Henry B. Fine to Woodrow Wilson

Last evening at the Enos' I met a young American surgeon, Dr. Malcom C. Grow, who interested me very much. He is just back from Russia after two years service in the medical corps of the Russian army. He was under Brusyloff in the brilliant campaign of that general last summer and rose to the rank of chief of the medical staff of one of the Russian regiments. I was especially inpressed by the clear, succint, & vivid accounts he gave of the engagements he had witnessed, but even more by what he had to say regarding the strong desire for peace which during the last months he has heard expressed by the Russian soldiers among whom he has been thrown. He had come back filled with concern lest this sentiment, which he fears is growing, may lead to Russia's dropping out from active participation in the war, and is naturally eager that the steps which America is taking to help avert this catastrophe be the most effective possible. He found that the best known & most admired American private citizen, among all classes of men with whom he talked, is Roosevelt– to whom they seemed to feel especially grateful because he helped stop the war with Japan– and he is so fully possessed of the idea that the addition of Roosevelt to the U. S. Commission about to be sent to Russia would immensely add to the influence of that Commission with the rank and file of the Russian people that he finds he cannot rest until he has done his best to see you & tell you the grounds of his beliefs. He therefore begged me to write you that he is to be in Washington this coming week, probably on Wednesday, his address there being c/o H. Ralph Burton, Union Trust Co. At my suggestion, that you may be saved the trouble of sending him any word, he is to call at the White House (on Wednesday, I think) and learn from Mr. Tumulty whether you are willing to see him and, if so, when.
There is nothing for me to add, except that I am convinced that Dr. Grow is thoroughly sincere & not acting under the influence of his own personal admiration for Roosevelt– if indeed he possesses any, for he said nothing to indicate it. His suggestion may be wholly impracticable, but, on the other hand, it may, as he thinks, have promise enough to warrant meeting serious difficulties to have it or something like it carried into effect. You will know.
With love from us all, as ever,