When I heard from Heilprin I forwarded the letter to the Baron, together with a list of men who had done most in the way of benevolent work for the Jews of New York. Prominent on that list were Meyer S. Isaacs, president of the United Hebrew Congregations; Jesse Seligman, president of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum; Jacob H. Schiff, who was connected with a number of our charitable enterprises; and my brother Isidor. The Baron subsequently communicated with Mr. Isaacs and some others, and out of their arrangements grew the Baron de Hirsch Fund and the Baron de Hirsch Trade School. Later the Baroness, upon conferring with Mrs. Straus, endowed the Clara de Hirsch Home for Working Girls.
Neither my wife nor I wish to claim any credit for the founding of the de Hirsch benevolent institutions. We were simply the medium through which these came into being. We never even suggested the nature of them. We only gave the requested information regarding the need for such institutions.
OSCAR S. STRAUS
Constantinople, 1888
But to come back to Constantinople and its railroads. During 1888 the question of a railroad from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf was much agitated, especially by the Germans. The Grand Vizier several times brought up the subject in conversation with me, asking me to help him get in communication with some reliable American railroad builders. He assured me that the Turkish Government would give more favorable terms to a group of Americans because the project would then be free from the political complications that might ensue if a road through the heart of the empire were controlled by Germany or any other European power.
William K. Vanderbilt was in Constantinople at the time. He had arrived in his yacht, which was larger than most yachts that came through the Dardanelles, so it was stopped until I could procure for him a special permit from the Sultan to proceed. At the Sultan's request, I spoke to Vanderbilt about the railroad and introduced him to the Grand Vizier. But he was on pleasure bent and not inclined to take up the cares and burdens involved in such an undertaking.
Of course it was apparent that if American capitalists and railroad builders with their vast experience would take up the construction of this road it would put tremendous power and prestige into American hands. I suggested that Carl Schurz and Henry Villard might be the proper persons to undertake this gigantic work. Villard's name had figured prominently in the completion of the Northern Pacific; he was close to Schurz, and they each enjoyed a high reputation. Soon thereafter the Porte submitted the matter to a syndicate of German, British, and French bankers, and the famous Bagdad Railroad was not built by Americans.
Early in 1888 I received a letter from an old friend, the Reverend William Hayes Ward, eminent Assyriologist and scholarly editor of the "Independent," respecting an expedition for excavating in Babylonia which the Reverend John P. Peters, of the University of Pennsylvania, contemplated. Under Dr. William Pepper, provost of the university, Dr. Peters was organizing the Babylon Exploration Fund, which would base its work on the recommendations made in 1884-85 by the Wolfe expedition headed by Dr. Ward himself. The Wolfe expedition, financed by Miss Catherine L. Wolfe, of New York City, had been limited to reconnoissance and exploration. Shortly thereafter the subject was brought to my attention officially by Mr. Adee, of the Department of State, who wrote me:
We find ourselves between two fires,—on one hand is the Philadelphia organization under the lead of Dr. Peters, which has the money, and on the other is the Johns Hopkins enterprise, which has the most solid ballasting of Assyriological talent, but, unfortunately, its dollars are limited. As the Johns Hopkins people deposit all their collections in the National Museum, Professor Langley feels kindly disposed towards them.... We shall probably have to look to you as the deus ex machina to prescribe a solution.