Life — October 14, 1920 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

man the next he has to figure out who would Democratic administration, think of a new deal, and may be some- what at a loss to know where the cards are coming from The truth is that, for able men, office- holding is an extremely self-denying em- ployment. It is time, certainly, that the Republican statesmen undertook it again. They have had seven years, going on eight, to devote to money-making, and must be rich. During the war, competent people out of office did, as a rule, make money—some of them made lots of it—but competent people in office not only made but had to meet the high cost of So turn none, living on inadequate salaries. about is fair play. The Democratic more money, by far, than any administra- tion ever spent before. It wasted a lot of it, which would have happened to who- ever was in charge, because haste makes waste, essential. But it stole wonderfully little. So far as official dishonesty went, there never was so clean a war, nor ever a cleaner administration. administration spent and haste w vo SCHIFF was a great Jew; a very remarkable Jew indeed! Rabbi Goldstein says he came of a Goanic family and that his ancestors were the famous Maharam Schiff, author of The Hiddushe Halachos, and Jacob Schiff, the great Goan of the sixteenth century. Gen- tile dictionaries do not tell what a Goan is, nor yet expound the work above named. of which Mr. Schiff’s ancestor was the author, The Jewish Encyclopedia must be informed in all such matters, and en- quiring readers are referred to that. But a Goan must be remarkable, if he is any- thing like Mr. Schiff. He was a Jew all the time, and a prince in Israel. He made a great deal of moncy, and gave of it very liberally to Jewish charities and relief projects, and also to many in- stitutions not Jewish, but which were hos- pitable to Jews. He opposed Zionism, cling, apparently, that New York was a good enough new Jerusalem. He had it in for Russia, because Russia had per- secuted the Jews. When Japan fought Russia he was largely instrumental in raising a loan in this country for the Japanese, but in the end he was not en- tirely satisfied with that exploit, because their success with Russia gave them so strong a militaristic turn that Mr. Schiff, who was a great promoter of peace, be- ON THE WAY came doubtful whether he had done well to help them, There have been stories that he financed Trotzky’s return to Russia. If that is true, it was another consequence of the resentment he bore towards Russia as an oppressor of the Chosen People. Mr. Schiff's reputation really rests more on the way he made his money than on how he spent it. There is no stain on his money-making. He made it by shrewd and prudent banking. He had foresight courage, and some great that he took with Harriman and Jim Hi‘ turned out well and were creditable to him as well as profitable. implicated in the concerns of American life and was a very notable American citizen. Yet one must feel about him that he was always more or less a looker-on, detached from the life of which he was and ventures He was deeply TO THE POLLS a part, and that the background of his mind was Jerusalem and three thousand years of Jewish history In the landscape that is back of the composite American mind there is ex- traordinary variety, There is Ireland and Jerusalem and Italy and Germany anid Scandinavia and southeastern Europe, al represented by millions of ected by their voters whose polities is z erivation, by issues which are no political conec States. of these But the groups of halance one another more or les whole lot of those mentic groes mber or power included, do ) the mass ¢ scendants of the English, the Scotch, t Dutch and the French kave been Americans so long that there is no landscape in the back of th but the United States. Huguenots w r heads comicbooks.com