the world owes him a living and who becomes a danger to society if that be
not granted him in the manner he expects.” Another time he stated that the
literate alien was more likely to retain his own language and customs and
perhaps even become a demagogue or anarchist. In 1906 the Dillingham
immigration bill passed Congress without a literacy clause; merely a tem-
porary holding device, the act provided for an investigative commission to
study the entire matter of immigration.^8
The signs were ominous for the antirestrictionists, but the Jewish ste-
wards dug in their heels. The situation demanded that they buy time for
beleaguered Russian Jews, and if they could not prevent restriction, they
could at least delay or weaken legislative proscriptions. The Jewish cam-
paign against restriction was run primarily by Louis Marshall and Cyrus
Adler of the AJC and by Simon Wolf and Max Kohler of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) and B’nai B’rith. Schiff joined
his associates in planning strategy for reaching members of Congress. In
1908 the Jews lobbied with the platform committee of the Republican
party; in 1910 they formulated the Jewish presentation to the Immigration
Commission; and in 1912 they approached Democratic leaders for a pro-
immigration pledge from that party’s presidential candidate. The banker,
who was tuned in to Washington gossip, particularly when Oscar Straus
served in the cabinet, acted independently too. Privately, he asked Theo-
dore Roosevelt to choose a Jew for the Immigration Commission, but the
president refused, saying that he preferred persons without pronounced
viewpoints. Roosevelt yielded to Schiff, however, on the reappointment of
Robert Watchorn, an antirestrictionist, as commissioner of immigration.
The stewards well understood the importance of the commissioner in de-
ciding policy at the ports of entry, and they appreciated Watchorn’s sympa-
thy. Schiff also continued to apprise leading European Jews of American
developments. When the Dillingham Immigration Commission took up
its investigation in Europe, he directed his contacts abroad to supply the
commissioners with “accurate” information. At the same time he strongly
cautioned the Europeans against an international conference on emigra-
tion. A gathering that might hint at an international Jewry out to dump ali-
ens on American shores was hardly advisable.^9
The work of the Immigration Commission, known from the outset as a
restrictionist body, spurred on Jewish efforts against a literacy test. Schiff,
for example, used his personal influence with several prominent Christians.
He virtually coached John Finley, president of the City College of New
York, on what to say at a proimmigration rally. It was also Schiff who re-
portedly enlisted Charles Eliot on the side of liberal immigration. Sensi-
tized by his friend to the plight of Russian Jewry, Eliot condemned the lit-
eracy test as a “misdirected and untimely” device for judging the
desirability of foreigners. Schiff was grateful for so influential an ally, and
In Search of a Refuge 157