of the inevitable difficulties and obstacles that beset the venture reached his
desk: shabby treatment of passengers aboard ship, immigrants found to be
ill-suited for labor, deportation actions by the government, complaints
from receiving communities, and opposition on the part of the Yiddish
press and the Zionists in the eastern ghettos. Although some immigrants
desired to be sent elsewhere, the administrators disclaimed any obligation
to finance or transport them. Problems were resolved by Schiff and his
American associates or were brought to the attention of the Europeans.
Continuing to campaign publicly on behalf of distribution, the banker was
influenced neither by the obstacles nor by the criticism from the Jewish
community. “I shall not let the fear that my popularity amongst our core-
ligionists here may suffer, as it possibly will, deter me from expressing my
convictions.”^27
The banker’s chief preoccupation was the maintenance of smooth rela-
tions between the Americans and the Europeans. Imperious though his
manner was with subordinates and the immigrants, he handled the execu-
tives with care. A great deal of time was spent in running interference for
Zangwill, whose manner alienated Paul Nathan as well as some of Schiff’s
American co-workers. For the sake of unity, Schiff explained away
Zangwill’s behavior while simultaneously lavishing much praise on the sen-
sitive playwright. Zangwill in turn usually went along with Schiff. The
Englishman confided to Mayer Sulzberger: “The difficulty with Schiff is
that he is so charming that it is difficult to quarrel with him.”^28 In one letter
early in negotiations, Schiff wrote that he favored the settlement of small
groups, which, if they succeeded, could lead to local self-government. It
was his way of wooing Zangwill, but the latter understood it to mean that
Schiff had finally succumbed to territorialism. In no fashion, however, did
the banker ever endorse significant autonomous settlements in the United
States. They were impossible to attain, and the very idea was a menace to
Jews. He insisted rather that immigrants come as individuals and not as
groups. As for local self-government, it doubtless meant no more to him
than the status of the Woodbine agricultural colony, which was incorpo-
rated as an all-Jewish borough in 1903.^29
Schiff tried to keep Zangwill focused on recruitment, admonishing him
repeatedly to avoid the appearance of stimulated immigration and to up-
hold high standards for immigrant selection. Not only did immigrants
have to pass the LPC test, but for pioneering in the West, Schiff preferred
the manual laborer to the “merchant and clerk type.”^30 For the sake of the
Galveston movement and in the face of the mounting tide of restrictionist
sentiment in Congress, he came out in favor of the type of immigrant least
likely to arouse popular disfavor.
The solution of certain problems lay beyond the banker’s abilities. For
example, the incessant rivalry between ICA and ITO precluded a joint Eu-
In Search of a Refuge 165hyphenated last word of recto to avoid loose line