Daily Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval–Editor.]

The extent to which prominent American Jews figured as candidates for cabinet and other offices in Wilson’s administration and as participants in the shaping of his policies before and after his election to the presidency, is revealed partly in Colonel House’s Diary, which is appearing serially in the New York “Herald-Tribune.”

From House’s entry on November 16. 1912, we learn that Louis D. Brandeis had been considered by Wilson for the office of Attorney General. Says the diary (Herald-Tribune, Feb. 4): “We talked again of James C. McReynolds as Attorney General. We practically eliminated Brandeis for this position. . . .”

Writing to President-elect Wilson under date of Nov. 22, 1912, Colonel House informed him of the following:

“I lunched with Mr. Brandeis yesterday. His mind and mine are in accord concerning most of the questions that are now to the fore. He is more than a lawyer; he is a publicist and he has an unusual facility for lucid expression. . . .

“A large number of reputable people distrust him, but I doubt whether the distrust is well founded, and it would perhaps attach itself to any man who held his advanced views.”

Regarding Henry Morgenthau, who was appointed by Mr. Wilson as Ambassador to Turkey. Colonel House records (Herald-Tribune, Feb. 5):

“December 18, 1912–Governor Wilson came at 1:30. I talked to him about Morgenthau and suggested him for Turkey. He replied. ‘There ain’t going to be uo Turkey,’ and I said. ‘Then let him go look for it.’. . .”

In the same issue we learn that the late William J. Bryan urged the inclusion of a Jew and a Catholic in Wilson’s cabinet. Writing to Wilson from Miami on Jan. 30, 1913, House said: “He (Bryan) is very earnest in his advice that a Catholic, and perhaps a Jew, be taken into the family.”

On December 19, 1912, House entered in his diary (Herald-Tribune. Feb. 9): “Talked with Paul Warburg over the telephone regarding currency reform. I told of my Washington trip and what I had done there to get it in working order: that the Senators and Congressmen seemed anxious to do what Governor Wilson desired and that I knew the President-elect thought straight concerning the issue.”

February 26. 1913: “I went to the Harding dinner and talked with the guests invited to meet me. It was an interesting occasion. I first talked to Mr. Frick, then with Denman, and afterward with Otto Kahn.”

Recording a conversation, in March, 1913, with Major Higginson of Boston, regarding the currency bill which at that time was up before Congress. House wrote:

“Just before he (Higgins on) arrived I had finished a review by Professor Sprague, of Harvard, of Paul Warburg’s criticism of the Glass-Owen bill, and will transmit it to Washington tomorrow. Every banker like Warburg, who knows the subject practically, has been called upon in the making of the bill.”

Later in the year (Nov. 17, 1913) House recorded:

“Paul Warburg telephoned about his trip to Washington. He is much disturbed over the currency situation and requested an interview, along with Jacob Schiff and Cleveland H. Dodge. Mr. Dodge came in advance of the others. . . .

“Mr. Schiff and Mr. Warburg came in a few minutes. Warburg did most of the talking. He had a new suggestion in regard to grouping the regional Reserve banks, so as to get the units welded together and in easier touch with the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Schiff did not agree as to the advisability of doing this. He thought the regional Reserve banks should be cut down to four and let it go at that.

“They wanted me to go to Washington with Mr. Warburg and Mr. Dodge, Mr. Schiff saying I was the Moses and they would be the Aarons. He asked If I knew my Bible well enough for this to be clear to me. I told him I did. I combated the idea that the President was stubborn in his stand upon the currency measure.”