rulers--the view advanced by Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President
Emeritus of Harvard University, and Dr. Nicholas Murray
Butler, President of Columbia--Dr. Karl Lamprecht, Professor
of History in the University of Leipsic and world-famous
German historian, has addressed the open letter which appears
below to the two distinguished American scholars. Dr.
Lamprecht asserts that under the laws which govern the German
Empire the people as citizens have a deciding will in affairs
of state and that Germany is engaged in the present conflict
because the sober judgment of the German people led them to
resort to arms.

_Dr. C.W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard University; Dr. N.M.
Butler, President of Columbia University._

Gentlemen: I feel confident that you are not in ignorance of my regard
and esteem for the great American Republic and its citizens. They have
been freely expressed on many occasions and have taken definite form in
the journal of my travels through the United States, published in the
booklet "Americana," 1905.

My sentiments and my judgment have not changed since 1905. I now refer,
gentlemen, to the articles and speeches which you have published about
my country and which have aroused widespread interest. I will not
criticise your utterances one by one. If I did that I might have to
speak on occasion with a frankness that would be ungracious, considering
the fine appreciation which both of you still feel for old Germany. It
would be specially ungracious toward you, President Eliot, for in quite
recent times you honored me by your ready help in my scientific labors.
All I want to do is to remove a few fundamental errors--in fact, only