_... "A house with sealed doors, where a family of 7,000,000 sits in silence around a cheerless hearth.... America opened the window ... and slipped a loaf of bread into the larder."--Frederick Palmer, in_ THE NEW YORK TIMES. Merchant ships many are on the main. This that we send plies not for gain-- Ship of the loaves! May her course be straight, When the starving millions her coming wait! In a "Happy Province" beyond the sea ("Happy" by fiat--a monarch's decree!) They have seized their lands, they have taken their stores, They have shut them up, they have sealed the doors! The folk within--their table is bare. But why should the lords of the "Province" care?-- Myrmidons, myrmidons, first to feed; Afterwards think of the people's need. Let the arm'd men eat, let the people wait, (Say the lords of the "Province" who parcel out fate,) Let the arm'd men feed--that their strength endure, That their hearts be lusty, their grasp be sure! In that "Happy Province" beyond the sea They are not bond and they are not free: In silence they sit by their smoldered hearth; But the winds bear their burden around the earth! The winds and the waters are rolling along The rune of their sorrow (too cruel for song!) ... Bring food for the family robbed of its stores; Open a window where sealed are the doors! Merchant ships many are on the main. This that we send plies not for gain-- Ship of the loaves!... Ye have given them lead, Ye lords of the "Province," but we give bread! Seizures of American Cargoes By William J. Bryan, American Secretary of State By agreement between the Governments of the United States and Great Britain the text of the American note, printed below, setting forth the views of this Government in opposition to British interference with American trade, was made public in Washington on Dec. 31, 1914, and simultaneously in London. At the same time copies of the American communication were for the first time delivered to the Ambassadors and Ministers of all the powers at Washington, and the note was cabled by them to their respective Governments. The American communication--it is not a note, strictly speaking, because all notes are sent by mail in diplomacy and never by telegraph--sets forth clearly the conditions of which the American Government and people complain resulting from the frequent seizures and detentions by the British of American cargoes destined to neutral European ports. _The Secretary of State to the American Ambassador at London._ Department of State, WASHINGTON, Dec. 26, 1914.