The Washington times., 1914-11-22


| where 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 the
standpoint Of Hebrews by race. We
should weigh it unselfshly from the
standpoint Of Hebrew by spirit
| my own convictions are not born of
the fact that / am either a Hebrew by
race or an Englishman by birth. They
are dictated by the conscience Of a man
! of letters who is in 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 / remembered
that i had produced, among many
other works of art, three at least which
qualified ME to claim for myself utter
| impartiality.
During the Boer war ] wrote The
| Mantle of Elijah an indictment of the
| British. Dom Paul's secretary Dr.
Leyds. told me, when I visited kruger
| In his exile in the Riviera, that the
numbers Of the magazine containing it
were read by the Boer soldiers in the
field and had cheered their hearts with
| the thought that there were lovers of
| justice In England.
"A few years ago I wrote an indict-
ment of everything that kaiserism and
Prussian militarism stand for. The
War God. played by Sir Herbert Tree.
| drama which, in the light Of events.
was prophetic In detail of this pres
| ent attempt of Germany to impose
| Its armored domination upon the
| world.
My earlier play, The Melting Pot
not unknown in Chicago, was, among
other things, a sweeping condemna-
ton of the Russian Pharaoh of to-
day.
II think, therefore, / can claim to
approach the diagnosis of Armaged-
Play Teaches Forgiveness.
"To remind me of Kishineff and
ritual murder prosecutions. as you
and so many of my correspondents
do, is to bring Goals to Newcastle
Why. my indictment Of Russia, The
Melting Pot is playing in England
at this very moment, notwithstanding
that Muscovy is our ally. But that
very play teaches also reconciliation
and forgiveness, and the melting UP
OF the past into finer future.
You tell me the hope Of liberty and
freedom for the Hebrews in Russia is
dim and dismal in the light Of the
Cars broken promises in the past.
Russia's triumph in this war will spell
even greater oppression for It's He
brcws than anything they have suffered
hitherto. You describe American Won
der that liberalized England could have
made common cause with reactionary
Russia.
Influence of German Menace.
Let me deal with the last point first.
1t is true that British conceptions Of
civilization find their exact antthesis
in Russia. so far as the bureaucracy is
concerned. though certainly not SO far
as achers like Tolstoy and kropotkin
(my neighbor in the country, by the
way are concerned.
However, il we are strange and un-
natural political bedfellows. it Is the
German menace, the military terrorism
which Germany has sought to impose
upon European mankind. that has ccm-
PEELED Europe to organize and federate
for its overthrow.
Republican France alone was power
less to resist It, 1t allied itself with
despotic Russia in the hope that be-
tween them they might roll it back
Then peril which had long been
merely continental and military became
pan-European and maritime. That COM
PEELED England to affiliate itself with
those others who were face to face
with the German danger.
admit that we have sunk below the
British level. ethically viewed, in our
Russian alliance. But it ts Germany
which has dragged us down to the plane
OF brute force
Effect of Victory.
The same IeveIing process has
brought all Europe to the lowest strata
Of unciviliZation, war. but war waged
for 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 Hebrews
to remember.
"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 emanci-
patton of the Hebrews
Sir Edward Grey has already in a
letter to me pledged himself to en-
courage Russia to emancipatc its He
DreWs, and his influence is 10 be Used
not simply at the close of the war as
people imagine, but at once.
'Britain's advice to Russia it DO it
now But at the worst the British for
elsn secretary is bound TO DE a vital
factor in the peace to follow the war.
Patriotism of Russian Hebrews.
There will be another factor which
will serve the Hebrew cause in the
hour Of peace. That is the really re-
markable enthusiasm With which the
Cars Hebrew subjects are doing their
duty as Russian patriots and soldiers, |
The Russo American Hebrews who
write denounclng my views should !
rather aenounce the Russian Hebrews