He also
cannot help believing that a nation which has produced such a literature
as Russia has produced during the last fifty years must hold within its
multitudinous population a large minority which is seething with high
aspirations and a fine idealism.
For the clarification of the public mind on the issue involved, it is
important that the limits of American neutrality should be discussed and
understood. The action of the Government must be neutral in the best
sense; but American sympathies and hopes cannot possibly be neutral, for
the whole history and present state of American liberty forbids. For the
present, thinking Americans can only try to appreciate the scope and
real issues of this formidable convulsion, and so be ready to seize
every opportunity that may present itself to further the cause of human
freedom, and of peace at last.
CHARLES W. ELIOT.
Asticou, Me., Sept. 1, 1914.
Appreciation from Lord Bryce
Late Ambassador at Washington from Great Britain; Chief
Secretary for Ireland, 1905-6; author of "The American
Commonwealth," and of studies in history and biography.
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