Henry Ford’s Condemnation of Prejudice Hailed by American Press

Further details of how Henry Ford’s apology came to be made were disclosed by former Congressman Nathan D. Perlman to the Jewish Daily Bulletin.

“The latter part of May,” Mr. Perlman said, “Earl J. Davis of Detroit, formerly assistant attorney general of the United States and Joseph Palma of New York City, friends of Henry Ford, called to see me as one of the honorary vice-presidents of the American Jewish Congress, and spoke to me about the Ford attacks on the Jews. After a conference with them, I suggested that they see Louis Marshall.”

Mr. Perlman was present at the conferences held later which led to the retraction.

Aaron Sapiro, in a statement telegraphed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, declared:

“Ford’s repudiation of the anti-Semitic policy of his Dearborn Independent is a direct result of the light thrown on him in the Detroit case. The public generally resented his failure to meet in court the charges his agents had been making in their private press. Finally, the light dawned on him and he has made himself again acceptable to intelligent people by his frank disavowal of the policies and acts of his employees on the Dearborn Independent.

“We have been negotiating for some time on a settlement of the suit,” Mr. Sapiro declared.

James Davis, prominent in Jewish circles in Chicago, declared in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency representative there that “Ford did himself credit when he changed his attitude when the opportunity presented itself. He is a peculiar man. He probably did not realize what was being done and realizing it now took advantage of the time to recant. He is trained for one thing alone.”

Uncertainty prevailed with regard to whether Herman Bernstein would withdraw his $200,000 libel suit against Ford.

The New York Herald-Tribune states it is informed that “Earl J. Davis, of Detroit, who formerly was an Assistant United States Attorney General, went to Washington several weeks ago to seek the advice of politicians, including a New York Jew who is a Representative in Congress, as to means of saving Mr. Ford from going on the witness stand in the Sapiro case.

“He is said to have told the New York Representative that Mr. Ford was perturbed over the prospect of the retrial of the case next September, and also that Mr. Ford and his family were anxious to put an end to the controversies and ill-feeling which the articles in “The Dearborn Independent” had engendered.

“Mr. Davis was advised to come to New York and address himself to some prominent member of New York Jewry,” the Tribune states.