2005-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/31/2005
Typed Letter Signed by William Rothmann, a Chicago attorney with the firm West & Eckhart, 4p. quarto, October 7, 1919, and reads in part: “…It is not the first time that I have read the ‘New Republic,’ and probably it will not be the last. Each time I find that my respect for the publication, which never was very great, has suffered a marked diminution…With advancing years and, I hope, maturer judgement, I find myself more conservative. Bolshevism, whether it be of the common, or garden variety, or the parlor type, does not appeal to me. I have no more confidence in the Japanese than has the writer of the article you marked. The Shantung provision of the peace treaty is as distasteful to me as it can possibly be to anyone. I have no doubt it is so to President Wilson. The fact that he, with extreme reluctance (as I believe) consented to it, is evidence that he felt compelled, under the circumstances to do so…and having full confidence in his purity of purpose, his wisdom, and his patriotism, I am willing to accept his judgment…The address of General Smuts, in the main, is admirable. He does, however, ‘slop over’ a little in his all too evident sympathy for Germany. I am not able to become very much wrought up over the alleged wrongs done Germany by the treaty makers. That country, because of the monstrous crime against humanity which she committed in precipitating the world war, is entitled to no leniency. In my judgment, the peace conference treated her with much more consideration than she deserves….One can but marvel at the stupidity of the American people, who, having at hand such a galaxy of wise men, not only ready and willing, but according to their own admission, able to take over the entire affairs of the nation and correctly to order them, should blindly refuse to avail themselves of the services of said wise men, and content themselves with a mere Wilson…An additional reason for Lippman’s hostility is that the president refuses to recognize Lenin and Trotsky, as the heads of a legitimate government, and rather seeks to aid the Russian people to rid themselves of those monsters. This in the opinion of our American Bolshevists, is the President’s most heinous offense. It has set every Bolshevist, whether ‘low-brow’ or ‘high-brow’, yapping and snarling at his heels…” Much more. Fine.
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