When Page reached Washington, the Presidential campaign was in full swing, with Mr.Wilson as the Democratic candidate and Mr.Charles E.Hughes as the Republican.

But another crisis was absorbing the nation's attention: the railway unions, comprising practically all the 2,000,000 railway employees in the United States, were threatening to strike--ostensibly for an eight-hour day, in reality for higher wages.
_Mr.Page's memorandum of his visit to Washington in August, 1916_ The President was very courteous to me, in his way.

He invited me to luncheon the day after I arrived.

Present: the President, Mrs.Wilson, Miss Bones, Tom Bolling, his brother-in-law, and I.The conversation was general and in the main jocular.

Not a word about England, not a word about a foreign policy or foreign relations.
He explained that the threatened railway strike engaged his whole mind.
I asked to have a talk with him when his mind should be free.