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217 38 I Visit the Radical Leaders of Rome. Tremendous Growth of American Prestige in Europe. OCTOBER 19 I visited today the office of the radical paper Avanti, in Rome, and talked with the leaders of the Socialist Party of Italy. All radical leaders are alike—whether in Italy, England, France, or America , and the attics they live and work in! I have seen samples of all of them. All radicals are hero-worshipers, and there was never yet an attic-temple devoted to the rites of the New Time that did not have on its walls pictures of the prophets and martyrs of the Cause. In the attic I visited today there were St. Marx, St. Bebel, St. Jaurès, and the martyr Bruno, and the martyr Leibkneeht.173 And Jesus (not the Christ) was there, too. He is a true Saint to all high radicalism. Also all radicals have a passionate faith in the Printed Word. Luther was not surer of his Bible than these men in their Roman attic of their smeary pamphlets and crude letter-press. Every radical office in the world bulges with pamphlets, circulars, books. The food of the faith is soiled paper. I have seen these men and their attics in New York and long ago in Chicago and San Francisco. I have seen them in London, in Dublin where I recently met little Griffith,174 in Paris, and now in Rome. Signor Luzzatti telephoned, asking me to come to see him, and on my arrival he told me about a series of lectures he was about to give at the University of Rome called “The Contribution of the United States to the Progress of 173. Karl Marx, August Bebel, Jean Léon Jaurès, Giordano Bruno, and, most likely, Karl Liebknecht , all of whom challenged authority. Bruno’s defiance was toward the Catholic Church. He said the sun was a star. The others were radical leftists. 174. Baker is probably referring to Arthur Griffith, a founder of Sinn Féin. 218 | Reporting on Public Opinion in Great Britain, France, and Italy Constitutional Law in the World.” This is plainly one of the many evidences of the enormous growth of American prestige in Europe. It is the new sense of power, unity, imagination that we give under Wilson’s leadership that is producing this impression, not any carefully devised propaganda of the Committee on Public Information or of the Red Cross and Y.M.C.A. work, nor is it the cunningly skilled and tricky methods of “penetration,” or the propagation of “kultur” on the German plan, but the impression the American leadership now gives of character, power, deeds—and above all of disinterestedness. One can actually feel the shift in Italy, and, indeed, all over Europe, from German to American influence. Only a few years ago, Germany was felt to be invincible , German efficiency was the model of all efficiency, German “kultur” incomparable—and now it is America that is felt to be invincible. Wilson and America seem to have attained in Italy both extremes of adoring admiration, that of the knowledge which lectures in the University of Rome, and that of the ignorance which burns candles of humble worship. “The British constitution,” this remarkable old man said to me, “affords liberty for British citizens, but the United States constitution declares freedom for all men. The English have not known until recently complete religious freedom. The French have declared for religious freedom, but do not practice it. In your unique and admirable country, the principle of religious freedom has not only been adopted, but applied and acted upon.” So spoke the Jew! Luzzatti has written a book on liberty of conscience that has been translated into Japanese.175 When the Japanese occupied Korea and began to persecute the Catholics, this book was used as authority by the defense and secured finally the freedom of the Catholics in Korea, because of the showing therein made of the tolerance preached and practiced by Buddha. The Roman Catholic leaders in Korea sent a message of special thanks to this old Jew for the service his book had done them. “I was born a Jew,” he said to me, “but I have abandoned my religion, except when I am reproached for being a Jew. I have become a bee that takes honey from all celestial flowers. My ancestor is the prophet Isaiah, and, perchance , also Jesus Christ, who was likewise a Jew.” HespokeoftheformeropinionoftheUnitedStates,entertainedbyEuropeans...

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