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.]

Morally Sapiro emerged as victor and Ford as loser in the libel suit which has been terminated by a mistrial, declares the Jewish press.

The “Jewish Daily News” of yesterday expresses its conviction that the attitude of the jurors, at first perhaps unconsciously prejudiced against Sapiro became very favorable to him toward the end of the trial. The healthy sense of justice, says the paper, asserted itself and the jury realized that Sapiro did not deserve the abuse heaped on him by Ford.

“So far,” the paper declares, “the Jewish side, so to say, had a sort of moral victory. What will happen at the next trial it is, of course, hard to say. But there can be no doubt that Sapiro will start the new trial in a more favorable atmosphere than that of the first trial. The suspicion of something hidden and conspirative about him has disappeared. The impression made on the whole country that Ford was obviously seeking to avoid appearing in court is also in Sapiro’s favor.”

The “Day” observes: “The small, cunning Shylock of the ‘Dearborn Independent’s’ imagination has emerged from the trial as a national figure in the field of American agriculture, who has brought about a great transformation in the farming industry and increased the income of the farmers by hundreds of millions.

“On the other hand, Ford the wizard, who took up the cudgels for the farmer, has emerged as a small fellow who hides behind the back of his hireling. The American farmer has lost more through the ‘Independent’ articles than Sapiro and the Jews. Ford stands condemned before the world as an irresponsible and cowardly person, who perpetrates a base deed and then scurries away and leaves his hireling, who assumes the responsibilitp for the sake of his bread and butter, to face the consequences.”

An editorial in the New York “Times” of Sunday under the caption “Still a Chance for Mr. Ford”, again urges Ford to waive aside legal technicalities and to come out with the truth. We read:

“The mistrial declared by the Judge in the libel suit against Henry Ford, after six weeks of speeches by counsel and testimony by witnesses, does not really destroy the opportunity which, before the case opened, we said ought to appear tempting to Mr. Ford. He is not bound by the technicalities of the law which broke off the trial. He is not even obliged to follow the advice of his lawyers. If his time had come to go on the witness stand before the mistrial, it is probable that he would have had some highly important statements to make. They could have been brought from him in his direct teslimony, or drawn out on cross-examination. But it is not necessary for him to wait until a new jury is chosen and a new trial begun. He can afford to snap his fingers at all the merely monetary consequences of the libel suit. If he chooses, he can, in a large way, deal with the larger question involved in those publications for which he was responsible, and which moved Mr. Sapiro to sue him for damages.

“Behind that individual grievance, behind the personal suit, lay the charges so widely distributed under Mr. Ford’s authority of a great and unpatriotic ‘Jewish conspiracy.’ This was the thing that gave bitter offense to millions of Americans. It perhaps could not be technically brought into the libel suit. But Henry Ford need not concern himself with any merely legal and petty defense. He can, if he is magnanimous enough, deal with the whole matter afresh and in his own name. He can freely tell the public whether he has any substantial evidence to back up the accusations against a whole race which were made in his name; and if he has not, he can be man enough to withdraw what never should have been printed. Though the doors of the court room are temporarily closed to Mr. Ford, the door of public opportunity, with free access to every newspaper in the country, is still open to him.”

Ben Gold and Isador Shapiro were acquitted by the Mineola Court of the charge of having instigated a felonious assault upon two Rockville Centre furriers. The nine others tried were found guilty.