The Days of a Man 



C1915 



Emotional 

 oratory 



" Out of 

 the 



trenches 

 by Christ- 



mas 



Detroit. The boldness and novelty of the project 

 appealed to Mr. Ford, who immediately prepared to 

 carry it into execution. 



Frau Schwimmer, emotional and intense to say the 

 least, played the part of dominant spirit. She had 

 frequently urged that America had only to act and 

 the war would be over, though she never made it 

 clear just how we should go about it. Once when 1 

 spoke in Chicago on the same platform, my account 

 of the obstacles in the way of European peace moved 

 her to tears, and she said I had discouraged her more 

 than any one else. For this I was of course sorry, 

 but I had then only begun to skirt the edge of the 

 truth! Miss Rebecca Shelley, temperamentally opti- 

 mistic, felt sure the expedition would be a marvelous 

 success and begged people to drop everything else 

 and come along. Meanwhile "to get the boys out of 

 the trenches by Christmas" became the accepted 

 slogan, and it was even suggested that the feat might 

 be accomplished by wireless telegraphy. 



The preliminary letter sent out by Mr. Ford was a 

 worthy expression of feeling: 



Envoys to thirteen belligerent and neutral governments have 

 ascertained in forty visits that there is a universal peace desire. 

 This peace desire, for the sake of diplomatic etiquette, never 

 can be expressed openly or publicly until one side or the other 

 is definitely defeated or until both sides are entirely exhausted. 



For fifteen months the people of the world have waited for 

 the governments to act; have waited for governments to lead 

 Europe out of its unspeakable agony and suffering and to 

 prevent Europe's entire destruction. As European neutral 

 governments are unable to act without cooperation of our 

 government and as our government for unknown reasons has 

 not offered this cooperation, no further time can be wasted in 

 waiting for governmental action. 



c 682 : 



