Herbert Quick to Woodrow Wilson

Herbert Quick to Woodrow Wilson

Herbert Quick

WWP21830

1917 August 16

Herbert Quick writes to Woodrow Wilson about public sentiment which is largely anti-war except among those who have gotten their perspectives from reading newspapers and magazines.

Library of Congress, Woodrow Wilson Papers, 1786-1957

My dear Mr. President

At the suggestion of Secretary McAdoo I am writing this note with reference to the public sentiment of the country in its relation to the war.

I have traveled about the country considerably and have found myself frequently in contact with the ordinary run of Americans who frequent country hotels, ride in smoking cars, and visit the small towns. I find a condition of public sentiment which gives me some concern. There is no enthusiasm for the war except among those classes whose public sentiment is formed through the reading of the newspapers and magazines. That great body of public sentiment which finally controls and which comes up from the bottom of society like a groundswell seems to me to be lacking.

There is some antiwar sentiment, but not so much as I originally thought there might be. The trouble is that there is so little prowar sentiment.

As a body the young men do not want to go to war. Their parents and friends do not want them to go. The antiwar sentiment is slowly gathering headway and finds fertile soil for growth in this lukewarm attitude of the average American mind.

The people are not awake. They know pretty accurately what the situation is, but they do not feel.

I do not see how it can be expected that members of the Cabinet and others who are struggling with the solution of the great problems of the war in Washington, can do much more than they are doing. They are not endowed with superhuman strength.

It occurs to me, however, that if the Council of National Defense would take upon itself to have a campaign made all over the country, a speaking campaign which would bring home to the people of the towns and villages, as well as the cities, the war, our relation to it, and the way in which the fate of the United States is bound up in its victorious prosecution, an important national problem at this time might be solved. A Speakers' bureau should be organized, speakers should be drilled and trained so that the campaign itself will speak one voice, and that voice should echo yours.

I hope you will pardon this long letter which is written out of a spirit somewhat anxious over the situation.

Yours sincerely,
Herbert Quick

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924