Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-05-13
By FRANK B. COPLEY

/ W0. IL
ing MS political career in its entiretv NC
must be Impressed with the remarkahIe
lact that' even from the point of view ~
concrete achievement in winning s,ec.
Ilons, ne was far more successfuI than
any OF the men who sneered at him as an
5ilateur ana as an idealst and dreamer
for example, who can doubt that stricti,
as matter of practical politics M
lsraels, In taking such proud stands as
tnat OF refusing ever to enter a hotel from,
Whlch the general run of Jewish peopIe
we're eNeluded, was wiser than any of the
friends who besought him to keep his
Jewish origin in the BACKGROUND?
However, 1t would be monstrous mis-
understanding OF Mr.. Israels' character
70 imagine that there was aught of play
ing to the grandstand in such actions nf
his as this. The point wish to make is
that II Mr. 1sraels showed political
shrewdness In never betraying the slight
est symptom that he considered his race
bar to his acceptance by the American
people, 1t was the higher shrewdness such
as dictates. not only that honesty and
truth constitute the best policy, but that
the surest appeal in the end to a peoples
iaVor is the direct appeal to the best that
In them is
Surely no politician ever paid greater
compliments to his audiences than did
MI lsraels. Never did he descend to
meet. 1t made no difference whether he
spoke among the tenements or in his own
Beethoven Hall, in the centre of min
ing region or In the heart of a universitv
town, he always assumed both that his
audience expected him to exemplify. In
MS dress actions and speech, the best
traditions and highest ideals of GENTLE
man and tnat 1t was made UP of highly
intelligent persons who earnestly desired
What was right not only for themselves
but for all men. l have seen audience
after audience that, a moment before,
had been guffawing at low jokes or
thunderously applauding unblushlng ap-
peals to It's preJudices and animal appe-
titles become, in Mr. 1sraels' hands, like
an audience that had been made over by
a complete change of individuals so quiet
did 1t become. SO thoughtful and so rapt
Was II not strange that this man whose
political strength always had been drawn
from the people should have awoke one
morning to find that the people had
turned on him In wild clamor for his
political destruction?
Moreover, was 1t not the irony OF fate
that he who was one of the warmest ad-
vocates of peace among the nations should
have been destined to encounter. in the
middle of his term as President, the sud
den Enchanting among the American peo-
pie of all those fearful passions that can
find their satisfaction only in war?
II.
1t was frequently remarked at the time
that underlying President Israels' inau-
gural address was tone of melancholy.
When now l read this address over l am
struck by the many utterances in it that,
In the light of his unhappy days in the
White House, seem to be laden with
prophecy.
In many respects Mr.. Israels was a
strange man and a lonely one. Sometimes
felt that his was a nature that posi-
lively craved affection; and yet, whether
1t was because he kept every one at a
distance by his punctillous courtesy or
whether 1t w because people felt the
lack in him Of ,ny of those small vices
that assist to give the human touch, the
fact remains that, with the possible ex-
ception of the widowed sister who kept
house for him in Albany and in Wash
ington, no one ever got really close to
him. II any one knew why he never
married, It did not get to my ears; and
while may be said to have possessed his
confidence during the many years I served
him, 1t was only on rare occasions, and
then but momentarily. that l was able
to feel that 1 was in contact with his in
ner nature.
However, let me now throw what light I |
can on the position that President Israels |
took at the very beginning of the i'm |
broglio between this country and Ger |
many and to which he perslstently clung |
even after the unfortunate killing OF |
those American sailors had Ioosed the |
fateful lightnings of powerful nations |
wrath.
Certainly he was no advocate OF the |
doctrine of non-resistance as 1t has been
interpreted by such men as Tolstoy. All |
of Mr. Israels' studies in political science
has In,
science, which is to say that his political
for all his belief in and in
appeal TO the best in man, was
formed in the light of his knowledge of
mans savage, not to mention animal, an
cestry.
He believed that there must be gov
ernments OF force for centuries to come,
because he believed that where SELFISH
ness is there must be force also, and only
a comparatively short time had elapsed
since the man had emerged from the
state OF barbarian. He was particularly
assured in his belief that We should have
laggard peoples as we'll as backward in
dividuals with us for centuries to come.
and that, with the increasing interde-
pendence OF all peoples due to the mar
rowing of the world through the exten-
sion and betterment OF means of COM
the principle OF self-govern-
ment could not be held to give any peo-
Pile the right to maintain, anywhere on
the surface OF the earth, such conditions
Of misrule or anarchy as might be COM
pared TO an open sore, just as the prlncI-
pie OF personal liberty could not be held
to give any individual the right TO dis
turb or inJure his neighbors.
Thus. though many good people could
not follow his thought, President Israels
was a Arm friend to the army and navy,
IL. only as a kind OF sublimated police
force. Certainly" he once said, III We
are going to have an army and navy at
all, we might as well have good ones,'i
and so he did what he could to promote
their ehicieney. even while he continued
10 labor on behalf OF the principle OF srbl-
tration for all civilized nations and 10
contend against the childish nonsense or
the we'll-go-you-one-b better idea in arm
amsnts
However. there was nothing in Mr..
[sraels' belief that force cannot entirely
disappear until all selhshness disappears
mat prevented him from holding to the
principle that the moral law, whenever II
was invoked Enthusiastically and without
ergation, could be expected TO operate
between any individuals or groups OF in
5iyiduals In whom a moral nature had
ossn developed 70 anything approaching a
governing degree He reasoned not un-
naturally that the individuals who COM
orised the respective ruling bodies OF the
eerman Empire and the United states
,.,. ~ ,osaasaors of moral natures 81 |