Letter from Miles Saltiel
Local History – May 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
A cousin has drawn my attention to “Hard Times: The Jewish colony at Cotopaxi,” an article by Nancy Oswald which you published in the February 2005 edition of Colorado Central Magazine.
In this Ms. Oswald refers to my paper on the topic, which I prepared after researches and visits to Cotopaxi on a couple of occasions. I did this as a rebuttal to the account generally provided by the descendants of the colonists and I attach a copy.
Ms. Oswald refers to my point about the general failure of such colonies, where I wrote: “We should put this story into the context of our knowledge of the failure of every Jewish agricultural colony in the US, including those on first class land.”
I went on to explore why this might have been: “The Cotopaxi story strongly suggests miscalculation on the part of the colony’s organizers. In addition, the skill-set and expectations of the would-be farmers seem to have been at odds with the environment in which they found themselves.” The greatest miscalculation was a want of working capital — I learn from Ms. Oswald that this was intended to be furnished by the colonists themselves — given the late season of the colony’s first planting.
Ms. Oswald writes of Emanuel Saltiel shrugging at the colonists. Contrary to the immediate impression this gives, the record shows that he showed restraint at this point, as they were asking him to divert funds belonging to HIAS to their own account, possibly to repay the credit he had advanced them, without which they would have starved.
I was unaware of the letter of March 2, 1883 from H.S. Henry of HIAS, but his remarks are of a piece with my own conclusions. To quote his letter as cited by Ms. Oswald:
“… a committee sent by German, Irish or Norwegian Emigrant Society would probably have encouraged the colonists by pointing out that their present discomforts were temporary, that with the return of spring and another harvest, things would improve; that perseverance after all the expenditure of money would certainly result in ultimate success…. This committee would recommend that to start life in a new country is not child’s play–that there are frequent disappointments and some misery.”
My own paper suggested that:
“… a thoughtful scrutiny of the settlers’ grievances reveals that — no matter how heartfelt — most turn on a poor appreciation of the realities of their position: the challenges of wild animals and starving Ute tribesmen; the wage rate properly attaching to unskilled mine labour; the scarcity of legal tender; the character of local water rights; the impropriety of a claim on funds attributable to third parties; and the apparent failing of HIAS to provide working capital or make other arrangements for the Chasidim to survive the winter.”
No one wants to take anything away from the challenges faced by pioneers, but neither truth nor justice is served by maintaining a record which demonizes my forebear.
With best wishes
Miles Saltiel
London
