t awful shadow
and fear. They say truly that life on such terms is not worth
living. Moreover, if Germany should win the military control of
Europe, she would soon--that same war-party--attack the United
States. The war will not end until this condition can be
imposed--that there shall be no more militarism.

But in the meantime, such men as Straus (a good fellow) may be able
to let (by helping) the Germans appear to the Peace people as
really desiring peace. Of course, what they want is to save their
mutton.

And if we begin mediation talk now on that basis, we shall not be
wanted when a real chance for mediation comes. If we are so silly
as to play into the hands of the German-Hearst publicity bureau,
our chance for real usefulness will be thrown away.

Put the President on his guard.

W.H.P.

In the latter part of the month came Germany's reply. One would never
suspect, when reading it, that Germany had played any part in
instigating the negotiation. The Kaiser repeated the old charges that
the Entente had forced the war on the Fatherland, that it was now
determined to annihilate the Central Powers and that consequently there
was no hope that the warring countries could agree upon acceptable terms
for ending the struggle.

So ended Germany's first peace drive, and in the only possible way that
it could end. But the Washington administration continued to be most
friendly to mediation. A letter of Colonel House's, dated October 4,
1914, possesses great historical importance. It was written after a
detailed discussion with President Wilson, and it indicates not only the
President's desire to bring the struggle to a close, but it describes
in some detail the principles which the President then regarded as
essential to a permanent peace. It furnishes the central idea of the
presidential policy for the next four years; indeed, it contains the
first statement of that famous "Article X" of the Covenant of the League
of Nations which was Mr. Wilson's most important contribution to that
contentious document. This was the article which pledges the League "to
respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial
integrity and existing political independence" of all its members; it
was the article which, more than any other, made the League obnoxious to
Americans, who interpreted it as an attempt to involve them perpetually
in the qua