The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1914-12-03
Great Hebrew Leader Seeks
Moral Backing of American
Members of His Race
Hits Russian Bugaboo.
Frederic william VILE, Special Cores
pondent OF The Tribune.

the QeVu an0 the 0eep sea- INC SuWe
OF the world must hope for the trf.
umph of the allies and their cause"
Israel Zangwill said to The Tribune
correspondent today; mot because they
hate Russia less but because they hate
Prussian reaction and militarism
more" .#.r
I had been saying to the celebrated
Anglo-Jewish patriot and author tnat
American Jews baked at the idea OF
according their moral support to n
coalition Of billigerents or to any
cause with which Russia was identi-
fled.
/ reminded him that we OF the Uni
ted States ourselves were at this time
at loggerheads with czardom In q mat
ter involving inhumanity to Jews IN
general and our own Jewish Fellow CIT
liens in particular. 1 tried to make
Zangwil understand that 1t was hard
for American Jews, even those whose
memories did not go back farther than
Kishineff and Beiliss, to generate en-
thusiasm for Russian arms.
Zangwill required no such assur-
ances from me. He has had a stream
Of correspondence from America rails
ing the same pertinent point, and he
gladly embraced the opportunity, he
explained, to argue IL through the coll
umns OF The Tribune.
Question to Consider. q
18th question for Jews everywhere to
consider" he said, 'is this: What is
the interest Of the higher civilization
In this war? We should not approach
the question purely from h stand
point Of Jews by ace. We should
weight It unselfishly from the stand
point OF Jews by spirit. .
MY own convictions are not born OF
the fact that I am either a Jew by race
~ nm E1rIlahponn hx htrfh Thau nra
dictated by the conscience OF a man
OF letters who Is n harmony with the
universalistic teaching Of the Hebrew
prophets and who boasts that there Is
not a chauvinistic ~corpuscle In all the
blood that flows through his veins.
when this war began 1 remem-
bered that / had produced, among
many other works Of art, three, at
least, which qualified me to claim for
myself utter impartiality. goo.
During the Boer wal 1 wrote The
Mantle Of Elijah an indictment Of the
British. Dom Paul's secretary, DIR.
Leyds, told me. when I visited Kruger
in his exile in the Riviera, that the
numbers of Harper's containing 1t were
read by the Boer soldiers in the field.
and q cheered their hearts with the
thought that there were lovers of JUS
tice In England.
"A few years & 1 wrote an indict-
ment Of everything that kaiserism and
Prussian militarism stand for, The
War God played by Sir Herbert Tree,
a drama which, in the light Of events,
was prophetic In detail of this present
attempt OF Germany to impose its ar
mored domination upon the world.
MY earlier play, The Melting Pot
not unknown In Sioux City, was,
among other things, q sweeping con-
demnation OF the Russian Pharaoh Of
today.
II think. therefore, I can claim to ap-
proach the diagnosis OF Armageddon In
no myopic, bigoted spirit. ~.
Play Teaches Forgiveness.
ITO remind me OF Kishineff and ritz
ual murder prosecutions, as you do and
so many of my correspondents, is to
bring Goals to Newcastle. Why, my In
dictment OF Russia, THE Melting Pot
is playing in England at this very mo-
ment, Notwithstanding that Muscovy is
our ally. But that very play teaches
also reconciliation and forgiveness, and
the melting up Of the past into a finer
future. H.
s"You tell me. the hope of liberty and
freedom for the Jew in Russia is dim
and dismal in the light OF the czar's
broken promises In the past. You say
American Jews fear that Russia's tri-
umph in this war will spell even great
er oppression for it's Jews than any
thing they have suffered hitherto. You
describe American wonder that liber-
allied England could have made com
mon, cause with reactionary Russia.
Influence Of German Menace.
Let me deal with the last point
first. 1t is true that British concep-
lions of civilization find their exact
antithesis In Russia, SO far as the bu-
reaucracy Is concerned. though GER
tainly not SO far Is teachers like Toll
stoi and Kropotkin (my neighbor in the
country. by the wayD are concerned.
However, IL we are strange and un-
natural political bedfelloWs, Ii is the
German menace. the military terrorism
which Germany q sought to impose
upon European mankind that has COM
PEELED Europe to organize and federate
o it's overthrow.
Republican France alone was DOW
erless to resist Ii. It allied itself with
despotic Russia In the hope that be-
tween them they might roll 1t back.
Then a peril which had long been
merely continental and military be-
came pan uropean AND maritime.
That compelled England to affiliate It
self with those, citizens who were face
to face with the German danger.
IT admit that we have sunk below
the British level, officially viewed in
our Russian alliance. But II Is Ger
many which has dragged US down to
the plane Of brute force.
Effect Of Victory.
THE same leveling process has
brought all Europe to the lowest strata
of unciyilization. war. but war wages
o the highest civilization, that Is,
freedom and political peace.
when our victory Is won, q victory
In which Russia will share, another
leveling process will inevitably, if not
Immediately. raise Russia to the strata
Of its democratic British and French
allies. That Is the point for Jews to re-
member,
Great Britain. to say nothing what
ever OF France, relieved from the Prus-
sian incubus, will be able to impose
upon Russia influence for the eman-
cipation Of the Jews. .E
'Sir Edward Grey has already in a
letter to me pledged himself to encour-
age Russia to ~emancipate its Jews, and
his influence is to be used not simply
at h close Of the war, as people i'm
agine, but at once.
"Britain's advice to Russia is DO II
now But at the worst the British for
eign secretary is bound to be a vital
factor In the peace to follow the war.
Patriotism Of Russian Jews.
There will be another factor which
will serve the Jewish cause In the hour