The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II | Page 8

cherished associations of his life. The interest which he had shown in
advocating Wilson's presidential candidacy has already been set forth;
and many phases of the Wilson administration had aroused his
admiration. The President's handling of domestic problems Page
regarded as a masterpiece in reconciling statesmanship with practical
politics, and his energetic attitude on the Panama Tolls had introduced
new standards into American foreign relations. Page could not
sympathize with all the details of the Wilsonian Mexican policy, yet he
saw in it a high-minded purpose and a genuine humanitarianism. But
the outbreak of war presented new aspects of Mr. Wilson's mind. The
President's attitude toward the European struggle, his conception of

"neutrality," and his failure to grasp the meaning of the conflict,
seemed to Page to show a lack of fundamental statesmanship; still his
faith in Wilson was deep-seated, and he did not abandon hope that the
President could be brought to see things as they really were. Page even
believed that he might be instrumental in his conversion.
But in the summer and autumn of 1915 one agony followed another.
The "too proud to fight" speech was in Page's mind nothing less than a
tragedy. The president's first Lusitania note for a time restored the
Ambassador's confidence; it seemed to show that the President
intended to hold Germany to that "strict accountability" which he had
threatened. But Mr. Wilson's course now presented new difficulties to
his Ambassador. Still Page believed that the President, in his own way
and in his own time, would find a path out of his dilemma that would
protect the honour and the safety of the United States. If any of the
Embassy subordinates became impatient over the procedure of
Washington, he did not find a sympathetic listener in the Ambassador.
The whole of London and of Europe might be resounding with
denunciations of the White House, but Page would tolerate no
manifestations of hostility in his presence. "The problem appears
different to Washington than it does to us," he would say to his
confidants. "We see only one side of it; the President sees all sides. If
we give him all the facts, he will decide the thing wisely." Englishmen
with whom the Ambassador came into contact soon learned that they
could not become flippant or critical about Mr. Wilson in his presence;
he would resent the slightest hostile remark, and he had a way of
phrasing his rebukes that usually discouraged a second attempt. About
this time Page began to keep closely to himself, and to decline
invitations to dinners and to country houses, even those with which he
was most friendly. The reason was that he could not meet Englishmen
and Englishwomen, or even Americans who were resident in England,
on his old easy familiar terms; he knew the ideas which everybody
entertained about his country, and he knew also what they were saying,
when he was not among them; the restraint which his presence
necessarily put upon his friends produced an uncongenial atmosphere,
and the Ambassador therefore gave up, for a time, those distractions
which had ordinarily proved such a delightful relief from his duties. For

the first time since he had come to England he found himself a solitary
man. He even refused to attend the American Luncheon Club in
London because, in speeches and in conversation, the members did not
hesitate to assail the Wilson policies.
Events, however, eventually proved too strong for the most devoted
supporter of President Wilson. After the Arabic and the Hesperian,
Page's official intimates saw signs that the Ambassador was losing
confidence in his old friend. He would discuss Mr. Wilson occasionally,
with those secretaries, such as Mr. Laughlin, in whom his confidence
was strongest; his expressions, however, were never flippant or violent.
That Page could be biting as well as brilliant in his comments on public
personages his letters abundantly reveal, yet he never exercised his
talent for sarcasm or invective at the expense of the White House. He
never forgot that Mr. Wilson was President and that he was
Ambassador; he would still defend the Administration; and he even
now continued to find consolation in the reflection that Mr. Wilson was
living in a different atmosphere and that he had difficulties to confront
of which a man in London could know nothing. The Ambassador's
emotion was rather one of disappointment and sorrow, mingled with
anxiety as to the plight into which his country was being led. As to his
duty in this situation, however, Page never hesitated. In his relations
with his Embassy and with the British world he maintained this
non-critical attitude; but in his letters to President Wilson and Colonel
House, he was describing the situation, and expressing his convictions,
with the utmost freedom and frankness. In both these attitudes Page