(The following letter received in reply to a questionnaire from the president of a large non-Jewishowned department store indicates that his concern is boycotting German goods whole-heartedly. For obvious reasons, we are withholding the name of the writer and the concern he heads.)
“Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin:
“Thank you for your letter of January 9th regarding the investigation your paper is making into New York’s commercial reaction towards conditions in Germany under the present German government.
“Our firm has not imported a great deal of merchandise for a number of years. In fact, our total imports amount to less than 5% of our inventory, and the merchandise which we imported from Germany was less than 1%.
“I think it was early in April last year that we first discussed the German situation in our organization and at the time came to the conclusion that we would not import any more merchandise from Germany direct until the German government took a different attitude in its relation with the Jewish population residing in Germany. We did this largely because we felt that there would be a sales resistance to German merchandise. In other words, our job as merchants is to buy what the majority of our customers want and if a substantial part of our clientele does not want German-made merchandise. it seems prudent for us to discontinue carrying it.
“Later in the summer, at the instigation of Mr. Untermyer, the heads of the larger stores in New York met and discussed the request that the stores join in a boycott. I am enclosing a copy of an agreement made by these store heads, to which our firm subscribed. We took this position because we felt that it would be unwise to announce a boycott against the merchandise from any country, even though we had already decided not to continue buying this merchandise.
“I have checked our records carefully and find that since May First we have not only not imported any merchandise from Germany direct, but we have not bought any German-made merchandise from importers. We have had some call for German merchandise, but not a great deal.
“We have received many letters as to our stand on this subject, mostly from the Jewish people, although we have received a few enquiries from the German people.
“We have been able to find proper substitutes for German-made merchandise in all instances except some of the merchandise in our China Department, a few things in our House Wares Department, quite a considerable number of items in our Toy Department, Children’s Hosiery, and Women’s Fabric Gloves. The latter item is probably the most important of all, because the sales are quite substantial and the German fabric glove is by far the best.
“I am very glad to have the opportunity of replying to your letter and I hope that this information will be helpful.”
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