Thomas Nelson Page to Woodrow Wilson

As my telegrams will have informed you, the Chamber closed on Saturday evening in a sort of burst of glory. Sonnino, Orlando, (the Premier) and several other Ministers having made important addresses, among them the Minister of War, the Minister of Transports, the Minister of Finance, which carried the Chamber and brought a Vote of Confidence if favor of the Government by a majority distinctly firmer than on the last Vote. The actual Vote was 340 to 44 which represented the ultra-Socialist Vote. Orlando's speech was a great success and he is said to have received the greatest ovation that any man has received in twenty years. The importance of all this lies in the fact that it represents a distinct amelioration in political conditions here as the reception of these speeches showed a reflection of feeling in the country.

Meantime the economic condition of the country is certainly very serious, chiefly because of the scarcity of food and of coal. The spirit of the Army rests at last on the spirit of the people and the spirit of the people, however high, is undoubtedly dependent upon the ability to secure food enough. The scarcity of food together with the scarcity of coal on which depends keeping the shops open for the manufacture of munitions especially, and keeping the railroads going, constitutes the grave peril of the moment and this peril is very grave because it is undoubtedly known to the enemy and, as is believed here by those who are well informed, has given the enemy the conviction that Italy presents the most vulnerable point in the Allies' front. The reports say that the Germans have withdrawn all of their Divisions but two, and undoubtedly the British and the French apprehend that the great push which the Germans are evidently preparing to make will take place in France or Flanders, or perhaps both. I find, however, that the Italian officials, the men charged with the responsibility of Italy, have the conviction that the attack will be made on the Italian Front and pushed with as much tenacity as was shown at Verdun. Moreover, they are labouring under the greatest anxiety. They speak to me with much more frankness than they used to do before we declared war on Austria and although they put on a bold enough face, the anxiety as to the result taken in connection with the present conditions in Italy is unmistakable. Also I feel that there is good ground for it. The present coal situation, for example, is one which gives reason to fear an absolute collapse of everything. Italy's normal coal consumption in peace times is about 23,000 tons per day. Under great urgency she has been able to get from the Allies promises of 15,000, but about 9,000 is the most she has been able to obtain and it is not coal such as she has always had, but is of a quality which is burning out in the railway engines in such a way as to require their being stopped several times on any long run to be cleaned out. I received to-day information from a most responsible man that even so the present supply in Italy is so small as to constitute an immediate peril. The average supply ahead is about enough to run Italy for fifteen days, that is the average in the war zone which is given precedence over the rest of the country, but the supply in Rome and the supply in Naples are reported to be only about one day ahead, and the peculiar geographical situation of Italy with long runs from the ports where coal can be brought in renders the problem much more grave than might appear on the surface. The Minister of War has explained to me personally how the geographical situation of Italy and the relation of the railroads thereto increased the difficulties of distribution, even where there appeared on the surface a supply adequate for the immediate future. I mention all this in order that you may understand how much more serious the situation is than one might think from reading published reports.

All of the foregoing has an intimate connection with the possibility of Italy's being able to hold out. If the spirit of her people gives way she will not be able to keep on and everything that tends to inspire her people to keep up their courage is of service to our common cause. It is for this reason immediately that I am so glad to have had a Military Mission sent here and certainly I trust that General Swift's Mission which has come will not be taken away. I shall not believe until I am officially so informed that anything so unwise could possibly occur as to withdraw this Mission from Italy. It has been received with more than cordiality. It has had every attention shown it and the expressions of appreciation made to me personally has been far more earnest than anything formal could have been. As soon as the Mission arrived I gave the Members a dinner at which General Alfieri, the Minister of War was present and he has to-day given the Mission a luncheon at which all the Members were present and all the high officials of the Ministry of War were present as well and at which the Minister of War proposed a toast to yourself and to America and made a little address full of real feeling, in which he expressed the confidence in the aid which America's entry into the war has brought to the Allied Cause, whose sincerity cannot be doubted. I might give you in some detail just how earnest he was in his expression of appreciation of America and of your part in the great work, but the translation of his earnest phrases into English, at the same time that I was trying to transpose a few American ideas into Italian to reply to him in proposing the health of the King was too much for me. I will only say that I feel sure he was sincere when he declared that all he had said came from his heart, as well it might.

I do not think it is too much to say that the Italian people, I am not speaking of the Government, are looking to America at this moment as their absolute hope. They feel that England and France are strained to the utmost and they feel that we are the hope of their salvation.General Swift and his Staff leave for the Front tomorrow. Every arrangement has been made for them and I for one feel that nothing better could have been done than to send them here. I hope very much also that before a great while it may be possible to send some troops here. I do not mean a great number of troops I know that would be impossible but one or two regiments. As I telegraphed you once, Sonnino said to be me personally, if you could send 5,000 troops with the flag it would have a great moral effect; and it would. Undoubtedly they would want more in the future; that would be natural; but to meet the present exigency the sending the Flag is the thing that will have its effect. The flag with the Corporal's guard would represent for the people to the Italian people the fact that America wishes to fight for her Italy on Italian soil as much as she wishes to fight for any of the other Allies. Such an act will never be forgotten and if we do not send the Flag here, but send it only to France for the French Front and to the British Front, this fact will never be forgotten either. Not all the money we can lend them, nor all the provisions we can send them will have on the Italian people the effect that it will have to send the American Flag here. If you send it you have in the future a hold on the Italian heart which nothing else on earth will give you.

It has been suggested to me that even if at present we have no troops to send to the Italian front, if we would send a Brigade or two to be trained here it would have a great moral effect; then they could be used in the future where occasion might seem to demand their presence.

I present this matter to you with such earnestness because I know this people and I know their present situation, and I feel profoundly that there is a situation here in which we can be of great service to the common Cause. I do not venture to talk of the military phase of the matter, though I know its difficulties, but there is also the phase of which I am speaking; the political effect which, howver it may not be possible to recognize on the part of the military authorities in France, is here at least too intimately bound up with the military question for us not to look it squarely in the face.

I devote so much space to talking about things here in Italy and that I leave unsaid to you many things which I would like to say, especially about my appreciation of the burdens which you carry and of the manner in which you bear them. I will leave it to you, however, to know without my saying so how much I appreciate all that you have done and are doing.Orlando in the Chamber on Saturday turned to the Socialists who had claimed that you had got your idealism from Zimmerwald and had used the Zimmerwald formula, and reading a passage from your message in which you declared that America has devoted all of her resources to the cause of Democracy and Liberty, exclaimed: “This is Idealism Idealism put in practiceBut my letter is already too long, and I will only add a word to tell you that our little regimental band of youngsters in kahki uniforms, thirty-two in number, playing “The Star-Spangled Bannerand two or three other American tunes has been received with an appreciation which could not have been exceeded had they been grand orchestras in gaudy uniforms and numbered two hundred and fifty each like the British and French bands.

Always, my dear Mr. President,
Most sincerely your friend,
Tho. Nelson Page

The President,
The White House,
Washington, D.C.