the situation to say that censorship and suppression are necessary for
the good of the Fatherland, and that the papers in question deserved to
be suppressed. The vital fact remains that your newspapers are not free
to publish anything they like. Ours are thus free. Every issue of your
papers must be submitted to your police, so that your rulers may control
what you write and read. Not a paper in America is submitted to any
official whatever. You cannot read anything which your Government
believes it wise to keep from you. We can read everything, whether the
Government likes it or not. Americans believe there can be no truly free
press, and no real unfettered public opinion, with the possibility of
punishment hanging over the press of a country. Where the police,
representing the ruling power, controls the press there is no true
liberty. Whatever else may be said against the American press, it must
be admitted that it is free from Government control. It is not
necessary, therefore, to inquire whether the American Government has
employed or instigated the public press to attack Germany, since, even
if it desired to do so, it would not dare make the attempt.

There are many other statements in your letters which can only be
explained as the result of writing under stress of intense emotion; you
would probably wish to modify many of these were you writing under
happier circumstances. It is not my desire, however, to dwell upon this
phase of your correspondence. I do not for a moment doubt your
sincerity, and believe you were yourself convinced of the truth of all
you wrote. My purpose in writing this letter is to accept in good faith
your expressed wish for a better understanding between two peoples who
have long been on friendly terms with one another, and to contribute
toward this end by removing, at least so far as we two are concerned,
one serious misunderstanding which now exists.