The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-12-22
NEWSPAPERS OPINIONS
GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN

!
number of Jewish women. They were depressed BY
the election result. As they saw it, the President
had been repudiated in part, and Mr.. Roosevelt wa!
the friend of the Jewish people, In a rising WORLD
tide of anti-Semitisn, they were threatened with
the loss of their protector.
The woman who told US of the experience had
disagreed strongly, but she could not find the right
words for her thought. She not only had changed
no mind, but she had left her hearers, she feared
with the suspicion that she, too, shared in some
mari prejudice against their race. ~
What she had tried to say was that this is a
da,oerouslv false point Of view for the Jew His
nrotection is not the friendship of President Roose
volt nor that of any other man or group of men,
however well-intended, however powerful. Men
coma and 90. Men are moved by caprice, anger,
fear csution self-interest, political advantage and
every other emotion.
aF,nt the Jew has protector in America Every
other minority-racial religious, political and So
has the same protector. 1t is constant. 1t Is
the Constitution of the United States So long as
its Bill of Rights remains and the courts are not
nrevented from enforcing it, the Jewish people
have an all-powerful friend.
The American doctrine of tolerance is grounded
in the first article of the Bill of Rights 1t reads:
Congress shall make no law respecting an estaD-
Hshment of religion or prohibiting the free exer-
else thereof or abrdging the freedom of speech or
of the press; or of the right of the people peace
ablv to assemble and to petition the Government
for redress of grievances"
As5only the Congress can make Federal law, as
the same guarantees are carried in the state con-
situations it follows that one else may lawfully
infringe this fundamental freedom The Bill of
Rights goes on then to specify personal rights of
all of us which no one may abridge while the Con-
stitution stands.
Mr.. Roosevelt has proved himself true friend
of the Jewish people. He is as free of racial preJu
dice as any man who ever occupied the White
House. In that, these Jewish women were right
But Mr.. Roosevelt has been intolerant in other
respects Intolerance is intolerance; its victims
change but the spirit endures. Release it in one
direction and it is released generally
In captazing politically every grievance in
America, the New Deal has bred class hatreds and
suspicious November's election really was reas-
surance to the Jew. Among the things which the
people declared against, was the New Deals Hymn
of Hatred. Whatever fosters this spirit threatens
the Jewish minority all minorities.
The Presidents assault on the Supreme Court
struck at the Jew. That was not his purpose it IS
true. Nothing he had in mind was remotely d.
reeted at them, though expediency did lead him to
appoint to the Supreme bench politician who
once had pledged himself to the Ku Klux Khan,
whose three hatreds are the Catholic, the Negro
and the Jew. But whatever attacks the American
principle of carefully limited governmental powers
and the division of those powers between the Legis-
lative Executive and Judicial branches, weakens
the power of the courts to enforce the Bill of
Rights. Such Jewish leaders as Governor Lehpan
and Felix Frankfurter understood this we'll, both
as Americans and as Jews, when they opposed the
packing of the court despite their close personal
and political friendship for the President.
We should think the Jews, more than any other
people, would distrust personal power. From the
Pharoahs through Titus and Hadrian down to Adolf
Hitler they have been prosecuted by powerful
rulers. Where they have found refuge long, it has
been the refuge of law.
Christmas in America has become profane as
well as a religious holiday-to use the word "pro-
fame" in its original sense. What we call the
Christmas spirit has no strictly religious meaning
for many Americans. But all of US, Negro and
white man, Jew and Gentle, Protestant and Cath
oc, share in the observance and the spirit of the
day which commentaries: "For unto you is born
this day in the city of David Saviour, which is
Christ the Lord" .@' p.
peace on earth, good will toward men," and
Congress shall make no law ;. - are expressions
of the same IDEAL and the secular prohibition has
been better observed in this world than the divine
command.
We have fundamental rights Our neghbors have
fundamental rights. We must enforce theirs They
must respect ours And not even the Government,
expression of US all, may deny them 20 .<.
Law stops there, must stop there. Religion and
ethics take up where law leaves off These demand
that we not merely accept this creed as legal fact
We must believe it with all our hearts and act upon
it. Then there SHALL in truth, be peace on EARTH
good will toward enthusiastically Evening. Post
ROPER AND HOPKINS .'
Critics say that Daniel Calhoun Roner South