“I am not going to point out the qualities of the Hebrew race, Hamilton, because, it is not for qualities or lack of qualities that a mob hates. And that’s what your Tribe is. It is the same sort of a mob that forms the secret society of the savage tribes of dark Africa. There they kill a man not because he is better or worse than they are, but because he is alien. Among the savages of the Amazon, it is enough that a man has wandered from his tribe six months for him to be murdered for his alienism.
“You know that your very religion is Jewish, and that the first Christian martyrs, whom you reverence, were all Jews or converts to Judaism. You know that Jews have always contributed more than their proportion of the distinguished men of every nation in which they have lived. But distinction in talent or in wealth only fans the mob’s hate. It was so in Spain during the Inquisition, where the Jews had married into the proudest Spanish families and occupied the highest positions, and it is so here today. The mob which sneers at the poor man because he is poor, howls for the blood of the rich man because he is rich. And it is among those same bigots that the conflicting cries arise against the Jewish banker and the Jewish peddler.
“It is possible that you yourself carry the taint of Jewish blood in your veins, for wherever the Jews have lived, they have intermarried. They have both converted and been converted. In the greater cities of Europe from 10 to 50 per cent of all Jews intermarry. The one thing that distinguishes the Jew from the other modern races is his retention of the old faith. It is his faith alone that makes him unwelcome.
“You call the Jew an alien, but if he is an alien then every inhabitant of America excepting the red Indian is an alien. The first Jews came to America with Christopher Columbus, and there is even evidence that Columbus himself was a Jew by birth, although a Catholic by religion. Jews fought with the Dutch against the Swedes in New Amsterdam, with Washington in the French and Indian war, and once more with Washington in the war that won freedom for the colonies. A Jew helped Robert Morris finance the Revolution and it was another Jew who financed the Union at the most critical point of the Civil War. A Jew prevented the delivery of two armored ships to the Confederate states which would probably have broken the blockade and won the Civil War for the South. But, of course, you’re a Southerner. In your own state, Georgia, the oldest settlers are descendants of Jews.
“But there is no use reasoning with a Tribesman. He is one of a crowd, and a crowd lacks reason. Get your crowd swayed by the spirit and it matters not what reason you give it for its hatred—difference of race, of belief, of appearance. Tell the crowd that being black is wrong, or being a Catholic, or being a Jew. It is but enough to point out that the objects of its wrath are different from it. Show it an ideal like Anglo-Saxonism. It will not stop to reflect that the greatest Anglo-Saxon nation in the world, Great Britain, is a mixture of primitive Briton, Celt, Teuton, Norman, Jew, of Catholic and Protestant. In the name of Anglo-Saxonism it will strike blindly against the elements of its own population, whose very diversity made the greatest Anglo-Saxon nation what it is.
“During the World War it was necessary to organize this nation into a huge crowd, instilled with the single idea of patriotism. Then it was a matter of self-defense, and in the same way you can organize other crowds and inspire them to the highest deeds. The old Ku Klux Klan was undoubtedly actuated by the highest of ideals. But it broke away from its leaders and became a mob. It became an evil graver to the law and order of the nation which it started to protect than the forces which it combatted. That is exactly what will happen to the Trick Track Tribe. That is exactly what is happening to it today. Men and women are being boycotted, banished from their homes, tarred and feathered, flogged and murdered. Officially it may not be the work of the Trick Track Tribe. Officials may disclaim responsibility. But they cannot disclaim responsibility for forming the mob and then directly or indirectly inciting it. Griffith may be the wisest of men, Lister the noblest and most sincere, but they can no more control the mob of their formation, than could the wise and sincere men who formed the Ku Klux Klan stop its reign of terrorism. That took a greater crowd, actuated by a greater ideal.
“The Trick Track Tribe has already shown a record of atrocities wherever it has formed a considerable element of the population. If its leaders have directed them, the Tribe already stands convicted. If its leaders have not directed them, the Tribe already confesses that the mob has broken out of its control. But just as the federal government, backed by aroused public opinion, was able to overthrow the old Klan, so will the government, once more representing aroused public opinion, overthrow the present Tribe.”
“You’re right,” cried Robert. “You are absolutely right. Perhaps you didn’t know it. I’m a member of the Tribe myself—but I won’t be anymore.”
No one showed surprise.
“We knew it all the time,” said Rabbi Levin. “Only we don’t believe in using the same tactics as the Tribe. We wanted to convince you.”