America at WarSchiff’s pro-German sentiments never compromised his loyalty to Amer-
ica. He was an American first: “I believe I may say that my sympathies for
the land of my birth are as warm as anyone’s, but I have been an American
for fifty years, and mean to remain so first and for the remainder of my
life.” A preacher against hyphenated Americanism—“God forbid that we
permit a hyphen to be placed between Jew and American”—he rejected
anything that smacked of dual political allegiance. Although he retained his
Jewish and German cultural interests, he believed that all immigrants, not
only Jews, were morally bound to become naturalized rapidly and divest
themselves of other than American national attachments.^31 Indeed, the last
was an issue on which he and Germany clashed.
The banker’s feelings for the United States were predicated on an abid-
ing respect for the land, its institutions, and its heroes. In 1913, the year in
which Charles Beard published An Economic Interpretation of the Constitu-
tion, he deplored the growing popularity of Constitution debunking. From
the onset of his career and like proper upper-middle-class businessmen,
Schiff joined many civic causes and organizations, donating handsomely to
museums, schools, and libraries and fighting Tammany for good govern-
ment in New York City. Like his philanthropic and defense activities, his
affiliations meant time and service in addition to financial aid.^32 Out of a
sense of civic duty as well as business and Jewish interests, he also became
marginally involved in politics. A loyal Republican, except for his support
of Wilson in 1912 and 1916, his name was familiar to local and national
leaders of both major parties. Schiff may not have been close to many, but
when he wanted to discuss public policy or to suggest candidates for
government office, there was little doubt that the politicians would hear
him out. Preferring to work behind the scenes, he showed no ambitions for
public office. He served from 1882 to 1884 on New York City’s Board of
Education, and in 1904–5, without any encouragement on his part, a
short-lived movement sprang up among Republicans to draft him to be
their candidate in the city’s mayoralty race.^33
A donor and active campaigner for Wilson’s reelection in 1916, the
banker not only left the Republicans but abandoned his erstwhile idol, the
Progressive candidate Theodore Roosevelt. Foreign affairs was his para-
mount concern, and he supported the administration’s policies before and
after the election. In 1917 he heaped lavish praise on Wilson’s “peace with-
out victory” speech. Neither utopian nor visionary, the address was, in his
opinion, “one of the greatest state papers in the history of nations,” and it
heralded a new era in international relations.^34 When the United States de-
clared war, Schiff enthusiastically followed the administration in its
The World at War 199