April 9, 1892
To-day I wrote a long letter to Karpeles to push the Berlin peace society; if you have the opportunity, look up Karpeles and talk with him about the matter. If only Du Bois-Reymond would lend us his name! A German society must be called into existence before Bern.
Bern, August 31, 1892
Because of the society forming here you need not discontinue your labors there. Just go ahead gathering names, please. It will ultimately centralize itself in Berlin all the same.
September 5, 1892
Yes, the Berlin movement will halt—that I understand [because of the worthless partisan reports about the Bern Congress]; but between now and the next Congress societies must be formed and they will be.
September 10, 1892
The Grelling news is very good. I can now see that the society in Berlin will be formed. I will write to Grelling.
Karpeles is quite right in his unwillingness to serve; the thing to do is for him to coöperate, to get people into the committee, but not to sign. As things stand, the initiative must not have too many Jews back of it, else it will be immediately classified; no more than it could afford to be, say, too strongly Social Democrat. The Austrian comic papers are caricaturing me as the leader of a troop of Polish Jews as it is.
I will name several other people who will be helpful to the German society. The time for founding the society is the most propitious conceivable on account of the impending military bills. In order that the mammoth petition which our Bureau has drafted may get signatures in Germany as well as elsewhere, societies must also exist there. The manifestation may become just as imposing as that against the school laws,—even more imposing! since it is to spring up simultaneously all over Europe.