Jewish pogroms in Bolshevist Russia have occurred with particular intensity during the first half of 1918. I shall point, as an example, to the pogroms in Gulkhov, in the government of Chernigov, where they assumed a particularly brutal form, and in a number of places in the Poliesiye. All of these pogroms were the work of Bolshevist troops.

The Glukhov pogrom, which has attained such sad notoriety, started on February 28, 1918, after a Bolshevist detachment had entered the city. The Red Army men, transformed into savage beasts, murdered the arrested Jews who were being taken under guard to the building of the Soviet, and the street which housed the Soviet was literally sodden with Jewish blood. All Jewish stores and residences were sacked. Peasants from the near-by villages soon joined the plunderers of the Red Guard in their work of looting and pillaging. According to newspaper reports, four hundred and fifty Jews were murdered, among these some Jewish soldiers who had been rewarded with "St. George" medals for bravery. Long lists of victims—such as could be identified—were at that time published in the newspapers. The pogrom was directed exclusively against the Jews, and the Christian population of the city did not suffer in the least.

Concerning the pogroms in Poliesiye, Kossovsky quotes from the official organ of the Menshevist party, the Novaia Zaria, of Moscow, June 10, 1918, the following:

The large Jewish population of this region (Poliesiye) finds itself in a particularly tragic situation. The "activity" of the Red Army in Novogorod-Sieversk, Seredina-Buda, and Glukhov, where the Soviet detachments massacred the Jewish populations, has found an echo in other cities, and the sword of Damocles hangs at present over the unfortunate Jewish people. In the city of Potchep the Jews saved themselves from a pogrom by collecting in time fifteen thousand rubles, which they handed over to the pogrom-mad Red Army detachment upon its entrance into the city, in addition to giving it a splendid reception and a sumptuous feast. As reward for this reception the bashi-bazouks of the Soviet decided to spare the city.

Pogroms and other manifestations of anti-Semitism have been so common in Bolshevist Russia as to make the "Jewish question" one of extreme difficulty and importance. In numerous Soviets, notably Yaroslavl, Vitebsk, and Smolensk, Jewish members were openly insulted by the Bolsheviki; such epithets as "szhid!" ("sheeny!") were hurled at the Jewish members. Once more I quote from the article by Kossovsky:

In the provinces the pogrom mania invaded even the Soviets, not mentioning the Red Army which became more and more infected with it. According to the Kiev Naiye Zait, in the Vitebsk Soviet shouts were heard, "Chase the Jews out of the Soviets and its institutions!" In the Yaroslavl Soviet, according to information printed in the Moscow Social-Democratic newspaper, Vperiod, there were often heard insulting and shameful cries directed against the Jews. In Smolensk, according to Svobodnaya Rossia, members of the Red Army would come to the Soviet and demand that Jews be barred from holding posts as war commissaries and commanders. A lively anti-Semitic propaganda was carried on in Moscow and Petrograd, too, though it never reached the stage of a pogrom. In Petrograd anti-Jewish posters, signed by a "Kamorra of the People's Revenge," were spread broadcast. As a result of the apprehensiveness aroused, detachments for self-defense were organized by the Jews of Moscow. In Petrograd the Bolshevist authorities did not permit the organization of self-defense bodies, fearing lest the weapons of the self-defense detachments be turned against the Soviet.

Upon the initiative of the Petrograd Jewish Community the day of May 23, 1918, was designated as a Jewish National Day of Mourning throughout Russia as a protest against the latter-day Jewish pogroms in Russia. On that day the Jews were to close all their business establishments, not to issue newspapers, etc., etc. The May 23d issue of the Petrograd Jewish daily, Unser Tagblat, appeared in a black border and was full of articles relating to anti-Jewish attacks and pogroms, entitled: "Protest by Mourning," "Let Jewish Blood Boil," "The Day of Sorrow," "The Bloody Roll (Statistics Concerning Jewish Pogroms)." To convey to the reader the substance of these articles I will quote the closing words of the article, "The Bloody Roll": "The old tsarist, bloody Russia, fell, and a new Russia, a radical-Socialist, a communist, Russia came in its place. And still, as before, we stand facing a roster of Jewish pogroms, a roster which is, as yet, far from ended, as each day adds new names, new victims, and new massacres."

Mr. Louis Marshall, who is universally recognized as one of the foremost leaders of the American Jewry and who headed the American-Jewish delegation to the Peace Conference, in an interview published in the New York Jewish daily newspaper, The Day, July 27, 1919, categorically denied the assertion that there have been no Jewish pogroms under the rule of the Bolsheviki. He declared that such pogroms took place in the districts of the Ukraine controlled by the Bolsheviki as well as in those controlled by the robber bands. "We know of such pogroms having occurred," he said, "and very often the Bolsheviki care just as little about the Jews as others who make pogroms. It is possible that some of their pogroms are at times different, but in substance there were Jewish pogroms in Bolshevist territory as well." Mr. Marshall added the following observation: "All Jewish representatives that I have met in Paris who came from Russia are strong opponents of Bolshevism. Even to this day the Jewish Socialist parties are no less sharp in their condemnation of the Bolsheviki than are the bourgeois parties."

So far as I have been able to discover, there is not a large Jewish Community in Russia which has not repudiated Bolshevism. Not in a single instance has the support of the leaders of such a Community been given to the Lenin-Trotzky regime. For example, I have before me the report of the annual general meeting of the Jewish Community of Archangel, which took place on May 11, 1919. Therein is contained a Memorandum by the Council of the Community on the relation of the Jews to Bolshevism. The Memorandum points out that, while it is true that there are Jews among the leaders of the Bolsheviki, it is also true that there are many Jews among the leaders of the anti-Bolshevist forces. It names such men as MM. Vinaver, Gotz, Minor, Bliumkin (who assassinated Count Mirbach), Kannengisser (who shot Uritzki), and Dora Kaplan (who attempted to assassinate Lenin and forfeited her own life).

The Memorandum asks the non-Jewish world to remember that all of the Jews connected with the Bolshevist movement in any prominent capacity are apostates, that not one of them ever took the slightest part in the affairs of Russian Jewry, and that the Jewish people only learned of their existence at about the same time and in the same way as the Russian people in general became aware of the existence of such non-Jewish Bolshevist leaders as Lenin, Lunarcharsky, Tchitcherin, Krylenko, Dybenko, and many others. Attention is called to the fact that prominent Jewish national workers in Russia have been subjected to the same persecution and maltreatment by the Bolsheviki as the public-spirited men and women of other nationalities. The Memorandum cites the imprisonment of Doctor Maze, Rabbi of the Moscow Community, and the confiscation of the buildings belonging to the Petrograd Jewish Community, where the cultural and religious institutions of the Jews of that city were centered. I commend to the attention of all fair-minded men and women the following paragraph from this document:

Aside from this group of Jewish Bolshevist leaders there is the Jewish people, the many millions of the Jewish population of Russia. The unassuming representatives of that Jewish Community of Archangel take the liberty to affirm that neither the Jewish people as a whole, nor any of its socially organized groups, are responsible for the savagery, violence, acts of blasphemy, and mockery of human rights which characterize the Bolshevist regime.

The Jewish people are fully familiar with acts of brutality, with the Red Terror, familiar from long-past experience and from present experience in Bolshevist Russia, together with all the other nations inhabiting that unhappy territory. But the hands of the Jewish masses, of all the classes of the Jewish people, are not stained with this blood. We have not heard, and we believe that we shall never hear, of any act of terror committed by any masses of Jews led either by Jews or by non-Jews.

Let the Jewish Bolsheviki stand accused and condemned of their guilt like their compatriots of other nationalities, but there must be no room for generalization and wholesale accusation when the people as a whole are guiltless and where millions, permeated by a powerful cohesive force of an ancient culture organically foreign to the spirit of violence and vandalism, stand apart from a few individual persons.

Quite similar to the foregoing is a Memorandum addressed by the Council of the Vladivostok Jewish Community to the Russian people. The concluding paragraphs of this address seem to me to be a complete and crushing refutation of the monstrous calumny that is being so assiduously spread among our people:

In the present historic movement the Council of the Jewish Community of Vladivostok deems it its sacred civil duty to come forward with the following protest. The Council declares that: (1) The many millions of the Russian Jewry reject every responsibility for the crimes committed against Russia by a small group of Jewish renegades who have nothing in common with the Jews and have long since broken off all connections with them, such as Bronstein-Trotzky, Nakhamkes-Steklov, Apfelbaum-Zinoviev, Joffe, Kamenev, and others connected with Bolshevism, just as the Russian, Lettish, Polish, Georgian, Armenian, and other nationalities cannot be held to answer for the deeds and misdeeds of Bolshevist leaders who were born in their midst. (2) The Russian Jewry, as a whole, is warmly and sincerely devoted to the interests of Russia, its motherland, and has struggled and is still struggling for the regeneration of the Russian state, and is heartily interested, together with all the other peoples inhabiting Russia, in the speediest overthrowing of Bolshevism and the reconstruction of orderly life in Russia. The Russian Jews have lost over one hundred thousand of their brothers and sons in killed and wounded in the war with Germany. Thousands of Jews are found at present in the ranks of the armies of Admiral Kolchak and of General Denikin. (3) Bolshevism has ruined hundreds of thousands of Jewish merchants, business men, artisans, and men in various enterprises, and has completely destroyed the entire population of the Northwestern Territories. Thousands of Jewish families have been deported from Soviet Russia and are now dragging out a miserable existence as refugees in Siberia, in the Ural region, and in the border cities.

The Soviet government has shot and is still shooting Jewish public men, lawyers, engineers, physicians, and workmen who have participated in the struggle against the Soviet rule. In the near future there will be published documents and irrefutable facts revealing the number of Jewish lives and the billions of Jewish wealth that have perished during the past two years in the struggle with Bolshevism.

The Vladivostok Jewish Community protests to the Russian public opinion and to the honest and independent Russian press against the falsehoods, insinuations, and calumnies directed against the Jewish people in such profusion by the enemies of humanity and the state.

In view of such facts as these, is it reasonable to suppose that Bolshevism is a pro-Jewish conspiracy? Is it less than ridiculous to suggest that the system which has reduced hundreds of thousands of Jews to abject poverty, broken up thousands of Jewish homes and families, confiscated billions of Jewish wealth, imprisoned thousands of prominent Jews, and murdered numerous others, is part of a Jewish conspiracy? Surely, every intelligent person must see that any such conspiracy must necessarily require, as the first condition of its success, a degree of racial solidarity never yet attained by any people at any time in the history of the world. That solidarity could only be obtained by assuring to the Jews their complete exemption from the suffering and oppression imposed upon the non-Jewish population. Had there been any thought of securing the solidarity of the Jewish people of Russia against the non-Jewish population, it would have been effectively thwarted by the imposition of such burdens of poverty and suffering upon the Jews, and their resulting resentment. Not the smallest particle of evidence has ever yet been adduced to show that the Jews in Russia have been exempted from any of the oppressive features of Bolshevism. As Mr. Wells reminds us, the Bolsheviki have suppressed the Hebrew language, the historic language of Judaism, to preserve which Jews in all lands and during many centuries have made such vast sacrifices. Do we need any further evidence?

FOOTNOTES:

[2] The full account of this eyewitness appeared in the Odesskiya Novosti, September 27, 1919.

[3] Statement by Dr. M. Zitron, Dos Yiddishe Volk, of Warsaw, July 11, 1919.



VII

THE VICIOUS ROLE OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Precisely such propaganda as that which the Dearborn Independent has been carrying on is responsible for many of the blackest and most shameful pages in history. Wherever and whenever there has been an organized propaganda of anti-Semitism it has invariably been closely intertwined with every other contemporary reactionary oppressive and contemptible force. To those who know the history of anti-Semitism in Russia, in Poland, and in Rumania, even in quite recent years, this statement will seem so trite as not to require any demonstration. This close association with other forms of reaction and brutal oppression is not peculiar to anti-Semitism, but is a common characteristic of every form of race prejudice and hatred. Among the Turks organized prejudice and hatred of Armenians has invariably been found to be closely associated with all the other evil forces in the Turkish Empire. In our own country, discrimination against and injustice to the negro goes hand in hand with almost every other form of reaction and oppression.

It is quite useless to pretend that such articles as those published in the Dearborn Independent and the London Morning Post are not really anti-Semitic propaganda, but merely a legitimate discussion of a great and serious problem. Such specious pleading will not deceive any intelligent, honest person. The only possible object of the articles is to convince the people who read them that civilized society is threatened by a great world-wide secret conspiracy of the Jews; that this virile and highly intelligent people, scattered throughout the civilized world, and numbering, it is estimated, about sixteen millions, is secretly organized and led by an "invisible government" composed of some of the ablest and keenest minds in the world, to the end of bringing all the governments of the earth, together with all industry and commerce, under the absolute rule and dominion of a dynasty to be set up by an aristocratic Jewish Sanhedrin.

Even if we ignore, for the purpose of this discussion, the fact that to sustain this charge a structure of cruel falsehood has been erected with great cunning, it is surely plain enough that the effect of such a charge upon the minds of such non-Jews as believe it can only be the development of a spirit of antagonism toward Jews, as Jews. In so far as the Dearborn Independent succeeds in its efforts, it must inevitably make our Gentile population regard their Jewish neighbors with fear and suspicion. And from such fear and suspicion emanate intolerance and hatred and their brutal progeny. There is no essential difference between the articles which have been appearing in Mr. Ford's paper, either in spirit or in text, and those which, in a past so recent that its horror haunts the memory of men and women of our generation, let loose upon tens of thousands of helpless and inoffensive people the most bestial and fiendish cruelty and hatred ever attained by beings called human.

I can quite well remember the intense horror with which the Christian world read of the wave of pogroms against the Jews which swept over Russia in 1891, following the inhuman enforcement of the "May Laws." Jewish women in travail, forced to flee for their lives, hid in cemeteries, and in those "cities of the dead" brought forth their babes. Jewish fathers took their daughters to brothels for safe hiding. Jewish women and girls were raped. Jewish homes were looted, and whole villages inhabited by Jews were burned down. Even women and children were brutally murdered, simply because they were Jews and because a newspaper propaganda in all respects like that now being carried on in this country and in England had made the Jewish people the object of suspicion and fear and, therefore, of hatred. It was then that a Russian statesman declared that the "Jewish question" would be solved only when one third of the Jews had perished, another third emigrated, and the remaining third been converted to the orthodox Church!

The frightful massacre of Jews at Kishinev in 1903 likewise resulted from a newspaper propaganda very similar to that which is now being carried on by the Dearborn Independent and the London Morning Post. On that occasion an unexampled and unprecedented outburst of horror thrilled the whole civilized world. John Hay, our then Secretary of State, said: "No person of ordinary humanity can have heard without deep emotion the story of the cruel outrages inflicted upon the Jews of Kishinev. These lamentable events have caused the profoundest impression throughout the world." President Roosevelt said, "I have never in my experience in this country known of a more immediate or a deeper expression of the sympathy for the victims and of horror over the appalling calamity that has occurred."

The Kishinev outrages were the direct and logical outcome of the campaign of calumny and hatred against the Jews waged by the local newspaper, the Bessarabetz, owned and edited by a Moldavian named Kroushevan. Except for the specific charge of "ritual murder," with which I shall presently deal, the campaign of Jew-baiting pursued by this journal, which produced such disastrous and monstrous results, was the counterpart of that now being carried on by the Dearborn Independent. Kroushevan charged that the Jews were conspiring to secure world dominion; he charged that the economic power of the Jewish race in Russia was a peril to the nation; he charged that Jews were responsible for Socialism and social unrest. The anti-Semitic articles appearing in this country and in England during the past few weeks are quite like those which used to appear in the Bessarabetz.

Of course, the crowning infamy of the campaign of hate waged by the Kishinev paper was the charge of "ritual murder." A Christian boy, named Ribalenko, belonging to the village of Doubossar, midway between Kishinev and Odessa, was murdered, his body being found in an orchard. The Bessarabetz at once declared that the boy had been killed by the Jews for sacrificial purposes, thus reviving one of the most terrible and most infamous libels ever directed against any race or sect—a calumny that has been exposed and refuted again and again. Subsequently, after the mischief had been done, it was proved that the boy was murdered by his uncle and the care-taker of the orchard in which the body was found—both of them Russians and Gentiles. The murderers confessed their guilt, the motive for the crime being gain.

The horrors of 1891 were repeated and even excelled at Kishinev in 1903 as a result of this propaganda. It is not necessary to go into the gruesome details of the numerous nameless sex mutilations, the awful outrages committed upon young girls and their gray-haired grandmothers, the shockingly brutal and bestial murders, the well-authenticated cases of nails driven through the eyes of a woman and the cutting out of the tongue of a two-year-old child; let these brief references suffice. It is all too evident from the most reliable accounts of the massacre that hatred born of resentment and fear had made the Gentile mobs as savage as wild beasts. They were no longer human.

Thus far neither the Dearborn Independent nor the London Morning Post has reproduced the "ritual murder" lie. Perhaps neither will do it. Probably not. At the same time both papers have done their utmost to create in the minds of their readers a readiness to believe that or any other infamy when attributed to the Jews. There is not, and there cannot be, any assurance that in the soil thus prepared by these papers, others more ignorant or less scrupulous will not successfully plant belief in the ancient legend of sacrificial murders committed by Jews. And even if this never happens at all, the fact remains that in charging that the horrors of Bolshevism were deliberately instigated by Jews, British and American anti-Semites have appealed to the same unreasoning, instinctive, primal passion. For Bolshevism, primarily a political and economic program though it be, impinges upon religious faith and religious authority. Thus do the anti-Semites play with fire in close proximity to the high explosives of human nature.

It was not the ancient, insensate hatred inspired by belief that the Jews kill Christian children in their Paschal rites which made the Kishinev pogrom possible. That added the element of savage fanaticism to the antagonism and resentment already developed by the economic position of the Jews. The extortions practiced by Jewish money-lenders the superior business capacity, perseverance, and resourcefulness of the Jewish traders and shopkeepers as compared with their Gentile rivals; the intense competition of Jewish artisans, superior to the average Russian workman in intelligence, industry, thrift, sobriety, and ambition—all these things resulted in bitter antagonism. Upon that economic fear and resentment religious fanaticism fastened and flourished.

Herein lies the danger of the anti-Semitic propaganda in this country and in England. It is invoking economic fear and resentment. The non-Jew is adjured to contemplate the spectacle of the Jews ousting the Gentiles from one industry after another, gradually assuming leadership and control of our industry and commerce, thanks in part to superior intelligence, skill, and diligence, but in part also to a lack of moral scrupulousness. So the Jew is presented as a dangerous economic rival to be feared and guarded against. The Gentile is thus taught to look upon Jewish prosperity as a sort of parasitism, and as a menace to the well-being of all non-Jews, even where the withdrawal of Jewish enterprise and activity would mean ruin for Jew and Gentile alike—a condition long recognized in the principal Russian cities. Now, I do not deny that some of the worst aspects of capitalism have been developed to a special and notable extent by some Jews. Neither do I forget that others have developed the very noblest social idealism. The point I am now making is that hatred of the Jew, even when it is motivated by economic fear and resentment, will inevitably nurture every other form of anti-Jewish prejudice. If the campaign of the anti-Semites succeeds in cultivating that fear and hatred in the minds and hearts of our people, there can be no assurance against the occurrence of pogroms here.



VIII

WHAT ANTI-SEMITISM IN AMERICA MEANS

In an article published in the Dearborn Independent, June 19, 1920, it is argued that, transplanted in American soil, anti-Semitism will change its character and that it will not, in this country, take the form of mass violence. Not a single fact or historical example is cited in support of this optimistic theory. There are fine phrases about "the genius of Americanism" and the "innate justice of the American mind," but that is all. And these fine phrases can be easily and adequately disposed of by the simple observation that anti-Semitism, like all other forms of race hatred, is incompatible with "the genius of Americanism" and with "innate justice."

These seem to me to be self-evident truths. Nevertheless, we have had many bitter manifestations of race hatred in this country, not a few of which have been attended by mass violence. When I reflect upon the savage race riots which have occurred in this country, and the numerous lynchings of negroes by infuriated mobs, I cannot bring myself to accept the easy optimism of the anonymous Jew-baiter. Even as I am writing these lines the morning newspaper comes to hand with the account of the lynching of three negroes, one of them a woman, in Georgia. The story is quite familiar in its shocking details. The three negroes, who were charged with murder, were in the custody of the sheriff of the county, when they were seized by a mob and brutally murdered. That this was due to the fact that they were negroes, a manifestation of race hatred, is beyond question.

My faith that we shall be spared the shame and ignominy of pogroms rests upon other and, I believe, more solid foundations. I have confidence that the anti-Semitic propaganda will be met by the stout resistance of the great mass of our citizens of Gentile birth and heritage who will fight and crush anti-Semitism in defense of Christian civilization and of American ideals, traditions, and institutions. That seems to me to be a rational faith; it affords firm anchorage. On the other hand, it is a stupendous and dangerous folly to believe that you can cultivate, as part of our national psychology, anti-Jewish fear and prejudice without reaping in due course a harvest of hatred and violence toward the Jewish people. Racial hatred is everywhere the same.

There is no reason for believing that here in the United States we possess a special immunity from the worst forms of anti-Semitism. It would probably be safer to say that our conditions afford exceptional opportunities for their development. We have drawn heavily upon the Old World for our population, which reflects the divisions and the antipathies, the hereditary jealousies and suspicions, which for hundreds and, in some instances, thousands of years have troubled mankind. We have not yet welded these diverse elements into anything approaching homogeneity; our national consciousness is still undeveloped and, as a consequence of that fact, we have as yet not developed fully those self-imposed disciplines and restraints which are attendant upon highly developed national solidarity. Our national life, with its alien masses only partially assimilated, is as susceptible to inflaming passion as the wind-blown dry autumn leaves are susceptible to the flame of the torch.

Michael Davitt called attention to the fact that in the Kishinev pogrom it was not the rich Jews who were the victims, but Jewish workingmen and their families. That, I believe, is the universal experience. The rich Jews can buy immunity or protection. If as a result of vicious propaganda serious anti-Jewish riots take place in this country the victims will not be the rich Jewish financiers and brokers, against whom the Dearborn Independent fulminates, but innocent and inoffensive, hard-working men and women and their children. And if ever that time comes such men as Henry Ford must bear the major responsibility and guilt.

Let us suppose, for the argument's sake, that anti-Semitism in this country develops, as predicted in Mr. Ford's paper, along less brutal lines; that there will be no such orgies of murder and lust and spoliation as some other nations have had to their shame and dishonor. In that case, how will the organized hostility to the Jews be manifested? Specifically, what is the program of the group of anti-Semites in this country with which the Dearborn Independent is identified? Are they prepared to announce that program, and to have it measured by the standard of the American ideal? Or is it possible that the only "secret conspiracy" is on their side; that the real object of this anti-Semitic agitation is to prepare the way for a political and economic program which its authors dare not publicly avow?

When I was in England recently,[4] I gained a fairly clear and reliable idea of the political and economic program of those bitter Jew-haters who are responsible for the organized campaign of anti-Semitism in that country. In view of the fact that our anti-Semites, including the Dearborn Independent, have so slavishly copied the propaganda of the British anti-Semites, it is justifiable to assume that they are in general agreement with that program, and that they would adopt it in this country, subject to whatever modifications may be made necessary by the differences between the institutions of the two countries. At all events, unless and until the actual program of the anti-Semites of this country is set forth with candor and precision, they have no cause for complaint if it is assumed that their aims are practically identical with those of the British anti-Jewish propagandists whose arguments they repeat in detail, including every grotesque stupidity and every clumsy distortion of the truth.

The program of the British anti-Semites, adapted to American conditions, would involved, as a minimum, the following measures:

1. Disfranchisement of all Jews whose parents and grandparents were not all native-born American citizens.

2. Denial of the right to hold legislative or administrative office, either elective or appointive, to all Jews other than those whose parents and grandparents were all born in the United States.

3. Denial of the right of naturalization to Jews on the ground that they are not assimilable.

4. Prohibition or very strict limitation of further Jewish immigration.

5. Exclusion from the legal, medical, and teaching professions of all Jews except those entitled to full citizenship. (See 1 and 2.)

6. Exclusion of all Jews, except those entitled to full citizenship, from certain economic rights and privileges, including the right to acquire and own land, the right to engage in the sale of stocks, bonds, securities, or real estate, or in banking, money-lending, or insurance.

7. The right of admission to colleges and universities to be so limited as to admit only a small percentage of Jewish students.

That this outline of a program will seem to many to be simply a fantastic jest I am quite well aware. The fact remains, however, that it is simply a bald presentation of the program believed in by a great many anti-Semites. I have only taken the measures that are seriously urged for adoption in England and changed their wording to correspond to American conditions. There is not one item in the program which I did not hear advocated with evident seriousness when I was in England. I learned of one society organized upon a national scale, all of whose members must "prove that their parents and grandparents were of British blood." This society is very actively engaged in the spread of anti-Semitic propaganda. Its prospectus states that it was "Founded to secure the re-enactment of the Act of Settlement, 1700, 1701, which secured the government of Britain to Britons and the land of Britain to the ownership of Britons."

The point of the demand for the re-enactment of the Act of Settlement lies in the fact that one of the clauses in that historic instrument provides that, "no person born out of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, or Ireland, or the dominions thereunto belonging (although he be naturalized or made a denizen), except such as were born of English parents, shall be capable to be of the Privy Council, or a member of either House of Parliament, or enjoy any office or place of trust, either civil or military." It is also stipulated that no such person shall be capable "to have any grant of lands, tenements, or hereditaments from the Crown to himself, or to any other or others in trust for him." In the light of the constitution of this British society with its large dues-paying membership, and its demand for the re-enactment of the above-quoted provisions of the Act of Settlement, the most drastic parts of the suggested program do not seem so fantastic, after all.

Here, then, is a program of anti-Semitism which fairly expresses the political and economic aspirations of large groups with whom our American anti-Semites, led by the Dearborn Independent, appear to be working in close co-operation and harmony. Whether the program fully meets with their approval or not, it can hardly be questioned that, if their anti-Jewish agitation is to have the result of bringing about political and economic remedies for the conditions they assail, and not pogroms, it will be necessary to discriminate between Jews and Gentiles in citizenship, in education, in property rights, and in economic opportunity. Precisely how these discriminations are to be made may be open to doubt, but that they must be made is—once the anti-Semitic position is taken—beyond all doubt.

Against that reactionary aim I set the American ideal, or what President Roosevelt called "the historic American position of treating each man on his merits as a man, without the least reference to his creed, his race, or his birthplace." Anti-Semitism would divide our citizenship by racial and religious barriers; the Americanism of Washington and Lincoln and Lee and Roosevelt would weld all into a united whole, regardless of race or religion. The way of the anti-Semite is the way of Russia under the tsars, the way of the unspeakable despots who for centuries made the word "Turk" a synonym for oppression and brutal reaction. I prefer the American way. I am opposed to anti-Semitism, not alone for humanitarian reasons, but as a matter of loyalty to America. Anti-Semitism is treason to the American ideal.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] September and October, 1920.



IX

WE NEED THE CO-OPERATION OF CHRISTIAN AND JEW

The greatest nations of the world are just emerging from the strain and agony of the most terrible and disastrous war in the history of mankind. From a tiny spark of hatred a great conflagration of passion spread over the world, well-nigh destroying the entire fabric of civilization. How near we have come to that catastrophe, as a result of the war and its evil progeny, they best know who have recently visited the countries principally involved and most vitally affected. Even now civilization is not out of danger, but is weak and unsteady like a man beginning to recover from a terrible fever. Infinite care and patience and wisdom must be exercised by statesmen and peoples and by the molders of public opinion in every nation in order to make recovery possible.

Never was there a moment when racial or religious antagonism was as dangerous and so much to be feared as in this crisis. Never were the citizens of all lands so solemnly warned to avoid the poison of hatred. The passionate hatreds engendered by the war must be crushed down and they who were foes, seeking to destroy one another, must now work together for the preservation of the civilization that is their common heritage. With the carnage and wrack and ruin of the war still oppressing us, and our hearts still lacerated and bruised, a common peril is compelling us to unite and to seek safety in fellowship and co-operation. Yesterday we relied upon the destructive arts of the warrior; to-day we must rely upon the conserving arts of the healer. Yesterday we hailed Mars; to-day we hail the Christ in whose touch is life and healing.

What perverse and malevolent genius it must be that chooses this moment to open the flood gates and set free the pent passions of anti-Semitism! How monstrous a thing it is that from a great historic pulpit of the Christian Church which Beecher glorified by his courageous idealism, the brutal and un-Christian appeals of anti-Semitism should be made now when the world needs, above all things, to be purged of the poison of hatred and strengthened by fellowship! How great a tragedy it is that men like Mr. Ford and his associates can find nothing to inspire them in the vast work of restoration and reconstruction; that their energies and resources are directed to the ignoble and dangerous end of inciting in the minds of millions of our people fear and hatred of the Jew, as Jew!

I am not insensible of, or indifferent to, the problems incidental to the presence in this country of more than three million Jews. Neither am I insensible of, or indifferent to, the problems incidental to our vast negro population, or to the presence of Europeans and their slow and imperfect assimilation. Recognizing these problems clearly and fully, I am quite certain that racial hatred and antagonism is no solvent for any one of them. The complete success of the appeals that are being made against the Jews would not benefit the Gentiles in this country in any particular. There never has been an organized propaganda of race antagonism and hatred, anywhere in the world, which benefited either race. In Russia and in Rumania—to cite only two examples—anti-Semitism has injured the Christians fully as much as it has injured the Jews. Turkish hatred and persecution of Armenians has invariably injured the Turks quite as much as it has injured their victims. In opposing the propaganda of anti-Semitism I am defending equally the interest of Jew and non-Jew. I hold no brief for the Jewish "race," so-called, or for Judaism. The only brief I hold is for the democratic and humanitarian ideals of America. That brief I hold by reason of my citizenship, voluntarily assumed, and the freeman's oath with which that citizenship was consecrated.

The solution of the problems arising out of the massing of so many Jewish people in our large cities requires the unity and co-operation of all men and women of good will, both Jews and Gentiles, in precisely the same way, and for precisely the same reasons, as the solution of all our other problems does. There is nothing in our history which justifies the fear that our citizens of Jewish birth will be less ready than their Christian neighbors to give their whole-hearted service to that end. There never has been a call for service to this nation which found the Jewish citizens less patriotic, less willing to serve the nation, and even to sacrifice for it, than other sections of our citizenry. From Valley Forge to Chateau-Thierry that record is written. I remember well that memorable day in July, 1918, when I heard from the lips of M. Clemenceau the news, just received by him, that our American soldiers were victorious at Chateau-Thierry. Later, on the way to Chateau-Thierry, I passed the long lines of ambulances bearing away the wounded men, many of whom were beyond all hope of recovery. Then, still later, in the great, wonderful hospital at Neuilly, I talked with many of those who fell wounded in that terrible fight. There were Jews as well as Gentiles among those men, but there was no difference in the quality of their Americanism, in their patriotism, their fortitude, or their courage.

President Roosevelt, who was too decent as a man and too loyal as an American citizen to have any tolerance for anti-Semitism, more than once called attention to the fact that citizens of Jewish ancestry and faith have, in every crisis in the history of the nation which has shown justice to them, repaid the nation with loyal service. In an address to the B'nai B'raith, June 15, 1905, delivered at the White House, President Roosevelt said:

"One of the most touching poems of our own great poet, Longfellow, is that on the Jewish cemetery in Newport, and anyone who goes through any of the old cemeteries of the cities which preserve the records of Colonial times will see the name of many an American of the Jewish race who, in war or in peace, did his full share in the founding of this nation. From that day to this, from the day when the Jews of Charleston, of Philadelphia, of New York, supported the patriot cause and helped in every way, not only by money, but by arms, Washington and his colleagues, who were founding this Republic—from that day to the present we have had no struggle, military or civil, in which there have not been citizens of Jewish faith who played an eminent part for the honor and credit of the nation."

There is no movement for the advancement of humanitarian ideals in this country to which American citizens of Jewish ancestry and faith have not contributed their full share. It is impossible for any fair-minded man who knows the facts to read without indignation the article published in the Dearborn Independent, June 5, 1920. In addition to charging that "Jewish business methods" are responsible for the high prices which have obtained for so long, the article accuses Jewish employers of being responsible for conditions of employment not known to the Gentile world. Lest I be accused of misrepresenting the writer of this libel, I will quote his exact words:

When the susceptible people of the nation commiserated the poor Jews of the New York sweatshops they, for the most part, did not know that the inventors and operators of the "sweatshop" method were themselves Jews. Indeed, while it is the boast of our country that no race or color or creed is persecuted here, but liberty is insured to all, still it is a fact that the only heartless treatment ever accorded the Jew in the United States came from his own people, his overseers and masters....

... The record of the great Jews in charity is very noble; their record in industrial reforms is nil. With commendable sympathy toward their own people they will donate a part of their profits to rectify some of the human need resulting from the method by which they made their profits, but as for reforming the method by which they get their profits in order that the resulting need might be diminished or prevented, apparently it has never occurred to them. At least, while there are many charitable names among the wealthier Jews, there are no names that stand for an actual, practical humanising of industry, its methods and its returns.

I respectfully suggest that these statements are intended to convey to the mind of the reader two impressions, neither of which corresponds to reality. The first impression is that Jewish employers have been and are more brutal and merciless than Gentile employers. Now, it is a fact that the "sweatshop," using that term in its strictest, technical sense, developed, in this country, after 1885—that is to say, following the great influx of Polish and Russian Jews and the equally great increase in the manufacture of ready-made clothing. But, while this is technically true of sweating, we had in this country long before the Jews came children's and women's labor under terrible conditions. In 1884 young girls and women worked in the factories of New Hampshire from five in the morning until seven at night, with only forty-five minutes' intermission, and their wages ranged from a dollar and a quarter to two dollars per week. Until quite recently, in our Southern cotton mills, owned and operated by Gentiles, we maintained conditions as bad as ever existed in the sweatshops of our large cities. It does not require any great amount of research to prove that Gentile employers have in the past been just as indifferent to the well-being of their employees, just as reactionary, and just as opposed to reform, as Jewish employers. I would remind the reader, in this connection, that we have never had in this country, not even in the sweatshops owned and controlled by Jews, anything approaching the terrible conditions which obtained in English factories in the early days of the factory system, when, in factories owned by Christians, little children, mere babies in fact, were made to work under conditions of revolting cruelty, whipped by brutal overseers, and not infrequently driven literally to death from exhaustion. Thus did Christian employers treat Christian children.

But, while it is true that in our great cities sweatshops principally developed under Jewish auspices, it is equally true that in the fight to abolish sweating Jews have taken an active and honorable part. This I know of a certainty, and the insinuations to the contrary contained in the article under discussion are as cruelly unfair and unjust as they are untrue. So, too, in the fight against child labor in the cities and factories of the North. It was my privilege to take part in that fight, and I know that in the very forefront of the long struggle for remedial legislation, helping with money and with personal service, side by side with Christians, were many men and women of Jewish ancestry and faith. I know, too, that fighting on the other side were both Christians and Jews. It is preposterous that any attempt should be made to so misrepresent the struggle for "the practical humanizing of industry" as to make it appear that the Jewish people in particular were either hostile or indifferent to it.

The second impression which the article is intended to convey is that in those industries which are controlled by Jews no such attempts have been made to better the lot of the workers employed in them as have been made in those industries which are controlled by non-Jews. This charge, likewise, is wholly baseless, as anybody who desires to know the truth can readily ascertain. It was my good fortune and privilege, as one of the representatives of the public appointed by President Wilson, to serve as a member of the First Industrial Conference convoked by the President in October, 1919. Among the members of that Conference chosen to represent the public were both Christians and Jews, and I venture to say that there was not one of the former who for a single moment doubted the sincerity, the patriotism, or the humanitarianism of the Jewish members. Moreover, in the course of our work there was brought to our attention an astonishing amount of information concerning efforts being made by progressive and high-minded employers in all parts of the country to introduce into their industries reforms looking to the betterment of the lot of their employees, including profit-sharing and participation in shop management and control by the workers. It is neither more nor less than the literal truth that these reports were quite as favorable to the Jewish employers as to their Christian competitors. As a matter of fact, in the ready-made-clothing industry, which is very largely in the hands of Jews, many of the most interesting experiments in industrial democracy and many of the sincerest efforts to humanize industry are being made. These things are known to every student of the problem—and they suffice to brand the statements made against the Jews in the article under discussion as both untrue and studiously unjust.

Not only is it true that in the ever-increasing effort to bring about "the practical humanizing of industry" no distinction can honestly and justly be drawn between Gentile and Jewish employers, just as no such distinction can honestly and justly be drawn with respect to the selfishness and ignorance which result in conditions that are inhuman and oppressive; it is equally true, as a study of the records of Congress and the legislative bodies of the individual states will show beyond question, that no such distinction between Jew and Gentile can be honestly and justly drawn with respect to the mass of social legislation enacted in recent years. Socially minded men and women have supported such legislation, regardless of differences of race and creed, while men and women who lacked social consciousness, who were selfish and indifferent to the claims of their fellow human beings, have opposed such legislation, making common cause regardless of differences of race and creed.

All this is exactly as it should be, of course, and precisely what might be expected to result from our ideals, our institutions, and our laws. It would be tragic and disastrous, indeed, if our experience were otherwise. The charges made against our Jewish citizens by the Dearborn Independent amount in reality to a terrible verdict of failure against America and the democratic ideal which America represents. The only hope we can have of solving the great problems which confront this nation rests, and can only rest, upon the assurance that an enlightened citizenry, united by love of country and of mankind, and undivided by race or creed, will strive with ever-increasing strength, vision, and courage toward the goal of equality of opportunity for all. Thus only shall this nation which we love fulfill the high hopes of its greatest spiritual leaders and statesmen. To destroy the faith of our sons and daughters in American democratic ideals—which is precisely what anti-Semitism is aiming to do—is a monstrous thing.



X

A FINAL WORD

I have finished with the Dearborn Independent and the flimsy fabric of its ridiculous charges. My self-imposed task is finished, and I am content to leave the grotesque legend of the protocols, together with the monstrous and cruel charge based upon them, to the judgment of my fellow citizens of Gentile birth. Into the motives of Mr. Henry Ford I do not care to enter. I suspect that they are pathological in their origin. Be that how it may, my pity for the man is as profound as my contempt for the propaganda with which he has chosen to associate himself. To be capable of deliberately inciting and fostering race hatred at any time is to cease to be capable of enjoying the fellowship of decent and just men and women; to incite such hatred now, in the midst of such unprecedented suffering and the universal need of fellowship and healing, is a pitiful self-degradation.

This organized propaganda of anti-Semitism has had one wholesome result which its organizers neither foresaw nor intended. It has called forth a notable protest by men and women of Gentile birth and Christian faith which may well stand as the answer of American civilization and democracy to this ancient and hateful evil. All honor to President Wilson for departing from official traditions and placing his name to that protest. Throughout the civilized world that declaration has gone—America's answer to anti-Semitism.

I suppose that so long as the imperfections of human nature endure, so long as there are men and women who are weak, selfish, cruel, vengeful, or ignorant, there will be racial and religious hatreds to be guarded against and opposed. I suppose, too, that until wars have ceased to be possible, in war's aftermath such hatreds will flourish. Against every form of racial and religious hatred, against sectarian bigotry and intolerance, every loyal American citizen should be prepared to take an uncompromising stand. That obligation, I take it, is implicit in our citizenship. It is for the integrity of that citizenship that I am concerned to plead. Anti-Semitism commands our special attention to-day because it is being spread by an elaborately organized propaganda. But the duty of the Christian to defend the Jew against persecution is neither greater nor less than the duty of the Protestant to defend the right of the Catholic or of all white citizens—Christians and Jews, Catholics and Protestants—to stand solidly against injustice to the negro and in defense of his rights when these are assailed. My plea, is not for pro-Semitism in opposition to anti-Semitism, but for loyalty to American ideals in opposition to any and all attempts to divide our citizenship on racial or religious lines.

Because of a reasoned faith in those principles and ideals of democracy which brought this nation into being, and toward the realization of which we have steadily progressed through sunshine and storm, through peace and war, I am opposed to anti-Semitism and every manifestation of it. Anti-Semitism and the American ideal can never be reconciled. Far sooner shall men reconcile fire and water, or mix oil and water inseparably, than blend the cruel and hateful passions of anti-Semitism with the generous spirit of America. For America's safety and honor, therefore, I plead for unity against this sinister foe lurking within the gates, as against all other foes, no matter under what flag they may be marshaled.



POSTSCRIPT

After the foregoing was written I received from the head of a great American corporation a letter calling my attention to an anti-Semitic pamphlet published in New York City, entitled "Who Rules Russia?" and asking me for information concerning certain statements made therein. The pamphlet is printed in two languages, English and Russian, and bears the imprint of an organization called "Association Unity of Russia." Letters to the address given in the pamphlet, ordering copies of it, brought no response of any kind and it was necessary for me to resort to other methods of obtaining a copy. Incidentally, I caused certain inquiries to be made concerning the Association Unity of Russia. Now that I have made a careful examination of the pamphlet, I do not wonder that my request that copies be sent me was ignored. Certainly the publishers did not intend that it should be circulated among persons familiar with the subject and competent to expose its misrepresentations.

So far as I can learn, the Association Unity of Russia is the name of a group of Russian emigres residing in New York. They are monarchists and reactionaries, their hope being the restoration of tsarism. Like most of their kind, they are bitter Jew-baiters. Their pamphlet is entirely typical of Russian anti-Semitism, particularly in its reckless disregard of truth. I find here reproduced the charge that "the Soviet bureaucracy is almost entirely controlled by Jews and Jewesses." Not only so, but it is charged that the non-Bolshevist Socialist parties are mainly composed of Jews. The pamphlet ends with the statement, "the Russian state is actually dominated by the Jewish nation." There is no argument in the pamphlet, which consists of alleged lists of officials classified according to nationality and race.

That some of these lists are deliberate inventions of the anonymous compiler or compilers is quite certain, for the most complete files of Bolshevist publications in this country do not contain either the lists or the data from which it might be possible to compile them. Other lists represent the most reckless lying. For example, on page 5 I find what purports to be a list of the members of the Council of the People's Commissars. The actual list, copied from Bolshevist official sources, I have reproduced on an earlier page. This fraudulent list contains twenty-two names, of which number seventeen are alleged to be Jews, three Russians, and two Armenians. Looking over the list, I find that it omits well-known and important commissars such as the following: Raskolnikov (Navy), Petrovsky (Interior), Krestinsky (Finance), Krassin (Industry and Commerce and Transportation), Sereda (Agriculture), Kolontai (Public Welfare), Rykov (Supreme Economic Council), Bruchanov (Supply), Smidt (Labor), Semashko (Public Health), and Bonch-Brouyevich (Secretary). All these are Russians; there is not a Jew among them. The list contains, on the other hand, the names of a number of Bolsheviki who are not, and who never have been, members of the Council of the People's Commissars. Some of them may hold positions of minor importance in the Soviet regime or in the Communist party. The inclusion of their names in this list as members of the central government is an impudent imposture.

The fact that the pamphlet is printed in Russian and English is calculated to impress and deceive the reader. No one who knows the situation will believe that the use of Russian had any other purpose or that it was intended for propaganda among Russians. Such a document, partly printed in Russian and purporting to be issued by Russians, is relied upon to convince Americans that the compiler or compilers—who prefer to remain anonymous—know what they are talking about. Not many will take the pains to scrutinize the various lists closely. Consequently, even where one page contradicts another, the fact goes undetected. A few examples will show how stupid these Jew-baiters are. On page 9 Latsis, of the Extraordinary Commission, is accurately described as a Lett, but on page 23 he becomes a Jew. Fritchie is a Lett on page 10 and a Jew on page 22—and neither description is correct.

On page 25 Kerensky is described as a Jew, and it is said that his real name is Kirbis. This legend has been published before and thoroughly exposed. The fact is that Kerensky is not a Jew and never was known by the name of Kirbis or any other name than Kerensky. He never participated in the "underground" work of the revolutionary movement and therefore had no need of an alias. Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky comes from an old Russian family thoroughly orthodox and respectable. His history has been completely explored. No. The anonymous Jew-baiters have simply reproduced a silly legend that appeared in the reactionary anti-Semitic sheet, Novoye Vremia, of Petrograd, shortly before the revolution of March, 1917, and was immediately exposed and ridiculed.

In an examination of the various lists of names given I find at least twenty-five instances of non-Jews, principally Russians, being described as Jews. I find, also, many Jewish names purporting to be the names of Bolshevist officials of some importance, though it is safe to say that they were never heard of by any student of contemporary Russian affairs. I do not say that no such persons exist, but I do assert that if they exist they do not hold the positions attributed to them, and that even their names are not to be found in the Bolshevist journals from which this pamphlet is said to have been compiled. Perhaps some of the members of the pathetic little group of Russian monarchist emigres who meet weekly in the basement of a certain church to pray for the restoration of tsarism will condescend to tell us how the names were chosen.

How stupid these pious humbugs are in their forgeries! Here is a list of names alleged to be a complete list of members of the Central Committee of the Social Democratic Party Mensheviki. Of course all are Jews. I look over the list and see at once that three of those named are not even members of that party, let alone of its supreme authority. Ratner, Rappoport, and Gotz do not belong to that party, but are prominent as leaders in the Socialists-Revolutionists party. Perhaps there are other mistakes in this list—but what is the use of wasting time in checking it further? Here is another list, even more defective, which is offered as a list of the members of the Central Committee of the party of Socialists-Revolutionists of the Right. It contains fifteen names, of which fourteen are Jews and only one, that of Tchaykovsky, is a Russian. But Tchaykovsky is not a member of this party at all and, therefore, not of its Central Committee. He belongs to the party of People's Socialists. In the list I find the names of Lvovitch and Berlinrout, who likewise do not belong to this party and are not members of the committee in question. They are well-known leaders of the Zionists-Socialists. Abramovitch and Khintchouk are included in this utterly worthless list, though they do not belong to the party of Socialists-Revolutionists of the Right, but to the Social Democratic party.

I do not suppose that many of my readers will care very much about the party affiliations of these men or about the factional divisions of Russian Socialism. The fact that this latest addition to the pamphlet literature of anti-Semitism emanates from Russian sources and is printed partly in Russian gives it an appearance of authority that is wholly unjustified by its content. It has seemed to me worth while, therefore, to call attention to its clumsy misrepresentations, its self-contradictions, its stupid blunders, and its stupendous effrontery. This precious example of Russian monarchistic anti-Semitic literature is just about fit to be placed alongside the Dearborn Independent.

THE END



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