The Jew and American Ideals

by John Spargo

VIII[ToC]

WHAT ANTI-SEMITISM IN AMERICA MEANS

In an article published in the Dearborn Independent, June 19, 1920, it is argued that, transplanted in American soil, anti-Semitism will change its character and that it will not, in this country, take the form of mass violence. Not a single fact or historical example is cited in support of this optimistic theory. There are fine phrases about "the genius of Americanism" and the "innate justice of the American mind," but that is all. And these fine phrases can be easily and adequately disposed of by the simple observation that anti-Semitism, like all other forms of race hatred, is incompatible with "the genius of Americanism" and with "innate justice."

These seem to me to be self-evident truths. 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. Even as I am writing these lines the morning newspaper comes to hand with the account of the lynching of three negroes, one of them a woman, in Georgia. The story is quite familiar in its shocking details. The three negroes, who were charged with murder, were in the custody of the sheriff of the county, when they were seized by a mob and brutally murdered. That this was due to the fact that they were negroes, a manifestation of race hatred, is beyond question.

My faith that we shall be spared the shame and ignominy of pogroms rests upon other and, I believe, more solid foundations. 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. Racial hatred is everywhere the same.

There is no reason for believing that here in the United States we possess a special immunity from the worst forms of anti-Semitism. It would probably be safer to say that our conditions afford exceptional opportunities for their development. We have drawn heavily upon the Old World for our population, which reflects the divisions and the antipathies, the hereditary jealousies and suspicions, which for hundreds and, in some instances, thousands of years have troubled mankind. We have not yet welded these diverse elements into anything approaching homogeneity; our national consciousness is still undeveloped and, as a consequence of that fact, we have as yet not developed fully those self-imposed disciplines and restraints which are attendant upon highly developed national solidarity. Our national life, with its alien masses only partially assimilated, is as susceptible to inflaming passion as the wind-blown dry autumn leaves are susceptible to the flame of the torch.

Michael Davitt called attention to the fact that in the Kishinev pogrom it was not the rich Jews who were the victims, but Jewish workingmen and their families. That, I believe, is the universal experience. The rich Jews can buy immunity or protection. If as a result of vicious propaganda serious anti-Jewish riots take place in this country the victims will not be the rich Jewish financiers and brokers, against whom the Dearborn Independent fulminates, but innocent and inoffensive, hard-working men and women and their children. And if ever that time comes such men as Henry Ford must bear the major responsibility and guilt.

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? Or is it possible that the only "secret conspiracy" is on their side; that the real object of this anti-Semitic agitation is to prepare the way for a political and economic program which its authors dare not publicly avow?

When I was in England recently,[4] I gained a fairly clear and reliable idea of the political and economic program of those bitter Jew-haters who are responsible for the organized campaign of anti-Semitism in that country. In view of the fact that our anti-Semites, including the Dearborn Independent, have so slavishly copied the propaganda of the British anti-Semites, it is justifiable to assume that they are in general agreement with that program, and that they would adopt it in this country, subject to whatever modifications may be made necessary by the differences between the institutions of the two countries. At all events, unless and until the actual program of the anti-Semites of this country is set forth with candor and precision, they have no cause for complaint if it is assumed that their aims are practically identical with those of the British anti-Jewish propagandists whose arguments they repeat in detail, including every grotesque stupidity and every clumsy distortion of the truth.

The program of the British anti-Semites, adapted to American conditions, would involved, as a minimum, the following measures: