the facts ought to be published to all the world.  Let the Germans get all the joy they can out of the confession.  No matter, if the Government and the people of the United States knew all the facts, we’d have 1,000 improvised destroyers (yachts, tugs, etc., etc.) armed and over here very quickly.  Then the tide would turn.

Then there’d be nothing to fear in the long run.  For the military authorities all agree that the German Army is inferior to the British and French and will be whipped.  That may take a long time yet; but of the result nobody who knows seems to have any doubt—­unless the French get tired and stop.  They have periods of great war weariness and there is real danger that they may quit and make a separate peace.  General Pershing’s presence has made the situation safe for the moment.  But in a little while something else spectacular and hopeful may be required to keep them in line.

     Such is an accurate picture of the war as it is now, and it is a
     dangerous situation.

2.  The next grave danger is financial.  The European Allies have so bled the English for money that the English would by this time probably have been on a paper money basis (and of course all the Allies as well) if we had not come to their financial aid.  And we’ve got to keep our financial aid going to them to prevent this disastrous result.  That wouldn’t at once end the war, if they had all abandoned specie payments; but it would be a frightfully severe blow and it might later bring defeat.  That is a real danger.  And the Government at Washington, I fear, does not know the full extent of the danger.  They think that the English are disposed to lie down on them.  They don’t realize the cost of the war.  This Government has bared all this vast skeleton to me; but I fear that Washington imagines that part of it is a deliberate scare.  It’s a very real danger.

     Now, certain detached items: 

Sims is the idol of the British Admiralty and he is doing his job just as well as any man could with the tools and the chance that he has.  He has made the very best of the chance and he has completely won the confidence and admiration of this side of the world.

Pershing made an admirable impression here, and in France he has simply set them wild with joy.  His coming and his little army have been worth what a real army will be worth later.  It is well he came to keep the French in line.

     The army of doctors and nurses have had a similar effect.

Even the New England saw-mill units have caused a furor of enthusiasm.  They came with absolute Yankee completeness of organization—­with duplicate parts of all their machinery, tents, cooks, pots, and pans, and everything ship-shape.  The only question they asked was:  “Say, where the hell are them trees you want sawed up?” That’s the way to do a job!  Yankee stock