[The purpose of the Digest is informative. Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]
The statement of Senator Reed that Henry Ford does not know about the anti-Jewish articles published in the “Dearborn Independent” is ridiculed as “an amazing assertion” by the N. Y. “Evening World” of yesterday, wherein we read:
“For several years this periodical (the ‘Dearborn Independent’), circulating on the confidence that hundreds of thousands have in the wisdom and patriotism of Henry Ford, has been persistently seeking to create racial hatred against the Jews. Hundreds of thousands of credulous people have been influenced by these attacks. They have assumed that Mr. Ford, with unlimited financial means, has been able to discover sinister plots on the part of a portion of our people to enslave economically the rest.
“And Mr. Ford has known nothing about it!
“His name is used to give dignity and authenticity to these articles–but he knows nothing about them! His periodical is used to assail not only a race but to blacken the reputation of an individual–and he has ‘probably never heard of the individual’!
“And this is a defense!
“Men like Mr. Ford, a little purse-proud and arrogant, are prone to lament the ‘irresponsibility of the press’, but no publisher with any respect for his profession would consider it a defense against the charge of slandering a race and stirring up racial hatreds in a land where such hatreds would be destructive of national solidarity, to plead that he knew nothing about what his paper was doing; that a fixed policy extending back several years was unknown to him.
“When captains of industry like Mr. Ford,” the “Evening World” observes in conclusion, “enter the publishing business there are times when, in comparison with their methods and attitude, the ethics of the professional newspaper man seem exceptionally dignified and lofty.”
Ford’s claim, through his counsel, that he was not aware of the anti-Jewish articles in his paper, is regarded by the “Jewish Daily News” as an admission on his part that he has not the courage to shoulder the responsibility for his charges against the Jews.
“The new strategy of Ford’s counsel,” the paper observes, “harmonizes with Ford’s character as a coward, who dares not stand by the utterances which he permits to be published as an expression of his opinions.
“The question which every person will ask is this: why does Ford engage people and pay them a salary to write things of which he is not aware? Why does he maintain a paper if it does not express his opinions?
“Ford’s ‘Dearborn Independent’ cannot be anything but an organ which voices the opinions of its owner. The only conclusion to be drawn from the latest move of his lawyers is that Ford has not the courage to acknowledge his own libels and so throws the guilt upon those who work for him.”
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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.
