Woodrow Wilson to W. J. Martin

Thank you warmly for your letter of April seventeenth which has given me a great deal of pleasure.
I note with appreciation your generous tender of your services and honor you for the offer. My feeling is that until we begin to run short of men it would not be wise or right to weaken the service of the Government here in Washington by encouraging those who are now engaged here to change their form of service. No one can tell what may be ahead of us, but for the present it seems to me this would be unnecessary and unwise.