PAGE EIGHT

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

Two Presidents of the
United States Write
Commander Newberry

From Theodore Roosevelt

Oyster Bay, Long Island, October 19, 1918.

Commander Truman H. Newberry, New York City.

My dear Commander:

I congratulate you on your nomination, but far more do I con-
gratulate Michigan and all our people. It was my good fortune
to have you serve under me as Secretary of the Navy, and I can
testify personally to your efficiency and your disinterested and
single-minded zeal for the public service. To a very peculiar de-
gree you have stood for that kind of government which puts the
interest of the people a s a whole first and foremost, and treats all
other considerations as negligible, when the public weal is in-
volved. The record made by you and your two sons in this war
is typical of your whole attitude as a public servant. Both your
boys at once entered the Navy, and are now on the high seas. You
sought employment abroad; when that was refused you, you ac-
cepted any position that was offered in which you could render
public service.

The nomination of Mr. Ford makes the issue sharp and clean.
It is not primarily an issue between the Republican party and the
Democratic party, for Mr. Ford does not seem to have any firm
political convictions, and was content to take the nomination on
any ticket without regard to what the general principles of the
men supporting that ticket 'were; and his memory about past
politics is so hazy that although he has mentioned a Republican
candidate Or president for whom he thinks he once voted, it does
not appear that this is possible, unless he is in error as to his own
age.

The issue is infinitely more important than any merely
political issue. It is the issue of straightAmericanism, of straight
patriotism, and of preparedness for the tasks of peace and war, as
against a particularly foolish and obnoxious type of pacifism,
preached in peace and practiced in war. This is the first time in
the history of our country in which a candidate for high office has
been nominated who has spent enormous sums of money in de-
moralizing the people of the United States on a matter of vital
interest to their honor and welfare. The expenditures on behalf
of pacifism by Mr. Ford in connection with the Peace Ship, and
in connection with his great advertising campaign in favor of the

McLemore resolution and of the pacifist and pro-German attitude
against our participation in the war, was as thoroughly demoraliz-
ing to the conscience of the American people as anything that has
ever taken place. The failure of Mr. Ford's son to go into the
army at this time, and the approval by the father of the son's
refusal, represent exactly what might be expected from the moral
disintegration inevitable produced by such pacifist propaganda.
Mr. Ford's son is the son of a man of enormous wealth. If he
went to war he would leave his wife and child immeasurably dis-
tant from all chance of even the slightest financial strain or
trouble, and his absence would not in the smallest degree affect the
efficiency of the business with which he is con necti.d. But the son
stays at home, protesting and appealing when he is drafted, and
now escaping service. Your two sons have eagerly gone to the
front. They stand ready to pay with their lives for the honor and
the interest of the American people, and while they thus serve
America with fine indifference to all personal cost, the son of
wealthy 1\Ir. Ford sits at home in ignoble safety, and his father
defends and advises such conduct. It would be a grave misfortune
to the country to have Mr. Ford in the Senate when any question
of continuing the war or discussing terms of peace may arise, and
it wo,:ld be an equally grave misfortune to have him in any way
deal wit!! the problems of reconstruction in this country.
Mic i ,, L4 is facing the test, clear-cut and without shadow of a
chance for misunderstanding, between patriotism and American-
ism oi. oric side, and on the other pacifism, and that foolish sham-
cosmopolitanism which thinks it clever to deride the American
flag, and to proclaim that it would as soon be a Hindoo or China-
m4i, as an American. If there should be at any time in the
future a Hindoo Senate, and it should choose, in a spirit of
cosmopolitanism, to admit outsiders, there is no reason why
Mr Ford should not aspire to membership therein; but he would
be signally out of place in the American Senate so long as that
body is dominated by men who zealously believe in the American
ideal and faithfully endeavor to serve the American people.
Wishing you all success, I am
Very faithfully yours,

From William H. Taft

931 Southern Building,
Wasb;rigton, D. C.,
Octc,17)er j.9, 1918.

4!

My dear Commander Newberry
I write to congratulate you on being the Republican candidate
for Senator in the State of Michigan. I sincerely hope that you
will be elected, and I am very certain that if you are, you will ren-
der to the State and to the country a valuable service in your high
office. I feel that I can say this from personal observation of the
way in which you discharged your official duties both while you
were Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and while you were in the
same Cabinet with me under President Roosevelt. It is of the
highest importance that in the settlement of the important ques-
tions growing out of this war, we should have men in the senate of
your experience in governmental matters, and of your political
views. The Democratic majority in Congress has not been one

upon which the President or the country could depend for the
adoption of measures adequate to the winning of the war. The
people of the United States can be much more conndent, if we have
a Republican majority in both Houses, that the ,egislative branch
of the Government will wisely cooperate with th4.. Executive Admin-
istration, and by constructive criticism make that Administra-
tion more effective than if Democratic majorities in both Houses
are retained. With Mr. Fordil; known pacifist views, carried to

an extreme, indeed, with his nondescript political affiliations, and
with his engaging in this canvass simply at the instance of the
President, the people of Michigan are placed in a dilemma in
respect to how he will represent them. He will either go into the
Democratic caucus and follow implicitly the wish of the President,
who induced him to run, or no one can know what he will do, not
even Mr. Ford, in contingencies that are likely to arise. If you arc
elected, the people of Michigan will know that you will act with
the loyal Republicans and that you will back the President to the
utmost when he is seeking Congressional assistance for the win-
ning of the war, and that you will be independent and courageous
in pointing out the mistakes of administration, with a view to
their remedy. I earnestly hope that the electors of Michigan will
choose you.

Sincerely yours,

Hon. Truman H. Newberry,
New York, N. Y.

On your ballot make a cross (X) in the Circle "0" under the Picture of Abraham Lincoln.
Nothing further need be done.

.1 ■ WINMMIP.10.7.71i

'a-

Published by
Michigan Republican
State Central Committee,
John D. Mangum, Chairman.