The Days of a Man 



1913 



Leonard 

 Hobhouse 



Pels 



and justice to strive against evil methods in whatever 

 country and from whatever source, rather than to 

 balance one set against another. 



Dr. Hobhouse, tall, clear-headed, and forceful, 

 was not less opposed to war as war, but more lenient 

 in his judgment of British diplomacy. And as we 

 parted, referring to the submerging of democratic 

 ideals in the blood and slime of conflict, he voiced 

 his thought in a comforting assurance: "Whatever 

 may happen to democracy and freedom in Europe, 

 we have this abounding consolation America will 

 still remain, and in America they can be neither 

 overwhelmed nor dislodged !" In the same vein Carl 

 Heath said to me: "President Wilson has the greatest 

 opportunity of any man since Christ !" 



In 1904 Hobhouse wrote: 



We, in England, through long immunity have become wholly 

 ignorant of the nature of the passions raised by war. History 

 does not tell us much of these things. It preserves the glory of 

 war but suppresses its barbarities and its meannesses. It says 

 little of the secondary war of tongues which accompanies the 

 war of weapons and keeps up the flame of passion. It preserves 

 the fair exterior of chivalry and does not turn its light on the 

 calumnies, the barbarities, the cruelties as of savages which 

 luxuriate in the national mind in war time. 



An interesting "Grelix" visitor was Joseph Eels 

 somewhat eccentric, perhaps, as most persons of fixed 

 opinion are likely to be. At that time a wealthy 

 soap manufacturer of Philadelphia, he had made his 

 original fortune from the increase in value of a stony 

 outskirts farm bought at a low price and held until the 

 city's growth made it a desirable residential tract. 

 Convinced, therefore, that the "unearned increment" 

 constitutes a serious menace to society, he devoted 



