William E. Dodd, former United States Ambassador to Germany predicted last night that Austria and Yugoslavia would in a short time follow Rumania’s political path.
Dr. Dodd told about 3,000 persons at an anti-Hitler mass meeting, after referring to Rumania, “I look for the same situation to come in two other states in a short time.” Questioned after his address by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he asserted that the reference was to Austria and Yugoslavia.
Others who addressed the meeting at the Manhattan Opera House, sponsored by the Joint Boycott Council to mark the fifth anniversary of Hitler’s ascension in Germany, urged defense of democracy against Fascism. Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum, who presided, demanded that the United States adopt a “bad neighbor policy” against Germany. Dr. Stephen S. Wise urged a boycott of Japan as well as Germany. Max Brauer, exiled former mayor of Altona, Germany, asked, in a German address, mobilization of all democracies to defend civilization against Nazism. Other speakers were City Councillor B.C. Vladeck, co-chairman of the J.B.C., Transit Commissioner M. Maldwin Fertig and Dr. Frank Bohn, economist.
A resolution was adopted calling Hitlerism “the gravest menace to peace, civilization and democracy,” asking intensification of the anti-Nazi boycott and condemning German participation in the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Dr. Dodd said: “I hope you people can be able to avoid race conflict in the United States. And I think that can be done if men do not pursue purely racial interests. They need to pursue democratic policy. And if that can be done, I think we shall be able yet to render a service to those troubled people on the other side.
“There were 300 on the ship that brought me over. Perhaps some of them are here. Now, those 300 could not be here if somebody were not helping, because, no matter how much property they had, they could only take out ten marks.
“That is one of the great problems of today; Namely, to treat all races with fairness, giving every man of any race at all the same kind of a chance to develop his own abilities and to serve his own family and his public without the privilege of abusing his fellows.”
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.
