[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.-Editor.]
The charge that the American Eugenics Society, Inc., and the Eugenics Committee of the United States of America are engaging in race hate propaganda against the foreigners, is made editorially by the “Jewish Independent” of Cleveland in its issue of Feb. 26.
The occasion for the editorial is the announcement by the American Eugenics Society of a “competition for the best sermon preached in America on the subject of eugenics,” the competition being open to any minister, priest, rabbi or student in a theological seminary of any denomination.
The “Jewish Independent” calls attention to the propaganda publicity, headed, “Shall Christians Be the Ancestors of America?” which was distributed to sectarian religious bodies in December, 1925, by the Eugenics Committee of the United States of America and which made a sweeping attack against non-Nordic immigrants.
“In a conspicuous place on the stationery of the American Eugenics Society, Inc., occurs the name Madison Grant,” we read further. “Mr. Grant is a member of the organization’s board of directors. Madison Grant, it may be remembered, is the very eminent Nordic ethnologist who holds that the men who wrote the clear and concise affirmation of the principle of human equality in the American Declaration of Independence did not really mean all men.”
Another name appearing alongside of Madison Grant’s is that of Dr. Harry H. Laughlin, who furnished a large portion of the statistics which were used by the members of the Congressional committee that advocated the pro-Nordic immigration law.
“It was the grand conclusion of Dr. Laughlin as eugenics expert for Congressman Albert Johnson’s committee that the later immigration stock has a ‘higher percentage of inborn socially inadequate qualities than do the older stocks.’
“Incidentally, let it be noted. Albert Johnson, chairman of the committee, is also represented in American Eugenics Society, Inc., activity. Both he and Lothrop Stoddard (a gentlman whose name bears a striking resemblance to that of the ‘Lothrop Stoddard’ who has been acclaimed by the Ku Klux Klan as a highly valued member) are members of the Eugenics Society’s advisory council for 1926.”
The paper points out that the personnel of the Eugenics Committee of the United States of America is practically identical with that of the American Eugenics Society. Inc., and giving a review of Dr. Laughlin’s activities as pro-Nordic eugenist. summarizes thus:
“Because of the apparent nation-wide effort now on foot to place the churches of America behind a definite eugenics program, it is of supreme importance that the Nation’s spiritual leaders be apprised of certain eugenics enterprises of this same Dr. Laughlin, who has now become so conspicuously identified with the new eugenics activity.”
LIGHT SENTENCE FOR LIBELLER OF MAX WARBURG DENOUNCED BY GERMAN PRESS
The non-anti-Semitic press in Germany continues to denounce the recent decision of the Hamburg Court of Appeals, which reduced to a fine of 1,000 marks the sentence imposed by a lower court on Theodor Fritsch, anti-Semitic editor of “Der Hammer,” who was sued for libel by the well known Jewish bankers, Max M. Warburg and Dr. Melchior.
The “Frankfurter Zeitung” says: “Even more amazing than the verdict itself, which is practically an acquittal for the accused and a license for his friends of the Voelkische camp to carry on, is the motivation of the verdict by the judge. Though a clear and unequivocal indictment of the libelous methods practiced by Fritsch and his friends was not expected from Judge Waldow, nevertheless the verdict based on an interpretation of Statute No. 193 in favor of the accused, as well as the light fine and the motivation of the verdict, cannot but call forth astonishment.”
The “Frankfurter Volksstimme” agrees with the “Frankfurter Zeitung” that the verdict practically means an acquittal for Fritsch and observes: “Fritsch was placed, on all sort of excuses, under the protection of Statute No. 193, which to date has been denied every editor who is inclined to the Left.”
The “Hamburger correspondent,” which belongs to the Right, has this to say: “There are sentences-of which we know from manifold experience – which border on the criminal. And those who look not for the last formal act in a sentence but for the motives underlying it and understand its effects, have perhaps the right to ask, in view of this 1,000 Mark sentence: who has been punished here?”
Attorney Heinrich Richter, writing in the “Berliner Tageblatt,” points out the legal flaws in the verdict of the judge and concludes:
“It will be difficult for anyone to believe that the obviously illogical mistakes of the verdict were not grounded in at least a subconsciously partisan attitude of the Court, particularly so when these mistakes harmonize with the tenor of the actual sentence.”
In an article appearing in the “Central Verein Zeitung” of Berlin, organ of the Central Verein der Deutschen Juden, we read: “The Voelkische newspapers have broken forth in jubilation over the mild sentence of the Hamburg Court. The “Deutsche Tageblatt” carries the head in large letters: ‘Theodor Fritsch Completely Vindicated’ and even makes bold to say that this verdict has confirmed the existence of the ‘Jewish menace.’ We may well draw a comparison between this impudent assertion and the light money fine, imposed on Fritsch for libel. Besides, let the “Deutsche Tageblatt” and the other Voelkische papers not forget that it was the wish of both accusers, Warburg and Melchior, to keep an old man who has been unbalanced all his life out of prison and they certainly did not try to influence the decision against him.”
IN PRAISE OF BALTIMORE JEWRY
Baltimore Jewry is praised by the press of that city for the readiness with which the sum of $370,000 was raised at a meeting last Sunday toward a fund of $500,000 being sought for the erection of a new home for the Y. M. and Y. W. H. A.
The Baltimore “Sun,” pointing out that of the 67,500 Jews in Baltimore but 25,000 are over 25 years old, says:
“The Jews of this city accept the burden of charitable and philanthropic enterprises with a courage, a generosity, a will to succeed that are wholly admirable.”
The Baltimore “Post” observes that this is “just another demonstration that the Jewish citizens of Baltimore can always be counted on to make a huge success of any such enterprise they undertake – and they are always among the donors to funds of other races and denominations.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
