Evening star., 1938-12-23

adaptive people, intermarrying with
so-called Aryans (Which is word
of language and not of race adapt
ing himself to their habits and Gus
toms, marching as soldier with his
fellows to fight for the fatherland,
making his contribution, and that a
notable one, to their civilization
until he had become SO intimate a
part of the nation that he was
scarcely distinguishable from others,
1t was necessary. in order for the
dictator to have the scapegoat that
he required. first, to cause the VIC
timized Jew to be feared and then
to be hated.
Dictators' Decorations.
It is almost inconceivable that
this could have been done, but the
results prove that even in the year
1898, civilized man and his primitive
ancestors are brothers under the
skin. What would have seemed i'm
possible has actually been brought to
pass. Today the Jew in certain
areas is political eunuch, q social
outcast, to be dragged down like a
mad dog. Deprived of their property
without even a pretense of equitable
right or legal form; brutally told
that they are no longer wanted in
their homeland and yet denied the
right to leave, even If they had a
place to which they could go: tor
tured; herded with other unfortu-
mates into concentration camps:
killed, many of them; deprived of
civil rights and the opportunity to
make living, until finally driven
into ghettos that are reminiscent of
the middle ages, these people may
we'll wonder what they have done to
bring down upon their heads such
cOndign and savage punishment.
Just as the Christian may we'll Won-
der how a civilization founded upon
the doctrines of the Gentle Jew Of
Nazareth is entitled to call itself
Christian when it does such things.
This is as good place as any for
me to pose certain questions which
have been looming insistently in
my own mind during these tragic
and cruel days. These questions are:
How can any American. who calls
himself Christian or who pretends
to believe in the enlightened prin-
ciples that constitute the warp and
woof of our American life, accept
decoration at the hand of a brutal
iNfo y1,1o0 0x,ith hot
is robbing and torturing thousands
Of fellow human beings? How can
Americans endure upon their breasts
the sinister insignia that has been
derisively bestowed upon them?
How can they pretend that, in ac-
cepting the shabby baubles of die
tator, they are honoring the great
people whom the dictator has VIC
timized and degraded?
Tokens Of C0ntemptuous Distinc ton.
Perhaps Henry Ford and Col.
Charles A. Lindbergh will be willing
to answer these questions which,
am sure. have occurred to millions of
other free-born Americans. Nor are
these the only two free citizens of a
free country who obsequiously have
accepted tokens Of contemptuous
distinction at a time when the be-
slower of them counts that day lost
when he can commit no new crime
against humanity. 1t would seem
to me that any American who ac-
cepts such trinket, defaced as it is
by the sufferings and miseries and
degradation of helpless and innocent
people, automatically forswears his
American birthright.
do not plead the cause of Jews
merely because they are Jews. I
plead their cause because they are
human beings like the rest of us; be-
cause I am a Christian who would
see the banner of Christian civiliza-
ton go ever forward. Racial dis
elimination is hateful to me; re-
Hgious intolerance is aqually hateful.
I believe with all my heart in toll
erance and good will and a willing
ness to let every man live his own
life in his own way while reserving
this same right to oneself. I am so
opposed to intolerance. be it racial
or religious or economic, that l am
willing to fight against it with all
my strength and in all devotion.
And I am as opposed to the intoler-
ance that is fomented as q justifica-
ton for robbing and suppressing
Jews abroad as I am opposed to the
cunning and spiteful intolerance OF
the chairman Of q congressional in
vestigating committee, who, by some
mischance, finds himself clothed
with little brief authority In the
Wanton exercise of which he violates
every rule of decency and fair play.
One Must Love Humanity.
One does not have to love every
individual Jew In order to be in
dignant at the wrongs which are
being inflicted upon them as a
people. I suspect that it would be as
difficult to love every individual Jew