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