The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page Volume I Part 22

[Footnote 46: The reference is to President Roosevelt's speech at the Guildhall in June, 1910.]

[Footnote 47: This refers to the declination of the British Government to be represented at the San Francisco world exhibition, held in 1915.]

[Footnote 48: John Ba.s.sett Moore, at that time the very able counsellor of the State Department.]

[Footnote 49: Mr. Root's masterly speech on Panama tolls was made in the United States Senate, January 21, 1913.]

[Footnote 50: Ante: page 202.]

[Footnote 51: This is the fact that is too frequently lost sight of in current discussions of the melting pot. In the _Atlantic Monthly_ for August, 1920, Mr. William S. Rossiter, for many years chief clerk of the United States Census and a statistician of high standing, shows that, of the 95,000,000 white people of the United States, 55,000,000 trace their origin to England, Scotland, and Wales.]

[Footnote 52: The Amba.s.sador's letter is dated March 18th.]

[Footnote 53: Mr. Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, was one of the most blatant opponents of Panama repeal.]

CHAPTER IX

AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT THE EUROPEAN WAR

Page's mind, from the day of his arrival in England, had been filled with that portent which was the most outstanding fact in European life.

Could nothing be done to prevent the dangers threatened by European militarism? Was there no way of forestalling the war which seemed every day to be approaching nearer? The dates of the following letters, August, 1913, show that this was one of the first ideas which Page presented to the new Administration.

_To Edward M. House_ Aug. 28, 1913.

MY DEAR HOUSE:

. . . Everything is lovely and the goose hangs high. We're having a fine time. Only, only, only--I do wish to do something constructive and lasting. Here are great navies and armies and great withdrawals of men from industry--an enormous waste. Here are kings and courts and gold lace and ceremonies which, without producing anything, require great cost to keep them going. Here are all the privileges and taxes that this state of things implies--every one a hindrance to human progress. We are free from most of these. We have more people and more capable people and many times more territory than both England and Germany; and we have more potential wealth than all Europe. They know that. They'd like to find a way to escape.

The Hague programmes, for the most part, just lead them around a circle in the dark back to the place where they started. Somebody needs to _do_ something. If we could find some friendly use for these navies and armies and kings and things--in the service of humanity--they'd follow us. We ought to find a way to use them in cleaning up the tropics under our leaders.h.i.+p and under our code of ethics--that everything must be done for the good of the tropical peoples and that n.o.body may annex a foot of land. They want a job.

Then they'd quit sitting on their haunches, growling at one another.

I wonder if we couldn't serve notice that the land-stealing game is forever ended and that the cleaning up of backward lands is now in order--for the people that live there; and then invite Europe's help to make the tropics as healthful as the Panama Zone?

There's no future in Europe's vision--no long look ahead. They give all their thought to the immediate danger. Consider this Balkan War; all European energy was spent merely to keep the Great Powers at peace. The two wars in the Balkans have simply impoverished the people--left the world that much worse than it was before. n.o.body has considered the well-being or the future of those peoples nor of their land. The Great Powers are mere threats to one another, content to check, one the other! There can come no help to the progress of the world from this sort of action--no step forward.

Work on a world-plan. Nothing but blue chips, you know. Is it not possible that Mexico may give an entering wedge for this kind of thing?

Heartily yours, WALTER H. PAGE.

In a memorandum, written about the same time, Mr. Page explains his idea in more detail:

Was there ever greater need than there is now of a first-cla.s.s mind unselfishly working on world problems? The ablest ruling minds are engaged on domestic tasks. There is no world-girdling intelligence at work in government. On the continent of Europe, the Kaiser is probably the foremost man. Yet he cannot think far beyond the provincial views of the Germans. In England, Sir Edward Grey is the largest-visioned statesman. All the Europeans are spending their thought and money in watching and checkmating one another and in maintaining their armed and balanced _status quo_.

A way must be found out of this stagnant watching. Else a way will have to be fought out of it; and a great European war would set the Old World, perhaps the whole world, back a long way; and thereafter, the present armed watching would recur; we should have gained nothing. It seems impossible to talk the Great Powers out of their fear of one another or to "Hague" them out of it. They'll never be persuaded to disarm. The only way left seems to be to find some common and useful work for these great armies to do. Then, perhaps, they'll work themselves out of their jealous position.

Isn't this sound psychology?

To produce a new situation, the vast energy that now spends itself in maintaining armies and navies must find a new outlet. Something new must be found for them to do, some great unselfish task that they can do together.

n.o.body can lead in such a new era but the United States.

May there not come such a chance in Mexico--to clean out bandits, yellow fever, malaria, hookworm--all to make the country healthful, safe for life and investment, and for orderly self-government at last? What we did in Cuba might thus be made the beginning of a new epoch in history--conquest for the sole benefit of the conquered, worked out by a sanitary reformation. The new sanitation will reclaim all tropical lands; but the work must be first done by military power--probably from the outside.

May not the existing military power of Europe conceivably be diverted, gradually, to this use? One step at a time, as political and financial occasions arise? As presently in Mexico?

This present order must change. It holds the Old World still. It keeps all parts of the world apart, in spite of the friendly cohesive forces of trade and travel. It keeps back self-government and the progress of man.

And the tropics cry out for sanitation, which is at first an essentially military task.

A strange idea this may have seemed in August, 1913, a year before the outbreak of the European war; yet the scheme is not dissimilar to the "mandatory" principle, adopted by the Versailles Peace Conference as the only practical method of dealing with backward peoples. In this work, as in everything that would help mankind on its weary way to a more efficient and more democratic civilization, Page regarded the United States, Great Britain, and the British Dominions as inevitable partners.

Anything that would bring these two nations into a closer cooperation he looked upon as a step making for human advancement. He believed that any opportunity of sweeping away misconceptions and prejudices and of impressing upon the two peoples their common mission should be eagerly seized by the statesmen of the two countries. And circ.u.mstances at this particular moment, Page believed, presented a large opportunity of this kind. It is one of the minor ironies of modern history that the United States and Great Britain should have selected 1914 as a year for a great peace celebration. That year marked the one hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, and in 1913 comprehensive plans had already been formed for observing this impressive centennial. The plan was to make it more than the mere observance of a hundred years of peaceful intercourse; it was the intention to use the occasion to emphasize the fundamental ident.i.ty of American and British ideals and to lay the foundation of a permanent understanding and friends.h.i.+p. The erection of a monument to Abraham Lincoln at Westminster--a plan that has since been realized--was one detail of this programme. Another was the restoration of Sulgrave Manor, the English country seat of the Was.h.i.+ngtons, and its preservation as a place where the peoples of both countries could share their common traditions. Page now dared to hope that President Wilson might a.s.sociate himself with this great purpose to the extent of coming to England and accepting this gift in the name of the American nation. Such a Presidential visit, he believed, would exercise a mighty influence in forestalling a threatening European war. The ultimate purpose, that is, was world peace--precisely the same motive that led President Wilson, in 1919, to make a European pilgrimage.

This idea was no pa.s.sing fancy with Page: it was with him a favourite topic of conversation. Such a presidential visit, he believed, would accomplish more than any other influences in dissipating the clouds that were darkening the European landscape. He would elaborate the idea at length in discussions with his intimates.

"What I want," he would say, "is to have the President of the United States and the King of England stand up side by side and let the world take a good look at them!"

_To Edward M. House_

August 25, 1913.

. . . I wrote him (President Wilson) my plan--a mere outline. He'll only smile now. But when the tariff and the currency and Mexico are off his hands, and when he can be invited to come and deliver an oration on George Was.h.i.+ngton next year at the presentation of the old Was.h.i.+ngton homestead here, he may be "pushed over." You do the pus.h.i.+ng. Mrs. Page has invited the young White House couple to visit us on their honeymoon[54]. Encourage that and that may encourage the larger plan later. Nothing else would give such a friendly turn to the whole world as the President's coming here.

The old Earth would sit up and rub its eyes and take notice to whom it belongs. This visit might prevent an English-German war and an American-j.a.panese war, by this mere show of friendliness. It would be one of the greatest occasions of our time. Even at my little speeches, they "whoop it up!" What would they do over the President's!

But at that time Was.h.i.+ngton was too busy with its domestic programme to consider such a proposal seriously. "Your two letters," wrote Colonel House in reply, "have come to me and lifted me out of the rut of things and given me a glimpse of a fair land. What you are thinking of and what you want this Administration to do is beyond the power of accomplishment for the moment. My desk is covered with matters of no lasting importance, but which come to me as a part of the day's work, and which must be done if I am to help lift the load that is pressing upon the President. It tells me better than anything else what he has to bear, and how utterly futile it is for him to attempt such problems as you present."

_From the President_

MY DEAR PAGE:

. . . As for your suggestion that I should myself visit England during my term of office, I must say that I agree with all your arguments for it, and yet the case against the President's leaving the country, particularly now that he is expected to exercise a constant leaders.h.i.+p in all parts of the business of the government, is very strong and I am afraid overwhelming. It might be the beginning of a practice of visiting foreign countries which would lead Presidents rather far afield.

It is a most attractive idea, I can a.s.sure you, and I turn away from it with the greatest reluctance.

We hear golden opinions of the impression you are making in England, and I have only to say that it is just what I had expected.

Cordially and faithfully yours, WOODROW WILSON.

HON. WALTER H. PAGE, American Emba.s.sy, London, England.

In December, however, evidently Colonel House's mind had turned to the general subject that had so engaged that of the Amba.s.sador.

_From Edward M. House_ 145 East 35th Street, New York City.

December 13th, 1913.

DEAR PAGE: