effect upon French public opinion as to make Frenchmen forget at this critical juncture all their petty strifes and induce them to concentrate their entire forces and energy upon the great main aim to destroy the autocracy of Germany, which should be declared an “international nuisance” for it is maintained by the Hohenzollerns contrary to the wishes of many of its citizens. Even prior to the war, more than forty per cent. of the votes were cast by Social Democrats and others of the opposition. It is certainly a menace to the welfare and rights of self government of surrounding nations. No one feels this more keenly than the Germans and their descendants in the United States. They left Germany to escape this monster and have enjoyed the privilege of living anew and becoming an indissoluble part of this great liberty-loving nation. Alexander II emancipated the Russian serf; Lincoln freed the poor Negro; and it is your privilege to extricate the Germans from their miserable thraldom. Moreover, our co-belligerents have divergent and conflicting interests, both in regard to the disposition of territories which they hope to liberate from their enemies, and in regard to the general problem of what concessions can be allowed our enemies, when the bargaining begins. This Commission should study these questions and all others connected with them, so that you will have your own independent up-to-date information upon which to act in dealing with the Allies and the enemies during the war and at the Peace Conference. Such a Commission can greatly assist you in your task to infuse the Great American Spirit into the Allied peoples, and so strengthen them that they will fight for right until it is established and has permanently destroyed the danger of a tyrannic militarism fastening its clutches into the whole world. Yours most sincerely, HENRY MORGENTHAU. Perhaps the most important feature of my conversation with the President was the word I brought him of the universal desire of our European associates, that he should exert the intellectual and moral leadership of the common cause. The President was deeply impressed with the earnestness and solemnity of this message that I had brought him. He seemed for the moment almost overpowered at the thought of the stupendous responsibility that it thrust upon him. We now know how nobly he rose to that responsibility--how adequately he expressed and organized the moral basis of our cause--with what masterful and intellectual grasp and statesman’s firm procedure he rose to be the undisputed leader of a world in righteous arms against the menace of autocracy. But, at the moment, he seemed perplexed, he seemed almost to despair. “They want me to lead them!” he exclaimed. “But where shall I lead them to?” CHAPTER XIV JOHN PURROY MITCHEL