ELIOT OF HARVARD
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sui,—There is one incident in Dr. Eliot's career _which ought to be recalled in England while his name is in the public mind. He was a staunch friend of England at all times, and when Prince Henry of Prussia visited the United States to revive the German intere3t there, he was suspicious of a political motive. Harvard University decided to give Prince Henry an honorary degree and President Eliot, who had to present him, determined that the occasion should not be used for German propaganda. This was how he presented Prince Henry : "Gentlemen, I have the honour to present to you H.R.H. Prince Henry of Prussia. We do not forget that he is the grandson of Queen Victoria and that when this country was in the throes of a fratricidal conflict Queen Victoria said to her Prime Minister : 'I hope, you will not present to me any document which means war with the United States, for I will sign no such document.'" Prince Henry did not make much capital out of that.
Few people in England realize- what it meant in the critical months of 1914 to have the cause of the Allies presented to the American people by the judicious, calm, succinct, and forceful letters of ex-President Eliot in the New York Times. I visited him in his home in Cambridge during those months and retain the impression made by the whole atmosphere of his home and by his dignified, alert, weighty personality. He made me feel that I was in the presence of a great English- man of the type of Chatham, Stamford Raffles or Gladstone. It was a thousand pities that he was not better known in England.—I am, Sir, &c.
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