We
cannot help considering them as so many acts of ill-disguised hostility
against ourselves and of compliance with our foes. How can you expect,
then, to have your good offices accepted with confidence by both
belligerent parties when the times are ripe for them? It seems like the
throwing away of a magnificent opportunity, and I think that those who,
like yourself, cherish for your country the noble ambition of being some
day the restorer of peace, should exert themselves to prevent practices
which, if continued, would disable her to play any such part.
In your letter you strike the keynote of what I cannot help considering
the partiality of Americans for the Entente powers. It is the idea that
"in the western area of conflict, at least, there is an armed clash
between the representatives of dynastic institutions and bureaucratic
rule on the one hand with those of representative government and liberal
institutions on the other." I can understand that it impresses some
people that way, but I beg to enter a protest against this
interpretation of the conflict.
Liberal or less liberal institutions have nothing to do with it in the
west; the progress of democracy in Germany will not be stopped by her
victory, it will rather be promoted by it, because the masses are
conscious of bearing the burden of war and of being the main force of
its vigorous prosecution, and they are enlightened and strong enough to
insist on a proper reward.
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