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feels that eventually it will be along the line of the most used
air route between Europe and Asia. Steffenson's ideas of the
Arctic are revolutionary and upsets all one's preconceived notions
of it.

June 14, 1923.

On Monday

I lunched with Sir Horace Plunkett and had an interesting
talk with him about Ireland and the revivified "New Statesman" for
the publication of which he has gotten certain Irish Americans to
guarantee $50,000. a year.

Sir William Tyrrell was one of the most interesting visitors of the day. He was with Curzon at Lausanne for three months and told of the ins and outs of that conference. He believes that Curzon made a mistake in being so dictatorial and demanding the impossible. In a smaller way he did there what Wilson did at Washington when he returned from Paris in 1919.

There is a movement on foot to get Lord Grey in the Cabinet
as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Grey has all the known
edge that Curzon possesses and in addition he has a temperament
which fits him far better for that post.

The Marchioness of Donegal was a delightful caller. On the 13th Lord Robert Cecil came for a conference and we discussed the ever present Franco-German question. He too suggested Grey as an admirable successor to Curzon in the event he becomes disabled.

We lunched with Mr. and Mrs. Chapin. The most interesting
guest there was Sir Charles Elliott, although it was difficult to
get him to talk of Japan.

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Geoffrey Dawson followed Lord Robert to discuss the Franco-German impasse and to ask about American political conditions.

In the afternoon, Dudley Docker called to take me to the House of Commons. He turned me over to the Honorable H. P. M. Hannon who conducted me to the Prime Minister's room where he left me. I remained for an hour with the Prime Minister discussing the present situation in Europe. I advised him directly, as I have advised him before through Reginald McKenna, to do nothing but to move with caution regarding the last German note. I expressed the opinion that he had to deal with the most dangerous situation that had confronted Europe since the war. I thought the solution was the overthrow of the Poincaré Government and this could be accomplished only by the Germans agreeing not alone to pay the maximum amount on reparations, but to also agree upon a reasonable plan for the security of France.

I told the Prime Minister in confidence that I had suggested to Clemenceau that he visit Berlin. Baldwin said such a visit would startle the world and asked what result I expected from it. I explained that I should not advise Clemenceau to go unless I knew in advance that he would take a reasonable attitude toward Germany and the settlement of reparations and security for France. I should also not advise him to go unless the German Chancellor would promise to vouch for his safety.

Baldwin expressed the common regret which I hear everywhere in London, that the United States will not join in the settlement of world questions. If we had sat on the Reparations

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Commission none of the difficulties which are now vexing Europe
would have occurred and we could have accomplished the result
with entire safety to ourselves, in fact, it would have been very
much to our advantage than to run the risk of letting things go
to the devil as they may do.

The Bishop of Bristol and several others came in to tea.
In the evening we dined with Mrs. Ronald Greville. I had consid-
erable talk with Lord Cavan and Admirable Lord Beatty and with the
Mahara of. There were many other notable guests such
as Lord Peel, Lady Cromer, Lady Kylsant etc.

I lunched today with Col. Arthur Murray. The only others
present were Mrs. McKenna, a sister-in-law of Reginald's, and Sir
Donald McLean. We spent a delightful hour.

London, June 29, 1923.

I had dinner with Lord Haldane last night. We were quite alone and were able to have an intimate talk about men and affairs. He and I are nearly always in agreement as to policies but not always as to our estimate of men.

He spoke of Asquith as have the best mind of any man he has known. I asked if he thought it better than Balfour's. He considered Balfour more subtle and with perhaps a wider range, but Asquith had a deeper and more accurate mind. Balfour never gave himself as much trouble in getting to the bottom of a question as Asquith, therefore his conclusions were not as thorough and as much to be trusted.

He spoke of Gladstone and Morley, Lloyd George and Clemenceau. I asked if he had ever met Woodrow Wilson and of his estimate of him. He replied that after an interview with him he returned home and registered this opinion: Woodrow Wilson has one of the best of the second class minds". I do not think this fair to Wilson and I intimated as much. He then explained that he obtained no original thought from Wilson and that what he said was well said but commonplace.

He thought Clemenceau so much more the master of the situation at Paris than either Wilson or George and largely because of his management of men-- something he considered totally lacking in Wilson and deficient in George.

His estimate of George corresponds entirely with mind
I have given it often and it is unnecessary to repeat.

Haldane showed me an inscription Marshal Haig wrote in

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his book which he had presented him. He began it: "To the greatest Minister of War England has ever known" and amplified this by stating why he thought so. From what I know of Haldane's work as War Minister I entire concur in this estimate of him. If it had not been for the perfectly trained Expeditionary Force, for which Haldane was wholly responsible, the Germans would probably have reached Paris in August 1914.

Haldane went to Asquith during the critical days of 1914, August 2nd I think it was, and told him what should be done about sending the army at once to France. Grey went with Haldane and seconded his appeal. The Prime Minister gave Haldane a letter placing the entire situation in his hands. When Haldane went to the War Office the Adjutant General told him that to carry out his orders would cost five million pounds, and the Quartermaster General said it would cost his department fifteen million pounds, making a total of some twenty million pounds, and they both refused to carry out the orders without instructions from the Treasury. Haldane then showed them the Prime Minister's letter giving him full authority, and the plan went ahead at full speed with the result that the British Expeditionary Force reached France before the Germans realized they were on the way.

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were there.

It has been a round of luncheons and dinners every day and callers in between.

The German Ambassador, Mr. Heineman and Dr. Shotwell lunched with me last week. I invited them for the purpose of furthering a settlement between France and Germany, and also in furtherance of my effort to get Germany into the League of Nations. The Ambassador said Germany did not wish to join the League while it was so pro-French. He said if the United States would join, then Germany would like to become a member. In reply I told him he was going at it the wrong way around. That if Germany became a member it would help those of us in the United States who wished our country to join to bring it about. In my opinion, there were about 25% of our population Irish and German born and their descendants, and with Ireland and Germany in the League, the German and Irish Americans would naturally desire the United States to become a member in order that they might have their Germany and Ireland might have a disinterested friend.

Both the Ambassador and Count Kessler, with whom I talked some ten days ago, said they had never thought of that feature of the situation and that they would communicate it to their Government where they thought it would have influence.

The Ambassador asked whether Germany's joining the League would offend the Harding Administration. In reply I said that President Harding had stated that the League was good for Europe, therefore, if it was good for Europe, it must be good for Germany, and if the other nations of Europe and the rest of the world could

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members without offence to the United States, there was no reason why
Germany could not do likewise. I asked what the Harding Adminis-
tration had done for Germany. He admitted it had done nothing. I
asked if that was the reason there was any reason to believe they were
going to do anything. He thought not. Then, I said, why are you so
solicitous about the Harding Administration? His answer was a smile.

I have been doing a great deal of work trying to get the
Anglo-French-German situation composed. I have seen people practi-
cally every day about this matter. Some members of the Government
here, some in touch with the German Government and some in touch with
the French Government. General Allen has called several times to
give me the benefit of his advice regarding it. He is one of the
most capable and fair-minded men we have in the Army and he knows the
subject thoroughly since he commanded our forces on the Rhine from
the Armistice up to the time they returned home.

London, July 23, 1923.

We left London about ten days ago by motor and went to Cromer and Overstrand and through the Norfork Broads in a launch to Great Yarmouth, the land of Dickins.

While we were at Overstrand I motored to Sheringham, some four or five miles away, to see Lord Balfour who has been lying ill there for six weeks or longer. When I arrived he was having a massage and I talked with Sir Maurice Hankey for a half hour or more. I have been told that Maurice Hankey has kept a very accurate and detailed diary covering the years of the war and since. This is important for no one had greater access to Lloyd George, Balfour and the British authorities than Hankey.

Balfour and I had a long talk principally about the occupation of the Ruhr and the settlement of the differences between France, Germany and Great Britain. Although he has been ill and in bed for so long he looked rather better than usual. He asked my opinion of Baldwin. He said he knew him but had never been in conference with him enough to gauge his ability. My estimate of an Baldwin was this: he is an intelligent, honest and courageous man without marked ability. I thought him of the Edward Grey type without Grey's great experience in governmental affairs. I compared him to Grey because he seems selfless as far as his own fortunes are concerned.

Balfour thought my summary a fair one and seemed interested in it. He was not in as close touch with the negotiations going on between Great Britain and France as I was, and I gave him what information I had. He was especially interested to learn that Keynes had written the last German note. We both thought

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the note Great Britain was then preparing was of great importance, and Balfour wondered whether there was a man in the Government equal to the task. My thought was that it needed a very deft and experienced hand. Balfour replied that Curzon was the only one in the Government with the ability to write it, but no one could say he had a deft hand.

We returned to London last night and Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd George invited us to lunch today. There was no one present excepting Mr. and Mrs. John W. Davis, Lord Dawson and ourselves. We talked almost wholly about George's American visit and came to as near an agreement as you can ever come with the illusive Welshman. He afterward fell to talking of President Harding and Secretary Hughes. His opinion of Harding was the generally accepted one, but he was very severe in his criticism of Hughes. He said he was given a very accurate statement of Hughes' policies, and he summed them up by saying that it was the first time he ever knew a man in such an important position who was publicly advocating policies which he privately admitted were all wrong and in which he did not believe, giving as his excuse that the policies represented American public opinion and he could not go contrary to them.

in terms said he
I thought it was the most cowardly administration I had
ever known, for they permitted a dozen or more irreconcilable sen-
ators to dictate the administration's foreign policy.

Strangely enough, a little later, George was speaking of the
great tragedy which had happened to the world because of the non-
participation of the United States in after war settlements. He
thought it might easily become the greatest disaster in all history.
He said we were responsible for it to this extent: The Allies

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would never have completely smashed Germany had not the
weight of the United States been brought to bear in their favor.
That having completely smashed Germany a condition was brought
about which could only be mitigated by the full cooperation of the
United States in the making of the peace.

George said it was a pity Wilson ever came to Paris and here
is the inconsistency of the man. He criticised Hughes for advoca-
ting policies in which he does not believe, and then went on to say
that if Wilson had remained in Washington it would not have been
possible for Clemenceau and himself to have argued him into doing
things at Versailles which would have been better for all had they
not been done. With Wilson in Washington he and Clemenceau could
not have argued with him but being in Paris they were compelled to
urge the dominant French and British point of view upon him which he
largely accepted, although it was wrong.

I called George's attention to the fact that Wilson and I
did our utmost to bring about peace before either the Central Pow-
ers or the Allies had been wholly broken, because we saw the tragedy
that lay ahead in the event either went completely under. In re-
ply George said it was impossible to get Germany to make peace on
any possible terms. This is true. However, the Allies were al-
most as obdurate and unreasonable.

PARIS, July 31, 1923.

It is interesting to go from one country to another and get the different points of view. I have been in England for nearly two months and came over to Paris thoroughly saturated with their viewpoint as to the reparations question and a general European settlement.

In governmental circles it is known that France has deliberately built up her air service for the purpose of keeping Great Britain from interfering with her German policy. Sir William Joynson-Hicks told me in confidence, just before I left London, that France had 1200 fighting airplanes, and that Great Britain had only 20 available for home use. The balance are scattered throughout the Empire. He said during the war Germany did not drop in England, in any one month, more than sixty tons of explosives. The French could now in one night drop 120 tons the first night, 90 tons the second night and 70 tons every night thereafter.

It is to be remembered that the bombs are now much more effective than they were during the war. He said in a war with France London would almost immediately become uninhabitable. The English resent this position of France and the threat it contains against Great Britain, and the feeling is growing more bitter day by day.

There are now 1,200,000 unemployed in Great Britain and if the unsettled condition in Central Europe continues, it is expected that there will be 2,000,000 unemployed this winter. The English contend that the money they borrowed from the United States and upon which they are now paying such heavy interest was borrowed for the purpose of helping save France. In return the French are, by their refusal to come

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to a settlement with Germany, are killing British trade. Also they are using money which rightly should be paid to Great Britain for the purpose of keeping up an entirely unnecessary airfleet and making extensive internal improvements such as water power plants, docks etc. etc.

The French view, as I learn it, is that the English would have no unemployment if England had suffered the destruction of her industrial sections as France did, and that if Manchester and Birmingham had been destroyed, every available workman in England would now be at work repairing the damage.

nothing
They also contend that Great Britain cares only for France's safety but only for her own trade; that she would be willing to sanction some guarantees through the League of Nations for France's immediate safety, yet in the years to come she might decide that it would be best for England to side with Germany and withdraw from this guarantee.

The French contend, too, that the money France is spending on her army and airfleet and internal improvements is French money and that it is no one's concern excepting her own how she uses it. They believe it is better to maintain the supremacy she now holds than to give it up for some uncertain guarantee which will be wholly dependent upon the continued good will of other nations.

I have been trying to get the French to see that they may be never so right in the position they are taking, but that ultimately it will bring disaster. Great Britain will inevitably drift toward Germany and gradually there will be an alignment between Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Russia and Japan. If trade conditions in the United

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States are seriously hurt by the continued demoralization of Germany
through the insistence of France not to make a settlement, then the
United States will sympathize with the pact against France, leaving her
completely isolated.

I am trying to make them see that she has not the ultimate re-
sources to carry on over a great number of years the policy she is now
pursuing. There is only one country in the world with the population
resources and wealth to follow such a policy and that is the United
States.

During the war and just afterward, France realized that she was
a second class power because it was then evident that if she had had to
contend with Germany alone, she would have been defeated within a few
weeks. Since the war the great powers have demoralized and reduced
their armies with the exception of France and Russia. This has left
France the dominant military power of the world and she has forgotten
the lesson of the war. The elation which has come to those in power
from the realization that France can dominate Europe at the moment has
gone to their heads and they are following the same course which has
proved so disastrous to other nations in the past. I wish I could
make them see this as it appears to me, but I fear it is a hopeless
task. Just what the final outcome will be no one can say but my affec-
tion for France makes me anxious for her future.

PARIS, August 5, 1923.

In the early morning of August 3rd the Associated Press called me over the telephone to tell me that President Harding was dead. I had just been looking at the headlines of the Paris morning papers in which they said the President was out of danger and was planning to leave San Francisco to recuperate at some quiet resort. At the A. P's request and later at the request of the United Press, I made the following statement:

I share the grief of every American who knew President Harding. He was a kindly, lovable character and held the confidence and affection of our people.

I also sent Mrs. Harding this message:

Mrs. Harding,
The White House,
Washington,

You have our heartfelt sympathy in the great bereavement which
has befallen you and the American people.

Edward House.

We had invited a few friends for lunch and were going out to dinner that evening. The lunch we called off and we cancelled the dinner engagement.

I had a long talk with Senator Gilbert M. Hitchcock yesterday. He asked if I thought he had done wrong in not letting the Versailles Treaty go through with the Lodge reservations. In my opinion he made a mistake and I frankly told him so. He was the leader of our Party in the Senate and no matter what President Wilson wished, he should not have given way on so momentous a question to the whimseys and petulence of a sick man. Hitchcock's excuse was that if he had allowed the Treaty to go through he would have been considered disloyal to Wilson,

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and he was afraid it would disrupt the party. He said he had great difficulty in keeping enough democrats from voting for it to ratify it.

The most valid excuse he gave was that no one at the time thought the republicans would do more than go before the country on the Lodge reservations, and he confidently thought it was merely a question of delay and that finally either the Treaty would be passed as Wilson wished, or it would be passed with the Lodge reservations as the republicans program called for.

I am seeing many leaders of both parties here, and I am doing what I can, in a discreet way, to direct attention to the qualifications of Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania for the next republican presidential nomination. My idea in pushing Pinchot is that he is for the League and for most of the things I believe in, and if we cannot elect a democrat I would like to see a republican elected holding such views as he has. I tried to do the same thing in '20 and but for an unfortunate fluke Governor Lowden of Illinois would have been the republican nominee. If he had been the whole current of history would have been different during the past two years from what it has been.

Paris, August 7, 1923.

I had another talk with Senator Hitchcock this morning. I asked him what there was in the story that he and Senator Lodge had come to an agreement as to the passage of the Versailles Treaty with certain reservations; that he had gone to Wilson; that the President had accepted the reservations and that when he, Hitchcock, returned to Lodge he refused to live up to his agreement.

I told Hitchcock that this gave color to the theory that the President's entourage gave out, and which I believe Wilson himself accepts, that no matter what Wilson was willing to agree to Lodge would have asked for more and with no intention of finally passing the Treaty under any reservations.

Hitchcock said the facts were as follows:

He and Lodge had been working over some sort of compromise but had not reached a conclusion. Meanwhile, he thought he would talk to the President and he showed him the formula which he had worked out. This formula was largely taken from one which Taft had made. Hitchcock did not get Wilson to say he would take it, but he, Hitchcock, was under the impression if he could get Lodge to take it that he could finally persuade the President to do so. He had a meeting at which Senators Lodge, Kellogg, Lenroot Pomerene and some others were present. Hitchcock was not quite clear as to who was at the meeting. They discussed the matter and seemed on the eve of an agreement when Senator Brandegee called Lodge out of the meeting. They waited for Lodge for an hour or more and he did not return and nothing was ever done further.

This is the entire story. Whether Wilson would have taken it if Lodge had agreed, or whether Lodge could have been brought to an agreement is quite uncertain.

Paris, August 19, 1923.

We left Paris on Saturday the 11th for a motor trip through the Northwestern provinces of France with the idea of ultimately winding up at Les Sables d'Olonne to see Clemenceau.

When we left the Ritz Saturday I met Lord Curzon just arriving and, strangely enough, he was going to Bagnoles de l'Orne the first place we expected to stop and spend the night. He asked us to take dinner with him and we accepted but the trouble made it impossible as we arrived too late. However, I saw him the next day and we had a long and interesting talk concerning the acute situation now existing between France and Great Britain. Curzon was very frank and talked without reservation. He seemed aware that I knew the inside of the negotiations which had been going on. I frankly admitted that it was as nearly an impossible situation as I had ever come across. It is seldom that I can see a way out but in this instance I do not. It is not that there is not a way out which should be satisfactory to everyone, but Poincaré is so stubborn and so determined to lead France into a position of isolation.

Curzon said he had been insulted in his notes, but the English Government had paid no attention to them and were determined to keep the peace if possible.

I told him the only light I saw was in the League of Nations; that it was conceivable that they could invoke the power of the League to bring about a settlement. Curzon said he had thought of that and he was not certain he would not invoke Article 11 of the Covenant and see what could be done. The only other alternative was for Great Britain to the German reparations France was de-

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manding, and the British people would not stand for any such policy. He spoke of how badly the peace of Versailles was done and that it was due to Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Wilson. He summed them up as follows:

Wilson was an idealist and a theoretical statesman who wanted what was right but did not know how to accomplish it.

Clemenceau was a fine old man but cynical and perfectly willing to let anything and everything go adrift provided the interest of France was protected.

Lloyd George he termed an agile, clever politician, totally ignorant and unfitted for the task which he had assumed.

Curzon expressed surprise that the United States was sympathizing with the French policy rather than with the British. I explained it by pleading that our people were ignorant of the actual conditions and they were being misled by our present Government.

Just before I left Paris I had an interview with Andre TÉEDieu and he confirmed what I already knew that the position in which France now finds herself hate. The French people are enjoying Poincare's dictatorial attitude toward Great Britain and they are entirely willing to assume the isolation which he is so rapidly bringing about. Tardieu said he believed the French now hate the English more than they do the Germans, and he also said they disliked foreigners in general.

He said Poincare would have fallen in December if Clemenceau had not given out the Lipmann interview which condemned the Ruhr adventure. He said it was the Ruhr which was holding Poincare

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in power; that if Germany went to pieces they would acclaim Poincare
as a great statesman, and if he slaps Great Britain in the face and
breaks up the Entente that too would be approved. In other words,
the more foolish Poincare becomes the more acclaim he receives. It
is a said situation and I am wondering what the old Tiger whom I am
to see tomorrow will say about it.

One of the interesting things Curzon told me was that the
Belgian Ambassador in London would come to him and agree with the
English position in every detail and deplore the fact that his
Government had to work in harmony with France. Curzon also said
that the Italians were utterly impossible; that they demand some
advantage for every concession.

August 19, 1923.

We returned yesterday from our eight day motor trip through
the northwestern provinces of France, the Vendee and the Loire Val-
ley. It is the first time for years that I have gotten complete-
ly out of touch with things and the result was I found upon my ar-
rival here a dalf dozen or more telegrams, one of which was a cable
from home announcing the death of my only remaining brother. I
have cancelled all my engagements including the trip to Switzerland.

The most interesting part of our journey was the time we
spent with Clemenceau at his home at St Vincent-sur-Jard. He has
built himself an unpretentious little house on the sand dunes of
that wind swept coast and seems entirely happy. He has an excel-
lent cook, a good valet, a Rolls Royce and a chauffeur to his liking
so altogether he is rather to be envied.

We had considerable talk and found ourselves in agreement

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Almost everything is true about Paris.

regarding the French policy under the direction of Poincare. I stated my opinion much as I have done elsewhere in this memorandum, and he accepted it without argument. Almost the last thing he said was "the problem is to get rid of Poincare" which, of course, is the essence of it all. The French people outside of Paris could be as easily led in the right direction as they are now being led in the wrong, for at bottom they are a sturdy, peace loving, home loving race.

Clemenceau was full of the monument he is erecting over the grave of his father in the Vendee and which is to be his own resting place. There is to be no inscription on the rough stone which will mark the graves, not even the family name "Clemenceau".

He spoke with regret that conditions had made it impossible for him to carry out my suggestion of a visit to Germany. I told him I had not written about it or even mentioned it for the reason that conditions had made it unwise.

The New York Times asked permission before I left Paris to send a photographer down to the Vendee to take Clemenceau and my pictures together which he did to his seeming satisfaction.

An English friend told me the other day that while the German fleet was being taken to Scapa Flow after the war the sailors were instructed to treat the Germans with courtesy and were warned against any infraction of this order. A sailor was seen to knock a German officer down and when repremanded said "I could not help it He was insulting us". Asked in what way he replied: "He spat in our sea". This story reminds me of the Armistice negotiations and the position taken by Lloyd George and Reading as to the rights of

112 East 74th Street,
New York City.

November 20, 1923.

Upon the insistence of some of my friends I am partially resuming my diary. I discontinued it in 1921 because it wearied me.

During the last few days I have had lunch with Paderewski who took up almost an hour trying to persuade me that it was my duty to run for the democratic nomination for President. He seemed to think that all I need do was to nod and the Party would nominate me and the people later elect me. Curiously enough within the week Cleveland Dodge said if I would run he would form a committee in my behalf which, of course, meant the committee would finance it. I have had dozens of men and women urge me to run promising both their political and financial support. I have even been urged not to say I would not accept the nomination if offered but this I am unwilling to do. It is necessary to either be a candidate or not. Friends in Texas have urged that I allow them to try to get the votes of that State for me at the National Convention. This I declined because I am not willing to go into even a semblance of a race for the office. If I should permit a move of this sort I would soon find myself in sharp antagonism with the McAdoo and Underwood people who are trying to get the State, and I should have to come out in the open as a candidate or run the risk of seeming to be defeated. I therefore declined to allow them to proceed and told them, as some letters sent to Texas will indicate, that even if I were nominated I should not accept. I put the holding of office behind me many years ago and I have no intention of changing that attitude at this late day.

However, I am as interested in politics as ever and within the last few days have had conferences with Governor Sweet of Colorado, ex-Senator Saulsbury of Deleware, Lieut. Gov. Lunn of New York. While McAdoo was here I had frequent conferences with him as to his candidacy. My correspondence also shows my activities in this direction.

Most of the party leaders drift in from time to time for consultation

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and advice. One of the most delightful recent happenings was Governor Pinchot's pilgrimage here to obtain advice as to his candidacy for the republican nomination for President. He understands naturally that as between himself and a democrat I shall support my party's candidate but for many reasons I would like to see Pinchot receive the republican nomination although, in my opinion, he has only one chance in a hundred of doing so.

November 23, 1923.

Gordon gave a dinner last night in honor of D. N. Heineman of Brussels. I sat between Heineman and Raymond Fosdick and talked with Fosdick most of the time since he was full of a recent visit he had with Woodrow Wilson in Washington.

He said he had never been on very close terms with Wilson although he was a student under him at Princeton. Wilson he thought had not treated him well when he was serving on the Secretariat of the League of Nations in 1919 and Fosdick was surprised to receive a letter from Wilson asking him to come to Washington to see him.

He said he left after an hour's interview still wondering what Wilson wanted with him. The only reasons Wilson gave, which did not seem to Fosdick the real one, was to talk about educational matters and the Rockefeller Foundation's policy regarding them. Fosdick said he had never seen Wilson in better full of mental form but that he was caustic epigrammatic remarks about everyone who has fallen under the ban of his displeasure. He excoriated the Italians in general and Mussolini in particular. As for the French, he hoped Germany would soon produce another Bismark to smash France. Just why he should take this attitude I do not know for during the Paris Peace Conference, particularly toward the end, Wilson became almost the most anti-German member of the Conference.

He told Fosdick he liked Lloyd George and hoped he and Asquith would win.

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Apropos of this Fosdick saw Colonel Rice of Albany a day or so ago and Rice told him that in a very recent interview with Wilson, Wilson said he had written a cablegram or letter to Lloyd George bidding him Godspeed in his fight against Baldwin and hoped he would complete defeat the present British Government. Rice thinks Mrs. Wilson persuaded him not to sent it. There is nothing that could be done to help Baldwin more than for Wilson to interfere in British politics in such a way.

He told Fosdick that Princeton had been bought a few years ago by a "soap boiler of Cincinnati but he understood it was now for sale again."

Senator Lodge's name was mentioned and Wilson remarked "Oh, he died many years ago. I mean morally" and dismissed him from the conversation.

One of the most interesting things he said was that he felt he had not done his duty by keeping his name from the National Convention at San Francisco in 1920. Fosdick said he spoke as if he had not treated the Almighty fairly in shirking this duty. To this, I held Wilson morally blameless for, in my opinion, if God held anybody responsible for that error it would be the Convention itself which never for a moment contemplated Wilson's nomination even though several Cabinet officials were there for the purpose of bringing his name before the Convention at a propitious time.

Another astounding thing he said was that both political parties would place a League of Nations plank in their platforms at the coming conventions. Both Fosdick and I concluded that he could never have made such a remark had he been at all informed of present public opinion. He asked Fosdick who he was for. Fosdick evaded the question and said that personally he would prefer Newton Baker, to which Wilson replied that he too thought Baker was a coming man but "he should be saved for 1928." just why he thought '28 a more propitious time for Baker than '24 he left unrevealed.

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He spoke of himself time and again as the party leader and said he was being constantly consulted on party affairs. This I believe is true for it is the one thing I have urged Cordell Hull and others to do, that is to keep in close touch with him in order to persuade him not to do something foolish politically to wreck democratic chances for success.

November 26, 1923.

I have been very busy yesterday and today getting up planks for McAdoo's platform, and in discussing with Mr. Alfred Lucking, who came from Detroit to see me concerning Henry Ford's political fortunes and Lucking's plan for having a referendum vote taken on the League of Nations. I am getting Judge George W. Anderson of Boston to make suggestions for a railroad plank for the McAdoo platform and Norman Hapgood is making some suggestions as to a foreign plank.

David Miller is writing these planks under my direction.

Lucking tells me that no one can tell from one hour to another what Ford intends to do. He illustrated by saying that when he ran for the Senate in 1918, the day before he announced they were travelling together from Detroit and Washington. Ford said "if the people of Michigan would build a railroad from Detroit to Washington and lay it with gold ties and spikes and would turn it over to me after they elected me to the Senate and taken me to Washington I would not consider it a moment."

When they reached Washington Lucking went to see Secretary Baker on some matters and Ford went to see Secretary Daniels. Later in the day Ford handed Lucking a memorandum saying "what do you think of that?" Lucking replied "I think it is nonsense" and tore it up and threw it in the waste paper basket saying "I hope you will not consider making any such statement. Ford replied "I have already made it and given it to the press.""

When Ford was in the race for the Senate he refused to make a speech

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give a dollar or write a letter. Newberry spent, according to Lucking, $750,000.
in debauching the voters. Lucking, on his own initiative, raised for the
Ford campaign $33,000. $5000. of this was given by Thomas Edison and $5000. by
Firestone. He said Firestone would have given an unlimited amount but he would
not accept more than $5000. Ford lost the election by about 4400 votes and
thereby the entire history of the world was changed. If Ford had been seated
the Senate would have been a tie and Vice President Marshall by his vote would
have aided the democrats in organizing the Senate and ratifying the Treaty of
Versailles.

Lucking asked me the direct question if I would support Ford if he ran for
the nomination. I told him I was committed to McAdoo. He replied "There it is
and I suppose commitments have been largely made all over the country." However,
I urged him to advise Ford not to go into a third party movement for the nomina-
tion. I said even Roosevelt with all his experience and having the prestige of
two terms as President was unable to succeed and that in Ford's case he would be
faced with a fiasco similar to that of the "Peace Ship."

He said Mrs. Ford was an ardent republican, not so much in real conviction
upon the subject but because she lived in a republican atmosphere. She is very
much opposed to Ford going into politics. Lucking asked Ford the other day why
he did not take him, Lucking, into his confidence since he had never betrayed
him and had always been loyal to him. Ford replied that he did take him into
his confidence, particularly about political matters, more than any human being
including his son Edsel. Lucking said "you can understand the difficulty I
have in dealing with such character because he has literally told me nothing".
"He merely says he does not want the nomination for President, but when I tell
him he ought to give some definite reply to all the inquiries being made he says,
'I do not care what they do'"

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Lucking told of Ford's financial troubles a year or so ago. They did ask aid in New York and required about seventy million dollars, but when Ford heard the terms he refused to have anything to do with New York and raised the money on his own initiative. The strange part of it to me is the casual way in which he does everything. He did not know until he needed this money, so Lucking told me, that he had one hundred and three million dollars invested in raw materials while he only needed about forty millions. They sold the balance and raised money in some other ways which Ford explains in his recent book, ""My Life and Work".

Mrs. Whitney Shepardson and Miss Ruth Morgan came to get me to help formulate questions to be put to the presidential candidates in the forthcoming elections. I gave them as disinterested advice as I could and without prejudice. The questions are to be used by the women of the country and are important.

December 14th, 1923.

For the past few weeks I have been immersed in the American Peace Award of which I am a member of the Jury. There are some 22 000 plans, but by a process of elimination we have to consider less than one hundred. The difficulty is that so many make the same suggestions and it is more a question of of presentation. I am gratified to find many of the plans advocating an associate membership of the League of Nations. This is the method I suggested in September 1922 in the London Times as a compromise to the existing deadlock. I had many articles written on this plan, some of the best by Bruce Bliven in the New York Evening Globe, and I tried to get Edward Bok to organize a committee to push it throughout the country so as to bring pressure to bear upon the Harding Administration. Bok was enamoured with the idea at first but he later wrote Woodrow Wilson asking him what he thought of it. His reply was that it

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was a compromise and he would have none of it. He thought the League should
be made a party issue. Bok tells me now that my suggestion about this put the
thought in his mind to offer the $100,000. award for the best suggestion for
a peace plan.

Mr. Root has been and is critically ill and has been unable to call the
Jury together or sit with us since the first meeting. At this
meeting I proposed him for Chairman and also proposed when we made a motion to
adjourn that we meet subject to the call of the Chairman. His subsequent ill-
ness has made it impossible for us to meet without his consent and it has been
extremely difficult to get this because his sick room has been guarded as that
of Woodrow Wilson was in 1919. We finally got a verbak reply to a letter which
I dictated and which several members of the Jury signed, saying that we should
meet without him. We therefore proceeded to call the Jury together and under-
take a decision.

At our first meeting it was proposed to elect me Vice Chairman. I ask-
ed them not to do this as I thought it might be considered something of a
reflection upon Senator Root. They therefore asked me to act as Chairman
of the meetings which I have done from time to time.

None of the plans suited me altogether nor, indeed, the rest of the Jury and
it is not strange this should be true. I had in mind from the beginning to
select a plan including associate membership in the League of Nations and Court.
This I have succeeded in doing, but not without some diplo-
matic work.

The Jury have been very fine in evidencing a willingness to harmonize
views and to reach a unanimous conclusion. When we began to discuss the plans
I stated what I thought was essential, first, we had to take heed of the 57 na-
tions already in association together in an organization with which they were

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content. Second, we had to take into consideration the prejudice created in
this country against accepting certain Articles of the Covenant. The only way
this seemed possible was by associating ourselves in the League and Court in
the same way we associated ourselves in the war.

The members of the Jury agreed in this view and we had the earnest cooper-
ation of our able and efficient Secretary, Miss Esther Lape. She has made it
possible for us to go through the plans with a minimum amount of work although
at best the task has not been light.

In addition to the American Peace Award I have had numerous conferences
with politicians, particularly with the McAdoo forces whose cause I am trying
to promote.

One of my most interesting callers recently was Dr. Nansen who came this
afternoon to bid me goodbye and to talk for an hour or more.

Hugh Wallace, ex-Ambassador to France, was another caller yesterday as
indeed were the Editorial force of the International Independent who came to get
my views on the international situation.

I have seldom been busier than I am at present and much of the work
I am doing is interesting and I hope useful.

December 19, 1923.

Senator Kellogg, our newly appointed Ambassador to the Court of St
James, called on me this morning. Among the interesting things he told me was
that when President Wilson came home from Paris he, Kellogg, went to him and
told him that he could count upon his services in getting the Versailles Treaty
passed. He explained to him however that it would be impossible to get it
through without some reservations. He told Wilson that after a careful survey
of the Senate he could muster 35 republican votes and at any time Wilson had

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asked the democratic Senators to vote with these 35, the Treaty would have passed.
He said that once during the voting, thirty-five Republicans did vote for the
Treaty and several times thirty-four voted, but Wilson never gave the word for
the democrats to join them therefore the Treaty was finally defeated.

February 9, 1924.

It is seldom that I have had things crowd in upon me as they have during
the past ten days. I have been busy enough, in all truth, seeing politicians,
League of Nations advocates, editorial writers of the daily and weekly press,
the American Peace Award, etc. etc. but the great storm began to break with the
Fall-Doheny-Sinclair oil exposure. When this was at its height here, word
began to come to me from news agencies and from Washington of the serious illness
of Woodrow Wilson. As his life ebbed away the telephones became more frequent
both from Washington and here until the end came at 11.15 Sunday morning, February
3rd.

That disaster added to the other seemed not enough, and on Tuesday the 5th
the Lloyd George charge of a secret treaty between Wilson and Clemenceau was made
public. The New York World was the first to reach me by telephone on the night
of the 5th with Harold Spender's cable from London, and insistence was made for
some word from me. Not having my papers at hand, I declined to do more than
to generalize and suggest that if there was such a treaty it should be publish-
ed, knowing, of course, there was none. The next day practically all the papers
in New York were after me, and I had a cable from the London Daily Mail asking
for confirmation or refutation of George's assertion.

My secretary went to the safe deposit box the following morning and brought

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up my diary covering that period, and I find that Clemenceau and I worked the
matter out together and took it to Wilson who reluctantly approved. There was
no writing of any kind on and it was merely a word of mouth agreement. When
Lloyd George returned from London, Clemenceau and Wilson told him that during
his absence they had agreed as to the terms of occupation and George acquiesced.

The reason the oil scandal gave me so much concern and annoyance was be-
cause of Doheny's testimony regarding the employment of McAdoo. It brought on
my back most of the McAdoo men in this vicinity and it was necessary to have
numerous conferences. Daniel Roper came from Washington to see me and there was
no difference of opinion between us as to the procedure McAdoo should take. We
wanted him to disclaim any reprehensible connection with the oil companies but to
declare that since the oil scandal would probably be one of the dominant issues
of the campaign, he preferred not to embarrass his friends and party by continu-
ing as a candidate. We wanted him to say that his political fortunes were of
no importance but the cause for which he and his friends stood was of vital
importance, therefore while he would no longer be a candidate he would be found
in the front ranks fighting for the principles in which he so earnestly believed.

My letter to Judge George W. Anderson and to McAdoo tell something of my at-
titude. I am distressed not only on McAdoo's account but on account of the many
friends I have advised to take up his cause, the principal one among them being
David H. Miller. It is Miller's first venture into politics, but his fine abil-
ity has been a source of strength to the McAdoo forces. I believe it is also
Tom Chadbourne's first adventure into the great political arena and he told Miller
over the telephone the other day from Washington that "This is my first effort in
bringing out a candidate and it is my last ". Miller replied "Tom, just sign my

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name under yours".

While I sympathize with both it is amusing to see how the tyros take to heart their first disaster.

Trying as these two incidents have been, they were overwhelmed by the tragedy of the ex-President's death. It was perhaps a good thing for me that I had these unavoidable demands on my time and thought. While I have been expecting it to happen yet the death of Woodrow Wilson came as a distinct shock. It was the ending of one of the great careers of which the world has record-- a career intertwined with the best and most active years of my life-- a career upon the success of which I had placed all the desires, hopes and dreams for a better and more understanding world. It was not alone my interest in the success of his undertaking, but I had a deep and abiding affection for the man which all that has happened since June 28th, 1919 has not shaken.

I had arranged to go to Washington to the funeral but at the last moment thought it best not to do so. My reasons for this were several. It developed that the funeral was to be more or less private, first at the home and later at the Chapel which held but four hundred people and which could be entered only by special permit. In other words, if my name was not on the list as one of the expected, I could not have entered.

Joseph Tumulty telephoned from Washington and said he had not been invited; that he knew nothing of the funeral arrangements and wondered whether I was coming down. This knock shook my resolution somewhat. I could get no information from my friend Breckenridge Long, with whom I had arranged to stop while in Washington, neither could I get any information from R. W. Woolley. I finally asked B. M. Baruch if he would find out from his friend Grayson whether I would

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be admitted. He promised to let me know in the afternoon. Not hearing from him, around six o'clock I called him up. He said he had not been able to get in touch with Grayson. I concluded this was an evasion and that he had made the request and had been told that I was not expected. I was confirmed in this view by Baruch calling me from Washington Tuesday night to talk about the Lloyd George statement and not mentioning in any way that my name was on the list.

It seems that after the President and the members of the Cabinet my name headed the list of private citizens. This I found was done by the Cathedral authorities at the suggestion of my friend Carl W. Ackerman. Whether or not the Wilson family had seen the list, I do not know. The list was made up from names given by the family and by Butler Wright, a friend of mine, who is Third Secretary of the State Department.

I attended the service at the Madison Square Gardens instead of going to Washington. While the Garden lacked the historic tradition and surroundings of Westminster Abbey and other cathedrals in Europe where I have attended memorial exercises, I have never witnessed a more impressive and touching service than this given at the Garden for Woodrow Wilson.

February 13, 1924.

Among my visitors today was Nathan Stedman of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. He came to ask me to write for the Eagle and he particularly desired me to write about Woodrow Wilson and his relations with Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Orlando. He said that a short time before Wilson died he saw him in Washington and asked him to write himself on this subject. The President replied that he was unable to do so and that the only men who could do it were "Colonel House and Ray Stanford Baker". I declined to write on the subject.

While I am making these notes I might say that I have been stamping out

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another fire started for me for the democratic nomination for President within
the past few days. McAdoo's disability has made some of his friends turn to
me hoping he will withdraw and that his support could be rallied in my behalf.

March 8, 1924.

I intended to keep the diary regularly but since I have lost the habit
it is difficult to take it up again. However, every hour of the day is filled
in one way or another. The telephone is an increasing nuisance largely be-
cause I have not changed my number for sometime and it is known to pretty much
everybody. I shall change it again when we move next Autumn as that is the
only way I can secure a measurable peace.

I notice from my list of engagements that on February 26th, Charles
Selden, the writer, Mrs. Borden Harriman and Ellery Sedgwick were my principal
callers, and that evening we dined with Bishop and Mrs. Menning.

Selden wanted me to outline the democratic campaign and to tell what I
knew of the candidates for the Presidential nomination.

Mrs. Harriman came to report on events at Washington including the scandals
that have broken out and are brewing there. She is a very close friend of
Senator Walsh's therefore she knows more than most. Sedgwick's call too
had to do with politics and of democratic prospects both as to men and measures.

On February 15th, to go back to that date, Princess Bibesco was my most
interesting caller. She had just landed from a five months visit in England
and had much to say of conditions there. I wished particularly to know about
her father, Mr. Asquith, and his reconciliation with Lloyd George. I found that
they feel about as kindly toward George as they did before and it was only for
the sake of the Liberal Party and the cause that Asquith consented to join forces
with him.

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Another caller on the 18th was the Merchioness of Donegal, and on the 19th Mrs. de Norman Whitehouse. All of these women are forward-looking and are trying to do their part in public affairs. They are able and unselfish and have an outlook pleasant to come in touch with.

On Wednesday the 20th, we went to Baltimore to visit a few days with the John W. Garrett's. I needed a rest and got it there for they observed my wish not to meet anyone other than one or two friends of the family. We attended one large dinner given by John's sister, Mrs. Jacobs. It was a dinner of fifty and the flower of Baltimore was there. It was a lovely affair and comparable to anything I have seen in New York.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Washburn Child were callers Thursday the 21st, and they told much of their experiences at Rome while he was Ambassador. He is persistent that I shall go there and meet Mussolini.

Mrs. Emmons Blaine of Chicago has been a frequent caller because of her difficulties with the Non-Partisan League of Nations Association regarding their policy for the coming campaign. She is opposed to bringing the League of Nations into politics, and in this I share her opinion, provided it can be done without too much evasion.

On February 25th, the McAdoo Managers came to see me. Miller, Roper, Rockwell and Bertron. While I tried my best to get McAdoo to make a graceful gesture of renunciation and withdraw his name as a candidate, since he determined and thought otherwise, I disagreed with most of the others present that he should go on for the time being, not that I felt he had any chance of success, but to get out now would be something of a confession of guilt. The time for him to have quit was at Washington just after Woodrow Wilson died and when the oil scandal was breaking furiously. If he had stated then that he did not intend to allow the Republicans to cast a smoke screen around the issue and use him for that purpose,

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he would have made an excellent impression. The friends of all the other democratic candidates, wishing to inherit his strength, would have applauded his unselfish patriotism and in every county and every state something complimentary would have been said of him. He might then have come to the Convention, headed the California Delegation, might have been made Temporary Chairman, made the keynote speech, and when the Convention became locked he might have been chosen to salvage anything from the wreck. What he determined to do brings about the reverse effect. Now the friends of other candidates are gunning for McAdoo and I am afraid we are bringing out everything to his disadvantage. However, he will be beaten and humiliated, for the democrats will have to take a candidate for whom they must explain throughout the campaign. And that is just the way the Republicans want it.

In addition to politics and other activities every evening has been taken up with social affairs. Louie likes to go and I hate to deprive her of the pleasure although it is a constant strain upon me.

Among other things I have been giving Governor William E. Sweet of Colorado, a try out in democratic circles here. On Thursday the 6th I had to meet him at tea practically all the democratic leaders in New York. I also got Jas. G. McDonald of the Foreign Policy Association to get up a luncheon for him on March 15th at the Hotel Astor. I have him in mind for second place on the ticket provided an Eastern man is nominated for first place. Carter Glass and Sweet would make a strong ticket and one with which we could go before the country with some confidence. The fact that Glass is Southern is something of a drawback politically but I believe what the country wants now are men of ability and integrity, and that for once will not look so much to political availability.

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On Friday Hamilton Fish Armstrong came to ask me to write an article for the June number of Foreign Affairs. Senator Pepper is to write for the republicans outlining their policies more particularly concerning foreign affairs, and Armstrong and Archibald Coolidge wish me to do the same for the democrats. I may or may not do it. If I decline I shall try and get someone for them.

Yesterday the 8th General Henry T. Allen came to tell me in confidence that some friends in Ohio were urging him to become a candidate for the democratic nomination for President. I advised him not to consent to let them use his name in this way but to so arrange, if there was a deadlock, his name might be proposed and considerable support brought to him. This seemed to meet his approval and he will act accordingly. He is a courageous upstanding man and we could go further and do worse. His main defect is that he knows nothing about the political game and might walk unwittingly into many pitfalls which seasoned and subtle politicians laid for him.

Josephus Daniels was another caller yesterday. He is writing a life of Woodrow Wilson and came for information concerning certain events which he was not clear or knew nothing. He especially wishes to write upon the rupture of relations between Wilson and me. I have him guardedly but declined to allow him to use me as authority.

David Lawrence and William Allen White have been among my many visitors since I last recorded and they, too, are writing on the life of Woodrow Wilson and came to me for information. Lawrence knows as much as any outsider of his subject, for he was a student under Wilson at Princeton, and when Wilson ran for Governor of New Jersey Lawrence was assigned by the Associated Press to follow his campaign both for the nomination and election. He was later assigned to him while he was Governor of New Jersey. He had the same task in the Wilson

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race for the nomination and election to the Presidency, and when he was in the
Whitehouse Lawrence's assignment was there. Being a devoted friend of Tumulty's
he had unusual access to Wilson, as far as Tumulty was able to give it, there-
fore I found his information singularly accurate.

With William Allen White it was different. He is writing of Wilson in a
broad and general way and did not care to go into details of his administrations.
I advised him to see David F. Houston, Robert Bridges here and Carter Glass and
Gregory in Washington for additional information which he has since done.

March 10, 1924.

I have just had a remarkable conversation of a half hour over the
telephone from Washington with Jos. P. Tumulty. He has found that Woodrow
Wilson wrote a letter two and a half months before he died suggesting Tumulty's
name as a candidate for United States Senator from New Jersey. In this letter
he eulogizing Tumulty in a way which shows that his feeling was one of friend-
ship and confidence. Tumulty tells me that Dr. Grayson is the one who has
detached both himself and myself from the former President and that he was aid-
ed by Mrs. Wilson whom he probably also prejudiced by the same methods. He
told me something I did not know about the appointment of Bainbridge Colby as
Secretary of State. Tumulty opposed the appointment and thought the President
should follow out his intentions and appoint Newton Baker. He had convinced
the President that Baker was loyal to him and had had nothing to do with try-
ing to pass the resolution of disability in the Cabinet. He said he had con-
vinced Wilson but later Grayson got his ear and told him that he, Grayson, knew
as a fact that Baker was disloyal and was in favor of declaring that the Pres-
ident was disqualified by his state of health to act as President.

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Tumulty said Grayson came to him saying he had had the last word and that he had undone his work. Even after this Tumulty tried to persuade the President that he was making a mistake but he would not listen to him.

Tumulty also said that when the President, at Grayson's instance, wanted to appoint Baruch as Secretary of the Treasury he told the President it would not do to appoint a Wall Street speculator to that office; that no matter how Baruch maintained the office, every time the market broke people would think he had something to do with it and would possibly think Wilson and his Cabinet were also taking advantage of the fluctuations of the market. Baruch, he thought, had sense enough to know it would not do but Grayson and probably Mrs. Wilson urged it upon him.

I told Tumulty what I have said before in this diary that practically all the things I had heard of him to his discredit came to me from Grayson, and I confessed that I had been prejudiced myself by what he had told me. Grayson, he said, is to write a book and in this book he thought he would probably strike at both of us, but he, Tumulty, was also about to write another book and would have the last word and he asserted that when he got through with "the slimy one" there would be nothing left to say.

March 12, 1924.

Last night David Lawrence rang me up from Washington and talked for a half hour over the telephone. He read another chapter from his book-- a chapter relating almost wholly to me, telling something, as he saw it, of the drifting apart of Wilson and me. He asked me to correct him where wrong, or to tell him whether he was wholly right. I declined to do this as I did not wish to be the authority for what he had written. I told him much of the detail was incorrect but I thought he had better let it stand as it was.

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He asked whether he was sufficiently in error to cause contradiction. I re-assured him on this point. He speaks of "Murat Palace" as the scene of an incident between Mrs. Wilson and myself when it should have been the house on the Place des Etats-Unis which the Wilsons occupied upon their second visit to France. He also is incorrect in the details of the conversation between Mrs. Wilson and myself but the substance of his article is correct.

Among my visitors yesterday was Dr. John Firmin Coar of the Liberal League who is trying to proselytize German-Americans to the League of Nations under my direction. I outlined a letter for him to write President Ebert of the German Republic with the hope and expectation of getting a reply which can be used as an argument with the Germans here for favoring the United States entering the League as being the most direct and potent means of stabilizing Germany, and Europe. Coar said he knew Ebert and that the letter would be forthcoming. If he is right it will be a decided step in the League's direction.

My dear friend Herman Kohlsaat returned from Washington last night and came this morning for his usual walk with me. The President telephoned for him last Saturday asking him to spend a few days at the White House. He tells me he reached there Sunday afternoon at half past four o'clock but found the President asleep. However, they held a conference that evening and another Monday evening with several talks in between. He found the President much distressed, as indeed were Mr. Hughes and other Cabinet officials whom he saw. The President did not know what to do with Daugherty. He believes he has lost his mental balance, and he told Kohlsaat that Daugherty had a daughter who was insane and a son who was an imbecile. His best friend, Jess Smith, committed suicide last year and taking this altogether, with the death of President Harding, it had about finished him.

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The President said he felt that he was living under an impending disaster not knowing when it would break or how. He thought Daugherty might do anything at any time. The substance of his conferences was that he would give them Senate until the middle of April to determine the charges against Daugherty and if they did not formulate them by then, Daugherty might well resign and maintain that he was not officially smirched.

One thing I notice about the story of Kohlsaat's stay at the White House was that the President went to bed each night before ten o'clock and had plenty of time during the day to walk, talk and sleep whenever he desired. I have always maintained that the pressure under which the President was supposed to work was largely fiction. It certainly was with Wilson, and I doubt whether any President ever worked more consistently and regularly than he did during the greatest crisis in all history.

Kohlsaat called on Mrs. Harding whom he said sent warm regards to me and
said she had always had a liking for me since the day we met.

Among my letters today is one from Viscount Haldane. It is pleasant
to have him say that the Prime Minister intends to make a real League of Na-
tions out of the body and that foreign problems are his chief concern.

March 23, 1924.

Since I last recorded in the diary my time has been taken up with various
activities. My correspondence is large and there is seldom a day that some-
one does not come to consult me about the League of Nations and kindred subjects.

Among my visitors have been several candidates for the Presidency.
Governor William E. Sweet of Colorado, Senator Copeland and General Henry T. Allen

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A few days ago the Brooklyn Eagle telephoned to say that Barry, Sergeant of Arms of the Senate for forty years, has written a book and in it a paragraph concerning the break between Wilson and me. The paragraph was read to me over the telephone and I was asked if it were true. The purport of it was that my entourage at Paris, with my knowledge and consent, instigated articles in newspapers favorable to me and unfavorable to Wilson. Of course quite the contrary was true for I used every effort to prevent eulogistic articles about me from appearing. I knew if there were enough of them that what did happen would happen. I tried from the beginning of my association with Wilson to submerge my personality for I always realized that it was necessary to do so. My natural disinclination has always been against publicity therefore it was easy to submerge myself whenever possible. This diary will show that I did my best to have Wilson given credit for everything being done and for the things we tried to do and failed to accomplish.

March 31st, 1924.

Cyrus McCormick of Chicago called this afternoon to tell me how deeply he regretted that he had not pushed harder his intention of bringing Woodrow Wilson and myself together again. He said he saw Mrs. Wilson and her brother, John Randolph Bolling, and asked them the direct question what the trouble was between us. He was told that there was no real trouble but that a lot of little things happened and there was a drifting apart. McCormick intended to come back here and see me and carry some message to Wilson direct which he thought might have healed the breach, and he was full of regret that he had not done so. He said it was the sorrow of his life that Woodrow Wilson should have died without the two of us coming together again in the old way. He told me

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too that he had been talking with Professor William E. Dodd of the University of Chicago who, together with Ray Stannard Baker, has been selected by Mrs. Wilson to edit the Wilson papers.

McCormick said there were a number of letters he had written of which there were no copies; many of them presumably to me. He wondered whether I would be willing to give them photostatic copies. I did not answer this question directly but said he could tell Dodd and Baker that I would cooperate with them in every way possible. I took occasion to tell him that Mrs. Page was here last week and was disturbed over the final disposition of her husband's letters to the former President. I told him the story of Mrs. Page's efforts to get them, of her letter to Mrs. Wilson which I suggested, of Secretary Houston's effort and of Morganthau's final rebuff. McCormick seemed astonished, and when I smilingly remarked that Mrs. Page merely wanted to do what the Wilsons were asking me to do.

He is sailing for Europe tomorrow to be gone for a few weeks but he promised to take up the question of the Page letters as soon as he returned and he had no doubt that copies of them would be furnished Mrs. Page.

He said he understood that I was giving my papers to Yale University but he hoped that would not interfere in any way with photostatic copies being taken for the Wilsons. He spoke of Mrs. Wilson as a "changed woman" and thought her sole ambition now was to devote her time to the memory of her distinguished husband. He said "I suppose you know that there are differences in the family and that she has not had a happy time in her relations with the children—particularly Margaret and Eleanor." He spoke of the McAdoos "turning the house into a political meeting place the day after the funeral, a thing resented by Mrs. Wilson".

Strangely enough, Mrs. Harriman told me the same thing the other day getting it directly from Mrs. Wilson.

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April 10,, 1924.

Since I last recorded I have seen a constant stream of callers largely polit-
ical. As the Convention draws nearer and the uncertainty of the nominee to
be named grows more uncertain, the harder I am pressed by would be candidates
and their friends. I thought I had run the gamut of political experience but
after working for McAdoo for two years and when his nomination was assured to
have the whole structure tumble about our ears as it has since the oil investi-
gation and exposure, has been new even to me. If McAdoo had taken my advice
and withdrawn, something might have been salvaged from the wreck, but since he
continues to run and indicates his intention to hold on until the last, it pre-
vents us from acting with intelligence. However, I am casting about for avail-
able men and am now pushing quietly to the fore John W. Davis and Carter Glass

Among my many callers was Mrs. Walter Page. She is still disturbed about
her husband's letters which the Wilsons refuse to allow her to have copied. I
sent word to her by her daughter Katherine, who was in New York the other day, to
attend the Willard funeral, that I thought perhaps I would be able to get pho-
tostatic copies for her through the courtesy of Cyrus McCormick. Since it is
evident the Wilsons want copies of Wilsons letters to me.

Katherine expressed the wish that everyone could know as they did what
I had done to make possible the success of Burton Hendrick's Life and Letters
of Walter H. Page. I took occasion to tell her that I more nearly agreed with
Wilson's viewpoint than I did with her father's, but I thought it fair to leave
her father's views unduly placed before the public.

On April 3rd I gave a luncheon for Mr. Hughes, War Prime Minister of
Australia. He gave an interesting talk afterward explaining the Labor Party
there and what it stood for in their nation.

One of the interesting dinners we have attended was that given by

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Hamilton Fish Armstrong to Robert Bridges, Poet Laureate of Great Britain.

Another interesting happening was a cable received by Mrs. Jos. Fels from Ramsay MacDonald asking that I come direct to London rather than to go first to France as planned. Since there are so many things I desire to discuss with him I decided to change our itinerary and go to London. I have in mind several suggestions which I hope he may think well to adopt. I am eager to have a world conference, either under the auspices of the League of Nations, or otherwise, dealing with disarmament, laws governing the seas and prisoners of war.

I believe I can show MacDonald how this can be done either by the League or by himself.

Two of my dear friends have died within the past two weeks-- Sam Harlan of Austin, Texas, and Joseph E. Willard of New York and Virginia. Mrs. Willard asked me to accompany the family to Washington where her husband was to be buried and she wrote me a letter which I shall always cherish even though I could not go with them. Her letter to me and my answer explain themselves.

In talking with John W. Davis the other day I told him I thought if he were nominated I could get the business men of the country to support him even over Calvin Coolidge. My plan would be this: to send for some of the bell-wethers of the financial group and tell them that they were on trial and not our nominee. It would be they who would have to determine whether they were willing for the country to defeat Davis because he had had them as clients; that if the country repudiated Davis it would be on account of their reputations and would indicate that no man could be elected President who served them in the capacity of legal adviser. On the other hand, if he were nominated I would indicate that the country did not consider the big interests so reprehensible that they would not vote for a man who represented them. I thought if I talked to ten or twelve of the leading men they would pass the word down and it would reach practically all the bankers

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and business man throughout America.

Davis was pleased with the suggestion and so have been several others
to whom I have repeated it in confidence.

I have been delighted with the recovery of Richard Washburn Child who
has been seriously ill with pneumonia. I find in talking with him he is not
as opposed to the League of Nations as I had thought and in a few days I shall
see him again and try to convince him that it would be proper for the United
States to enter the League as an associate member. This thought I am pushing
now and am meeting with much success.

One of the most interesting callers I have had recently was Daniel C.
Roper of Washington who came yesterday. He told me of a conversation he had
with Dr. Grayson a few days ago. He said Woodrow Wilson, just before he died,
was about to put out a statement against McAdoo's candidacy for the Democratic
Nomination. He was planning to say that because of McAdoo's advocacy of the
and
Bonus, of his straddling on the League of Nations he did not think he was the
proper man to lead the party. Mrs. Wilson was evidently encouraging him to
do this and Grayson declared that he spoke to Wilson in Mrs. Wilson's absence
one day and told him that his first wife if she were living would be deeply
grieved to think that he would contemplate saying something hurtful about the
husband of their daughter Eleanor. This, according to Grayson, saved the day.

Roper took occasion to ask Grayson how it was the President broke with
so many of his friends and in particular with me. Roper told
me he said that I had been so loyal and so helpful to him from the beginning
of our friendship until it ended that he could not understand, and no one
could understand, why I was treated as I was. In reply Grayson said there
was no particular thing but a lot of little incidents which caused a drifting
apart. He said that talebearers brought stories to Mrs. Wilson and he indi-

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cated that Mrs. Wilson was the direct influence responsible for our separation. Among the talebearers I fear Grayson overlooked himself.

Roper said Mrs. Wilson wished to be co-editor with Professor William E. Dodd of the Wilson papers but Dodd discouraged the idea.

April 23, 1924.

d
Since I last recorded there has been a constant stream of visitors most of them about the coming Democratic Convention. Among these visitors have been several candidates for the Presidency.

One of the happenings was Frederick H. Allen's asking me whether I would lunch at his house with Mr. Charles F. Murphy-- just the three of us. I told him I was going to Boston Friday but would be glad to lunch with them either Thursday or Friday of this week. He tells me he saw Murphy the next day and it was arranged we were to meet together yesterday. Mr. Murphy died suddenly last Friday morning after a few minutes illness. I never met Murphy but I thought it would be of advantage for us to discuss the coming campaign and its issues.

I have finished my article for the June number of Foreign Affairs.
Senator Lodge is writing for the Republicans as I have for the Democrats. By
request we confined ourselves to foreign affairs.

My friend Herman Kohlsaat tells me this morning that he has seen
the articles Josephus Daniels wrote for the Times concerning the break be-
tween Woodrow Wilson and myself. The Times had some disagreement with Dan-
iels about the publication of these articles and whether they will ever come
to light or not is a question, but they probably will. There are two or
three glaring errors and Kohlsaat says he was told that according to Daniels
Wilson himself gave some of the information. He writes that Wilson very
much disliked my taking my brother-in-law to Paris on the Inquiry; that he

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Wilson refused to allow his son-in-law, Francis Sayre, to go for the reason that he did not think it proper to have a relative in that capacity. If I mistake not Wilson wrote asking me to make a place for Sayre on the Inquiry and I took it up with Mezes who in turn discussed it with Sayre. Just what happened in the confusion of our leaving I cannot recall.

Mezes was selected for the head of the Inquiry after consultation with Wilson and after letters had passed between us on the subject, and he went with the President's cordial approval.

Gordon, my son-in-law, did not go with the Inquiry. He had been serving as my Secretary in Europe on a previous visit and served in that capacity at Paris without cost to the Government. He did not stop at the Hotel Crillon in order to avoid criticism and paid his own expenses at another hotel.

Another thing Daniels says is that Wilson was peaved because I wrote Senator Lodge approving the Lodge Reservations. This of course is wholly wrong as my letter to Senator Lodge proves. I returned home seriously ill and in order not to be called before the Senate Committee at once I wrote Senator Lodge, sending the letter to him by Commander Alan McLean of the Navy, acting Physician for the Commission at Paris, stating that I was at the service of his Committee just as soon as my physical condition would allow me to journey to Washington.

Daniels also brings up the much discussed Steed article in the London Times. That, of course, was one of the real grievances of the Wilsons which I knew nothing of the article until it was published and had as little to do with it as the man in the moon.

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June 1, 1924.

On Friday we lunched with the Hilton Youngs. The only other guest present was Stanley Baldwin with whom I had an intimate talk about the international situation, the difficulties under which the Government labored when he was Prime Minister and, to some extent, American affairs. Baldwin seemed pleased to hear me say that the post-war psychology was to put governments out when they went before the people no matter what the issues were. He consoles himself in believing that it was this psychology that defeated him rather than his ill advised attempt to fasten protection upon Great Britian at this time.

I was interested to hear Baldwin say, particularly in view of the vote in the House of Commons Thursday night, that he thought it would be inadvisable to hold a general election at present. I quite agree with him, but since he led the Tory attack against MacDonald Government I was surprised to hear him confess it. He talked about some of the happenings in the "Debt Settlement" which he negotiated at Washington. I tried to get him to say that Mellon was the moving genius upon our side, but he successfully evaded any such admission. He spoke of Senator Smoot with more warmth than he did of Mellon as being helpful. He recalled a conversation he had with President Harding in which the President told him that he considered the popular novel "If Winter Comes" as "the greatest novel ever written". Harding mentioned another novel which he placed next but Baldwin had forgotten its title as it was a very obscure book.

He asked me if I had seen the Prime Minister and in reply I told him I was leaving that afternoon for Chequers. Baldwin seemed to take my visit to Chequers as a matter of course, but Hilton Young protested loudly and

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appealed to Baldwin to join him which he refused to do, saying he would "trust
the Colonel in Hell". Just what he meant is not clear, and whether it was a
compliment or the reverse I am not certain. It certainly was not meant for a
compliment to MacDonald.

We arrived at Chequers around six o'clock. The Prime Minister was wait-
ing for us in the Great Hall and we at once began an intimate talk which lasted
with interruptions until twelve o'clock the next day. The beauty and charm of
Chequers is well known and there is no need for me to add to what has already
been written of it. The Prime Minister took us around in person and called
our attention to each one of the many treasures, explaining the history of pic-
tures and of the Cromwellian and other relics.

There were no other guests to interrupt us until Sir James Craig, Prime
Minister for the North of Ireland, and Sir John Anderson of the Home Office, ar-
rived to lunch. President Cosgrave of the Irish Republic was to have joined
us but telephoned that he could not make it in time for lunch. We left imme-
diately afterward and did not see him. I have met Craig before although I
have never seen Cosgrave I did not envy the Prime Minister in his effortto
bring the two warring chiefs together.

The fact that there were no other guests until lunch time Saturday, ex-
cepting the Prime Minister's daughters Ishbel, Joan and Shiela and his son Mal-
colm, gave us an uninterrupted opportunity to talk. Our conversation was
largely upon the League of Nations and its ramifications. I urged him to go
to Geneva in September. This he intends doing, but not as a delegate. He
felt it inadvisable to become involved in the many discussions that would arise,
but he was willing to give the League the benefit of his presence would lend.
I was sure Herriot would go in the event he becomes Prime Minister of France, and
MacDonald, too, thought that he would and perhaps Mussolini.

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I told him of my plan for the United States to enter as an associate member. He was interested in it and we discussed it at length. He thought there might be objections and those that came uppermost in his mind were that if we came in in this way that the Vatican would wish to do likewise since they were urging admission. He even thought it possible that Germany and Russia might demand the same privilege. He also wondered whether we would bind ourselves to a majority decision. In other words, if a matter came up for decision and we were in the minority, he asked whether I thought we would accept the decision of the majority. I thought we would be compelled to just as we would if we were in a general conference of nations, but, of course, to the approval of our Senate. I saw no difference between our sitting in the League as an associate member with all the powers and privileges of a full member except that we did not subscribe to the Covenant than if we were sitting in a conference. It seemed to me that it would be merely a super Washington Conference with all the nations involved rather than a few as there are advantages.

MacDonald saw the advantages as I pointed them out, that is that we should go in as an associate member by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress without having to obtain the two third vote of the Senate and the further advantage of not having to ask the League to take us in with a lot of irrelevant and perhaps foolish reservations. I was certain that if we became an associate member we would become a full member within a few years and without any reservations whatever.

I urged him to use his influence to abolish the Council of Ambassadors. I thought there was no disagreement between us upon this subject. He said he had no in mind to do just that but there was great difficulty in doing it. He had determined that when the subjects now before the Council had been disposed of that he would urge its dissolution. The difficulty was that in order to perpetuate themselves, they were constantly bringing out new subjects for discussion. However,

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he expressed his firm determination to do away with the Council as soon as it was
possible.

He said he had suggested, or would suggest, to Germany and Russia that they
send observers to Geneva at the next meeting of the Council of the League and
keep in informal and unofficial touch with proceedings. He believed that both
Russia and Germany might very soon be taken into the League. I told him why I
was anxious for Germany to enter and what effect I thought it would have upon
German-American sentiment in the United States.

MacDonald told me he had indirect word from Poincaré not long ago not to
take too seriously what he had said in a recent speech concerning Germany and the
settlement. MacDonald spoke of this not as being commendable but he supposed
French sentiment had to be taken into consideration. In this connection, he
thought that Herriot himself would have to say things for his public that he did
not actually feel.

I
We discussed relations between Mexico and Great Britain. I thought it a
pity that the United States had not recognized Obregon Government long ago and
I wondered why the British Government had not recognized it after we had. He
said he wanted to do so but the Mexicans made it nearly impossible; that they were
continually doing things that could not be overlooked. He mentioned several in-
cidents which were of course tactless on the part of Mexico.

I asked him how he got along with our new Ambassador Kellogg. I told
him something about Kellogg and spoke highly of him, particularly of his action in
trying to get the Versailles Treaty through the Senate. He said he got along
with Kellogg finely and liked him. He asked about Sir Esme Howard and I commend-
ed him. He evidently had some feeling because of Howard's appointment just as
he, MacDonald, took office, but he expressed pleasure in hearing that Howard was
doing good work in the United States.

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MacDonald spoke of my seeing the King. He said he told [kaydx] Lord
Stamfordham I was in London and that Stamfordham said he knew it. MacDonald ask-
ed me to telephone Stamfordham and arrange for an appointment with the King. I
have no notion of doing this but I did not tell him so. He spoke of the Lausanne
Treaty and the attitude of the United States in regard to it. He said he was con-
stantly having trouble with Parliament because of the United States' insistence
upon having certain privileges and no responsibility. Parliament could not under-
stand why Great Britain could not assume a similar attitude. There is evidently
considerable feeling in Europe because of this unreasonable and selfish attitude on
our part and it will cause trouble sooner or later unless we conform with the po-
lite usages of nations.

Henry Morganthau's name came up in connection with Greece and the Prime Min-
ister expressed pleasure that he had returned to the United States. He said Mor-
ganthau had given him much trouble and he hoped he would not return.

The Prime Minister told of the vote of confidence in the House of Commons on
Thursday and said if his Government had gone out he intended to hold on until after
the Budget had been passed and then to dissolve Parliament and go before the people.
He said this week had been one of the most trying of his life. He not only had his
duties as Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs but Thomas, Secretary for the
Colonies, had been desperately ill and he had to do his work as well. In addition,
the King and Queen of Italy and the Queen of Rumania had been in London and it was
impossible for him not to attend state functions given in their honor. In addition
to all that there was the crisis on Thursday night in which his Government was in
imminent peril. At one time his chief whip told him that there was nine majority
against him and that at the best there were only nine majority for the Government.
It turned out that the final majority was forty-eight.

He said the King was immensely interested in the result and he felt sure

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if the polls had shown an adverse vote, the Palace would have interfered and
used its influence in his behalf. This, I think, is one of the most remarka-
ble features that the crisis brought out, and it shows that someone is advising
the King wisely.

Among other things, MacDonald told me that Grey had treated him in the
past with considerable snobbishness. He seldom or never spoke to him when
they passed in the House of Commons. At the moment, however, he said Grey was
very cordial and inclined to support his foreign policy. He criticized Grey's
actions at the beginning of the war and thought he was badly fooled by the French
He said Lord Morley felt even more strongly than he did on the subject and that
he refused to see Grey during the last years of his life. I took occasion to
defend Grey and to say that he was the only one connected with any of the warring
governments who was willing to give us a foothold in our endeavors to make
peace. MacDonald expressed gratifications to hear this but without enthusiasm.
He told me why he appointed Lord Parmour to succeed Cecil on the League of Na-
tions.

June 4th, 1924.

As usual I have had as many visitors as I could accommodate and we
are having many more invitations than we are accepting. One of the interesting
happenings within the last few days is that a certain well known American mil-
lionaire has engaged a friend of mine to pilot him around London during his
stay here. My friend is to give him dinners, which the American is to pay
for, and the idea is for him to meet everyone from the King down who is worth
while. It is only interesting to know that such things are done. Honors are
sought and given in much the same way. Someone must make it as possible by
pushing and getting as many infulential people committed as needed and then
the thing is done.

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Sir William Tyrrell called. He knows the Foreign Office so much better than anyone else, and is such a student of foreign affairs and so able, that it is something of an education to hear him talk, particularly when he opens his innermost mind as he seems to do with me. Among other things of interest, he told me that he had urged Grey to be cautious with Ramsay MacDonald, saying that if he, Grey, were Secretary for Foreign Affairs, he would undoubtedly pursue the same policy that MacDonald was pursuing. This accounts for Grey's cordiality to MacDonald which seemed to rather mystify the Prime Minister when talking with me.

Tyrrell and I discussed in much detail the pending crisis in France and we both came to the conclusion that it would be well for Millerand to give way so as to prevent a serious hiatus in the Government or even something worse. I told Tyrrell that it had seemed to me for six months or more that a coup d'état was a strong possibility before Millerand and Poincaré relinquished their grip upon the French Government. In my opinion, they wavered between a coup d'état and a revamping of the Cabinet by taking in some of the influential members of the Left. That seemed the easiest, the safest and the most certain way of accomplishing their purpose and I am sure it was a surprise to both Millerand and Poincaré that the elections went against them. The vote of lack of confidence which came in the Chamber of Deputies some weeks ago was obviously a fake and for the purpose of permitting Poincaré to shake out the undesirable members of the Cabinet and to put in others from the Left whom he thought would make success at the polls secure. I asked Tyrrell if he agreed with my conclusions and he said he was certain I was correct.

We had dinner with the American Ambassador Monday night and I had a good opportunity to discuss with him the present European situation and the relations of the United States. I found him as much of a pro-Leaguer as I am,

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and he tells me he did what he could at Chicago in 1920 to get the Republican Party committed to the League in their Platform. He is outspoken in his denunciation of the stupidity of our present foreign policy. He said it was clear to him before, but since he has been in Europe his convictions have become strengthened.

The other day at Chequers I spoke to MacDonald about Sir Esme Howard, and he showed some pique that he was appointed just before his Government took the reins. Tyrrell in talking about the matter day before yesterday told me that Curzon asked him whether he thought he could make the appointment to Washington and get away with it. Tyrrell advised that it was only possible provided he took one of the regular Service men like Sir Esme Howard; that it would not be possible to appoint a man from the outside no matter how distinguished. It is interesting to hear speculations from the Prime Minister on the one hand, and then have the truth from an entirely different source.

I asked Tyrrell whom MacDonald would have appointed and he thought it would probably have been Sir Gilbert Murray. Strangely enough, Murray is the man I had in mind who should be appointed.

Among the things the Ambassador told me was that he himself was the author of the Lodge Reservations; that Lodge did his best to kill them, but when he found it impossible he was forced to report them out of the Committee to the Senate. They then became the Lodge Reservations although he had had practically nothing whatever to do with them. I told the Ambassador that it was a pity that this was not known at the time because I was sure that Wilson had known that Kellogg had written the reservations and not Lodge, he would have accepted them. Kellogg said, however, that he told Wilson that after a careful survey of the Senate he could assure him it was not possible to get anything better than these reservations as presented to him. He took them to

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Wilson, discussed the matter with him, and advised him not to tell him, Kellogg, whether he would accept them for the reason that he did not want to be asked by his colleagues whether the President had accepted them because, if he gave an affirmative answer, they might want to make them stronger. He advised the President to wait until the reservations were adopted by the Senate and then in the two days interval before the vote was taken and when it was impossible to alter them, to tell his democratic friends in the Senate to accept them. If Wilson had done this another story might have been told.

June 8th, 1924.

We
The past week has been pleasantly busy. IxWM lunched with Lord Grey at his house No. 4 Buckingham Street, on Wednesday. Sir William Tyrrell, and Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Spender were the other guests. I had expected to discuss Grey's forthcoming book but the conversation did not touch on that subject but hovered around current politics in this country and in France. They took a rather gloomy view of the situation-- a feeling I did not share.

On Thursday we lunched with Lady Harcourt and I had a talk with Sir John Simon, Sir Lionel Earle and Mr. Davison, Parliamentary Secretary to the former Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. Sir Lionel Earle is in charge of Public Works, and he told me how much the Labor Government had assisted him in beautifying the public parks. He also told me in confidence that they were thinking of selling the British Embassy in Washington and building a new one. Sir Austral Seddon thought it unnecessary but Sir Esme Howard was of a contrary opinion, although it would upset his comfort very much to have it done. Sir Lionel is to visit the United States in October to look the different sites over, one being 1k on Sixteenth Street and the other on Massachusetts Avenue. He asked whether I thought a suitable building could be erected for $500,000.

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I considered it ample and wondered there should be any question of it. I urged him to secure a plot of ground sufficient for a garden in the rear so we might have a living example in America of European comfort and beauty in a city home.

On Friday we lunched with Geoffrey Dawson, Editor of the London Times. He has never been in the United States and I advised him to come over this Autumn and see us in the throes of a Presidential election. Tentatively, we arranged a program which will include a visit of two months during October and not November. I found him in sympathy with the present Government but I tried to soften him by telling him how pleased the Prime Minister is with the fair treatment of The Times.

the
Mr. H. Wilson Harris was a caller of same afternoon and came to discuss
the League of Nations to which he is devoting his time. I advised him, as I
advise others, not to consider the United States in their plans and not to men-
tion their desire to have us become a member. Every time we are urged to
join the League, our people feel that they are trying to entangle us in Eu-
ropean meshes. My advice is to treat us courteously but to let us alone and
carry on as best they may without us.

The evening of the 6th we dined with Judge Bingham of Louisville, Ky.
He had as his guests the most disagreeable Englishman that it has ever been
my misfortune to meet-- one Major Coffin by name. There was not a public man
or public measure he did not condemn. He was sure the Japanese were prepar-
ing to take the Philippines in order to colonize them with their people. One
of the major reasons for my not taking the Philippines was that I did not
almost directly into the laps of Australia and New Zealand he said that would
not matter as the Japanese would be content with the Philippines and would
not want further territory.

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Sir Campbell Stuart called Saturday to thank me for the good words I said of him to the Prime Minister when I was at Chequers. As soon as the P. M. returned he sent fax Sir Campbell and an invitation for lunch and they had a long and interesting talk.

We lunched with Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt today and I had some talk with Count St Hilliare, the French Ambassador. He did not seem to be very well pleased with recent events in France. He may well look upon the change of Government with concern as far as his own personal fortune is concerned.

I
Yesterday afternoon we took tea with Lord and Lady Parmoor. She is a delightful little Quakeress, remaining during our conference, taking little part in it but evidencing an intelligent interest. I tried to impress Lord Parmoor the attitude I thought the League should take toward the United States' participation. I urged him, as I did Ramsay MacDonald, to let us alone and not mention in any way the desirability of our entrance. Everything said on this subject made it more difficult for those of us on our side to carry on a successful fight. I also advised him to discourage any thought of an American Conference until after our elections. I suggested that they say that Europe was not in a condition at present to take part or to make such a conference successful, which is true. The reparations question must be settled first and an understanding be reached between Germany and France.

I doubt whether President Coolidge will attempt to call such a conference before the elections, but if he does, the call will be met with a suggestion of delay. If Coolidge is reelected in November and a settlement between France and Germany is reached, I hoped such a conference would be called and brought to a successful conclusion.

Lord Parmoor asked whether there was anything the League could do to better the feeling in the United States toward the League. In reply I

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said that the more successful the League was, and the more problems it
solved, the greater the prestige it would have with us.

I urged the dissolution of the Council of Ambassadors in which he was
in hearty sympathy.

June 11, 1924.

My most interesting visitor on Monday was Farbman, the Russian au-
thor, who has recently returned from Russia. He gave an interesting account
of what was happening there.

Yesterday our Counsellor at the Embassy, Mr. Stirling and his wife
lunched with us. In the afternoon Sir Frederick White, who for the last
few years has been presiding officer over the Legislative Council in India,
called and told something of events there. He is hopeful of better condition
in that country and believes that Ghandi's advice will be followed.

Andrew McLaren, Labor Leader from the Potteries District, was an
entertaining and virile caller.

June 21, 1924.

On Thursday the 12th Loulie and I lunched with the King and Queen at
Buckingham Palace. There was no one present excepting the four of us, and
they used the family dining room. The meal was simple but the conversation
was spirited. The King did most of the talking. I was glad to hear him
say he liked our new American Ambassador and the Queen added, "and his wife
as well". He smilingly made some observation as to the improvement over the
last one, although he was quick to add that he and Col. Harvey got along very
well.

I often wonder what induced President Harding to appoint such a type
as Harvey to such a post as London when he might have fulfilled his obli-

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gation by putting him in the Cabinet. One often wonders what men like
Harvey were created for, but one wonders why mosquitoes, gadflies etc. were
created.

I have seen Sir Horace Plunkett many times, and together we wrote
an agricultural plank to be used in the forthcoming Democratic Convention.
This was almost wholly Sir Horace's production aided by advice from me and
some assistance from his friend Walter.

D. N. Heineman, the American-Belgian financier, is another whom
I have seen several times. Painlevé, whom everyone thought would succeed
Millerand as President of the French Republic, sent for Heineman for con-
sultation regarding the reparations problem. He told Heineman that he was
anxious to see me, and asked whether I would **ask** him come to Paris. This
I intended to do but, alas, he was not elected. He subsequently sent word
asking that I come in any event for a consultation with the new Prime Minis-
ter, Herriot.

One of the most delightful letters I have received for a long time
was one written on June 5th by Judge Robert Bingham of the Louisville Cou-
rier Journal concerning my article in Foreign Affairs entitled "America's
Foreign Policy--A Democratic Viewpoint", the galley proof of which I let
him read.

The London Times of June 17th gave two columns to my article and
that of Senator Lodge who wrote from a Republican angle.

On the 17th we lunched with Sir William and Lady Tyrrell, and I had
some talk with Baron Moncheur. He was cordial in his insistence that I
visit Belgium before returning to the United States.

That evening I dined with Josiah Wedgwood, M. P. at the House of Com-
mons, (Wedgwood is now Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in this Cabi-

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net). The only other guests were Charles Trevelyan, President of the Board of Education, and Andrew MacLaren, Editor of the Labor Chronicle.

MacLaren has written a very complimentary and kindly editorial about me in the Chronicle of June 13th.

On the 16th, I lunched with Lord Balfour who had, Lloyd George and Lord Derby. Our conversation was largely concerning different phases of the Paris Peace Conference. I was saddened to see signs of advancing age in Balfour and that his memory is becoming deficient. He had forgotten that Ray Stannard Baker had edited Wilson's papers relating to the Paris Conference, and it brought a laugh when I told him they had been published two years. Lloyd George added "It is high time you were reading them since they deal with you in many places".

On the 18th, we lunched with Lady Colfax, where I had a delightful time with Lord Milner and General Sir Ian Hamilton.

On the 19th, Lord Grey and Sir William Tyrrell and J. A. Spender lunched with me in order to discuss Grey's forthcoming book. We met for the purpose of having Dr. Charles Seymour with us, but his boat was a day late and he could not get here from France in time for the luncheon.

One of the most interesting conversations I have had since we have been in London was that afternoon with Mr. Smillie, the Labor Leader. We went over every phase of the situation and I got a better idea of the plans and purposes of Labor than ever before. He told me much of mining conditions, and no one could listen to him without feeling a sense of shame that the so-called ruling classes would permit human beings to live in such unsanitary and sordid conditions. As he remarked, "the horses and cattle of England are much better cared for than some of these wretched human beings."

The Marchioness of Donegal came to tea that afternoon, and I dined with

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St Loe Strachey. It was a small dinner party of eight which included Mr. and Mrs. Philip Snowdon. After dinner some forty or fifty people came in. I had an intimate talk with Snowdon, and we went over some of the policies of the present Government. We discussed at length the Dawes Report and the best method of getting action upon it by the three governments most at interest, Great Britain, France and Germany. He said he thought that two Americans might well be appointed to the important places on the Board, and we went over the qualifications of the various men, such as Benj. Strong, Ro land Boyden, W. P. C. Harding and Norman Davis. Snowdon dismissed Herbert Hoover with a shrug of the shoulders by saying he would not be acceptable to Europe. Hoover seems to have lost practically all of his former prestige on this side, as, indeed, he has lost it at home.

Among my visitors yesterday were, Rakovsky, Russian Chargé in Great Britain, who was accompanied by Mr. Farbman. Rakovsky has been President of the Council of the Ukraina, for four years and is a man of parts. He was quite insistent upon probing the cause of American dislike of the present Russian Government, and our refusal to deal with it. He laid most of their difficulties at the door of Secretary Hughes and Hoover, as far as the Harding and Coolidge Administration was concerned, and I expect rightly. He gave a clear idea of the work of the present system in Russia, which he described as being now a Confederation of the Ukraine, the Caucasus, Russia and the Great White Russia. He was urgent in his insistence that I go to Russia and thought it would be of value to his country and to mine to get the real conditions fixam there and to tell them to our people. He asked advice as to his procedure regarding the United States in order to better relations between the two countries. I advised doing nothing for the moment or until after the November elections. This both he and Farbman seemed to consider good advice.

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Hindhead, Surrey.

July 2, 1924.

On ~~January 23rd, Lord Grey, Lord Balfour, Lloyd George, Austen Chamberlain, Sir Maurice Hankey, Hylton Young, John Hays Hammond, Charles Seymour and Frederick Sterling lunched with me.~~ I gave the lunch largely for the purpose of having John Hays Hammond and Dr. Seymour meet the other guests. Hammond took us on a two day motor trip to Sulgrave Manor, through the Shakespeare country, Oxford, Stokes Poges etc. and he expressed a desire to meet Lloyd George.

The conversation was of no particular value although interesting. I showed Balfour a letter I had just received from Mrs. Woodrow Wilson in which she asks me for copies of the late President's letters to me. She also asked me to write of my work for and with him. The reason I showed it to Balfour was that he spoke of Hankey having received some such letter and wondered if he also was to receive one and how he should reply. My answer to the letter is a part of the record. Balfour expressed surprise that she had written me considering all the circumstances.

On June 24th, Sir William Tyrrell, J. A. Spender and Dr. Seymour lunched with me to discuss Lord Grey's forthcoming book of memoirs, and the book Dr. Seymour is writing around my papers. The conversation was much more interesting than the day before, being more intimate and covering a more interesting range. It was an anti-Lloyd George crowd and he was handled none too kindly. Sir Philip Lloyd Graeme was one of my callers on the 25th and it was interesting to hear his view of the present Labor Government, and what lay in store for the Conservative Party in the future.

On Thursday, the 26th, Lady Donegal gave a luncheon in order to give me to talk with Lord Thompson, Air Minister in the present Government.

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He asked what I thought of his coming to America in the Autumn on a speaking tour of some thirty days. He said the Prime Minister wanted him to do it, and if there were no objections, he would do so. I thought he might safely come and prepare the way for the Prime Minister's coming next Spring, provided he was still in office. I promised, in the event of a Democratic Administration, to arrange a proper occasion for his visit so it might not be inappropriate or inopportune. It was the first intimation I have had that Ramsay MacDonald contemplated such a venture.

On the night of the 26th Mr. and Mrs. John Hays Hammond gave a large dinner and reception to the Duke of Connaught, Princess Louise and Princess Patricia. I took Princess Pat out and after dinner, at the concert which was given **afternoon**, the Hammonds insisted upon my sitting with Princess Louise, whom I found a delightful woman. Among the other guests was "Mar-got" Asquith, who said to me **sotto voce**, "Princess Louise is very nice and not nearly so vulgar as most royal personages are". Her remarks are always a joy.

I had some talk that evening with Sir Robert Horne and, among other things, he gave as his opinion that Lord Balfour, taking him all in all, was the most distinguished personage living. Before making this remark he said, "I am going to make an extravagant statement regarding Lord Balfour, and I am wondering whether you will agree". I replied that unless it was very ex-travagant, I probably would not agree. However, I cannot unqualifiedly as-sent to such a sweeping assertion, for I had in mind, Clemenceau and Pader-ewski and one or two others.

On the 27th, Lord Grey and Sir William Tyrrell, J. A. Spender and Dr. Seymour lunched with me to discuss Grey's book. The discussion took a very wide range and was all of great interest to Dr. Seymour and to me. They

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killed the myth of King Edward VII having created the Entente and encircling Germany. They gave him great credit for a strong and delightful personality that made friends for England everywhere, but Grey and Tyrrell were emphatic in their assertions that he did not interpose in any way with foreign affairs, and that he was not responsible for creating the Entente.

In talking of President Wilson, Sir William Tyrrell thought he was entirely unequal to the task he undertook at Paris. He said he was so ignorant of world affairs in general, and European affairs in particular, that he was not equal to the tasks thrust upon him.

This discussion was started by Tyrrell recalling the incident of President Wilson kneeling on the floor to study the maps when the newly created frontiers of Central Europe were being worked out. Dr. Seymour said he was present at the time, and he gave the most graphic description of just what happened at the meeting that I have yet heard. The earnestness of the President, the cynicism of Clemenceau, and the ignorance and indifference of Lloyd George were all depicted by him.

Both Dr. Seymour and I thought Tyrrell was unjust in his estimate of the President.

That same afternoon Lord Cecil had tea with me. We discussed the League of Nations, the present Government and his successor, Lord Parmoor. I found Cecil not at all bitter against the Labor Government, even though it has displaced him in League affairs, a field in which he is so competent and has such a recognized authority.

On Saturday the 28th, Sir Horace Plunkett sent his car to London to bring us to his new Surrey home for tea and afterward to come on here where we are located for a rest of a couple of weeks.

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Hindhead, Surrey.

July 14, 1924.

We have been motoring for a week around in Southwestern England, mostly in Somersetshire. We visited the nooks and corners where my forebears lived. The most interesting place was the Stoke-St-Gregory hamlet where my father was born. The little church on the hillside is said to be one of the oldest in England, having been started by the Saxons and finished by the Normans. Inside, tablets have been placed in memory of members of the House family, and the churchyard is literally filled with those of the name. It was interesting by the names of to see the number of Williams, Thomas, James and John, all family names. My people settled in Somersetshire some three hundred years or more coming from Holland, and have been owners and tillers of the soil for centuries. There are some of the name there now who are in affluent circumstances, judged by the Stoke-St-Gregory standard which, of course, is limited. They seem to have been a sturdy, honest, God-fearing people, doing their duty as they saw it as the tablets on the church walls indicate. My father was an adventurous spirit and when scarcely more than a child ran away from home to America, and in his very early manhood became a soldier of fortune in Texas, then a province of Mexico. It was there that he later laid the foundation of his fortune, serving under four Flags-- that of Mexico, the Republic of Texas, in the Revolution of which he took part), the Flag of the United States when Texas annexed herself to the Union, and the Flag of the Confederacy when Texas seceded with other Southern States.

We went from there to Bath where my mother's people lived for generations. Some years ago a branch of the family there thought they recognized certain family characteristics in my photographs, published in various newspapers, to the knowledge and wrote asking if I belonged to their

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branch. They were correct in their surmise, and we visited them at their
country home near Bristol. They no longer have the name since the male line
is extinct. It was pleasant to see Bath again, for it was there that I went
to school as a child when I was seven or eight years old. To me it was one of
the most beautiful cities in the world, and the early Roman occupation has left
a clear imprint upon its architecture.

While in Bath, I received an invitation from the Prime Minister of
France, M. Herriot, to come to France to confer with him at 11 o'clock on the
morning of the 12th. This I did not feel I could do. In the first place, the
time was too short and, again, I had no inclination to go since I failed to see
where I could be helpful. Last year I might have helped Poincaré, because
Poincaré was a great Minister, and I tried to help the British Prime Minister, but
since the present British P. M. thinks about international affairs practically
as I do, I can see no purpose in conferring with Herriot.

While we were at Bath I received the news of the nomination of John
W. Davis and Charles W. Bryan. It is a most satisfactory outcome. No matter
what the result it cannot be other than helpful to our party to have a man of
Davis' type as the Democratic standard bearer. Davis and I think largely
alike on important public matters and it is a pleasure to have him as the nom-
inee. Then, too, I was fearful that in the emergency the Convention might
turn to me as some of my letters indicate this might have happened. If I had
been asked whether I would accept the nomination I should have unhesitatingly
declined, but if it had come to me after one hundred ballots had been fruitless-
ly cast, I could not decently have declined. He will do pretty much what
I would do were I in his place, and that is all that is of value or interest.

July 15, 1924.

T. W. Gregory lunched with me today and gave me some interesting infor-

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mation regarding the Wilsons. He said when the President drew up his Will in
1917, he submitted it to him, Gregory. It was written in his own hand and not
witnessed. Gregory thought the entire Will unfair to the Wilson girls, but he
said they showed him at the time letters from all three daughters saying the
Will was satisfactory to them. Mrs. Wilson sent for Gregory after the Pres-
ident's death and told him the authorities in Washington were insisting that
she file an inventory of his estate and that she did not wish to do it, and that
she had gotten letters from the three girls stating they did not wish it done.
Gregory made no comment to her, but he said to me that he thought it a mistake;
that there had been so much talk of money having been made out of the war that
he thought one of the best things they could have done would have been to filae
an inventory showing just what securities and what amount of money the President
left.

Gregory said Jesse Jones told him the last time he was in Texas that
the friends of the President raised $100,000. to help pay for his residence on
S Street which cost $150,000. all told; the $50,000. being met jointly by Mrs.
Wilson and the President. He also said that Jones told him that the last
year of the President's life, his friends had again helped him with an annuity
of $10,000. However, they had only made two or three payments of $5000. before
he died.

Gregory thought the greatest mistake Wilson ever made, outside of his
second marriage, was the pre-election statement in 1918, for none of the other
mistakes he made later would have been necessary had he not made that one since
he had a clear majority in both Houses of Congress and it would not have been
possible to have committed the other errors regarding the ratification of the
Versailles Treaty.

The most interesting caller I have had today other than Gregory was

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Dr. Hjalmer Schacht of the Deutsche Bank. He said he had been told that Owen Young and not Dawes was most responsible for the Dawes Report. He said, too, he had written Dawes after he received the nomination for Vice President congratulating him. He soon afterward received a communication from the German Ambassador in Washington saying it had been resented because the Republicans thought it would injure the Republican Ticket if it became public.

July 21, 1924.

I have had a pleasant few days with Charles Seymour and have gone over with him some tentative chapters of the book he is writing around my papers. I tried to have him meet Sir Horace Plunkett but Plunkett had gone for the week to Newcastle.

On Saturday I had a talk with M. Herriot, who is here attending the Inter-allied Conference. The initiative came from Herriot for I saw no occasion to disturb so busy a man when I had nothing in particular to suggest. However, we had a most cordial and delightful talk. I told him I knew his difficulties and regretted that he did not have as free a hand as the British Prime Minister whose political opponents, other than Lloyd George, were not throwing obstacles in his path in the settlement of the reparations question. He evidently knew I referred to Poincaré and he said it was not Poincaré alone but the Parisien Press and the French Senate-- the latter body being controlled by Poincaré. I outlined my endeavors of last summer in which I tried to get Poincaré to come to an agreement. That I thought was the psychological moment for the French to have gotten the best possible terms. The franc had not materially dropped and both England and Germany, as well as Belgium, were eager for a settlement and would have accepted any terms Poincaré had named that were possible of fulfilment.

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One of the difficulties I thought which confronted Herriot was that the franc had had such a spectacular downfall in the spring that everyone was nervous, and if a settlement was not made at this conference I believed the franc would decline to a dangerous degree and there would be but little chance for recovery.

I hoped he would be firm in spite of French opinion and insist upon an agreement that was possible of fulfilment, and not try to satisfy French opinion by attempting the impossible. I thought it better to go out of office holding to the right than to continue for awhile longer and be wrong, for, in the end, he would go out and France would be in worse condition.

I mentioned the talk Dr. Schact of the Deutsche Bank and I had the early part of the week, and I told Herriot what he had said as to the essentials of an agreement. Herriot expressed a desire to see Schact which I thought I might arrange by having him come to Paris. He preferred to see him here, and I agreed to send word to Schact to be in London toward the end of this week. I told Herriot I was going to Scotland on Tuesday night but if he thought I could be of service, I would return at any time that he communicated with me. I was also willing to see MacDonald, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or any member of the British Government if he thought I might help to impress upon them the French point of view. I offered too, to try to produce anyone in Germany he desired to see, if he preferred having me to do so rather than doing it through the French Ambassador in Berlin.

He asked when I would be in Paris and expressed a desire to see me there. Altogether it was a delightful interview and we expressed mutual regard. I took occasion to congratulate him that he had our present Ambassador here as a member of the Conference, and I outlined something of Kellogg's personality and ability.

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Among my visitors this morning were Sir Horace Plunkett and Lord Grey. I have letters from both today and they are parts of the record. Grey is sending me chapters of his book as he writes them and we have discussed different points of interest in them. He said that in his final summary he intended saying that the principal cause of the war was excessive and competitive armaments which bring about fear. He thought that the main cause of the Great War, and I am not sure but he is correct.

He spoke of the break between Wilson and me and the serious consequences which he considered were caused by it. He was sure, if we had remained together, the Treaty would have gone through, that is the Versailles Treaty and the Anglo-French and French-American Treaties, and that the history of the past four years would have been a different story.

We again went into a discussion of the Crauford-Stuart incident and the fact that he, Grey, had not seen Wilson on his Special Mission to the United States. He thought, however, it would have been useless in the circumstances to have seen the President since he was in no condition to transact public business. Grey gave us the most cordial invitation to come to Fallodon an invitation which I tentatively declined. I find such visits to country places rather irksome and I seldom accept. If I went anywhere, it would certainly be to Grey's, and I would go to Fallodon if the distance was not so great.

Grey said he was so terribly pressed during the war that he had failed to dictate the substance of our conversations and that he intended to give them from memory, all of which he would submit to me for my correction. I replied that I dictated them immediately they occurred in order to keep the President informed and that I had a very accurate account of what was said and would be glad to help in any way he desired.

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August 2, 1924.

Just before leaving for Scotland, Lady Strafford gave us a lunch and I had an interesting talk with Marconi who was one of the guests. He promised to let me know when he comes to America in the Autumn so we may get together again. It is the first time I have seen him since we foregathered in London in 1919 when we both served on the Mandate Commission.

Wickham Steed came the afternoon of the same day, that is July 22nd, to talk with me about his magazine, *The Review of Reviews*, the book of *Memoirs* he is writing to be called "Through Thirty Years", and also to discuss current political affairs.

I told him that some of the friends of the Wilsons were saying that I, or my entourage in Paris during the Peace Conference, instigated the complimentary articles written by him, one of which Mrs. Wilson called to my attention. Steed replied that there was never a more unfair or untrue statement and that he would take occasion upon my return from Scotland to send me a letter saying so.

On the night of the 22nd, we took train for Inverness and spent one of the pleasantest weeks I can remember in the Highlands of Scotland. We motorized from Inverness to Fort William through a superlatively beautiful country, and at every turn of the road one was greeted by the lovely lakes, woods and mountains. Lord Grey outlined the trip for us and we followed his directions almost wholly.

My letter to Lord Grey, written at Edinburgh July 28th, is a part of the record.

I had an interesting talk with Grey on Friday, August 1st, when Loulie and I went to tea with them at No. 4 Buckingham Street. After tea

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Grey and I went upstairs to his study and discussed his forthcoming book. He showed me a copy of the *Memorandum* which he and I drew up in February 1916, and the *Memorandum* he made and a letter he wrote to Balfour in December 1916, just prior to his, Grey's, expected departure for Russia. He did not go to Russia because the Asquith Government fell before the plans for his trip were completed, but he wanted Balfour to have the facts regarding the proposal I had made and later ratified by President Wilson. This proposal was in effect an offer to mediate and force Germany to make a reasonable peace. If she did not do so, we agreed to come into the war on the side of the Allies.

This I consider one of the most important things I have ever done and it would have been of far-reaching consequence if the Allies had accepted the offer. In meditating upon it, Grey wonders whether the Allies would not have been better off if they had accepted, particularly if Germany had also consented so that a peace might have been made without complete victory with all the consequences which have since followed.

While we were at tea, Grey remarked that he would have to go to the ticket office of the Northeastern Railway and stand in the long holiday queue to get tickets to Fallodon where he and Lady Grey are going tonight. Mrs. Tennyson, wife of a son of Alfred Tennyson, suggested that he might have someone else do this for him, a suggestion Lady Grey endorsed. It seemed never to have occurred to Grey not to do this tiresome drudgery himself, although he is a Director in the Northeastern Railway over which he is to travel. Grey's simplicity of character is always appealing.

Today I had a conference with Mr. Wheatley, Minister of Health, and Lord Chancellor Haldane. Wheatley and I discussed his Housing Bill, which has attracted such wide attention, and occupied Parliament for so long during this

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session. He tells me he has reason to believe that the Lords will accept it now that the bill has passed the Commons. I asked Wheatley why the Government had not done some constructive work in order to relieve unemployment rather than to give doles. He asked what I had in mind. I replied that one suggestion was to build great electric plants near London to be used for the electrification of the railways, and for cheapening electric power. I understood that there were seventy separate corporations now serving this territory and that with one large power plant, the price of electricity could be reduced two thirds. I spoke of my friend Heineman, who has a plant in Buenos Aires for which he brings coal from Cardiff and sells power for one half the price being charged in London.

He said the trouble about such things was the vested interests all opposed any change in the system and the consolidation of the different companies which were now giving places to prominent people on their several boards. He said my suggestion was the American way of doing things, but the English never did that sort of thing until they were forced to do so; that they muddled along until they were compelled to act in order to meet outside competition. He thought this would be brought about as soon as France and Germany got on their feet and Germany again became a serious competitor for British trade.

I regretted that the world in general could not see, or would not see, that there was no necessity for real poverty; that there was plenty for everyone if work was properly distributed and a just wage given for labor. He agreed with me and said the trouble was that people never did the best work, or unselfish work, because of fear. He said he had never actually suffered in his life, but he was so near the edge that he was always fearful that the time might come when he would, and that, he thought, was in the minds of most people and they constantly accumulated hoards of useless things particularly money.

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My talk with Haldane was short but interesting. He looks better than I have seen him for some years, and the cares of office seem to have brightened and refreshed him rather than sapped his strength. Haldane and I so nearly agree in thought that it is needless to repeat what was said. We spoke of the reparations settlement, and I told him of my interview with Dr. Schacht of the Deutsche Bank and of my telling Herriot of the interview and giving him what Schacht stated was the essential of an agreement between France and Germany. I said that Herriot expressed a desire to talk with Schacht and I had sent him word to come but he had sent word back that he did not feel he could come unless he had a direct invitation from the French or British. Haldane threw up his hands and exclaimed, "That is so like the Germans; you cannot help them". He considered such pride stupid and really did not maintain their dignity as much as if he had quietly come to London and met Herriot unofficially.

Haldane spoke of conversations he had had with Grey and said that Grey was constantly insisting upon disarmament but that he could not see how this could be brought about unless there was some equivalent such as the League of nations acting in a different capacity than it had up to now. I agreed with this, expressing the hope that the MacDonald Government would do what they could to bring this about. I also expressed the hope that the MacDonald Government would call a conference for the limitation of armaments and not permit the President of the United States to anticipate them. My reasons for this were that if MacDonald called it, he would plan a reduction and make the League of Nations the trustee, as it were, while if the President of the United States called it the word "League" could not be whispered within hearing of the conference. Haldane caught this point and said he would do what he could to have MacDonald bring it about whenever the situation was ripe for it.

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Haldane spoke of a conversation he had with Secretary Hughes and of his surprise to find him so willing to cooperate in European affairs. I told him that both Hughes and Coolidge knew that the United States should cooperate with the League, and become a member of it, but neither one had the courage to express this publicly for fear of the irreconcilable Senators. I thought they were foolish in taking this attitude since they could have no fear of the Democrats, and that those against the League would accept the Republican position rather than the Democratic position since it did not go so far and they would be compelled to take one or the other for there would be no alternative on account of our having only two parties in the United States.

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Hotel Ritz,
Paris, France.

August 9, 1924.

We left London Sunday morning at twelve o'clock, and after a stormy cross-
ing reached Paris at nine in the evening.

Loucheur came to see me almost immediately and we had a long talk concerning the London Conference, the Interallied debts, and the question of French security. He arranged for me to see M. Paul Painlevé, President of the Chamber of Deputies, and I received an invitation to dine with him last Thursday, the 7th. We dined in the President's residence at the Chamber of Deputies Building. There was no one present except Loucheur, the Chef de Cabi net, Painlevé and myself. We were lost in the spaciousness of his official residence, but it gave us a chance for an intimate talk. I went over pretty much the same ground as I did with Loucheur urging them to back Herriot in any settlement he might be able to make in London. I called attention to the stupid mistake Poincaré made last year in not making a settlement then when France could have dictated any reasonable terms. I insisted that Herriot had an entirely different situation to face and one not nearly so favorable to France. When the franc broke had its sensational break in the Spring, France's opportunity slipped away. Everyone knows now that unless this set- tlement is made the franc will have another spectacular decline and there will be no foreign bankers ready to lend a helping hand. Therefore I thought the French Chamber and Senate would be well lacking in their duty if they did not sustain Herriot, who was making the very best terms it was possible to make with the situation as it now is.

Both Painlevé and Loucheur agreed with me and insisted that both the Senate and Chamber would sustain the Prime Minister. We discussed the debt question, and I advised postponement as far as the United States was concerned,

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and I also advised that when they did make a settlement with us and with Gt Britain that it should be a flexible agreement, that is a fixed maximum sum should be stated with a commission composed, in the case of England, of one Frenchman, one Englishman and an American with powers to adjust the payments of both interest and principal, in the event conditions changed for the worse. The same could be done with the United States.

As to the question of security, I deplored the fact that both the United States and Great Britain had failed to live up to the agreement made by their representatives at Paris in 1919 as to a treaty of security for and France, but since that was past, something that could not be remedied, I urged that France should use the League of Nations as a medium to ensure security. This could only be effective if Germany also became a member of the League. I emphasized the fact that today Germany was unbridled and that it was to France's interest to put the League bridle on her so that she would not longer be a free lance.

Loucheur asked if I would like to meet the President of the French Republic. I did not see any advantage in my doing so.

I have seen many people here and have had the usual infliction of newspaper correspondents to deal with. The best account of what I said was given in the *Petit Parisien* of August 8th.

Before leaving London T. W. Gregory dined with me and we had one of our intimate talks. I was touched to hear him say that while all the political honors that had ever come to him had come through me, and that while he knew that Wilson had put him in the Cabinet solely on my account, and while he realized that Wilson had treated me badly, still he was glad that neither he nor I had ever done or spoken disloyally of the late President, and that we had never tried to use our relations with him for our own advan-

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tage.

One of the newspaper men by the name of Parkerson who was at the Peace Conference and who is now the Manager and Editor of the *Paris Telegraph*, told me that Grayson was the one who caused the trouble between the President and me, and that he did it by carrying tales to Mrs. Wilson and prejudicing her so that she in turn might prejudice the President.

August 23, 1924.

On the 11th, M. Klotz, Minister of Finance in the Clemenceau Government, called. He wished to give additional details if I needed them concerning his controversy with Austen Chamberlain, formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer. Klotz admitted that his statement to him was so fair and impartial that it would not be necessary for him to see Chamberlain in London in order to get his version. I was amused to hear him praise my sagacity and prophetic powers. I did not know I had made such remarkable predictions until he informed me Happily for him, my prophesies coincided with his views and his side of the case.

We dined with Judge and Mrs. R. S. Lovett at their apartment on the 14th. In discussing the candidacy of John W. Davis and Calvin Coolidge Judge Lovett told me something concerning President Harding. It seems when the railroads were having some differences with the Government, President Harding invited some of the heads of the railroads to lunch at the White House, and Judge Lovett sat next to the President. No other member of the Cabinet was there excepting the Secretary of Commerce. Lovett said the meeting was about to break up, the President thought it well to write a statement of what had been said in order to give it to the press since the correspondents would demand some explanation of what had occurred at the meeting. The

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President insisted upon writing the statement himself and Lovett said it was two o'clock in the morning before he could get anything that satisfied him. Hoover tried to help him but nothing he wrote seemed to meet his wishes. It was a simple statement and probably any member of the party could have written it satisfactorily in a few minutes.

While the party was at dinner, the book recently written entitled "Mirrors of Washington" was mentioned. The Judge was surprised at the vehemence and intemperate language with which the President abused the author. I recall that I was mentioned in this book, but it never occurred to me to attach any importance whatever to what was said about me, although it was absurdly inaccurate, and I wondered why the President treated it so seriously.

On the 14th, T. W. Gregory lunched with me. It is always a delight to be with this good friend.

Among the interesting conversations I have had since I have been in Paris was with Edwin Alderman, President of the University of Virginia. He is to take the principal address before both Houses of Congress at the Wilson Memorial Meeting within the next few months, and he wanted some information and suggestions from me. I tried to give him some new leads and an estimate of Wilson's ability which he may use in his coming eulogy of him. Dr. Alderman remarked that he supposed it was no use to ask me anything concerning the break between Wilson and myself. I told him I was asked this question on an average of once a week and that everyone who had written a book about the President or those times when he asked for some information, but I had declined to give it excepting in the most general way and to give the assurance that there had never been any quarrel between us. Alder-

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man said, in his opinion, the subject would be a topic of discussion for generations to come.

One of the peculiar things that sometime happen which convince one of mental telepathy occurred yesterday. General Tasker H. Bliss and Mr. David Hunter Miller were called to tell me something of the political situation at home. They had arrived in Paris from New York only two hours before. I told them that if I were in Davis' place I would come out definitely and by name against the KuKlux Klan and that I would force Coolidge either to take the Klan or repudiate it. Upon awakening this morning, I find that about the time I was talking to them, John Davis was doing just this at Seagirt, N. J.

Miller also told me that when the Convention got in a hopeless deadlock one of the Smith leaders came to him and wondered if it could not be broken and intimated that McAdoo should withdraw. Miller told him this was absurd and that he would not submit any such proposal; that the only thing that would be for both to withdraw so the Convention might name someone else. In Miller's opinion, the Convention had made the election of any Democrat almost hopeless and he told the Smith leader that there were only two men who would have a chance of election if nominated, John W. Davis and myself. I asked Miller what reply was made to this and he said the leader remarked he would give the matter consideration.

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Connaught Hotel,
London.

August 31, 1924.

On the 27th, Elmer Roberts of the Associated Press called and we had a delightful hour discussing current events in general and the political situation in France in particular. The most interesting thing he told me was that when the rumor was abroad that the Herriot Government was antagonistic to the House of Morgan and would oppose further negotiations on the part of France with them, Herriot called in person on Morgan, Harjes & Co. at their offices in the Place Vendôme. I told Roberts I could not credit this unless he had it from the best authority. Roberts smilingly replied, "I, myself, was present at the meeting."" M. Herriot and Mr. Harjes had their conference and wished to give out a statement of Herriot's position and he, Roberts, was called in in order to give it the necessary publicity. Copies of the statement were made, one of which Herriot retained, one Harjes took and the other was given to Roberts. I hope no one will hear of this for it is one of the most indiscreet things I have known a Prime Minister to do. Herriot might have sent for Harjes and talked the matter over with him in the office of the Prime Minister, but to go to the banking house himself was the acme of indiscretion. I told Roberts I hoped no one knew of it, or would know of it while Herriot was Prime Minister. He declared I was the only one he had told.

We left Paris at ten o'clock yesterday and arrived here last night after a very disagreeable trip.

When I was in Paris, I read some of the chapters of the book Dr. Seymour is writing around my papers. He is quoting me and the diary freely, and I am struck with the number of mistakes I made from time to time in estimating the character and ability of men. The diary must stand as it is, for Sey-

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mourn is insistent that no word shall be changed. For that reason I want to say here that it is scarcely fair to those whose opinions I quoted to allow what they said at certain times to be left as their final judgments. It is often true that I have changed my opinion within a day when additional facts have come to me, and so it may be with others therefore I make this general plea for charity.

S. S. Scythia,
At Sea,
Sept 12, 1924.

On September 3rd, before leaving London, I had Lord Grey, Tyrrell and Spender for lunch. Grey had written while I was in Paris saying he would be glad to come down from Fallodon to see me before we sailed if I would name a time. He particularly wished me to read a chapter in his forthcoming book on *American Relations*.

I read the chapter before the luncheon party arrived so we might discuss it without delay. Grey mentions in the chapter Whitelaw Reid, Theodore Roosevelt, Page and myself, speaking pleasantly of all of us. What he said of me was very cordial but he apologized when he saw me by saying that he did not write of me half as strongly as he felt, and the reason for not doing so was that he feared lest the Germans would think our relations had been so intimate during the war that I could not have been an impartial judge of events, as far as they were concerned. I told him I was glad that he had placed our relations just as he did and that I should have regretted if he had said stated them in any warmer terms.

Dr. Seymour had given me excerpts of one of his own forthcoming chapters relating to Grey and Tyrrell. I was glad that Grey had not seen this until after he had written about me.

Grey explains that our relations were entirely unofficial and this was

["(42)", "true when he was in office. Later, after he left the Foreign Office, and after we entered the war, my relations with Balfour and Lloyd George became official.", "During our conversation, the future of the Liberal Party was discussed. Both Grey and Tyrrell thought that its future was menaced by the personality of Lloyd George. Asquith has grown old and must relinquish leadership before long. When he does, of necessity, Lloyd George will be chosen and when he is, a large part of the Liberal Party will refuse to follow him. In the event the Liberals should choose someone else, then the Lloyd George followers will be offended and will refuse to follow.", "Just before we left London, I gave a luncheon to Sir George Paish, A.G. Gardiner, John Hobson and D. N. Heineman. It was delightful to remince with these old time Liberals and friends and to try to lift the veil of the future to see what 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104 East 68th Street,
New York City.

October 15, 1924.

There is a good deal to chronicle since we landed in Boston a month ago but I have been so busy moving from 112 East 74th Street to 104 East 68th Street and working in the political campaign that I have had no time or inclination to do so.

I saw John W. Davis the first day I reached New York and I have seen him several times since. Frankly, I am disappointed in him as a candidate and I am afraid that the same qualities he lacks in directing a political campaign would cause him to fall short of being a great President. I have tried to stir him to action and to make his speeches more forceful and more pertinent to the trend of the times. He was candid enough to say that he had been all his life trying to eliminate the emotions from his briefs and addresses to the courts and that it was impossible at this late day to put this quality in his speeches for political effect. I think better of him in as much as he refuses to do anything against his convictions or sense of propriety.

He has shown no aptitude for organization or judgment of men. The result is about the worst managed and most confused campaign that I have ever had any knowledge of, and this is saying much for it was thought that our campaign in 1920 reached the high water mark of incompetency. There is no coordination of the supporters of Davis, and this is a serious loss in the campaign for the reason that the friends who wish to help cannot do so.

I lunched with Davis last week and was with him three hours alone. I tried to get him to rise to what I considered the necessary heights in his campaign. If I had given the same talk to Woodrow Wilson as I gave to Davis, a speech electrifying the country would have been the outcome. While Davis has used in his speeches much of what I have suggested, he has failed to do it

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in a way to carry conviction. He comes up to the edge and when you think he
is about to put it over, he falls just short of the right words and right effect.

I have not been to Democratic Headquarters and have no intention of
doing so, but I have seen those who are directing the campaign such as Shaver, Chairman, Roper, who is doing the organization work, and Woolley who has charge of publicity. Woolley is the only one who has imagination and he too is discouraged with his efforts to make Davis go to the length that the situation demands.

As I see the campaign at the moment, LaFollette and not Davis will get
the protest vote against the Harding-Coolidge Administration.

Before my friend Herman Kohlsaat went to Washington last week I
told him if Coolidge was elected I would like to see him and try to convince
him that his best interests and the best interests of the country and the world
would be served if we went into the League of Nations as an associate member.
I told him I thought I could show Coolidge it was the best way by which he could
make his next administration a notable one and make himself a notable President.
Yesterday a letter from Kohlsaat came which says: "The President will be de-
lighted to have Mrs. House and you come to the White House, stay as long as you
can; will send a motor to the depot, and if you want it kept quiet, will see
there is no publicity. He was very cordial in his invitation, so after elec-
tion write him, or I will do st for you."

not

If I accept this invitation, I have much hope of success in persuading him to do as I would like. He has not the temperament and I doubt whether he has the courage to embark in such an enterprise. However, it is worth trying and I shall make the effort.

I am gratified at what has been done at Geneva during the recent
meeting of the Council and the Assembly for they have harked back to the first

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Covenant I wrote at Magnolia in July 1918. In the Protocol adopted, the League is now committed to compulsory arbitration not only for members but it also makes it compulsory for non-members to arbitrate under peril of sanctions against them by the League members. This is precisely what I wrote in the first Covenant which Wilson largely approved and which was the basis for the Protocol recently adopted at Geneva. I believed then, and I believe now, that the way to stop war is to compel arbitration and leave no loophole to those who would make it.

I differed with Wilson and the others at Paris, when the final Covenant was in the making, but I could get no one to join in such drastic articles. That the League has now come to it is a matter of time and place. Itsgra-
tification and I hope that the several parliaments will ratify it and that it will become a part of the settled policy of the League. It has caused much comment in the United States and some dissatisfaction because it might mean, in the last analysis, the United States against the world since we are practically the only nation now on the outside, other than Russia and Mexico, since Germany has indicated her intention of becoming a member.

I suggested to Davis that he call this to the attention of the American people and that he assert that there were only two courses open to us, one to cooperate with the balance of mankind, the other to arm to the teeth and defy the world. I wanted him to show that it would be necessary to maintain an army and navy larger than any other the world has yet seen and to train our youth as the German youth were trained prior to the World War. Davis has mentioned the subject but without force and it has carried no weight and no conviction. Wilson would have done this in a way that the entire country would be talking of it, and the women and churches might have rallied around the man who promised disarmament and peace.

(46)

October 17, 1924.

Not long ago Gregory sent me a memorandum covering some conversations he had in Paris with Dr. Seymour relating to some events of the Wilson Administration. Among other things, Gregory states that Burleson told him that he had not suggested to Wilson the writing of the pre-election letter in 1918 in which Wilson asked for a Democratic Congress. The well known newspaper correspondent, William H. Crawford, told me the other day, when we were discussing this fateful political error of the President's, that Wilson stated to him soon after he wrote the letter that it was suggested by Burleson.

I have not seen any of the Walter Page family since my return, but I was told the other day that Mrs. Wilson has promised to give them photostats of Page's letters to the President. I hope this is true and I take it that Cyrus McCormick brought it about since he promised it would be done before he left last spring.

This has been a distressing day. I received a letter this morning from Mrs. Kohlsaat saying that Herman had had another serious stroke. I immediately wired her asking of his condition, and at lunch time a reply came saying that he was dead. It is not often that a friendship as close as ours is made so late in life. I have not known him longer than ten years, and not intimately more than four or five years. He was one of the most remarkable men I have ever known, and no one not having the privilege of his intimate friendship could fathom the influence he has had on the affairs of this country during the past thirty years. He was offered Cabinet positions and ambassadorships by President McKinley, and doubtless both Roosevelt and Taft would have given him what he desired. He preferred to act in the capacity of private citizen and his advice was always for the public good as he saw it. He had a broader out-

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look than most of those with whom he advised, and in addition he had great
courage. He was almost wholly responsible for the Republican Party putting
the "Gold Plank" into the Saint Louis Platform in 1896. Mark Hanna and even
McKinley wanted to evade it, but Kohlsaat dominated the situation and told
them unless it went in he would oppose McKinley in his potential Chicago news-
paper which at that time, I think, was the Inter-Ocean. He was a kindly gen-
tle soul and had the gift of friendship to a rare degree. Thousands of people
will mourn his death and in every walk of life. His death is a great grief
to me, for his friendship and advice devotion to me touched me deeply.

October 25, 1924.

Since the last entry in the diary I have seen a number of people
and among the most interesting were Judge Bingham of Louisville, Richard Wash-
burn Child, Baroness Ishomoto, V. Steffansson, Sir Lionel Earle and Geoffrey
Dawson, Editor of the London Times.

I am getting Mrs. Catt and Judge Bingham to help me work up a senti-
ment favorable to our entry into the League of Nations as an associate member.
I am getting others as well but those two have the capacity and broad influ-
ence to serve my purpose well. I am trying to get a background favorable to
this idea so if I think well to talk to the President after the election, I
can indicate the amount of support he will have if he makes an announcement fa-
vorable to the idea.

The cables state that the University of Posen have decided to confer
the degree of doctor of laws on Paderewski and me. I knew nothing of this
otherwise I should have discouraged it. I have been critical of others seek-
ing such honors and it seems somewhat inconsistent to accept a degree myself.

And this reminds me, that I have taken away somewhere the "Crown of

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of Leopold" given me by the King of the Belgians during the War.

One of the gratifying things I have done has been to get the Peace Societies to distribute Winston Churchill's article entitled "Shall we commit suicide?" by the hundreds of thousands. No day goes by that I do not try to do something to further the cause of peace.

Houghton, Mifflin & Co. have sent me "Absolutely the first copy of William Allen White's Woodrow Wilson that has come from the bindery". It is a brilliantly written book and probably gives as correct an estimate of our great war President as can be made in a superficial way by one who knew him largely through others. There are some errors about me in the book which might have been avoided if he had *submitted* them to me. One of them is that while Wilson was absent from Paris during February and March, 1919, and I was acting in his stead, I agreed to separate the Treaty and Covenant. As a matter of fact, what has given rise to this general belief is that at first we were trying to make a preliminary peace, such as was done after the Franco-Prussian War and other wars. If this had been done of course the League of Nations would not have been embodied in it, but would have gone into the final treaty. If I remember rightly, the question of whether there should be a preliminary treaty or a single treaty was not determined until late in the Spring. Balfour, in his letter to me of some two years ago, puts at rest the question as to his and my action in the premises.

influenced

White indicates that I *submitted* the President in his action on Shantung, and tried to influence him on Fiume. The facts, as I recall them, are the President made the Shantung decision himself. Lansing, Bliss and White disagreed with him and wrote a letter of protest, a letter which they tried to get me to sign but which I refused to do, for I thoroughly agreed with Wilson and have had no reason since to change my mind.

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As to Fiume, the President and I did differ and I did try to get him to force a compromise between the Italians and Jugo-Slavs. I contended then, and subsequent events have borne out my contention, that the Jugo-Slavs would come out of the controversy better with the compromise I might have obtained than if they held tenaciously to their conditions which Wilson upheld.

White does not mention the fact that Wilson gave to Italy a part of the Tyrol, a decision which Clemenceau, Lloyd George and I thoroughly disapproved. Clemenceau and Lloyd George could not protest because the boundary followed the line of the Treaty of London, to which France and Great Britain had agreed. I have always believed that the reason Wilson was so stubborn about Fiume was that he had already realized what an error he had made regarding the Austrian Tyrol.

Another error is where White states that toward the end of the Peace Conference, Wilson sent me to London to attend to some matters there and when I had finished, he gave me other work to do there in order to keep me out of Paris and that I never saw him again. The truth is, I never went to England, except for a few days to see my daughter Janet, until after the Peace was signed, and I bade Wilson goodbye on the night of June 28th when he left Paris for home.

There are several other minor errors which I do not recall. On the whole, I would be critical indeed if I were not satisfied with his estimate of my work and of me.

White speaks of my having taken to Paris "a number of Texas friends, relatives and relatives-in-law."" I had no relatives and no Texas friends; there other than a young ensign in the Navy, Edward House Andrews, who is the son of an old friend, and who acted for me in confidential coding work. The relative-in-law were Dr. S. E. Mezes, President of the College of the

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City of New York, who was appointed as head of The Inquiry, and who is a brother-in-law of my wife, and my son-in-law, Gordon Auchincloss, who acted as and who paid his own expenses at the hotel when he was staying, is one of my secretaries. Some of the other Commissioners sinned in this regard, if indeed, sin it was, more seriously than I am.

November 2, 1924.

Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt lunched with me last week to discuss means to further the League of Nations sentiment among the women of the country. I convinced her, I believe, that the only practical thing to do was to advocate associate membership, and I gave my usual reasons for this belief. If she can do it, she will probably have the question on the Agenda at the great meeting which the Women's Federation of Clubs are to hold in Washington around the middle of January.

Arthur Sweetser has called several times during the week. He suggests that if we could secure sufficient money, which he estimates would be around $50,000.) that a committee should be sent to Geneva this winter. He thought representatives from the American Bar Association, United States Chambers of Commerce, Federation of Churches, Women's Organizations, Federation of Labor and the Farmers Union. In discussing the matter, we concluded that Edward Bok was our best chance of success for obtaining the funds. Sweetser, Miss Esther Lape and I had a conference here on Friday and Miss Lape was enthusiastic and thought the plan could be carried out under the American Peace Award, which is still a going concern. She said Bok was in town but was leaving Friday or early Saturday morning for Philadelphia. She telephoned to his hotel, I spoke to him and invited him to breakfast with me this morning. He accepted and it did not take more than ten minutes to convince him that Sweetser's idea was well worth financing and he

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authorized Miss Lape to go ahead and work it out in consultation with Sweet-
ser and me.

Bok tells me that he plans to keep the American Peace Award going
to work first for our entrance into the World Court and second into the
League of Nations. I took him on the mountain top and tried to show
him what a fruitful field of endeavor his work in this direction was and
what an enviable name he might leave to posterity. I told him something of
my conversation with Ramsay MacDonald at Chequers last summer, and howhe had
accepted the role of world leadership for peace and disarmament through the
League. Now that MacDonald was defeated, I thought that Calvin Coolidge
should assume the role and carry it through. I thought the President of
the United States could do the work more effectively than the Prime Minister
of Great Britian, largely for the reason that his tenure of office was fixed
and the vicissitudes of politics would not leave him with the work half fin-
ished as it has done with Ramsay MacDonald.

I gave Bok this talk because of his very close friendship with Coolidge
and in view of the plan we have to influence the President after the election.

Among my callers during the week were Hugh Wallace, Samuel Bertron, J.D.
Pearmain, David Hunter Miller, Paul Harvey, Legare Davis and Meisner and a
Mr. Moore, Secretary of the Masonic Order.

Moore came to offer me the leadership of a Federation composed of all
the great organizations in this country, such as the Masons, Knights of Colum-
bus, Federation of Women's Clubs, Federation of Labor, Catholic and Jewish
organizations of every description and kind. The membership would represent
the greater part of the population of the United States. I discouraged the
thought of accepting such a position and suggested others who would have more
time than I to do the work to give to such an important undertaking. I

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would like to do it but only if I had the time and strength to do it well and
this I have not got.

Wallace and Bertron and Miller came apropos of the pending campaign.
Pearmain suggested some ten days ago that he could get the *Frankfurter Zeitung*
to write an editorial commending the League of Nations and ~~yet in terms I might think~~
~~thought wise. I outlined the scope of such an editorial and, much to my sur-
prise, the *Zeitung* wrote the editorial and Pearmain, through Dr. Shotwell, of
Columbia, had it cabled over at Pearmain's expense. It was a fine thing
for this young zealot to do and he remained up most of Friday night getting
it ready for release in the German papers throughout the country.

November 14, 1924.

On November 2nd I lunched with Judge Bingham and he told of a conversation he had with Frederick Upham, Treasurer of the Republican Campaign Committee. He talked Upham into the associate membership of the League of Nations idea, and Upham, in turn, wants Bingham to go with him to Washington sometime soon and present the matter to the President. Bingham thinks I should see the President first because the idea is mine and I could explain and answer questions better than anyone else.

On Election night Daisy Harriman, Gordon and Janet dined with us.
We went to the *New York Times* offices to receive the election returns. I
was not interested because defeat was a foregone conclusion. I was surprised,
however, by the magnitude of Coolidge's victory. If the Democrats could not
win after four such years as Harding and Coolidge have given us then success
would seem to be hopeless. The Republicans with the power of the press and
unlimited money convinced the country that LaFollette's candidacy might cause
the election to be thrown into the House of Representatives and that there

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would be four months of uncertainty with consequent business depression. That coupled with the religious war started in the Democratic Party by McAdoo and Smith during the National Convention did the rest. By some irony of fate, the Ku Klux Klan voted for Coolidge as did the Irish Catholics. The one on the theory that he was the only candidate who had not denounced them, and the other on the theory that the Democrats of the South and West must be shown that they could not win without the Catholic vote.

It may be that this religious controversy may extend through another four years. Just how long the people of the country will permit organized wealth to direct *ik* our destiny is an interesting question. Surely, the Democrats stood for better things than the Republicans, and surely Davis is better fitted for President than Coolidge. Davis, however, did not make as profound an impression as his friends hoped he would. There was something lacking in his speeches that made them more or less ineffective. Then, too, his selection of Campaign Manager showed such a deplorable lack of judgment that many observers thought it presaged similar bad judgment should he become President. Be that as it may, he had his chance and will probably never have another.

Meanwhile, I have gone on doing what I could for the League of Nations, and to influence the President and public men in that direction.

Brand Whitlock brought a Mr. Sheppey, a rich Republican from Ohio, to see me last Saturday. Whitlock told me afterward that I had converted Sheppey to the associate membership idea, and that Sheppey in turn had about convinced Senator Fess of Ohio, and that they both intended to talk to the President.

In this connection, I had a long talk yesterday with Henry Stoddard, the well known editor and publisher. He, too, is to see the President

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next week and will try to push him along the same path. It is disheartening to think that one's time and effort should be necessary to convince a President of the United States of so obvious a duty. The truth of it is he does not understand what it is all about and he is fitted merely for the business routine of the great office which he occupies. He lacks imagination and he lacks the qualities of leadership. He is, and will be I fear, content merely to do the best work as it comes before him. In doing this he will be commended for the moment, but he will leave no lasting impression upon posterity.

I gave a luncheon to Brand Whittleck Wednesday and among the guests were: Sir Campbell Stuart, Cosmo Hamilton, Edward S. Martin, R. W. Woolley, Raymond Fosdick, Arthur Sulzberger, Frederick Palmer, Albert Bigelow Paine, John H. Finley and Rutger Jewett.

I have seen a number of people and among them Mrs. Jos. Fels, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bliss, Arthur Sweetser etc.

I have an interesting letter from Mrs. Walter Page concerning her husband's letter to President Wilson. The correspondence tells the story.

November 30, 1924.

On the 15th I wrote a letter to Viscount Cecil which is a part of the record. Sweetser called that day and told me of Cecil's having been given the first Woodrow Wilson Foundation prize. I think Sweetser is largely responsible for this since he tried to secure the Noble Prize for Cecil and, failing in that, tried to get the Wilson Prize. I think if I had been on the Jury of Award I might have adopted the suggestion made by R. W. Woolley, which was that the $25,000. should be given the League of Nations

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as part of the expenses of the League since the United States has failed to
used
give anything although we have the League freely.

The publishers have sent me a copy of Wickham Steed's book, "Through Thirty Years". In looking through the two volumes I see that he has treated me generously, and in one place gives me credit for being the ablest of the Peace Commissioners at Paris.

On the 16th among my callers were Governor Cox of Ohio, Edward Hurley and Breckenridge Long. They came together, or met here, and we discussed the rehabilitation of the Democratic Party. We came to one common conclusion and that is that during the next four years partisanship for men should be superceded by partisanship for party. What has brought about our low estate is the partisan fight in our own ranks.

On the 17th, Henry L. Stoddard called to discuss the European
situation and our relations thereto. He was to have seen Coolidge last
week and discussed with him the advisability of our entering the League as
an associate member. Stoddard wants me to meet Senator Borah, who is now
Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and he showed me a letter from
Borah expressing a wish that this might be brought about.

On the 21st I again wrote to Viscount Cecil, destroying the one
written on the 15th.

On the 22nd I wrote Viscount Grey. These letters are parts of the
record.

Sir William Wiseman and I had an intimate talk on Thursday the 27th.
We both regret that the British Government had gotten into difficulties
with Egypt, and we thought it a pity that the controversy had not been re-
ferred to the League. I agree with Ramsay MacDonald that the British Gov-
ernment should have gone to the League and asked for a mandate over the

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Soudan. This undoubtedly would have been forthcoming and would have strengthened the League and the British Empire as well. Wiseman and I agree that it may yet take another catastrophe like the Great War to bring the world wholly to the right view regarding the League and the necessity for settling disputes without recourse to war. Wiseman thought that this opportunity was given Wilson but he failed.

On the 28th three interesting letters came, one from Austen Chamberlain, now Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the British Cabinet, one from Charles W. Eliot and one from William Allen White. These are parts of the record.

December 14, 1924.

On December 1st, an interesting young woman came to me at the request of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. to get data and information regarding the Federal Reserve Act. Professor Stevenson has consented to write a life of Senator Aldrich, Mrs. Rockefeller's father, provided all the data is gathered for him. I could not give her a great deal of information but guided her somewhat as to where it might be obtained.

On December 2nd I wrote letters to Dr. Eduard Benes of Prague and Dr. Charles W. Eliot of Cambridge which are parts of the record.

On December 3rd I received a letter from President Angell of Yale University inviting me to deliver the Dodge Lectures. I suppose if I accepted it would mean an offer of a degree.

On December 4th I wrote President Angell declining to give the lectures.

On December 5th the United Press called up and said they had a request from the Vienna Free Press asking me to write something for their Christmas Number. They also asked Senator Borah. I wrote the article

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at once since it was necessary to catch the Aquitania sailing the next day.

On December 8th, I wrote to William Allen White correcting some of the said errors in his *Woodrow Wilson*.

) On December 10th, Matthew Page Andrews, Senator Walsh of Montana, Nor man Hapgood and others called. With all of these international affairs were discussed.

I have had many other callers, political and social, but of no particular interest excepting one from Legare Davis representing the proposed Wilson Memorial College at Valdosta, Georgia. He gave me a telegram which is a part of the record, indicating that the citizens of Valdosta, the American Legion and American Federation of Labor would be content to be guided by my advice and would abide by any decision I might make.

I have been advising and guiding this movement for nearly a year and have become much interested in its success. The greatest difficulty we have now is with Mrs. Woodrow Wilson who, for some reason, does not favor the project, although she does not know, so far as I am aware, that I am guiding them.

I received an invitation from Senator Claude Swanson of Virginia, Chairman of the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Service, to attend the services to be held in Washington tomorrow. I accepted and am leaving on the 3.30 train this afternoon.

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January 7, 1925.

On Sunday, December 14th, I left for Washington on the afternoon train in order to attend the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Exercises on Monday the 15th. There were many of the old Wilson followers on the train-- David F. Houston, Henry Morganthau, David H. Miller, Adolph Miller of the Federal Reserve Bank, etc. etc. David Miller and I stopped with Breckenridge Long.

I saw many of my old friends as I went in to the House of Representatives. Bryan, Lansing, Bliss, Daniels, Redfield, Palmer, Tumulty and a number of Senators and Representatives. Alderman's speech made the occasion a notable one. I afterwards talked with Mrs. Borden Harriman who gave me much interesting Washington gossip.

On December 17th, Dr. Canby and a representative of Harper Brothers called relative to the Biography of Woodrow Wilson which Mrs. Wilson is contemplating having written. Harper Bros. very much desire to publish the book when it is ready and they were seeking advice as to the best method of procedure.

I have been seeing much of the committee having in charge the Wilson Memorial College at Valdosta, Georgia.

On the 21st we lunched with Mrs. Jos. E. Willard to meet the Spanish artist, Zuluago.

On Christmas day I had a delightful cable from Paderewski and I wrote him the next day.

On the 29th I gave a tea to Lord Thompson, Air Minister in the Labor Government, and on the 30th I dined with Mr. and Mrs. Thos. W. Lamont to meet Lord and Lady Cecil. Cecil and I had a few minutes of intimate talk after dinner, and when we had finished our conversation I returned home as