John Spargo

“ I have confidence that the anti-Semitic propaganda will be met by the stout resistance of the great mass of our citizens of Gentile birth and heritage who will fight and crush anti-Semitism in defense of Christian civilization and of American ideals, traditions, and institutions. That seems to me to be a rational faith; it affords firm anchorage. On the other hand, it is a stupendous and dangerous folly to believe that you can cultivate, as part of our national psychology, anti-Jewish fear and prejudice without reaping in due course a harvest of hatred and violence toward the Jewish people. ”

“ Henry Ford I do not care to enter. I suspect that they are pathological in their origin. Be that how it may, my pity for the man is as profound as my contempt for the propaganda with which he has chosen to associate himself. To be capable of deliberately inciting and fostering race hatred at any time is to cease to be capable of enjoying the fellowship of decent and just [137] men and women; to incite such hatred now, in the midst of such unprecedented suffering and the universal need of fellowship and healing, is a pitiful self-degradation. ”

“ The charges made against our Jewish citizens by the Dearborn Independent amount in reality to a terrible verdict of failure against America and the democratic ideal which America represents. The only hope we can have of solving the great problems which confront this nation rests, and can only rest, upon the assurance that an enlightened citizenry, united by love of country and of mankind, and undivided by race or creed, will strive with ever-increasing strength, vision, and courage toward the goal of equality of opportunity for all. ”

“ Against that reactionary aim I set the American ideal, or what President Roosevelt called "the historic American position of treating each man on his merits as a man, without the least reference to his creed, his race, or his birthplace." Anti-Semitism would divide our citizenship by racial and religious barriers; the Americanism of Washington and Lincoln and Lee and Roosevelt would weld all into a united whole, regardless of race or religion. ”

“ Now, I do not deny that some of the worst aspects of capitalism have been developed to a special and notable extent by some Jews. Neither do I forget that others have developed the very noblest social idealism. The point I am now making is that hatred of the Jew, even when it is motivated by economic fear and resentment, will inevitably nurture every other form of anti-Jewish prejudice. ”

“ Publicists are accustomed to speak of Russia as if it were in disorder, but the Jewish government of Russia is not. From a mass of underlings, the Jews of Russia came up in a perfect phalanx, a flying wedge through the superinduced disorder, as if every man's place had been previously prepared for him. ”

“ From a tiny spark of hatred a great conflagration of passion spread over the world, well-nigh destroying the entire fabric of civilization. How near we have come to that catastrophe, as a result of the war and its evil progeny, they best know who have recently visited the countries principally involved and most vitally affected. Even now civilization is not out of danger, but is weak and unsteady like a man beginning to recover from a terrible fever. ”

“ The solution of the problems arising out of the massing of so many Jewish people in our large cities requires the unity and co-operation of all men and women of good will, both Jews and Gentiles, in precisely the same way, and for precisely the same reasons, as the solution of all our other problems does. There is nothing in our history which justifies the fear that our citizens of Jewish birth will be less ready than their Christian neighbors to give their whole-hearted service to that end. ”

“ Because of a reasoned faith in those principles and ideals of democracy which brought this nation into being, and toward the realization of which we have steadily progressed through sunshine and storm, through peace and war, I am opposed to anti-Semitism and every manifestation of it. Anti-Semitism and the American ideal can never be reconciled. ”

“ Against every form of racial and religious hatred, against sectarian bigotry and intolerance, every loyal American citizen should be prepared to take an uncompromising stand. That obligation, I take it, is implicit in our citizenship. It is for the integrity of that citizenship that I am concerned to plead. Anti-Semitism commands our special attention to-day because it is being spread by an elaborately organized propaganda. ”

“ Certainly it would be difficult to name a body of men and women more truly representative of the highest and best of American life and genius. To suggest that these were all the agents of a Jewish conspiracy, either consciously or unconsciously, is to invite and deserve [54] ridicule. In truth, Socialism is as Anglo-Saxon as Magna Charta and as American as the Declaration of Independence, and we might as well attribute either or both of these to Jewish intrigue as Socialism. ”

“ Concerning the character of the program itself, there can be no difference of opinion between honest Americans. It is as diabolical as it is fantastic. What importance we ought to attach to it, however, must necessarily depend upon our judgment concerning its origin. If these protocols, and the program contained in them, are to be seriously accepted for what they pretend to be—namely, a deliberate statement of the purposes and aims of the leaders of the Jewish people throughout the world, with practically the entire Jewish race behind them—then the matter assumes enormous importance. ”

“ Let us suppose, for the argument's sake, that anti-Semitism in this country develops, as predicted in Mr. Ford's paper, along less brutal lines; that there will be no such orgies of murder and lust and spoliation as some other nations have had to their shame and dishonor. In that case, how will the organized hostility to the Jews be manifested? Specifically, what is the program of the group of anti-Semites in this country with which the Dearborn Independent is identified? Are they prepared to announce that program, and to have it measured by the standard of the American ideal? ”

“ It is quite useless to pretend that such articles as those published in the Dearborn Independent and the London Morning Post are not really anti-Semitic propaganda, but merely a legitimate discussion of a great and serious problem. Such specious pleading will not deceive any intelligent, honest person. The only possible object of the articles is to convince the people who read them that civilized society is threatened by a great world-wide secret conspiracy of the Jews ”

“ How monstrous a thing it is that from a great historic pulpit of the Christian Church which Beecher glorified by his courageous idealism, the brutal and un-Christian appeals of anti-Semitism should be made now when the world needs, above all things, to be purged of the poison of hatred and strengthened by fellowship! How great a tragedy it is that men like Mr. Ford and his associates can find nothing to inspire them in the vast work of restoration and reconstruction ”

“ Even if we ignore, for the purpose of this discussion, the fact that to sustain this charge a structure of cruel falsehood has been erected with great cunning, it is surely plain enough that the effect of such a charge upon the minds of such non-Jews as believe it can only be the development of a spirit of antagonism toward Jews, as Jews. In so far as the Dearborn Independent succeeds in its efforts, it must inevitably make our Gentile population regard their Jewish neighbors with fear and suspicion. And from such fear and suspicion emanate intolerance and hatred and their brutal progeny. ”

“ Before I pass on to consider a later and different explanation made by the mysterious Nilus, a few brief observations upon the story now before us may not be out of place, especially since the Dearborn Independent has accepted it and made it the basis of its propaganda. How is it possible for any person possessing anything approaching a trained mind, and especially for one accustomed to historical study, to accept as authentic, and without adequate corroboration, documents whose origin and history are so clouded with secrecy, mystery, and ignorance? ”

“ Bolshevism is repugnant to the great mass of civilized mankind, by whom it is rightly regarded as a sort of moral leprosy. Whatever may be thought of the possibility of Sovietism in industry and government, Bolshevism, the spiritual dynamic as distinguished from the mechanical agent, is the negation of every virtuous principle which mankind holds in reverence. ”

“ That solidarity could only be obtained by assuring to the Jews [98] their complete exemption from the suffering and oppression imposed upon the non-Jewish population. Had there been any thought of securing the solidarity of the Jewish people of Russia against the non-Jewish population, it would have been effectively thwarted by the imposition of such burdens of poverty and suffering upon the Jews, and their resulting resentment. Not the smallest particle of evidence has ever yet been adduced to show that the Jews in Russia have been exempted from any of the oppressive features of Bolshevism. ”

“ Russia have presented about the same political divisions as the Russian population in general. Like the overwhelming mass of the Russian people, they are anti-Bolshevist. Even if we confine our attention to the Jewish Socialists, overlooking for the moment the large number of Jews belonging to the Constitutional Democrats and other non-Socialist parties, we shall find absolutely no evidence of anything approaching a united Jewish Socialist support of the Bolsheviki. On the contrary, the most implacable and determined opponents of the Bolsheviki have been, and still are, Jewish Socialists. ”

“ In like fashion, when the Dearborn Independent charges that the international Socialist movement is one of the agents of a vicious Jewish conspiracy against Christian civilization, it is in honor bound to submit proofs. This it has not done, nor has any other paper making the charge. I know that the charge is a cruel and cowardly falsehood, a libel upon millions of honest and honorable men and women, to utter which is an infamy and degradation.
[57] The charge is one that has been leveled against practically every movement of protest that has been developed in modern times. ”

“ It unites in a terrible synthesis all the worst agencies and methods of tsarism and of militarism. To persuade the people of this or any other civilized country that Bolshevism is essentially a Jewish movement, part of a conspiracy to reduce civilization to chaos, and so prepare the way for a Jewish supergovernment of the world, would mean the rapid organization of the rest of the population against the Jews in every phase of life—politics, commerce, industry, education, social intercourse, and so on. ”

“ Wherever and by whosoever made, appeals to racial and religious prejudices and hatreds in defense of vested interests merit the condemnation of all honest and righteous men. When made in a country which, like the United States, possesses millions of peoples of many diverse lands and races not yet welded into national homogeneity, who must live and work together, such accusations become the most dangerous form of treason. ”

“ According to the same evidence, the wars which have drenched the world with blood and rent it with passion, including racial wars in Asia and Africa, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the Russo-Japanese War, and the recent World War, were all brought about deliberately by Jewish cunning, for the purpose of weakening the fabric of non-Jewish states and providing the Jews with new sources of strength and power to be used to establish their universal dominion. ”

“ And how can men and women who are to all appearances rational and high-minded bring themselves to indict and condemn a whole race, invoking thereby the perils of world-wide racial conflict, upon the basis of such flimsy, clouded, and tainted testimony? No decent and self-respecting judge or jury anywhere in the United States would, I dare believe, convict the [27] humblest individual of even petty crime upon the basis of such testimony. ”

“ The Russian Jewry, as a whole, is warmly and sincerely devoted to the interests of Russia, its motherland, and has struggled and is still struggling for the regeneration of the Russian state, and is heartily interested, together with all the other peoples inhabiting Russia, in the speediest overthrowing of Bolshevism and the reconstruction of orderly life in Russia. The Russian Jews have lost over one hundred thousand of their brothers and sons in killed and wounded in the war with Germany. ”

“ It is charged, and these documents are submitted as evidence in support of the charge, that there, exists, and has existed for centuries, a Jewish imperialistic program; that Jews in all lands have been and are united in a highly organized and subtly directed secret movement to bring about the overthrow of all non-Jewish governments, to substitute therefor a Jewish world government, to obliterate all national boundaries, and to destroy all religions other than Judaism. This, it is alleged, is the concrete form in which the Jews [12] visualize their destiny as the Chosen People. ”

“ We have not heard, and we believe that we shall [95] never hear, of any act of terror committed by any masses of Jews led either by Jews or by non-Jews.
Let the Jewish Bolsheviki stand accused and condemned of their guilt like their compatriots of other nationalities, but there must be no room for generalization and wholesale accusation when the people as a whole are guiltless and where millions, permeated by a powerful cohesive force of an ancient culture organically foreign to the spirit of violence and vandalism, stand apart from a few individual persons. ”

“ Herein lies the danger of the anti-Semitic propaganda in this country and in England. It is invoking economic fear and resentment. The non-Jew is adjured to contemplate the spectacle of the Jews ousting the Gentiles from one industry after another, gradually assuming leadership and control of our industry and commerce, thanks in part to superior intelligence, skill, and diligence, but in part also to a lack of moral scrupulousness. ”

“ Nevertheless, we have had many bitter manifestations of race hatred in this country, not a few of which have been attended by mass violence. When I reflect upon the savage race riots which have occurred in this country, and the numerous lynchings of negroes by infuriated mobs, I cannot bring myself to accept the easy optimism of the anonymous Jew-baiter. ”