Settlement of the four-year-old libel suit in which Herman Bernstein, author and editor, sought $200,000 damages from Henry Ford because of a series of anti-Jewish articles published in the “Dearborn Independent” was announced yesterday by Samuel Untermyer, counsel for Mr. Bernstein.
Mr. Ford retracted and apologized for the parts of an article concerning Mr. Bernstein which appeared in the “Dearborn Independent” and for an “alleged interview” with Mr. Ford also appearing in that paper, in which the automobile manufacturer was quoted as assailing Mr. Bernstein.
The settlement agreement also included payment of a sum, not made public, by Mr. Ford toward the expenses of Mr. Bernstein in the suit.
Mr. Bernstein’s suit, which was field in the Federal Court Aug. 18, 1923, was the first of the actions brought against Mr. Ford because of his anti-Jewish campaign. The settlement negotiations, which have been under way for a fortnight, were conducted for Mr. Ford by Clifford B. Longley of Detroit, De Lancey Nicoll, De Lancy Nicoll. jr., and Martin C. Ansorge of this city. Joseph Palma, local head of the Federal Secret Service, a personal friend of Mr. Ford, and J. Kostmat of Chicago also participated in the settlement conferences.
The agreed letters which were exchanged by Mr. Bernstein and Mr. Ford follow.
Mr. Ford’s letter to Mr. Bernstein reads:
“You are of course familiar with the context of the public retraction and apology for the articles appearing in the ‘Dearborn Independent’ that I have made and had spread broadcast. I sincerely regret any harm that may have been occasioned to the people of that great race and ## anxious to make whatever amends are possible.
“I take this occasion also to retract and apologize for those parts of the article that appeared in the ‘Dearborn Independent’ concerning you and for the alleged interview with me assailing you that was published in that paper.
“It was not intended in that article to imply that any of the matters concerning the Jews appearing in the ‘Dearborn Independent’ were based upon information furnished by you. You have at no time said anything to me that would justify such an inference.
“From the explanations made to me by my counsel through your counsel. Mr. Samuel Untermyer, I realize the damage that may have been caused you among the people of your race and in your profession as an author, editor and newspaper correspondent by the articles of which you complain in your suit, and the expense, which you could ill afford, to which you have been put by the protracted litigation to vindicate the good name of the Jewish people and your own reputation against the charges contained in those articles.
“I quite agree that no mere money damage will make good the harm done you and that it is not in my power to compensate for that injury. Meantime I should like to pay toward rembursing you for the expense incident to the suit.
“I am informed through your counsel that the articles in the ‘Dearborn Independent’ have been translated into many languages and distributed throughout many countries of the world in book form under the title of ‘The International Jew’. Neither I nor the ‘Dearborn Independent’, as far as I know, have had anything to do with the translations, publications or distribution, and I am not only willing but anxious to actively cooperate with you to the end that the volumes shall be withdrawn and destroyed.
“I hope you will accept this assurance of my deep regret for whatever was said in either of these articles. I have been made to realize that the articles in which you are charged with having furnished me with information on which the publications in the ‘Dearborn Independent’ were based have brought down upon you the undeserved wrath of your people from which you have greatly suffered-both financially and in your peace of mind -and can only hope that this apology will set you right in this respect.”
Mr. Bernstein’s reply to Mr. Ford reads:
“Your letter of retraction and apology on July 23, taken in connection with your public statement of July 7 addressed to the Jewish people, makes the ‘amende honorable’ to the fullest extent within your power to right wrongs that from the nature of the case cannot be fully repaired, and is accepted by me without reservation in the spirit in which it is extended.
“I assume you fully realize that no matter how great the wrong and injury to me personally I would not have brought the suit, nor would Mr. Untermyer have consented to act for me, except as a vehicle and the only responsible means of judicially exposing and disproving the tissue of unspeakable falschoods and forgeries against the Jewish people. It fortunately for the Jews, so happened that the offending article, which falsely and without semblance of excuse charged me with having imparted to you personally on the peace ship the information upon which the assaults upon the Jews in the “Dearborn Independent’ were based, made the proof of the falsity of the charges themselves competent which would not otherwise, under any combination of circumstances, have been possible.
“Although an individual may recover for a libel utteral against him, there is strange to say, no way by which falsity may be proved or redress secured for libels perpetrated upon an entire nation or people. Under these circumstances, Mr. Untermyer and I felt it our duty to our people that I avail myself of that exceptional situation to establish the falsity of the articles. I am advised that the limitations placed by the Court on the range of the testimony in the Sapiro case would not have applied in my case.
“That closes this unfortunate chapter, and I trust in a way that will go far to prevent future assaults upon the people of my race and will thus promote the arrival of the era of the true brotherhood of man. If that shall prove the result, you will, by your present attitude, have accomplished even more toward confounding and discouraging anti-Semitism than was accomplished by the offending articles in tanning and keeping alive the flames of bigotry and race hatred.”
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.
