is scarcely likely to influence
to any considerable degree the situation which has resulted from the
war of positions in East and West, and the still unbroken British
mastery of the seas.

"The view that the war has reached a stalemate which, since President
Wilson's speech at Charlotte in May of this year, had been maintained
by several papers, but which has recently become general, apart
from the definitely pro-Ally organs, is closely connected with
the discussion of the question of peace restoration which for the
American Press is in many cases synonymous with the question of
intervention by the United States or all the neutral nations.

"There was a time when a very important part of the American Press
seemed to stand on the level of the catch-phrase which was going
the round at that time: 'Wall Street now fears nothing except the
outbreak of peace.' These times, however, are long since past. The
desire for a speedy end of the hostilities in Europe is to-day
genuine, and shared by almost the whole Press. From the enemy camp
we get the following testimony in the _New York Tribune_, which would
like to convert its readers to less humane views: 'For millions of
Americans this war is a tragedy, a crime, the offspring of collective
madness,' and in its view the greatest service that America can
render to the world--an allusion to the catch-phrase coined by
Henry Ford for his ill-starred peace mission is--'to fetch the
lads out of the trenches.' The discussion of the premises for the
conclusion of peace, therefore, has for some time occupied an important
place in the daily papers, and also to some extent in the reviews.
Reports on the meetings of the many American peace societies are
given with the greatest fulness, and anything in the overseas news
connected with the question of a restoration of peace is printed in
a prominent position and duly discussed in the leading articles.

"It would lead me too far to give even an approximately complete
picture of this discussion with which the whole Press is occupied.
But one point demands closer examination: the attitude of the leading
papers to the German readiness for peace, publicly expressed by
Your Excellency on three different occasions in the last few weeks.

"Your Excellency's great speech before the Budget Committee of
the Reichstag unfortunately reached here at a time when the whole
interest of the Press and public was directed to the at first uncertain
result of