[Frontispiece: A document circulated by "The League of Truth"]





PREFACE

I was at the White House on the 29th of June, 1914, when the newspapers
reported the assassination of the Archduke and Archduchess of Austria.
In August, when the first declarations of war were received, I was
assigned by the United Press Associations to "cover" the belligerent
embassies and I met daily the British, French, Belgian, Italian,
German, Austro-Hungarian, Turkish and Japanese diplomats. When
President Wilson went to New York, to Rome, Georgia, to Philadephia and
other cities after the outbreak of the war, I accompanied him as one of
the Washington correspondents. On these journeys and in Washington I
had an opportunity to observe the President, to study his methods and
ideas, and to hear the comment of the European ambassadors.

When the von Tirpitz blockade of England was announced in February,
1915, I was asked to go to London where I remained only one month.
From March, 1915, until the break in diplomatic relations I was the war
correspondent for the United Press within the Central Powers. In
Berlin, Vienna and Budapest, I met the highest government officials,