e White House,

Washington, D.C.

August 4th, 1914. [Tuesday.]

Edward M. House,

Pride's Crossing, Mass.

Letter of third received. Do you think I could and should act now and if
so how?

Woodrow Wilson.

_Edward M. House to the President_

[Telegram]

Pride's Crossing, Mass.

August 5th, 1914. [Wednesday.]

The President,

The White House, Washington, D.C.

Olney[66] and I agree that in response to the Senate resolution it
would be unwise to tender your good offices at this time. We
believe it would lessen your influence when the proper moment
arrives. He thinks it advisable that you make a direct or indirect
statement to the effect that you have done what was humanly
possible to compose the situation before this crisis had been
reached. He thinks this would satisfy the Senate and the public in
view of your disinclination to act now upon the Senate resolution.
The story might be told to the correspondents at Washington and
they might use the expression "we have it from high authority."

He agrees to my suggestion that nothing further should be done now
than to instruct our different ambassadors to inform the respective
governments to whom they are accredited, that you stand ready to
tender your good offices whenever such an offer is desired.

Olney agrees with me that the shipping bill[67] is full of lurking
dangers.

E.M. House.

For some reason, however, the suggested statement was not made. The fact
that Colonel House had visited London, Paris, and Berlin six weeks
before the outbreak of war, in an effort to bring about a plan for
disarmament, was not permitted to reach the public ear. Probably the
real reason why this fact was concealed was that its publication at that
time would have reflected so seriously upon Germany that it would have
been regarded as "un-neutral." Colonel House, as already described, had
found Germany in a most belligerent frame of mind, its army "ready," to
use the Kaiser's own word, for an immediate spring at France; on the
other hand he had found Great Britain in a most pacific frame of mind,
entirely unsuspicious of Germany, and confident that the European
situation was daily improving. It is interesting now to speculate on the
public sensation that would have been caused had Colonel House's account
of his visit to Berlin been