Daily Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor]

An attack on the Perlman-Wadsworth bill on the ground that “it threatens the United States with another alien tide,” was made by the Chicago “Tribune.” Basing its statements on a despatch from Riga by one Donald Day, the “Tribune” writes:

“Millions of Europeans–not figuratively, but literally, millions–are waiting to come to the United States the minute the immigration bars are let down. Three million Russian Jews comprise the largest group, while other huge numbers are waiting to leave Italy, Greece and Poland.

“Russia’s annual quota under the present law is 2,248. Italy’s is 3,845; Poland’s 5,982; and that of Greece, 100. To admit 3,000,000 Russian Jews, 500,000 Italians, 33,000 Poles, and 1,700 Greeks, as it has been estimated would happen if the law were amended, would be to destroy every benefit the restrictive act has brought to this country.

“Because the outlanders do not come to America waving spears and war clubs their onset is all the more insidious. A certain percentage of the American people will exhibit the softness that has spelled the downfall of every other great nation. They will let the invader come in and usurp the American heritage.”

A reply to the “Tribune” is made in the Chicago Jewish “Chronicle” by H. L. Meites, who observes:

“The ‘Tribune’ never lets an opportunity slip by when it can give the Jews an unfriendly dig. One of its correspondents cables that ‘three million Jews are waiting to flock into the United States as soon as the immigration laws are modified’ and charges that all Jews are passport falsifiers and have criminal tendencies. The correspondent is too ignorant to know that it takes years and years and hundreds of millions of dollars to transport one million people, not to mention three million of them. The whole story is a shameless exaggeration and falsehood unworthy of an honest newspaper. . .”

CHARGES ANTI-JEWISH POLICY

The charge that the “Forum” under its present editorship is conducting an unfriendly policy to the Jews is made by the “Jewish Criterion” of Pittsburgh, in an editorial commenting on the article on “The Pedigree of the Jews,” by Lothrop Stoddard, which appeared in the “Forum” for March. Dr. Stoddard, proponent of the Nordic “superiority” theory, attempted to prove that the Jews of today are not the true descendants of the ancient Hebrews, but are a mongrel race with the blood of a dozen races in their veins.

“We do think that the ‘Forum’ has not very many articles friendly to the Jews since it has come under its present editorship,” writes the paper. “We are reluctant to say this of any magazine, yet we cannot help but feel that on more than one occasion the ‘Forum’ has published articles about Jews that could have been with good taste omitted. We had occasion to take one of the editorial associates of the magazine to task last year when he apparently justified that miserable, contemptible, unworthy book, “When Israel Comes Into Its Own,” written by two Frenchmen who, we believe, are nothing but paid propagandists for anti-Semitic groups. The charge we made was denied by the ‘Forum’ writer, but it seemed to us to be a very lame denial. If we are mistaken about the ‘Forum’ will the editor please advise us what articles that have appeared favorable to the Jew and if a single article has appeared unfavorable to the Catholics.”