In St. Petersburg White addressed himself to the Bering Sea dispute, famine relief, the extradition treaty, and the cause of persecuted minorities. He settled his wife in Helsingfors for the summer, and toured the Scandinavian countries. His difficulties with his secretary of legation are revealed in the letters, and there is some social correspondence. In Ithaca there was a large celebration of the 25th anniversary of the opening of the university. Friends wrote White that he would probably be slighted at the exercises, since Cornell was then under the strong influence of Henry W. Sage. On September 8 White addressed to Burr and Huffcut a long report of his role in the founding of Cornell, and asked them to keep it until it could be used to correct the record. John Meredith Read and Goldwin Smith sent assurances of their high opinions of White's contribution. Letters from America touched on two principal subjects, the World's Columbian Exposition and the financial panic. Several writers blamed the administration's silver policy for the country's business troubles. On October 10 Holls wrote of the ruin of Henry Villard and the loss to many German investors in the Northern Pacific Railroad. One writer discussed Japanese contract-labor in Japan, and others commented on Chinese immigration.