iful copper-plate handwriting that shows no signs of
excitement or weariness, but is in itself an evidence of mental poise
and of the sure grip which Page had upon the evolving drama. From the
many sent in these autumn and early winter months the following
selections are made:

_To Edward M. House_
September 22nd, 1914.

MY DEAR HOUSE:

When the day of settlement comes, the settlement must make sure
that the day of militarism is done and can come no more. If sheer
brute force is to rule the world, it will not be worth living in.
If German bureaucratic brute force could conquer Europe, presently
it would try to conquer the United States; and we should all go
back to the era of war as man's chief industry and back to the
domination of kings by divine right. It seems to me, therefore,
that the Hohenzollern idea must perish--be utterly strangled in the
making of peace.

Just how to do this, it is not yet easy to say. If the German
defeat be emphatic enough and dramatic enough, the question may
answer itself--how's the best way to be rid of the danger of the
recurrence of a military bureaucracy? But in any event, this thing
must be killed forever--somehow. I think that a firm insistence on
this is the main task that mediation will bring. The rest will be
corollaries of this.

The danger, of course, as all the world is beginning to fear, is
that the Kaiser, after a local victory--especially if he should yet
take Paris--will propose peace, saying that he dreads the very
sight of blood--propose peace in time, as he will hope, to save his
throne, his dynasty, his system. That will be a dangerous day. The
horror of war will have a tendency to make many persons in the
countries of the Allies accept it. All the peace folk in the world
will say "Accept it!" But if he and his throne and his dynasty and
his system be saved, in twenty-five years the whole job must be
done over again. We are settling down to a routine of double work
and to an oppression of gloom. Dead men, dead men, maimed men, the
dull gray dread of what may happen next, the impossibility of
changing the subject, the monotony of gloom, the consequent dimness
of ideals, the overworking of the emotions and the heavy bondage of
thought--the days go swiftly: that's one blessing.

The diplomati