was ranked as second only to J. P. Morgan. Increasingly, the banker became
a familiar figure in Washington, often invited to discuss issues of railroads,
banking, and regulation of corporations with the president and members
of the cabinet. Clearly, he was not a man to be ignored.^14
Schiff in turn made ready use of his entrée into government circles for
Jewish interests. During one business conference in 1902, for example, he
alerted TR to the severe restrictions then suffered by Romanian Jews. That
move was followed up by Straus and Congressman Lucius Littauer and re-
sulted in the famous note issued by Secretary of State John Hay protesting
Romania’s policies.^15 Frequently, Schiff corresponded directly with TR’s
secretaries of state, Hay and Elihu Root. They resented his pressure, but
his messages received their personal attention, and on occasion their letters
to him were unsolicited. Like the president, they recognized him as the
most important, if irritating, Jewish spokesman. Jesse Seligman had died,
and Straus, a close presidential adviser who, in fact, tried to soften Schiff’s
bluntness, was far less demanding. At the president’s invitation, Schiff was
one of three Jews who passed on the portion relating to Russian-American
relations in Roosevelt’s letter accepting the 1904 presidential nomination.
And if the popular story is to be believed (although both TR and Schiff de-
nied it), it was Schiff whom the president consulted before appointing
Straus as secretary of commerce and labor.^16
Now able to approach the government independently of his Jewish col-
leagues, Schiff found in Roosevelt a man to admire. Like the banker, the
president was hyperenergetic, a natural and forceful leader, and a man who
enjoyed power. Schiff had certain reservations about Roosevelt’s regulation
of big business, but he shared the president’s beliefs in absolute morality,
noblesse oblige, and elitist leadership by moral, selfless men. He called
Roosevelt a person of “spotless character,” and the latter in turn considered
him a “genuine friend.” Schiff well understood that Roosevelt was con-
cerned about Jewish votes, and in 1904 the banker did his part by urging
Jewish support of the president’s bid for reelection; but he believed that
TR’s horror at anti-Jewish atrocities was genuine. Roosevelt’s stand against
discrimination—the way in which he, when police commissioner, had
mocked the notorious German anti-Semite Hermann Ahlwardt, and his
willingness to see a Jew in the cabinet and perhaps even in the presi-
dency—set him apart in Jewish eyes from his fellow WASPs. As long as
Roosevelt was president, Schiff confidently told Paul Nathan, he would de-
fend the persecuted Jews.^17
Schiff’s admiration, however, did not becloud his determined campaign.
Up to a point he behaved in good diplomatic fashion; he thanked the ad-
ministration warmly for its interest, and he carefully defended Roosevelt
against European Jewish critics.^18 But, different from most minority peti-
tioners, he was blunt in voicing his requests and equally candid in criticizing
Captivity and Redemption 131