Let us reason together. What proof have we that the people of one race
are better or to be considered with favor above those of another?
It is true there was a time when the word “stranger” or its equivalent
in other languages than the English had the same meaning as enemy.
Each savage tribe, the early ancestors of all civilized peoples, for
want of knowledge and experience, considered all other tribes enemies,
and even as civilization grew and boundaries began to be established
an imaginary line made enemies of those dwelling on opposite sides
of rivers and channels. With more reason, seas came to be recognized
as territorial limitations, and it has required centuries to break
down notions of enmity and antagonism between dwellers of different
localities. Indeed, it can hardly be contended that this spirit of
enmity and antagonism has been overcome, when we see not only peoples
of different countries, but those of a common citizenship harboring
animosities sometimes approaching the malignant, and giving expression
both in speech and action to their hatred for those who differ from
them in race or color or creed.
Victor Rubin in the following pages deals with this question of racial
and religious antagonism in a fascinating but most effective manner.
Perhaps no one will be able to speak more impressively of Mr. Rubin’s
book “TAR AND FEATHERS” and at the same time give an intimation of its
contents than has the great scholar and traveler, Israel Zangwill:
“Mr. Victor Rubin, with the courage of youth, faces in his
first novel the full blast of the actual. What Mr. C. E.
Montague’s fine book, Disenchantment, expresses for the
British soldier, Mr. Rubin’s Tar and Feathers expresses for
the American. All America--of all creeds and races--went
to the great war as one man, as depicted in Tar and
Feathers. The young Southerner, Hamilton, has actually
been dragged from death on the battlefield by a negro and
brought back to life and health by a Jewish surgeon. Yet
the cannon have scarcely cooled before the old racial and
religious prejudices reassert themselves. They resurge
even in Hamilton, who cannot bear to touch the colored
hand of his saviour. It is his struggle with them, and his
final mastery over them, that constitutes the theme of
Mr. Rubin’s novel. When Hamilton goes back to his narrow
Southern home, he even under the pressure of the milieu
becomes a paid agent of the Ku Klux Klan with its crusade
against Catholics, Jews and Negroes.” (Mr. Rubin prudently
calls it the “Trick, Track Tribe.”)
That the book possesses a broad appeal is indicated by many other
commendations of able readers as expressed in scores of periodicals, a
few of which we quote:
“A cogent, common-sense appeal for liberality of view,
for a realization that all humanity is intrinsically
similar, that the great teachers of mankind all breathed
love and unity ... a book which any man concerned with
the interesting presentment of truth would do well to
read.”--William R. Langfeld in the _Philadelphia Sunday
Record_.
“Mr. Rubin has succeeded in analyzing the psychological
effects of the war upon those who participated in it
as few writers have done. He has depicted the ethical
and moral metamorphosis with commendable accuracy and
understanding.”--_Boston Transcript._
“Tar and Feathers is noteworthy in that it protests
vigorously against prejudice of every variety and exposes
the narrowness and the danger of organizations making
for racial antagonism. The author writes with sincerity
and conviction and is worth heeding if only for the
vehemence with which he attacks the forces of snobbery and
prejudice.”--_New York Evening Post._
“While the armistice bells are ringing and a war-ridden
people all over the world are shaking themselves loose from
the habits of four long years, the novel opens in a crowded
ward of the American hospital, Rue de Saint Jacques, Paris.
Robert Hamilton, a rich and cultured American from Georgia;
McCall from Chicago, in civilian life a reporter on the
Times (incidentally of the Catholic faith); Dr. Levin, the
great American surgeon, and Williams, a negro graduate of
Harvard, are here introduced. Of course, there is also
Meadows, the nurse--Dorothy Meadows, who played around with
the social service crowd at Madison, and graduated there
some time “before the war.” Back in Georgia is Margaret,
a typical “home girl” in Corinth. These are the leading
characters out of whose reactions Mr. Rubin has evolved a
presentable story upon which to drape his theories.
“The scene shifts back to Corinth, where young Hamilton,
is at once entangled in the affairs of the Ku Klux Klan,
tho he doesn’t know in the least what it’s all about. Sent
on a mission of propaganda to Chicago, Hamilton renews his
friendship with McCall and Levin. The story of the part
they play is a sermon to be hugged to the hearts of all 100
per cent Americans. Then, of course, there is Dorothy ...
while back in Corinth is Margaret ... staying at home.
“Mr. Rubin makes adroit use of the Chicago race riots of
1919 and otherwise molds his men and his times into a tale
which moves with rapidity and vigor.”--Margaret Evans in
the _Chicago Evening Post_.
For ourselves, we have read nothing on the perennial subject of
intolerance so much to the point and so well calculated to allay
prejudice and make for good citizenship as “TAR AND FEATHERS.”