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No. 27. / Vienna, 3rd July 1903 — 8th Thamuz 5663. / 7th Year

President Roosevelt.

W. When, after the tragic death of Mc. Kinley, Theodore Roosevelt was called to the Presidency of the United States, it was known that a man of rare energy, of unbending perseverance and of a proud, truly American independence had stepped to the head of a mighty people. In Europe a great deal was written at that time about the "American peril," and statesmen in leading positions followed the American election with even greater interest than in former years.

We have long been accustomed to hear the question asked, upon every important event that bears upon the development of nations, what attitude America will take towards it. The Spanish-American War and the events in China and Venezuela have brought fresh successes to American policy, and Roosevelt was the man to turn them to account, with a statesman's prudence, in the interest of America. To-day the word of the President of the United States is everywhere heard with a respect that is paid not only to the head of the American Union, but also to the fearless, unprejudiced man who strives everywhere and under all circumstances to fulfil his duty.

The whole force of his remarkable personality showed itself once more of late, when the tidings of the Kishineff atrocities reached America. Without reserve he gave expression to his abhorrence of those proceedings, and thereby aroused in many pious souls no less horror than he did when, soon after entering upon his office, he invited the Negro professor Booker to his table. A man who is not content to defend fine theories with fine words, but who gives the only trustworthy sign of his sincerity and fidelity by performing a deed, may have seemed then, and may seem to-day, as strange to many a politician as Bismarck in his day seemed to the professional diplomats and statesmen of the old school. Roosevelt, however, did not stop at the public condemnation of the Kishineff murderers. He went still further, and we Jews have every reason to acknowledge with gratitude his vigorous championship of our brethren in Russia.

A great number of Jewish citizens in America had signed a petition to the Russian Government. This petition not only gives expression to indignation at the events in Kishineff, but also requests the Russian Government to improve the disconsolate condition of the Russian Jews, who have been plunged into misery by exceptional laws and by restrictions made more severe every day. The petition was to be handed to the Russian Government by a plenipotentiary of the State Department specially delegated for the purpose. In spite of the opposition raised by several high quarters of the American Government against this demand of American Jewry, President Roosevelt declared himself ready to transmit this petition to the Russian Government.

The Russian Ambassador at Washington, Count Cassini, had tried everything to prevent the acceptance of the petition by the President. He declared that the Russian Government would reject the petition and would decline all interference in Russian affairs. In spite of these declarations and of the misgivings raised by the State Department, Roosevelt held fast to his resolve to despatch the petition.

In our time, in which, with but very few isolated exceptions, the very heads of States resolve only with great difficulty and exceedingly seldom upon any attempt at resistance, even in the most flagrant cases of injustice and barbarity; in our time, in which, unhappily, considerate reserve and a deaf ear even to the most harrowing cries of the wretched and the oppressed have become a maxim of government; in which men take up a position on the weightiest questions only reluctantly, and only when they can absolutely evade them no longer — in this time the deed of Roosevelt relieves every civilised man of the heavy fear that we must look upon the grossest national and personal egoism as the sole determining factor of the future.