The intimate papers of Colonel House arranged as a narrative by Charles Seymour.

TALK WITH WILSON ON PREPAREDNESS 299

which the military party evidently have in mind. He said
she would not have the men. I replied that she could not
win unless she had at least two or three million men under
arms at the end. He evidently thought the available men
would be completely wiped out.
'I insisted it was time to do a great constructive work for
the army and one which would make the country too powerful for any nation to think of attacking us. He told me there
was reason to suspect that the Germans had laid throughout
the country concrete foundations for great guns, similar to
those they laid in Belgium and France. He almost feared to
express this knowledge aloud, for, if the rumor got abroad,
it would inflame our people to such an extent that he would
be afraid of the consequences. General Wood has the matter
under investigation, and he asked me to caution Wood to be
very discreet.1
'I spoke of General Wood's desire to be sent abroad and
asked him to let him go in order that we might have at least
one man in our army with some experience. He said they
would not accept him. I replied that Wood thought otherwise and it was something for him to work out in his own
way.
'In speaking of the building-up of our army, I thought if
the Allies were successful there would be no need for haste;
but if the Germans were successful and we then began our
preparations, it would be almost equivalent to a declaration
of war, for they would know we were directing our preparations against them. I therefore urged that we start without
delay, so that we might be ready and avoid being placed in
such a position....
'November 8, 1914: The President desired me to go to
church with him, but I compromised by having Loulie go.
Mr. Bryan had just arrived from the West and I felt it
1 Probably neither Wilson nor House took such suspicions very seriously; the investigation proved them to be without basis.