On Monday, continuing his campaign for preparedness, he seemed to
take back what he had been understood to say about the German danger; "There is no sudden crisis. Nothing new has happened. I am not upon this errand because of any sudden, unexpected situation." On the other hand, he used language which suggests that British criticism has offended him
deeply
I know that on the other side of the water there has been a great deal of cruel misjudgment with regard to the reasons why America had remained neutral. Those who look at us at a distance, my fellow-citizens, do not feel the strong pulses of the real principles that are in us. They do not feel the conviction of America that her mission is a mission of eeace, that righteousness cannot be maintained as a standard in the midst of arms. They do not realize that at the back of all our energy, by which we built up great material wealth and created great material power, we are a body of idealists, much more ready to lay down our lives for thought than for dollars. suppose some of them think that we are holding off bocauea we can make money while others are dying. It is the most cruel misunderstanding that any nation has ever had to face."
President Wilson seems to forget that by far the most plain- spoken of his critics are American citizens, as, for example, ex-President Roosevelt. These critics have used a freedom of language never permitted to themselves by Bri tish oppo- nents of the Wilson policy.
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