The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-14
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Rabbi Wise and the Irish

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 With all due respect to Rabbi stephen Wise. I desire to protest against the gratuitous and uncalled for fling he
 made at the Irish in his remarks Tues day night in New York at mass meet ing held in Carnegie hall in support of
 the arbitration treaties which President Taft has proposed with England and
 France and which a majority of the United States Senate committee refused to ratify.
 These arbitration treaties have been published and have evoked considerable comment both adverse and favorable and among the opponents of these treaties is no less a man than ex-Pres- ident Roosevelt. On the merits or de- merits of these treaties I express no | opinion, but I do claim that as an American citizen I am entitled to my
 opinion on them equally as much as
 Rabbi Wise is to his. and so is every citizen in the United States. Yet when these treaties are presented to a mass meeting in New York and resolutions urging the Senate to ratify them are proposed all dissent thereto Is cut off | and the dissentients called towards. It may or may not be that there were men of Irish birth or descent in the gallery, but as a matter of fact the counter resolution, offered as a sub stitute, was proposed by member of
 the German American Citizens league of New York and it may well be sup posed, met with cordial approval of
 such members of that league as were | in the galleries.
 | But Rabbi Wise tries to involve the
 Irish leaders. It is most likely that the cries, Shut up" and Put him out" with which he was greeted when he | rose to speak came from men that the Rabbi had denounced in lectures given hundreds of miles away from New | York
 The American citizen of German or | Irish birth or descent is equally as en- | titled to express his views on treaties or anything else concerning the United States as anyone else. The records of the men of Irish and German birth and descent on their defense of Amer I ican liberty and independence will com pare favorably with any record Rabbi Wise can produce. Neither the Irish
 nor German are afraid or ashamed to
 raise their voice in protest against what they honestly believe to be inim- | ical to American peace and prosperity. So long as the United States keeps | free from all alliances with foreign powers so long will she be able to act | as arbitrator between foreign powers
 It was because the United States had
 no alliance or peace treaty with either | Russia or Japan that both these na-
 tions consented to accept her friendly | intervention in the peace negotiations | of Portsmouth. At that time the Unit
 ed States was the only first class power | that was treaty free and that was why both combatants trusted their case in | her hands. yet now we are asked to | take sides with certain nations that have as yet scarcely recovered from
 the effects of yesterdays bitter hostil- lity to another powerful nation. If the American people want to become tn- volved in an European war in the near future let the treaties be ratified at | once, but if the American people want | to keep out of an European war and, whats more. be the arbitrator and peacemaker among warning European n