El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-01-19

Beaconsfield of his time. assisted by
his kinsman, Gabriel Sanches, the royal
treasurer of Aragon, who advanced out
of his own purse IT. 900 florins. which
made the voyages of Columbus pos
sible. Luis de Torres, the interpreter
as well as the surgeon and the physi-
clan Of the little fleet, besides several
of the sailors who were with Column
bus on his first voyage, were Jews.
Foresight of the Spanish Jews.
Looking back through this vista of
more than four centuries as Americans
and as Jews, we have reason TO re-
member with justified gratitude the
foresight andNsignaI services of those
Spanish Jews who had the wisdom TO
divine the far-reaching possibilities Of
the plans of the great navigator, whom
king and queen, dukes and grandees
regarded as "a visionary babbler,' and
q, scheming adventure The Jewish
patrons, who caused Columbus, or, as
he was then called Christopher Colon,
to be recalled and who advanced the
money to fit out his caravels without
security and without interest, saw, as
by a divine inspiration, the promise
and possibility of the discovery of an
other world, which in the WORKS Of the
late Emilio Castelar,, the historian,
statesman, and one time president of
Spain, would afford to the quickening
principles of human liberty a temple
reared to the God of enfranchised and
redeemed conscience, a land that would
offer an unstained abode to the ideals
Of progress. The records Of these
transactions are fortunately still pre-
served in the archives Of Simancas in
Seville.
''The merciless intolerance of an &c
al cfo ho Of
its prosecutions stimulated the earliest
immigration, and subsequently brought
about the reformation in Saxon and
Ang1o-Saxon lands, and the same spirit
drove to our shores the pilgrim and
the puritan fathers; which chain of
circumstances destined this country
from their very beginning to be the
land Of the immigrant and the home
for the fugitive and the prosecuted.
The Spirit of Judaism.
'sThe spirit of Judaism became the
mother spirit of Puritanism in old Eng
land, and the history of Israel and its
democratic model under the judges in
spired and guided the Pilgrims and
Puritans in their wandering hitler and
in laying the foundations of their CON-
monwea1ths in New England. The
piety and learning of the Jews bridged
the chasm of the middle ages, and the
torch they bore amidst trials and suf-
ferings lit the pathway from the an
cient to the modern world.
The historical power of the proph-
cts of Israel says James Darmesteter.
is exhausted neither by Judaism nor
by Christianity, and they hold a re-
serve force for the benefit of the COM
ing century. The goth century is bet
ter prepared than the 10 preceding it
to understand them
America a Promised Land.
while Zionism is a child of despair
in countries where the victims of OPP
preston are still counted by millions,
the republicanism of the United States !
is the nearest approach to the ideals
Of the prophets of Israel that has ever
been incorporated in the form Of
state The founders Of our government
converted the dreams Of philosophers
into a political system, a government
by the people for the people, where
under the rights of man became the
rights of men secured and guaranteed
under written constitution. America
is peculiarly a promised land wherein
the spirit Of the teachings Of the an
cient prophets inspired the work of
the fathers of our country.
American liberty demands of no
man the abandonment of his conscien-
tious convictions; on the contrary, it
had its birth not in the narrowness of
uniformity but in the breadth of di-
versity which patriotism fuses together
into conscious harmony for the high
est welfare of all. The Protestant,
the Catholic and the Jew each and all
need the support and the sustaining
power of their religion to develop their
moral natures and to keep alive the
spirit of self-sacrifice which American
patriotism demands of every man,
whatever may be his creed or race,
who is worthy to enjoy the blessings
of American citizenship.
Claims No Special Merit.
ct do not wish to be misunderstood
as claiming any special merit for the
Jews as American citizens which is not
equally possessed by the Americans of
other creeds. They have the good as
we'll as the bad among them, the noble
and the ignoble, the worthy and the
unworthy. They have the qualities as
well as the defects Of their fellow citi-