TAFT, THE JEWISH AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA.
The news that Secretary Taft was to visit the Czar on behalf of American Jews came to us from Europe, though before the item was printed there it had been whispered here that this inspired diplomatic move had been devised by the American Jewish Committee.
The moment chosen for this visit was not auspicious, for while Mr. Taft was abroad the bureaucratic régime had already committed itself to an evasion of the Jewish question in the Third Duma; several riots had been perpetrated against Jews; in Vladivostok the Jews had been ordered to leave, and, moreover, the Czar himself had recognized the League of Real Russian hooligans and had promoted the notorious Kaulbars.
Nor is the United States in a position, at the present time, to suggest or demand anything of the Russian Government. Europe believes, rightly or wrongly, that the movement of our fleet into the Pacific is a direct challenge to Japan, and that a war with Japan is imminent. The truth is that, for diplomatic purposes, the United States is on an equal footing with other European Governments, and that it has no standing now as the champion of national righteousness. The United States has adopted all the vices of European diplomacy. In short, Mr. Taft may have spoken to the Czar of anything with propriety, but not of a question involving just treatment of the Jews.
Of course, we are not so short-sighted not to see that Mr. Taft must have spoken of the passport question. The rumor runs to that effect. But the passport question, as the subject of a brief conversation by a guest of honor, would have been quite out of place, a breach of diplomatic etiquette, and Mr. Taft is a suave gentleman, who goes by the book, and the contents of the book are not a state secret.
We submit that the effort of the American Jewish Committee, if this Taft mission is their happy thought, is not at all in keeping
with the traditions of American democracy, and do not at all reflect credit upon the Jewish people. The Carnegie Hall protest meeting was a demonstration for the purpose of showing Russia what America thinks of her Jewish citizens; it has had no effect upon Russia. The Kishineff petition, backed up by thousands of signers, wringing wet with the blood of the victims, had no effect. The Mansion House meeting was of no avail. And, aside from the Jewish question, thousands of its best men and women have died a lingering death in prisons, the reign of violence has removed hundreds of officials, and yet Russia does not alter its unrighteous policy. Russia remains fixed in her course of injustice and despotism.
It is the same old story. We still go about in dark, unmanly deviations in order to attain a modicum of results, repeating again and again the same mistakes. What have we learned from our experience with Russia? Is it that our foes are the Russian bureaucracy, the Russian peasantry, and the general indifference of even the revolutionists? Is it that one ounce of self-defense, self-help, is worth a pound of that diplomacy which creates foreign sentiment that would never express itself unsolicited ?
We are as blind as bats to our own interests, and our philanthropic leaders stumble about in the dark only when the Jewish people need their best efforts.
Mr. Rollin Hartl's sympathy with Zionism has the merit of frankness, but it echoes, strange to say, the Zionism of the European anti-Semites, who see in the Zionist movement an opportunity to get rid of the Jews. Mr. Hartl has never seen the Jew at his best; for the Jew is of a race that devotes itself exclusively to trade. The facts do not agree with that statement. A perusal of the latest report of the Commerce and Labor Department of the U. S. Government will show that of all the peoples in this country the Jews are among every trade classified in the report.