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.]

The ill will stirred up by Henry Ford and his organ the “Dearborn Independent”, has made him one of the most unpopular men in America and has caused a drop in Ford’s output this year to one-third that of 1925. This statement is made by B. C. Forbes, noted financial expert and editor of “Forbes’ Magazine”, writing in the current issue of his paper.

Commenting on the assertions of Mr. Forbes, the New York “Evening Journal” of yesterday remarks:

“There is not a single brilliant engineer in the entire Ford organization who might be able to help him lift his industry out of its present slump and regain his old position of preeminence in the motor world, writes B. C. Forbes.

“Ill will stirred up by Ford and his henchmen is largely responsible for this startling drop, according to Forbes. Henry Ford, he believes, is today one of the most unpopular men in America.

“His condemnation of and his vituperation against the financial world has. not won his many friends there either.

“Wall Street,’ remarks the writer, ‘has not forgotten that the dictionary has not contained words sizzling enough to express his contempt for the nation’s banking fraternity.

“‘Finally,’ concludes Forbes, ‘Ford’s ruthless treatment of the people working for him plus the decline in production is causing his dealer organization to fall to pieces and his best men to seek jobs elsewhere.'”

ON THE “SUPERFLUOUS MILLION”

Criticism of the statement made recently by Isaac Gruenbaum, Polish Sejm Deputy and Zionist leader, during his visit in America, to the effect that a million Jews are “superfluous” in Poland and must emigrate, is voiced in the “Wilner Tog”, Yiddish daily of Wilno. The criticism is based on the ground that such an assertion means playing into the hands of the anti-Semites, particularly the National Democratic Party of Poland, who are contending that there are too many Jews in that country. The writer of the article, S. Basin, says in part (“Wilner Tog”, March 21) :

“What is important is not the number but the essential principle of ‘superfluity’, and in this respect there is a remarkable agreement between our Zionists and the anti-Semites. The Polish National Democrats, who do not belong to the ‘select of the nations of the world’, are very warm supporters of Zionism, or rather, more precisely, the slogan of ‘Jews to Palestine’. The N. D’s do not really believe that a large part of Jews (Gruenbaum’s million) will emigrate to Palestine, but to the N. D.’s the important fact is that among the Jews themselves there is a belief that we are ‘superfluous’ . . . and since ‘superfluous’ people are a burden, they must be combatted. The N. D.’s have something with which to justify their anti-Semitism.

“Let us not blame the anti-Semites. It is time to revise our own outlooks and ideas which now cause incidents calculated to undermine the Jewish foundation in the ‘galuth’, where we must live whether we like it or not.”