Woodrow Wilson to William Cox Redfield

Confidential.

The matter to which you call my attention in your letter of October eighth has given me a great deal of thought and a great deal of concern, but I am afraid that the suggestion made by our Consul at Aleppo, Mr. J. B. Jackson, could not wisely be complied with.

It would take a great deal of explaining to our American farmers and others; but more than that, there lies very near the surface in France, I have been told, a very considerable revolutionary feeling and this feeling may easily, it is thought, be stirred by any indication that men or women from other countries are going to take the place of French men and French women in the industrial life of that country. They have no objection, of course, to auxiliary forces of the Army working on the railways behind the lines and doing the things that are obviously connected with the operations and the supply of the armies, but they are intensely jealous of the intrusion of outsiders in the general industrial work of the country.

Cordially and sincerely yours,
Woodrow Wilson


Hon. William C. Redfield,
Secretary of Commerce.