Digest of World Press Opinion

Better Times, official organ of the Welfare Council of New York City, carries a symposium on a recent statement by Judge Joseph M. Proskauer that “sooner or later the responsibility of caring for the poor is going to be returned to the private agencies.”

Harry L. Lurie, director of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research, participating in the symposium, says:

There is a definite place in our social scheme for voluntary social work. If intelligently developed it has a real contribution to make to social welfare. Carrying an increased share of the burden now placed on government cannot be considered as belonging within the constructive possibilities for the future usefulness of voluntary effort.

WITHDRAWING FEDERAL AID

Maurice J. Karpf, director of the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work, writes:

While I earnestly hope that Judge Proskauer is wrong in his prediction that the burden of relief and reconstruction will again fall entirely on the inadequate resources of private philanthropy, it must be admitted that on the basis of national, state, and local developments, it seems as if the federal government will attempt to withdraw as soon as possible from the large program of relief which it is now carrying. Although it will no doubt maintain an interest in state and local relief activities, this interest is likely to be more in the nature of national planning, coordinating, stimulating raising of standards, and attacking the basic problems which make relief necessary.

I do not agree with Judge Proskauer, however, that the private agencies should or can be prepared to shoulder the task “alone.” They cannot do it in the first place and should not attempt it in the second.

AGENCIES’ FREER DEVELOPMENT

Frances Taussig, executive director of the Jewish Social Service Association, says:

The private agency’s continued existence is not and must not be contingent on the Government’s pulling out from under. Better provision by government means that the private family welfare agencies will be left freer to develop and define their own functions, in the area of service to families in relation to whose needs the public agency has not yet learned to be effective.

SEES ZIONISTS WEAKENING ON BIRO-BIDJAN

Opinion for January publishes the following editorial note:

From Germany, from Poland, from Austria complaints are being received by the Zionist Executive. The Zionist Organizations of these countries are grossly dissatisfied with the meagre visas allowed to their groups. Austrian Zionists point out that the “present indescribable political and economic situation of Austrian Jewry entitles them to the same considerations as those given German Zionists.” Meanwhile the Polish Zionists must be thinking of employing a public relations counsel who will keep their plight in the same conspicuous light as that of their German and Austrian kinsmen. In the face of these facts and in the face of the unrelenting attitude of the British Foreign Office regarding the absorptive capacity of Palestine, Zionist opposition to Biro-Bidjan and South American Settlements is weakening. “Any port in a storm” must be the watch-word.

BOMBAY PAPER ON CADET SAMPSON

An editorial in the Jewish Tribune, of Bombay, India, declares:

Jewry in India will read with pride that Cadet B. A. Sampson has been elected the winner of the Viceroy’s Gold Medal and has thereby proved himself to be the best Cadet of the Indian Mercantile Marine Training Ship Dufferin. The medal is given to the cadet elected by his brother cadets, as the best sailor among them, as well as for possessing the following qualities, namely, character, kindness and protection to the weak, readiness to forgive offenses and to conciliate differences among others, and above all, fearless devotion to duty and unflinching truthfulness.

It is indeed gratifying to see how a Jew has taken to the naval service and has thus come through with flying colors, basing his esteem on the esteem and opinion of his co-workers.

REFUSAL TO WORK IN JEWISH HOMES

The Jewish Frontier, monthly publication in New York, publishes the following editorial:

A cursory glance through wants ads in our press reveals the interesting phenomenon of an ever-increasing number of unemployed women who publicly express reluctance to enter service in Jewish households.

Although the labor market is flooded with females of all stations who now earn a livelihood solely through domestic service and notwithstanding that the condition of the metropolitan women without work is tragic, a goodly proportion of the advertisers for various branches of housework dismiss all possibility of accepting jobs with Jews.