1 — / O ^p .L (0(0 "fl^e ft-csidle»Cr«'^cl E 75S .L66 Copy 2 The President and His Policies A SUNDAY LECTURE BEFORE ongregation Rodeph Shalom PITTSBURG, PA. BY Rabbi J. LEONARD LEVY, D. D. Series 7 April 19, 1908 ^0.24 These Sunday Lectures are distributed Free OF Charge in the Temple to all who attend the Services. Another edition is distributed free to friends of liberal religious thought, on written application to the Rabbi, An extra edition is printed for those wishing to have these lectures mailed to friends residing out of the City. Apply to B. CALLOMON, 1325 Western Ave. , Allegheny, Pa. SUNDAY LECTURES BEFORE Congregation Rodeph Shalom SERIES I. 1. For What Do We Stand ? 2. The Consequences of Belief. 3. The Modern Millionaire. 4. The Wandering Jew. 5. A Father's Power. 6. A Mother's Influence. 7. The Child's Realm. 8. The Chosen of the Earth. 9. Atheism and Anarchism. 10. A Jewish View of Jesus. U. The Doom of Dogma. 12. The Dawn of Truth. 13. Friendships. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. Zionism. Gone, but Not i^orgotter. Pleasures and Pastimes. Marriage. Intermarriage. What is the Good of Religion? Love and Duty. The Miracle of the Ages. A Jewish View of Easter. The Spirit of Modern Judaism. The Ideal Home. The Prophets of Israel. Marching on. SERIES II. 1. Emile Zola;— A Tribute. 2. The Highest Gifts. 3. Art and the Synagogue. 4. Prejudice. 5. Youth and its Visions. 6. Age and Its Realities. 7. is Life Worth Living? 8. Is Marriage a Failure? 9. The True and Only Son of God. 10. The Conquering Hero. 11. The Truth in Judaism. 12. The One Only God. 13. The Holy Bible. 14. The Vast Forever, 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. Our Neighbors' Faith. The Messiah. The Future of Religion. The Liberators. Man and Nature. What Woman May Do. The School of Life. Sowing the Wind — Reaping the Whirlwind. The World's Debt to Israel. The Man without a Religion. The Prize and the Price. Samson. SERIES III. 10. 11. 12. What do we gain by Reform? "Making Haste to be Rich." Mobs, "What all the world's a seeking" I. May we Critici.se the Bible? II. Results of Bible Criticism Religion and the Theater. The Continuous Warfare. Reform Judaism and Primil Christianity. A Child's Blessing. Herbert Spencer; — A Tribute. rSTGod Divided? 13, 14, 15. ng" 16. e? 17, . 18. 19. tive 20, 2i. 22, 23, 24. Cruel, to be Kind, Hypocrisy, Wnr o/ Peace? The Strenuous Life, The Parent and the Child, The Politician or the People, Which? The Use of Life. The Jew. Social Purity, The Noblest Work of God; Crimes of the Tongue. Self- Respect.' -^ The President and His Policies A SUNDAY ADDRESS BEFORE THE Rodeph Shalom Congregation BY Rabbi J. Leonard Levy, D. D. Pittsburgh, April 19th, 1908 The President and His Policies.' By the Rev. Dr. J. Leonard Levy A curious characteristic of human nature is the ten- dency to viHfy the Hving helpers of the race. Strange and ungrateful appears that human trait when it resorts to abuse of its best and most permanent friends. The pages of history record the reiterated demonstration of brutal hate and bitter opposition manifested toward the benefactors of humanity. The Prophet Abused. Xame a prophet who is today honored by the plaud- its of the mighty, and I will name one who, when living, was probably adorned with a crown of thorns! Name me a genuine benefactor of the human family and, for the most part. I will name one who was nailed to a horrid cross. For thus has the world, through its false leaders, ever treated those who were its helpers. It made them wear sheepskins and goatskins. It forced the wanderer's stafif into their hands. It drove them into the wilderness, like the scapegoat of old, placing upon them the respon- sibility, the sin and the punishment of the people. Delivered before the Eodeph Shalom Congregation, Pitts- burgh, Pa., Sunday, April 19, 1908. Stenographically reported by Caroline Loewenthal. I Denied Today; Deified Tomorrow. In most languages we find some proverb suggesting that we "say nothing evil about the dead;" practical ex- perience seems to suggest that the proverb might safely be amplified to read, "and nothing good about the liv- ing." Curious human nature ! Today it burns a man ; tomorrow it lights tapers in his memory. Today it de- mands his death ; tomorrow it celebrates his resurrec- tion ; the next day it acclaims as a god him whom it called a devil a few days before. Today it surrounds his name with infamy; tomorrow it places him in the Temple of Fame. Today it calumniates ; tomorrow it coronates. Today it denies ; tomorrow it deifies. Sometimes the crowd accepts the leader, honors and praises him for a time, only to denounce him when trials come, when the burdens and responsibilities born of the new occasion press upon it. Then the masses sigh for the fleshpots of Egypt, and, oblivious of the emancipat- ing ideals and purpose of their oft-lauded leader, they burst into bitter condemnation of him they had previously approved and followed. Today the crowd lauds the leader to the skies ; tomorrow it seeks to hurl him down to ungrateful oblivion. Today it accepts as a gift of God the words, the deeds, of its peerless commander; tomor- row it vents its wrath and voids its hateful spirit of in- gratitude upon him. Why Rejected. The greater the service, the greater the scorn heaped upon the living servant of humanity ; so seem to indicate the recurrent incidents in the life of mankind's emanci- pators. \A'e may understand why the prophet is without honor in his own land and age, and we may comprehend how it comes that the world's opposition and hatred are the unthinking world's tribute. The true servant of man toils not for today, but for coming ages. He scarcely lives in the day when he moves on earth ; he is already living centuries ahead. This the crowd understands not. The masses cannot see the Promised Land, clear to pro- phetic vision. They cannot grasp the conditions of the Ideal Republic, which he so clearly sees. And so they, under the destructive guidance of false leaders, call him "the enemy of human kind," or "fiend incarnate," or "disturber of the status quo," or "child of the devil," or they abuse him as "the troubler of Israel." They say that he creates prejudices, interferes with personal hap- piness, destroys the peaceful relations of the people, dis- turbs trade, unsettles public opinions. Upon his devoted head is laid the sin of the many, and, as shifting respon- sibilities is an ancient vice, they attribute to him the cause of the temporary ills which their own sins have in- vited. Thus it happens that before he dies he, who was the honored and accepted of the people, becomes the despised and rejected of men. Hosamia and Crucify. Thus has the world ever treated its Messiahs ; thus it still treats its chosen ; and thus the unthinking, surface- skimming world is likely to long continue to treat those who help it most. They will follow the master as long as he is popular. They will take off their coats and their cloaks and lay them down in the streets that he may ride over them. They will bear aloft the palm branches, crying "Hosanna, Hosanna, Master and Savior!" But, when they are debauched by the predatory powers that be; when they receive word from those who enjoy vested rights or control corporate interests thriving by dishon- est methods; then they slink away from him, suffer him to walk his Via Dolorosa alone, permit him to be led alone to the Golgotha of public hate, there to suft"er an ignominious end. Roosevelt an Uplifter. You can already observe that this reflection is called forth by the sacred occasion, (Palm Sunday), which is being celebrated throughout Christendom today, and by a thought of the man who, above all men, is, in certain quarters, held responsible for the adverse economic con- ditions prevailing throughout our country. I would not have you believe, for one moment, that I place Theodore Roosevelt and Jesus of Nazareth side by side in the scale of service to humanity. But I do believe that, if it was enthusiasm for God that moved the one to offer his life for human kind, it is devotion to the moral ideal that has impelled the other to serve this nation and its people as have few Presidents or public officials in the history of this or any other nation. I would not have you believe that I consider Theodore Roosevelt a modern Messiah ; but I do think that all the qualities that go to make the helper, the uplifter, the noble servant of men. may be found in this honorable man who is at present the chosen representative of this great nation. Equal Courage in Defeat. He has passed through the period of loud acclaim. For several years the people have been crying to him, "Hosanna." ^^'hat he would do were these people tO'turn and cry. "Crucify," remains to be seen. T believe, how- ever, that the same moral grandeur which lias been mani- fested by him in the past, will be shown in the future. For, brave men, usually, no more show courage and splendid bravery for several years uninterruptedly, only to fail when the greatest test conies, than does a coward display courage in the supreme moment of his life. There may be exceptional cases, but the history of man would indicate that a man who is a coward will remain cowardly when called upon to face great occasions, whilst the brave man will have equal courage to face defeat as he had the hardihood to invite defeat. Fighting with Fate. Mr. Roosevelt is one of those men who may be called a creature of destiny. Born of a well-to-do family, af- forded al)undant opportunity for the development of all that was great and good in him by blood and environ- ment, he discovered, in the early A^ears of his budding manhood, that he was physically weak, that he was threatciKHl with disease, that his years would, probaljly, be few. He did not weakly yield to an adverse fate; but, going out to the Western prairies, he struggled with fate and conquered it. Fortunately, I might almost say, providentially, he came back a healthy, strong, vigorous man. prepared to do a man's work in a man's world. Wherever we find him. considcrinu' for a moment the details of his life, whether in the Assembly at Albany, or ill the Police Commissioner's Office in New York, or in the Naval Department in ^^^ashing■ton, or at San Juan, or in the White House, we find the same heroism mani- fested, the same rugged fearlessness with which he en- tered upon the first fight of his life, the fight with sick- ness. Many a man would have yielded and said, "What's the use?" But the creature of destiny rarely yields except to the right, the fit, the decent, the proper. Man Proposes and God Disposes. Roosevelt's life having been spared in youth, and. again during the conflict with Spain, it would not be sur- prising if he should regard himself a creature of destiny. I do not for a moment say that the President so considers himself; I mean to convey that it would not be strange if he did, especially in view of other circumstances, pass- ing strange in the extreme. The Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia in 1900, in conjunction with the experiences already referred to, was fraught with consequences which would assure most men that Roose- velt was a creature of some strange, not to say provi- dential, destiny. The period between March, 1898, and September, 1901, was rich in peculiar experiences, illus- trating the truth of the proverb, "Man proposes and God disposes." Admiral Dewey was sent to take charge of the Chinese Squadron. He was to be put beyond the possi- bility of distinguishing himself during the Spanish-Ameri- can War ; whatever glory mi^ht come to the Navy lead- ers, Dewey was to get none. He was to be relegated to oblivion. Admiral Sampson and Admiral Schley were put in charge of divisions of the Atlantic Squadron. It seems as if it was arranged that whatever naval glory would be gained during the war with Spain should be transferred to Sampson, if possible. The National Con- vention in Philadelphia forced upon Theodore Roosevelt, then Governor of New York, the nomination for the office of \'ice-President of the United States, in the hope, I believe, that he should there find the grave of his natural and laudable political ambitions. But strange things came to pass. Dewey returned as Admiral to the United States, the hero of the nation ; Sampson died from paresis superinduced, it is held, by worry; Schley still lives to enjoy the distinction he had honestly won; Roosevelt, by a strange destiny, became President of the nation, and has earned for himself an enviable position in the hearts of untold millions all over the w^orld, has made for him- self a high place in history, a name and a fame whose lustre will not be dimmed, whose glory will grow in the coming" centuries. A Man of Destiny. It would not be surprising that a man who looks back upon his past, and sees what religious people would call "the finger of God" in so many various events of his life, should be stirred by religious earnestness. One of Germany's great reformers, walking at the seaside with a friend, is overtaken by a storm. The lightning kills his com])anion ; the man spared becomes one of the conse- crated toilers for the reformation of Germany. The be- lief that his life, so strangely spared, must have been spared for a purpose, became the overpowering influence in the life of that reformer in Germany. ^Nlay it not be that the same influence has been silently at work influ- encing this man Roosevelt, whose strong ethical purpose, whose moral earnestness, whose unquestionable honesty, all his followers and even most of his opponents, I be- lieve, are willing to admit? He Might Have Sought Ease. He was called to the ^^'hite House and every ambi- tion, that a loyal American might righteously indulge, was gratified. There he was, "a scholar and a gentle- man," a man of ample financial resources, a member of America's first families, a son of the Revolution, a scion of families who had served the nation faithfully. There he was, having reached the highest place in the gift of the Amercan people, surrounded by infinite opportunities for ease, for even greater culture, for making himself a ruling social factor. I doubt not that if Mr. Roosevelt had determined to take leisure in the A\'hite House, the very men who today regard him as "an enemy of the Republic," would have said that he was "the best fellow living.'' Demand for Publicity. But Roosevelt's call to the White House was provi- dential, at least so I regard it. He swore to fulfill the law, to obey the law, and to see it fulfilled and obeyed ; and an oath with Roosevelt is a vow, and a vow must be fulfilled. In his first message to Congress on December 3, 1901, the present President of the United States told the people of the United States what he purposed doing. Few but his honest followers believed him. Bismarck 8 used to say tliat when you want to fool your enemies in political life, tell them the truth, for they will not believe it. The PVesident, following that policy, consciously or unconsciously, told the American people in his First Inaugural Address, on December 3, 1901. the truth. His great demand was for publicity, and I wish to read you his words, spoken in 190 1, and then his words uttered in 1907, the so-called offending words. I want you to pon- der these words very carefully. I would like you to learn them by heart, so that you may be able to quote them to the opponents of the President. Listen to this quota- tion from his First Inaugural : " " * " There are real and grave evils, one of the chief being over-capitalization, because of its many baleful conse- quences; anil a resolute and practical effort must be made to correct those evils. •'There is a wide-spread conviction that the great corpora- tions known as trusts are in certain of their features and ten- dencies hurtful to the general welfare. * * It is based upon sincere conviction that combination and concentration should be not prohibited, but supervised and within reasonable limits con- ti oiled; and in my judgment tills conviction is "right.'' The Offending Speech. This he said in 1901 when the nation was congratu- lating itself on its good fortune in having so capable a successor to the martyred McKinley. Listen now to what he said May 30, 1907, when his opponents had begun to denounce him as a destroyer ! " ' * . But the public interest requires guaranty against improper multiplication of securities in the future. Eea- sonable regulations for their issuance should be provided so as to secure as far as may be that the proceeds thereof shall be devoted to legitimate business purposes. In providing against over-capitalization we shall liarm no human being who is honest; and we shall benefit many, for over-capitalization often means an inflation that invites business panic, it always conceals the true relation of the profit earned to the capital invested, creating a burden of interest pajmients, which may redound to the loss alike of the wage-earner and the general public, which is con- cerned in the rates paid byi shippers; it damages the small in- vestors, discourages thrift and puts a premium on gambling and business trickery. ' ' Popular Faith in the President. This utterance is taken from the address now denom- inated as his great blunder. But reflect on the situation for a moment! In his first message to Congress, the President told the nation what he sought to do. He was, at that time, commended for his courageous utterances and was later approved by the nation for the manner in which lie had carried out that which he had designed. The election of 1904 proved that the people of the United States were convinced that he w^as worthy of their con- fidence and of the highest honor they could bestow. What has he said since that time that has been out of harmony with his initial statement? The Indianapolis address, just quoted, and Avhich his enemies have most bitterly criticized, was a reiteration of first principles ex- panded in the light of experience, but it by no means differed in important details from his first message to Congress. He has been as firm as a rock in his deter- mination to fulfill his duty as the Chief Executive of the nation, and to keep the oath of ofifice he took on the day he was sworn in as President. Read his various ad- dresses ! Parallel them with the statements made in the First Inaugural, and you will find that during his career in the A\niite House he has used his first message as a 10 text on which later messages have l)eeii. to a great extent, commentaries ! The President Is the People's Representative. The President of the United States is no King of England. He has other functions than those of laying cornerstones, and appearing at public dinners, and hold- ing levees. The President of the United States is no Emperor A\'illiam, is no absolute monarch. The Presi- dent of the United States is no Czar, and can have no tyrannical will. William II. and Xicolas II. rule for life, their heirs are to rule after them, and they are not re- sponsible to their people ; but the President of the United States is responsible to the people, and the period during which he can direct public affairs is wisel}' limited to a few years. He is the servant of the people, but he is at the same time, the only one who can speak for the peo- ple, as things have developed in American history. Presi- dent Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia College, who is conceded to be a very conservative man, says in his splendid brochure, "True and False Democracy," (page 35), that, "as matters stand today. States and syndicates have senators ; districts and local interests have repre- sentatives ; but the whole people of the United States have only the President to speak for them and to do their will." Some of the members of the Legislature of the United States say that the President is usurping their power, that he is encroaching upon their rights ; but this assertion must be considered in the light of the advice of James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, who said, speaking of the Legislatix'e De])artmcnt of the II Government: "It is against the enterprising ambition of this department that the people ought to indulge all their jealousy and exhaust all their precautions." Roosevelt No Anaemic Weakling. Other criticisms of the President refer to his en- croachments in other directions. I am sure that he has not exceeded his constitutional authority. If he had, I am equally sure that you would have heard of it long since. There are enough people searching him with can- dles and watching him with electric lights, that, were he to take one single step beyond the constitutional rights of the Executive, you would have been informed of it in the form of impeachment. Respecting the President as I do, trusting him as I do, I cannot help feeling that he has, however, gone further than his predecessors, and that he has acted toward Congress and the Judiciary in a manner that may possibly lead some corrupt successor to use his example as a precedent, to go further and to make a tool of other departments of the government. Be- lieving utterly in his absolute honesty and integrity, I cannot join those who blame him. What would you have him do? The present President of the Ur^ited States is no lady ; he is no bloodless ascetic ; he is no anaemic weakling. lie is a man, in whose veins flows red blood ; a man who has been moved to the very depths of his nature by the vuifolding of as great a conspiracy as ever wrecked a nation. Can we expect him to stand supinely by, and act as so many of his fellow citizens do in the presence of frequent acts of unrighteous aggression? as, for instance, Pittsburghers have acted while their rights 12 have been ignored by political cabals? Do you think that he can, or ought to, face national evils as we in Pitts- burgh have stood municipal corruption, if Lincoln Stef- fens's indictment in his "Shame of the Cities" is true? Do you think that he should permit any railroad or other corporate organization to make a baggage-car of the will of the people and to charge extra rates besides? The President is not a man to supinely submit to entrenched evil without a protest. He is one whose whole being is permeated with moral force. If men seek to abuse privi- leges ; if they endeavor by means legal, but immoral, to divert the streams of legislation in contempt of justice; if they, by the power of a superior financial position, try to debauch the nation ; if they, hoping to escape the con- demnation of the righteous, indulge in methods which savor of the era of the highwayman, is it not natural that such a man as President Roosevelt should visit them with burning, righteous indignation? He would not be the man he is had he acted otherwise. Colonial Policy. His policies may be considered under three heads, colonial, foreign and domestic. Here we find him acting with a degree of political foresight and high statesman- ship which testify to his splendid ideal of harmonizing political legislation with moral principles. If he has been WTong then honor is wrong, and honesty is wrong, and morality is wrong, and conscientiousness is wrong. Cuba had been promised independence, and Cuba has been made free. The Philippine Islands fell into the hands of this nation by the arbitrament of war; but the Philip- 13 pines are to be civilized, after the American ideal, by a process of gradual assimilation. Last year the National Assembly was opened in the Islands, and again the "square deal," so loved by the President, was made mani- fest. With both of these former Spanish possessions our government has dealt with a degree of generosity and honor which mark a new epoch in the history of inter- national diplomacy. The Panama Canal. A Panama Canal has been the hope of many of the best friends of the nation. After diplomatic difficulties were removed and the Clayton Bulwer Treaty happily dis- posed of, our government entered upon the duty of unit- ing the Atlantic with the Pacific. But selfish "interests" blocked the forward movement. The President's hands were tied. Every move was opposed, and a weaker man would have succumbed to the powerful . . . opposi- tion. You may supply before this word "opposition" such adjective as best meets the case from your stand- point. You may insert "railroad," or "corporate," or "financial," or what you will. But the President is not a man to be used as a toy. When he found that the engi- neers who were appointed to direct the construction of the canal resigned their positions, for one reason or an- other, he resolved that United States officers should superintend the construction of the Panama Canal. These military engineers are now supervising the build- ing of the canal, and they cannot be won away by higher salaries, for instance. The canal will be built, no matter what, for example. Transcontinental Railroads say. In 14 every act of his colonial policy we find evidences of the man of honor and the same is true of his foreign policy. Foreign Policy. He it was who called the second Hague Congress, yielding, as a matter of courtesy, to the Czar of Russia the privilege of issuing the call for the second Congress, since the Czar had convoked the first. During his ad- ministration, the late John Hay, his Secretary of State, obtained an international agreement limiting the area in which Russia and Japan could conduct their hostilities. If the integrity of Chinese territory is a fact today, the world owes that fact to the man who is today so much maligned by certain interests in America. It was Theo- dore Roosevelt who brought about the Portsmouth Treaty between Japan and Russia. And if you knew as much about that as I do ; if you here heard as much ai)out <^hat Treaty as I did while I was in Japan during the slimmer of 1905 ; if you read current international opin- ions as I did over there, you would, perhaps, realize what a remarkaljle man must he be to have brought that delicate and difficult undertaking to a successful conclu- sion. There was trouble between Morroco, France and Germany ; Roosevelt was again the peacemaker. Today the United States has achieved a position in international politics second to no country in the world. We are feared by our enemies, if we have any; we are loved by our friends, and we have many; and my observations, made everyw'here I have traveled since Theodore Roosevelt has been President, lead me to believe that the one man, above all others, who, in the eyes of the world, stands 15 for things typically American, is Theodore Roosevelt; the one man in recent years who, above all others, has increased the world's respect for America is this great and loyal American, our present President. Domestic Policy. Coming nearer 'home, \Ve find that most of his ■domestic policies have been heartily approved by the peo- ple of the United States. Roosevelt believes that no nation can be healthy, no nation can be prosperous, no nation can be great, no nation can fulfill its destiny, that has not many healthy children. And, Air. Roosevelt has advocated, for the serious consideration of the American people, the necessity of stopping, and stopping forever, ^ mode of life sometimes called French, which is under- mining the morals of the people; a condition far more dangerous than unsettling the prices on Wall Street. When women refuse to become mothers of healthy chil- dren : when women despise motherhood, the nation is not safe, there is something "rotten in the state," somewhere. Xo man nnderstands this better than our President, and every man in whose heart is love, real love, for the nation. Race Suicide. \\> complain of the change in American ideals be- cause of foreigners ! \Miy, were it not for the foreigners, there would soon be but an insignificant American peo- ple left! Twenty-five years ago Boston, for example, was a progressive. Unitarian city. A quarter of a century ago Boston was the typical American city. Today Boston is almost a foreign city, with a population sixty per cent Tloman Catholic. This condition results from the fact i6 that the Roman Catholic obeys God's law, for the natural law is God's law, and so many others. Americans by birth and blood, affect to ignore it. If the President had brought no other grave question to our attention, we would be under a lasting debt to him. Coal Strike, Etc. 3ut he has done much more. There was a coal strike in the anthracite region a few years ago. The poor, especially in the East, where they use hard coal, would have been visited by indescribable hardships dur- ing the winter if the strike had not been terminated. The sufferings of the poor were not considered by the em- ployees or employers. There was a combat between them to. the death, yet he brought Mitchell and Baer together, and induced them to make peace in the anthra- cite region, just as bravely as, later on, he became the prime factor in arranging the Treaty of Peace at Ports- mouth. The Roosevelt administration is responsible for Pure Food Legislation : for a determined effort to save the land from further deforestation ; for enlarging the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission ; for increased national regulation of the common carriers and not their suppression or absorption by national ownership ; for ati honest attempt to defeat the dishonest practice of re- bates : for laws looking to the curbing of monopolies ; for investigations which will ultimately secure for Ameri- can commerce the confidence of the nation and the respect of the civilized world. 17 Construction and Demolition. In conducting' a campaign of remedial legislation it has been unavoidable that, before constructive results could be achieved, some demolition should take place. This demolition would have been reduced to a minimum, not if the President had been less "impetuous," as his opponents say, but if the enemies of the people had not entered into a conspiracy to discredit the President, a fact to which the senior U. S. Senator from Pennsylvania is said to have given expression some time since. I have read that President Roosevelt invited prominent men, identified with movements which he considered harmful to the interests of the nation as a whole, to consult with him. I have heard that he pleaded with them to se' patriotic motives above selfish interests. They defied him. It is even believed by many that they deliberately hastened, as far as they could, the recent financial panic to dest-roy his influence, spreading the evil report that Roosevelt is responsible for the financial stringency, and the money panic and its consequent ills. Mr. Wanamaker's Views, That this opinion is not shared by some of America's most responsible financiers and merchants may be gathered from the views they have openly expressed. For example; Mr. John \A'anamaker says: "For the widespread lack of financial confidence from which the country has been suffering I do not hold President Eoosevelt to be in anj- degree responsible It is the result of conditions which h^ has indeed helped to make known, but of which he has not been in any degree the cause. As he himself has admirably expressed it: If he lights a torch he is not responsible for what the light shows. "The depression first began tlirough the loss of public con- fidence in financiiil names which the public had long been taught to revere. First came the great insurance scandals, in which the revelations regarding Alexander, McCall, and Hyde shocked and alarmed the public. We are still suffering from that. More re- cently there have been revelations regarding such things as the Metropolitan Eailway management in New York, and the banking methods of the Heinzes, Morse and otheis. Lack of confidence and_ financial retribution have come as a punishment for financial wrong-doing; it is precisely the kind of punishment which follows a cashier 's breach of trust. It is not surprising that a lack of confidence which ought to affect only those institutions which have justly forfeited trust should have ex- tended to other great corporations and banks." Mr. Carnegie's Opinion. Air. Andrew Carnegie gives the following as his opinion of the financial sitnation and the President's con- nection therewith : "It lies in the nature of things that the attempt to attribute the recent and spasmodic fall in prices to the wise and, in the truest sense, the truly conservative resolve of the President and his Cabinet to enforce the salutary laws against the abuse of their powers by certain trusts, is only a device to serve political intrigue. ' ' The decline in prices would have been greater had the peo- ple not been assured that investments in the stocks and bonds of corporations are hereafter to be safeguarded to a much greater ■degree than ever before. Nothing is proposed or intended by the President in this direction which is not the law in civilized States." Warning of Mr. Fish. Mr. Stnyvesant Fish, many months before the crash came, had the following to say concerning American financial conditions : "The New York Stock Exchange has ceased to be a free mar- ket, where buyers and sellers fix prices through the ebb and flow •of demand and supply, and has become the plaything of a few managers of cliques and pools to such an extent that for months past every announcement of increased dividends, of stock dis- 19 tributions, and of rights, has been met by a fall in prices. The investing public is and remains out of the market, not because of ventures in industrials, in electric railways, or in suburban real estate — the speculation in each of which was checked months ago — nor yet because of the more recently pricked bubble in min- ing shares, but simply because of the distrust which even those possessed of ample means have of the methods of corporate finance now in vogue in Xew York. That Europe shares this distrust of those methods is shown by its outcry against the misuse of Amer- ican finance bills. "While it may contribute to our national vanity as a 'World Power' and as a financial center, to feel that London fears us, that does not increase confidence in our own future. We are still a debtor nation. Europe holds vastly more of our securities than we hold of all foreign securities. "Indeed, it seems to me that we are already embarked on a long-needed Moral Financial Eeformation, which, like the Relig-^ ious Reformation of the Middle Ages, will through much cruelty work out good in the end." The Financial Situation. Jnst a word on the financial situation as I under- stand it. In the financial life of the nation there are two economic cycles. The one finds its way into the legiti- mate field of industrial development ; the other into the investment fund of the nation. So great has been the growth of American industries that the wealth employed in the first cycle was employed over and over again, and, to admit of the widest expansion, the investment fund was also employed. A very unhealthy condition ensued, in spite of the apparent prosperity. During the last decade American industries have grown to a degree al- most incredible. We know that just at such a time pan- ics come. We have had them with almost periodic regu- larity. \\ ith all of this the President and his policies can have had nothine: to do. 20 Did He Make the Scandals? "Did he make the Insurance Scandals, the Chicago & Alton Scandal, the Corporation Scandals, the Metro- politan Traction Scandal in New York," and the other scandals, which have shocked the moral sensibilities of decent people the world over? Did he initiate the in- vestigations, even? Had he blinked at dishonesty, would there have been no panic? But could such a man close his eyes to successful dishonesty, and permit the nation to travel toward a panic that would have dwarfed the South Sea Bubble and the Mississippi Bubble combined? There has been a panic, but who are more responsible for it than the heedless, careless, thoughtless people them- selves, who have tolerated and even elected the legis- lators who were, all too often, creatures of the very per- sons who have sought to enrich themselves at the ex- pense of the people? I sympathize deeply with the unfortunate, innocent sufferers ; but how many of us are altogether innocent? Causes of Panic. Over and above the suggestions already made, the panic is to be attributed to the money stringency prevail- ing throughout the world, caused primarily by the undue extension of credits, and secondarily by such unpro- ductive uses and losses of capital as are represented by the Boer War. the Russo-Japanese War, the Baltimore Fire and the San Francisco Earthquake ; to the shaken confidence of investors; to immoral, political conditions; to a conspiracy, one evidence of which was given when, as John C Albert, of Washington, reports, thirty million 21 . . dollars were borrowed by one corporation, not because it needed it at the time, but in order to meet the expected stringency, (Cf. "Roosevelt and the Money Power," p. 6i) ; to Trust Company development, as indicated by Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip, Vice-President of National City Bank, New York City. (Cf. "Annals of American Acad- emy of Political and Social Science, Vol NXXI, No. 2, p. 4.) Other reasons there are too, but enough has been said to indicate that the responsibility does not lie where the opponents of the President seek to place it. No Advocate of Infallibility. Consider the many remarkable achievements of his administration ; recall the many splendid accomplish- ments that have made of our nation one of the foremost world powers; think of how much of all this is directly due to the initiative of this man ; and you will confess that it is marvellous, that, with all that has been at- tempted and done by and through him. not more mis- takes have been made. Roosevelt has never promulgated the doctrine of Presidential infallibility ; this is a gift be- stowed, apparently, only on his enemies. He has made mistakes ; of course he has, and if he lives longer, as w^e pray he will, he will make more mistakes. Only in the cemetery, under the green earth, are no mistakes made. But his enemies, at least some of them, have made one mistake he has not made; he is honest. The People vs. Predatory Wealth. The financial panic of 1907 will pass into history as one of the most remarkable financial phenomena, because of the attempt of some of the guilty to make a scape- 22 goat of an innocent man. This accusation is. I l)clieve, born of a conspiracy to divert the attention of the nation from the source of the gravest evils confronting the Re- public, — the reckless daring of dishonest and conscience- less financiering. Roosevelt did not make the scandals; he unearthed them, and by so doing has laid every citizen of the United States under a debt of obligation to him. He entered upon a contest the outcome of which was to decide whether this nation is to be controlled by a few men, wdiose power is all the more to be dreaded because shielded by the anonymity of corporate organization ; or whether the destiny of America is to be determined by the people as a wdiole. If the President's policies prevail, it is not dif^cult to foretell the end. A Flower for the Living. Heinrich Heine once said, "You cannot conduct moral reformation wath orange blossoms." The Presi- dent has realized this. He knows that, to produce the reforms he desires, one must employ the power of moral force, strengthened by the influence of a righteous public opinion. I believe that the time will come when men who have calumniated and slandered him will revere him and thank him ; that his experience will be like those of Washington, Lincoln, Grant, and hosts of others, who were hated, denied, slandered while li\ing, and apotheo sized when dead. I, at least, ^vish to express my grati- tude to Mr. Roosevelt while he lives. I want to be one of those who can give to him, while living, a little flower of appreciation, rather than be called upon, in the due process of time, many decades removed, I hope, to lay an immense wreath on his cofifin when he is gone to his eternal reward. 23 The Defense of the Enemy. In 1901, he was a good President; in 1902 he was a good President ; in 1903 he was a good President ; in 1904 he was a very good President, and was elected Pres- ident of the United States by the greatest majority ever given to a Republican candidate ; in 1905 he was a good President ; in 1906 he was a good President. After May 30th, 1907, he was suddenly a bad President. Why? Because the offenders had been denounced, because their methods had been disclosed. What have they to say in self-defense? Read the various articles which have ap- peared in the monthly magazines ! What defense has been made? What explanation has been offered to the exploited nation? Read what Miss Tarbell has to say concerning the Standard Oil Company ! I am compelled to believe that Miss Ida Tarbell is either one of the greatest slanderers and libellers, or that she is quite right. And the silence of the Company attacked indicates to me that Miss Tarbell is not wrong. I have never yet found such corporations bashful. Its peculiar respect for this woman indicates something strange somewhere. Too Near to Properly Appreciate. We are too near to Roosevelt's day to entirely appre- ciate what he is doing. To fully realize the marvels of the Great Pyramid one must stand at a distance from it. One approaches it and sees layer upon layer of stone. It looks a very ordinary piece of work. But, viewed at the proper distance, it impresses one as being rightly con- sidered a world-wonder, one of the most remarkable monuments constructed by the hand of man. As our 24 successors stand back, and place this man in the right perspective, they will realize that he was among the noblest of all Americans, because of his moral purpose, his proud achievements, his noble and ennobling efforts. God or Maimnon! The President has manifested the qualities of the man controlled by a sense of responsibility to God and the people. The moral earnestness of a prophet has been displayed by him in every situation. We love him for the haters he has made. Clean of hands, pure of heart, upright in life, the expounder and fulfiller of "the square deal." a lover of righteousness, personal, domestic, na- tional and international, he has served to make our coun- try great, and to make its name revered. He has con- ducted a battle for decency, for honesty, for commercial integrity, which, after the rancor of the defeated has disappeared, will be universally approved as one of the greatest services rendered a free people by its chosen representative. In our day he has renewed the appeal of an Elijah. He has made the people begin to under- stand that if the Baal of Mammon is God they should follow him : and if the Jehovah of righteousness is God they should follow him. He has made it practically im- possible for the nation to long halt between two opinions. An Assured Place in History. Today throughout Christendom millions of people are celebrating the resurrection from the grave of one who. to them, was God in human form. While I cannot agree on doctrinal grounds with the mass of my fellow- citizens, I am the last to deny, or to belittle, the undying 25 service rendered to humanity by the great Xazarene. I today also ponder a resurrection, a resurrection of the people on earth. I hail the day when men will be pos- sessors of a greater degree of liberty. I know that among those who have toiled for this desideratum have been the chosen of this great nation of which we are a part. For this Washington and Jefferson struggled, and Franklin and Adams strove. For this the sainted Lincoln bore the burdens of a tragic period of our national history. In distant ages when the historian will write of those who carried forward the work of the founders and martyrs of this nation, I am convinced that no mean place will be accorded to the man who, so bravely, so boldly, and so honestly, has directed the affairs of our country in our day. I am sure that posterity will set an even higher estimate upon the life-work of our great President, Theo- dore Roosevelt, than I have humbly sought to do today. 26 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10 11. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. SUNDAY LECTURES BEFORE Congregation Rodeph Shalom SERIES IV. I. The Blue Laws. 15. 2. The City and the Teacher. 16. 6. Believe Not All You Hear. 17. 4. A Jewish View of Life. 18. 5 A Jewish View of Death. 19. 6. The Cry of the Children. 20. 7. While there's Life there's Hope. 21. 8. Marriage and Divorce. 22. 9. Birthdays. 23. 10. The Peace of Justice. 24. 11. The Jewish Home. 25. 12. To Have and To Hold. 26. 13. The Success of Negro 27. Education— Booker T. Washington 28. 14. The Fatherhood of God. The Brotherhood of Man. Unity, Not Uniformity. Plain Living and High Thinkinji, I. — Prophets and Prophecy. II. — Thomas Carlyle. Ill,— Ralph Waldo Emerson. IV. — Alfred Tennyson. V. — Theodore Parker. VI. — Isaac M. Wise. VII. — John Ruskin. VIII. — Lyof N. Tolstoy. IX. — Abraham Lincoln. Jesus and his Brethren. Th'e Gospel of Common-Sense. SERIES V. Forward ! What We May Learn From Japan My Religion. The Jew in America. Why Does God Permit Suffering? The Good Father The Loving Mother. In the Twilight. When the Shadows Flee Away, A Jewish View of Prayer. A Jewish View of Creed. 12, 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 95 The Pace that Kills. The Light that Failed. Religion for the Rich. If Sinners Entice Thee.; Counting the Cost. False Friends and Friendly Foes. A Criticism of the Clergy. A Criticism of the Congregation. TLe Sympathy of Religions. The Jew and the Christian. The Man with the Muck-Rake. SERIES VI. Hearts and Creeds. 11. Blessed are the Discontented. Man and Superman. 12. Give the Child a Chance ! 13. The Making of an American. 14. If Men were Honest. 15. A Jewish View of Salvation. ) 16. A Jewish View of God. 17. Hallowed be Thv Name! 18. I.— The Greatest Thing in the 19. World. 20. II — The Greatest Thing in the World. The Poet of the Heart. An Epistle to the Gentiles. The New Theology. Rejected of Men. The Might of Right. The Life that Counts. Those Who Are Foi Us. Those Who Are Against Us. The Faith of All Good Men. SERIES VII. 1 Through Love to Light. \ 14 2 The Road to Happiness. 3 The Midnight Sun. 15 4 If I Were You 16 5 Heroes. 17 6 The Holy Trinity. IS 7 Try Again. 19 8 A Jewish View of the Messiah. 20 9 The Revolt of Reason. 21 10 Peace, Peace, yet there is no 22 Peace. 23 11 The Choir Invisible. 24 12 It Pays. 13 Public Opinion. The Founders of the Faiths I. Moses II. Confucius. III. Buddha. IV. Zoroaster. V. Jesus VI. Mahommed VII. The Holy Catholic Church Unfortunate Success. Blessed are the Faithful. Cursed are the Slanderers. The President and His Policies. i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 980 629 3 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 980 629 3 • J