At the White House a distinct air of tension was manifested. All inquiries as to what Secretary Bryan was going to do were ignored.
Finally, about 12 o'clock, Secretary Bryan left his office and came across the street. His face was flushed and his features hard set. He responded to inquiries addressed to him with negative shakes of the head. He swung into the cabinet room with the set stride with which he mounted the steps of the Baltimore platform to deliver his famous speech attacking Charles F. Murphy and Tammany Hall, and precipitating his break with Champ Clark, whose nomination for the presidency up to that time seemed assured.
For more than an hour after he reached the cabinet room the doors were closed. Across the hall the President's personal messenger had erected a screen to keep the curious at a distance.
At last the door was thrown open with a bang. First to emerge were Secretaries McAdoo and Redfield, who brushed through the crowd of newspaper representatives. They referred all inquiries to the President. Secretary of War Garrison came out alone. He refused to say a word regarding the note. There was an interval of nearly ten minutes. Then Secretaries Daniels and Wilson came out. Behind them was Attorney General Gregory, and, bringing up the rear, was Secretary Bryan. Bryan's face was still set. His turned-down collar was damp and his face was beaded with perspiration.
"Was the note to Germany completed?" he was asked.
"I cannot discuss what transpired at the cabinet meeting," was his sharp reply.
"Can you clear up the mystery and tell us when the note will go forward to Berlin?" persisted inquirers.
"That I would not care to discuss," said the Secretary, as he joined Secretary Lane. "I am not in a position to make any announcement of any sort now. I will tell you when the note actually has started."
Ordinarily, Secretary Bryan goes from a cabinet meeting to his office, drinks a bottle of milk and eats a sandwich. To-day he entered Secretary Lane's carriage and, with Lane and Secretary Daniels, proceeded to the University Club for luncheon.
It is understood that Secretary Bryan took to the cabinet meeting a memorandum in which he justified his views that the proposed note is not of a character that the United States should send to Germany. He took the position that the United States, in executing arbitration treaties with most of the countries of the world, took a direct position against war. As he put it, on great questions of national honor, the sort that make for welfare, arbitration is the only remedy.