The Alaska citizen., 1912-09-16

worthy old sratleman ln many ways, but he Is not exactly success in al laying the friction likely 10 rise every now and then among his hetc- rogenous municipal family in this city of all nations. Instead Of throwing oil upon the waters of jealous and sensitive nationalties. he Is much more likely to inject spurt of irritating acid into the fer ment.
 His various comments on the Ros- cnthal case have. among others. of. tended considerable portion of the Jewish element. a people who are perhaps more sensitive to crit icism Of this sort than any other.
 Though Gaynor did not spe, iallE mention the Jews by name. he al ludcd to the people implicated in the Rosenthal murder as degenerate foreigners" and a body calling it. self the Jewish Community instantly got busy.
 After passing resolutions almit- ting that some "reputed" Jews were mixed up in the affair. they proceed ed to whereas that these scandals reveal a shocking state of moral and political degeneracy. resolved that We view with profound indignation the implication of Jews ill practices and vices which up 10 previous years had been practically unknown among our people. etc. and resolved. fur ther that We form Vigilance com mittee to stir up conscience. help to expose all the details of the crime under investigation, and form q bureau of information and inyesti- gation for that purpose. etc. All of which is to the good of course.
 Then one of the movers rabbi lit into Gaynor He admitted the "degenrrate" part. but gagged on the Foreigners Were not the na- tives as had? What had the for cieror to do with il? They were not responsible for corrupt politics. Foreigners were not the only gam blcrs. There was Garfield. na- tive product Wasn't there cogrup- ti0H in places where there were no ioreiancrs3 And were not most of the Rosenthal suspects born and reared here under American iuStitu- tions? Was it not rather rotten politics and some of these very native institutions that may have corrupted them? Their parents though foreigners. were good law abiaiEg citizens. And much more of the same sort
 In view of the natural traditional fear of anti-Semitism among the Jews. the querulous defense may perhaps be justifiable but it isn't particularly convincing and certain ly not explanatory It is at least as open to criticism as Gaynor's ir- ritating remark about the "dcgener- ate foreigners" implicated in the Rosenthal case.
 There are a lot of "degenerates" of all kinds in New York, of course. and there are more among the for ei@ncrs" tGaynor no doubt included in this term people of immediate foreign descenD than among the natives. simply because there are more Foreigners" than natives in New York. An additional reason perhaps is that on the whole the bulk of the foreigners are much poorer than the natives. have to battle more fiercely in the struggle for bread. and consequently pro duce more criminals
 There are over a million Jews in that they should produce large number of criminals and degener ates" is exactly what might be ex- pected But apparently not expect ing any such result. the resoluting Jewish community views with pro found indignation" instead. The Jews have developed practices and vices which until recent years were proverbially unknown among them Exactly so. And the reason is that in recent years the number of Jews has multiplied tenfold. and contains perhaps the greatest mass of power ty in the city. And poverty breeds crime-that is. the slum poverty Of the great modern city especially. IL probably is true that under equal conditions the standard of morality among the Jews is higher than among others. But it is absolutely certain that with them. as with others. it tends to break down under the strain of an evil economic en- vironment. And this is the fact that the Jewish Community that resoluted will not look in the face They seemingly expect miracles to happen. and are indignant because they don't, But they are not so very different to the others in that respect