PRESIDENT: I have two letters that I have lately written to you but which I have not sent because they utterly lack good cheer.

After reading them over, I have not liked to send them.

Yet I should fail of my duty if I did not tell you bad news as well as good.
The high esteem in which our Government was held when the first _Lusitania_ note to Germany was sent seems all changed to indifference or pity--not hatred or hostility, but a sort of hopeless and sad pity.

That ship was sunk just five months ago; the German Government (or its Ambassador) is yet holding conversations about the principle involved, making "concessions" and promises for the future, and so far we have done nothing to hold the Germans to accountability[10].

In the meantime their submarine fleet has been so reduced that probably the future will take care of itself and we shall be used as a sort of excuse for their failure.