William Green has pledged to the Jewish Labor Committee the assistance of the American Federation of Labor’s 5,000,000 members in combating Nazi persecution and finding haven for the victims of Hitlerism in the United States.
“We are not so engrossed in abstract policies and theories that we fail to hear the cries of individual sufferers,” Green told 2,000 persons attending a national conference of the committee at Carnegie Hall on Friday night. “We have exercised our influence upon the Government and have enlisted the aid of the State Department in the mission of mercy of the Jewish Labor Committee. We have helped to rescue from the wrath of the dictators groups of outstanding men of all faiths and nationalities.
“Four hundred of these refugees have been brought to America as the guests of our country. They are here in this hall tonight. They have not come to America as immigrants or settlers but as temporary visitors to the land which throughout its history has been a haven and a refuge for the oppressed…I am ready, I am anxious to render any service that lies within my power in behalf of those refugees who are driven like animals, whose lives are sought by a ruthless dictator in the occupied and unoccupied countries of continental Europe.”
President Roosevelt sent a message to the conference expressing the hope that “the deliberations will be fruitful of wise counsels and constructive action.”
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