Letter from Hyman Herman to President Woodrow Wilson (Document 4), item 2

• October 23, 2018 13:09:33 Sara Fresi

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  To the Defender of Humanity and Champion of Democracy,

  Woodrow Wilson:

  
  

    Undoubtedly the time will come when people not so ignorant

  and unappreciative as we are will unanimously voice their approval of the

  work you are now engaged in - a work in which you have pledged all our

  lives, fortunes, homes & honor, without in the least consulting us, ignorant

  brutes that we are, - so that those who are so nobly sacrificing themselves

  for so righteous a cause may in the hereafter realize the fruits of their 

  toil. In short, you are ready to slaughter us all in order that we may

  enjoy that in death which we are now lacking in life. But please, your 

  Excellency, do not deign even to listen to me; I am only of the twentieth 

  century, while you are a Messiah in disguise, sent to show us the path to 

  virtue, righteousness and spiritual glory. (The highly despicable material

  glory is too low for us and we gladly hurl it at the high priests of

  materialism in their Holy of Holies, which I need not tell you is Wall St.)

  Therefore, my most Exalted Ruler, peruse my worthless epistle with deepest

  scorn on your noble features, and immediately cast it into the fire; but

  please forget not to wash your hands and scrub them thoroughly, and for that

  purpose I recommend the sacred oil of the Standard Oil Company.

    When the Allies first declared war on the Central Powers, all

  were kept guessing as to the exact cause of it. Of course, the breaking of

  Belgium's neutrality and the Allies' promise to protect her was too weak a 

  reason for the man not influenced by the "yellow" press to be able to use a

  little thinking power. No man, with any brains whatsoever would accept that

  as proof which has proved to be empty, for would that have been the first

  time England would have broken a contract, or France; had England and

  France been so pure and faultless until all this? Yet, for lack of a better

  reason, this had to be offered. But as soon as Russia freed itself from its 

  yoke and the U.S. entered the war, it took only a comparatively short time

  before the cry of a "War for Democracy" and a similar war-yell of "Down with

  Prussianism" began to permeate the already polluted atmosphere of this nation.

  What matter the petty Italian autocracy and the exact facsimilies of teh

  Russia of the past in Roumania and Servia? Certainly the entrance of 

  Siam on the part of the Allies changed not the outlook, altho Siam is the

  only complete autocracy in the world, including Germany.

• October 23, 2018 13:09:26 Sara Fresi

  
  

  
  

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• November 20, 2017 22:41:25 Thomas A. Lingner

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  To the Defender of Humanity and Champion of Democracy,

  Woodrow Wilson:

  
  

    Undoubtedly the time will come when people not so ignorant

  and unappreciative as we are will unanimously voice their approval of the

  work you are now engaged in - a work in which you have pledged all our

  lives, fortunes, homes & honor, without in the least consulting us, ignorant

  brutes that we are, - so that those who are so nobly sacrificing themselves

  for so righteous a cause may in the hereafter realize the fruits of their 

  toil. In short, you are ready to slaughter us all in order that we may

  enjoy that in death which we are now lacking in life. But please, your 

  Excellency, do not deign even to listen to me; I am only of the twentieth 

  century, while you are a Messiah in disguise, sent to show us the path to 

  virtue, righteousness and spiritual glory. (The highly despicable material

  glory is too low for us and we gladly hurl it at the high priests of

  materialism in their Holy of Holies, which I need not tell you is Wall St.)

  Therefore, my most Exalted Ruler, peruse my worthless epistle with deepest

  scorn on your noble features, and immediately cast it into the fire; but

  please forget not to wash your hands and scrub them thoroughly, and for that

  purpose I recommend the sacred oil of the Standard Oil Company.

    When the Allies first declared war on the Central Powers, all

  were kept guessing as to the exact cause of it. Of course, the breaking of

  Belgium's neutrality and the Allies' promise to protect her was too weak a 

  reason for the man not influenced by the "yellow" press to be able to use a

  little thinking power. No man, with any brains whatsoever would accept that

  as proof which has proved to be empty, for would that have been the first

  time England would have broken a contract, or France; had England and

  France been so pure and faultless until all this? Yet, for lack of a better

  reason, this had to be offered. But as soon as Russia freed itself from its 

  yoke and the U.S. entered the war, it took only a comparatively short time

  before the cry of a "War for Democracy" and a similar war-yell of "Down with

  Prussianism" began to permeate the already polluted atmosphere of this nation.

  What matter the petty Italian autocracy and the exact facsimilies of teh

  Russia of the past in Roumania and Servia? Certainly the entrance of 

  Siam on the part of the Allies changed not the outlook, altho Siam is the

  only complete autocracy in the world, including Germany.

  
  

  
  

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• August 16, 2017 22:57:38 Eduardo Götzinger

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  To the Defender of Humanity and Champion of Democracy,

  Woodrow Wilson:

  
  

  Undoubtedly the time will come when people not so ignorant

  and unappreciative as we are will unanimously voice their aproval of the

  work you are now engaged in - a work in wich yopu have pledged all our

  
  

  
  

  • Show revision
  • Compare to current version
  • Compare to previous version

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