enough to disturb their ancient friendship. A war between them would therefore not only be criminal, but idiotic—an absurd atrocity, a murderous nonsense. Even to suggest the possibility of such a war under such circumstances and to agitate the public mind by such suggestions is a piece of mischievous recklessness.
TO CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR.
Your letter of the 4th enclosing the Welsh correspondence is in my hands. I agree with you in the opinion that at present our committee should remain as much as possible in the background. I suppose you remember the petition for the continuation of the inquiry by the Senate, which had been drawn up by the Anti-Imperialist League of this city, and which I communicated to our committee at its last meeting here. I returned it to its author with our criticism on its opening paragraphs. It has been changed in accordance with that criticism and received the signatures of a considerable number of college presidents and professors and other people of similar standing who had so far not been counted among the aggressive anti-imperialists. I advised our friends here that in my opinion our committee should not appear at all on it. So it has been sent to Mr. Hoar to be presented to the Senate. This, I think, is well as it is.
I have also told Mr. Fiske Warren who is active in a movement to bring Mobini to this country that I did not think our committee should take the lead or identify itself with that matter, but that, if the thing was to be done at all, a separate committee composed of men of comparatively less conspicuous standing in this fight should be formed for that purpose.
The public interest in the general subject seems to
