’Tell me, therefore, from your vantage point of cold view, what in your mind is the cause.  Can American Jews do anything to correct it either in America or abroad?  Will it ever come to an end?  Will a Jew be permitted to live honestly, decently, and peaceably like the rest of mankind?  What has become of the Golden Rule?’

I will begin by saying that if I thought myself prejudiced against the Jew, I should hold it fairest to leave this subject to a person not crippled in that way.  But I think I have no such prejudice.  A few years ago a Jew observed to me that there was no uncourteous reference to his people in my books, and asked how it happened.  It happened because the disposition was lacking.  I am quite sure that (bar one) I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no colour prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices.  Indeed, I know it.  I can stand any society.  All that I care to know is that a man is a human being—­that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.  I have no special regard for Satan; but I can at least claim that I have no prejudice against him.  It may even be that I lean a little his way, on account of his not having a fair show.  All religions issue Bibles against him, and say the most injurious things about him, but we never hear his side.  We have none but the evidence for the prosecution, and yet we have rendered the verdict.  To my mind, this is irregular.  It is un-English; it is un-American; it is French.  Without this precedent Dreyfus could not have been condemned.  Of course Satan has some kind of a case, it goes without saying.  It may be a poor one, but that is nothing; that can be said about any of us.  As soon as I can get at the facts I will undertake his rehabilitation myself, if I can find an unpolitic publisher.  It is a thing which we ought to be willing to do for any one who is under a cloud.  We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents.  A person who has during all time maintained the imposing position of spiritual head of four-fifths of the human race, and political head of the whole of it, must be granted the possession of executive abilities of the loftiest order.  In his large presence the other popes and politicians shrink to midges for the microscope.  I would like to see him.  I would rather see him and shake him by the tail than any other member of the European Concert.  In the present paper I shall allow myself to use the word Jew as if it stood for both religion and race.  It is handy; and, besides, that is what the term means to the general world.

In the above letter one notes these points: 

1.  The Jew is a well-behaved citizen.

2.  Can ignorance and fanaticism alone account for his unjust treatment?

3.  Can Jews do anything to improve the situation?