The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-12-11
THE PEOPLE SAY

To the Editor of The Times:
 Permit me to thank you from the bottom of my heart not only on my own behalf but in behalf of the 2,20O Zionist Organization of America, of which I have the honor to be chair man, for your sp1endid1y manly edi- torial in defense of the Jewish people 3rd inst. Your broadmindedness and true spirit of Americanism ought to be wholesome example to many an editor and public man in this coun- try:
 That American born should so far forget themselves and forget the prin- ciples on which this republic was founded as to start a campaign of race-prejudIce and religious intoler- ance is surely a sign of the morbidity of the times and a symptom of the
 disease of hate that has been devel-
 oped and cultivated in Europe and that is now being transplanted to our shores.
 Shades of Lord Baltimore, of Rog- CT Williams, of William Penn,-ye who dreamed of one country at last seas and on new continent-that should be free from religious perse- cution and bigotry, how is your dream being shattered today! And assailable republic, they who gave their blood and their treasure, Wash ington, Jefferson, Hamilton Benjamin Franklin, than whose intellect none have yet composed, planning, striv- ing, hoping that this country of theirs should be the haven, the asylum, the refuge and theM. sanctuary for the oppressed and the persecuted of the earth, how continuously had their plan failed if at this day a certain Henry Ford can be allowed the freedom to malign, islander and injure three mill
 lion American citizens, because, for
 creed. Wealth in the hands of en-
 frightened men like Carnegie or
 Rockefeller can be the instrument of
 much good; wealth in the hands of an ignoramus like Henry Ford who
 has not risen above his former state ]. in spite of his wealth, who is abso- lutely ignorant of the lessons of his tory, can be productive, as in his case, of much harm.
 We will yet live to see the day when federal laws will count it felony, punishable by heavy fine and long term imprisonment, for any one man or group of men to stir up racial prejudice and hatred among different portions of the population of the United States, for to stir up animosity and hatred against any portion of the citizenry of the coun- try is much sedition and rebellion as if it were done against the entire country. It is because, my dear editor, you have taken Up the stand against this fragrant wrong and outrage, cham pionship the cause of the oppressed, that wish to commend you for your action and to thank you, if thanks l were needed, for it. Let us hope that the Jew, having sacrificed so much on all the battlef1elds of Europe, hay ] ing given of his life, blood and treas | ure far more than his numbers called for, and being even now bounded, ! persecuted. pillaged. murdered and 1 o,1tra ged in the Ukraine, Russia and l elsewhere, faithful though he was to l every country under which he served, may at last see the dawn of peace
 as the Prince of Peace foresaW It. 1 Perhaps then the first lesson In lAmericanism, which MT. Ford has forgotten or had never learned, that
 all men have an equal right to Ire liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
 will be established as a permanent and ineffaceable principle here in I this country, where 1t was hrse pro-
 mulgated, and abroad. LOUIS SMIRNOW.