Albert Shaw to Woodrow Wilson

Title

Albert Shaw to Woodrow Wilson

Creator

Albert Shaw

Identifier

WWP22549

Date

1918 October 29

Source

Library of Congress, Woodrow Wilson Papers, 1786-1957

Text

ALBERT SHAW-EDITOR

Dear Mr. President
Not to burden you with a long letter, I feel like sending you a line to tell you of my return from a trip to Great Britain and France with a group of editors, and to congratulate you upon the magnificent successes for the Allied armies and for American war policies that have thrilled the world during the weeks of my absence from this country.

I am glad to tell you that I found a simply overwhelming enthusiasm for your leadership among the people of Great Britain. I am not referring merely to men in high office, although we were assured by many of them of the intimate and unrestrained cooperation of their Government departments, as well as of their military and naval forces, with the corresponding American agencies. I have particularly in mind the solid business men of England and Scotland, and most of the editors and newspaper people with whom I came into contact.

I think that this expression which I make as my own would be fully borne out by every one of the dozen others who were in our party. Hardly anything that I heard was more sincere and eloquent than the tribute paid to you and to the spirit of America in this war at a dinner given for us by the Lord Provost and Magistrates of Edinborough. The same sentiments were evident among the great business men on the Clyde as well as the municipal authorities of Glasgow and in the great establishments of Manchester, Birmingham, and elsewhere, while the powerful provincial press (Manchester Guardian, Liverpool Post, Scotsman of Edinborough, Glasgow Herald, and many others) are as firm in their support of America's attitude and of your own leadership as your most ardent friends could possible desire.

I have understood, of course, that preliminary correspondence that has been made public was paving the way for a very drastic kind of military armistice, which had been under consideration for some days past and about which, under very strict confidence, we learned something through Mr. Lloyd George by way of Northcliffe. Mr. Lloyd George, with whom we had tea just before we sailed, assured us that at every point his Government was in closest communication with Washington.

We had the pleasure of seeing a great deal of John W. Davis on the Adriatic, going across in a slow convoy that kept us on shipboard practically two weeks. Of course we could have had no inkling at that time of his selection by you for the London post. But I may add that everyone of us was delighted with the appointment as we came to appreciate the great worth of Mr. Davis, whose intelligence, poise, charm of manner, and talent as a speaker we had full opportunity to know before we got across. We had a lot of soldiers on board, and Davis made a fine little speech to them on the way.

It was the universal opinion in England and France, not only that America's arrival had saved the situation, but that nothing like the bigness and rapidity of the American military effort had ever been known. The quality of our army has won the admiration of everybody, from the King and the military experts to the plain citizens. This of course you know very well through all sorts of avenues, but I am glad to bear the same testimony.
With great regard,

Faithfully yours,
Albert Shaw.


Honorable Woodrow Wilson
The White House
Washington

Original Format

Letter

To

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WWI1303.pdf

Collection

Citation

Albert Shaw, “Albert Shaw to Woodrow Wilson,” 1918 October 29, WWP22549, World War I Letters, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.