the
President and the Senate should not be allowed to delay the
settlement[15]. Rightly or wrongly the people felt that the struggle was
largely a personal one between Lodge and Wilson, and insisted that each
must yield something of their contention. On the one hand, ex-President
Taft and others of the more far-seeing Republicans worked anxiously for
compromise, with the assistance of such men as Hoover, who perceived the
necessity of a League, but who were willing to sacrifice its efficiency
to some extent, if only the United States could be brought in. On the
other hand, various Democrats who were less directly under Wilson's
influence wanted to meet these friends of the League half-way. During
December and January unofficial conferences between the senatorial groups
took place and progress towards a settlement seemed likely. The
Republicans agreed to soften the language of their minor reservations,
and Wilson even intimated that he would consent to a mild reservation on
Article X, although as he later wrote to Hitchcock, he felt strongly that
any reservation or resolution stating that the "United States assumes no
obligation under such and such an article unless or except, would chill
our relationship with the nations with whom we expect to be associated in
this great enterprise of maintaining the world's peace." It was
important "not to create the impression that we are trying to escape
obligations."

[Footnote 15: A straw vote taken in 311 colleges and including 158,000
students and professors showed an inclination to favor Wilson rather than
Lodge, but the greatest number approved compromise: four per cent favored
a new treaty with Germany; eight per cent favored killing the Versailles
treaty; only seventeen per cent approved the Lodge programme; thirty per
cent approved ratification of the treaty without change; and thirty-eight
per cent favored compromise.]

On the 31st of January the country was startled by the publication of a
letter written by Viscount Grey, who had been appointed British Ambassador
to the United States, but who had returned to England after a four months'
stay, during which he had been unable to secure an interview with the sick
President. In this letter he attempted to explain to the British the
causes of American hesitancy to accept the League. He then went on to
state that the success of the League depended upon the adherence of the
United States, and while admitting the serious characte