Jacob H. Schiff, Esq.
Mr. Schiff to Dr. Eliot.
NEW YORK, Dec. 5, 1914.
President Emeritus Charles W. Eliot, Cambridge, Mass.
Dear Dr. Eliot:
Your letter of Dec. 3 reached me this morning, and has given me much
food for thought.
I wish I could follow you in the position you have taken, for I like
nothing better than to sit at the feet of a master like you and be
instructed. But, much as I have tried, even before our recent
correspondence was begun, to get at your viewpoint as from time to time
published, I have not been able to convince myself that you occupy a
correct position. Please accept this as expressed in all modesty, for I
know were you not thoroughly convinced of the justice of the position
you have taken from the start you would not be so determined in holding
to it.
I am perfectly frank to say that I am amazed and chagrined when you say
that you feel strongly that the war ought to go on until the Allies
have arrived at attacking Germany on her own soil, which, if this is at
all likely to come, may take many months yet, and will mean sacrifice of
human life on both sides more appalling than anything we have seen yet
since the war began. So you are willing that, with all the human life
that has already perished, practically the entire flower of the warring
nations shall become exterminated before even an effort be made to see
whether these nations cannot be brought to reason, cannot be made to
stop and to consider whether, with the experience of the past four
months before them, it would not be better to even now make an effort to
find a way in which the causes that have led to this deplorable conflict
can be once and forever eradicated?
That it will be possible to find at this time any method or basis
through the adoption of which the world would become entirely immune
against war I do not believe, even by the establishment of the
international police force such as you and others appear to have in
mind.
The perpetual cessation of all war between the civilized nations of the
world can, as I see it, only be brought about in two ways, both Utopian
and likely impracticable, for many years to come. War could be made only
to cease entirely if all the nations of Europe could be organized into a
United States of Europe and if free trade were established throughout
the world. In the first instance, the extreme nationalism, which has
become so rampant during the past fifty years and which has been more or
less at the bottom of every war, would then cease to exist and prevail,
and in the second event, namely, if free trade became established
throughout the world the necessity for territorial expansion and
aggression would no longer be needed, for, with the entire world open on
equal terms to the commerce and industry of every nation, territorial
possession would not be much of a consideration to any peoples.
You continually lay stress upon the danger of the domination of Germany
in Europe and in the world. I believe I have already made myself quite
clear in my recent NEW YORK TIMES interview, which has called forth this
correspondence between us, that neither would I wish to have Germany
come into a position where it might dominate Europe, and more or less
the world, nor do I believe that the German Nation, except perhaps a
handful of extremists, has any such desires.
I believe I have also made myself quite clear in the interview to which
I have referred that my feelings are not anti-English, for I shall never
forget that liberal government and all forms of liberalism have had
their origin, ever since the Magna Charta, in that great nation whom we
so often love to call our cousins. But, with all of this, can you ignore
the fact that England even today, without the further power and prestige
victory in the present conflict would give her, practically dominates
the high seas, that she treats the ocean as her own and enforces her
dictates upon the waters even to our very shores? That this is true the
past four months have amply proved. I am not one of those who fear that
the United States, as far as can now be foreseen, will get into any
armed conflict with Great Britain or with Japan, her permanent ally, but
I can well understand that many in our country are of a different
opinion, and it takes no prophet to foresee that, with England coming
out of this war victorious and her and Japan's power on the high seas
increased, the demand from a large section of our people for the
acquisition and possession of the United States of an increased powerful
navy and for the erection of vast coast defenses, both on the Atlantic
and Pacific shores, will become so insistent that it cannot be
withstood. What this will mean to the American people in lavish
expenditures and in increased taxation I need not here further go into.
Yes, my dear and revered friend, I can see nought but darkness if a way
cannot be soon found out of the present deplorable situation as it
exists in Europe.
But even if the Allies are victorious it will mean, as I am convinced,
the beginning of the descent of England as the world's leader and the
hastened ascendency of Russia, who, not today or tomorrow, but in times
to come, is sure to crowd out England from the world's leadership. A
Russia that will have become democratic in its government, be it as a
republic or under a truly constitutional monarchy; a Russia in which
education will be as free as it is in our own country; a Russia in which
the people can move about and make homes in the vast territory she
possesses wherever they can find most happiness and prosperity; a Russia
with its vast natural resources of every kind fully developed, is bound
to be the greatest and most powerful nation on the earth.
But I am going too far into the future and I must return to the sad and
deplorable present. I only wanted to show how England's alliance with
this present-day Russia and its despotic, autocratic, and inhuman
Government may, if the Allies shall be victorious, prove possibly in the
nearer future, but certainly in the long run, England's Nemesis.
Before closing I want to correct the impression you appear to have
received that I have meant to suggest a conference of private persons
for the purpose of agreeing upon an appeal by them to the nations of
Europe to desist from fighting and consider terms of settlement. I know
this would be entirely impracticable and useless, but what I meant to
convey to you was my conviction that if you and men like you, of whom I
confess there are but too few, were to make the endeavor to rouse public
opinion in the United States to a point where it should insistently
demand that this terrific carnage of blood and destruction cease, it
would not be long before these warring Governments would take notice of
such sentiments on the part of the American people; and what should be
done at once is the stoppage of the furnishing of munitions of war to
any of the belligerents, as is unfortunately done to so great an extent
at present from this country.
We freely and abundantly give to the Red Cross and the many other relief
societies, but we do this, even if indirectly, out of the very profits
we derive from the war material we sell to the belligerents, and with
which the wounds the Red Cross and other relief societies endeavor to
assuage are inflicted. Yours most faithfully,