The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1922-09-08
Page Sixteen

himself worse" "a college should be
the home of tolerance, of which racial
restrictions are the spiritual mega
ton"
''To maintain that a race is inferior
is nothing short of ridiculous" says
the Jewish student from whom I shall
quote this once. inferior in what?
In intellectual culture? Or merely in
opportunity? Who can tell? Every
race has it's bad as well as it's good.
Each tends to consider itself superior
because it excels in those things which
more apparent than real" In a num-
Der Of papers the point is made that
differences between individuals of the
same race are greater than those be-
tween races. In short, the anti-re-
strictionists agree that objectionable
individuals must be eliminated, not
races. We must seek ability indie
pendent of race, as of SEX"
eff, under fair examinations, Jews
predominant among the entrants, it
can be due only to the laziness or lack
of talent of those who fail. If Chris
tians are unable to compete intellectu-
ally with Jews, if they fail to take
the same advantage of their oppor-
tunities, then the Christians should
suffer, not the Jews. If the traditions
of Harvard are not able to inspire us,
her non-Jewish sons, to excel intel
lectually, then those traditions must
go. They must not be used as stone
wall to protect the mental infants of
the future from the incursions of a
more enlightened alien race"
AS to the desire of the restriction
lists to keep the college fairly repre-
sentative Of the country at large, the
answer is equally emphatic: can edu-
cational institution should not be rep
resentative of all people, but only of
those with ambition and ability to do
it's work. This has nothing to do with
race and religion" "To tell Cohen,
whose average on the college board
examinations was 80, that he cannot
enter because there are too many
Jews already, while grade of 68 will
pass Murphy, or one of 81 Nor
gan, hardly seems in line with the
real interests of the college,"
These gentlemen, it seems, do not
fear the consequences of equal oppor-
tunities of entrance. On the contrary,
IHey lOlu CIldI d putty VI 1SSCA lSCIolA
would be disastrous beyond COMPARE
son, in that it involves a reputation
of the confidence which, in democ-
racy, one racial element must have in
the others. "Such restriction-a new
thing in Advertisements perpetual
ton of the race hatreds of the past,
with all their attendant results" Can
a college take the responsibility for
initiating such series? AS to the
future of the college itself, restriction
is the first step on a path that leads
to barrenness. The true way of the
educational institution, according to
these papers, is to bring about con-
tact which shall be revelation of adj
mirable qualities in the races so
brought together, and to foster COM
petition which shall be a replica, on
higher plane, of the racial competi
ton which the student must meet
when he goes out into democratic life.
"The sensitiveness of which some of
our fellow-students complain, in hav-
ing to deal with people not quite like
themselves, is often nothing but ig-
norance and a narrow mind"
The final objections to a policy of