By last week the efforts of the Senate Munitions Investigation Committee to excite the nation about J. P. Morgan & Co.'s part in drawing it into the War (TIME, Jan. 20) had come to such a pass that Chairman Nye felt obliged to apologize to newsmen for the dullness of his show. Bent on convincing the public that Allied trade and not German submarines had made the U. S. take up arms in 1917, the Committee abruptly switched from Business to Government history. Banker Morgan and his partners were left lolling on the sidelines while a parade of distinguished ghosts marched by the Committee table. One by one the following leaders of 1914-17 were summoned from their graves, were made to testify through their letters, diaries, memoirs, memoranda, were charged in effect as follows:
Woodrow Wilson, President of the U. S. : He lied to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
William Jennings Bryan, first Wilson Secretary of State: His ban on foreign loans might have kept the U. S. out of war. When his neutrality views were over ruled by his President and Cabinet colleagues, he quit.
Robert Lansing, second Wilson Secretary of State : He might have stopped the German submarine attacks which he said brought the U. S. into the War. Instead he knuckled under to the Allies.
Walter Hines Page, U. S. Ambassador to Britain: He enlisted in the British cause on Aug. 4. 1914. Thereafter, despite his superiors' protests, he took Britain's part in its disputes with his country, did his best to drag his country into war at Britain's side.
Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, British Ambassador to the U. S.: He cajoled, intrigued, did much to make the U. S. hate, fear and finally fight Germany.
Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary: He bluffed the U. S. into dropping a proposal which might have kept it out of war.
William Joel Stone of Missouri, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: He saw that Wilson and Lansing were siding with Britain against Germany, fought hard to restore the balance of neutrality. When Secretary Lansing privately argued that loss of life (German submarines) merited more drastic treatment than loss of property (British blockade). Stone pointed out that German babies were dying because Britain would not allow the U. S. to send them condensed milk.