My son, Arthur, who succeeded to most of my activities at home, has been over here for a month and he has just come from a visit to France.

In Paris he had a long conversation with Delcasse, who told him that the Kaiser himself once made a proposal to him to join in producing "the complete isolation" of the United States.
What the Kaiser meant was that if the great Powers of Europe would hold off, he would put the Monroe Doctrine to the test and smash it.
The great tide of the world will, by reason of the war, now flow toward democracy--at present, alas! a tide of blood.

For a century democracies and Liberal governments have kept themselves too much isolated, trusting prematurely and too simply to international law and treaties and Hague conventions.

These things have never been respected, except as springs to catch woodcock, where the Divine Right held sway.

The outgrowing or the overthrow of the Divine Right is a condition precedent to the effectiveness of international law and treaties.
It has seemed to me, looking at the subject only with reference to our country's duty and safety, that somehow and at some early time our championship of democracy must lead us to redeclare our faith and to show that we believe in our historic creed.