impending row or for any reason you will.

I suppose we've got to go through such a struggle to pull our
Government and our people up to an understanding of our own place
in the world--a place so high and big and so powerful that all the
future belongs to us. From an economic point of view, we _are_ the
world; and from a political point of view also. How any man who
sees this