I have just received your telegram. The President has severed our diplomatic relations with Germany. He is entirely right in doing so. This is a measure demanded both by the honor and the safety of the United States. It is the first duty of every American to sustain the President in his action. If war should come it will be the duty of every man, young or old--a duty in which I know the men of Harvard will not fail--to do everything in his power to serve the country and to secure a victory in a contest which involves freedom and democracy and in which our own security would be at stake. If war should come we must never for a moment forget that the individual life is nothing in comparison with the life of the country, and ever bear in mind the words of Bacon that "the chief duties of life are more Important than life itself." There can be no higher duty than to serve the country to the utmost of our ability when the hour of stress and trial is upon us.