Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, had before him today a plea for intervention in behalf of the Polish Jews, in the light of recent excesses and discrimination, submitted to him by a delegation representing the Jewish Labor Committee and the American Federation of Labor.
He received without giving indication on what action he contemplated a memorandum detailing acts of violence, plundering and boycott presented by a delegation including B.C. Vladeck, chairman of the committee; William Green, president of the A.F.L.; David Dubinsky, president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union; Joseph Schlossberg, Morris Feinstone and Reuben Guskin, Jewish labor leaders.
The memorandum voiced hope that the United States Government “will find it possible to intervene” for reasons of humanity, because President Wilson helped establish the Polish Republic and because American people “have contributed money and lives in order to make the independence of Poland possible.”
It charged Poland with “openly and willfully violating the minorities clause of the League of Nations” in discriminating against Jews in State and Municipal utilities and by eliminating Jews from economic activities converted into Government monopolies.
“The Polish Government has made no effective effort to stop these excesses,” the memorandum said, ” and the perpetrators remain either entirely unpunished or are given very light sentences.” It added that leaders of the assaults “are known to be members of a legal political party which claims large membership and is represented in Parliament.”
Holding that the Jews were singled out as scapegoats for all the shortcomings of the Polish regime, the protest stated that “while officially and legally the Jews were permitted to enjoy equality with the rest of the population, economically they were ruthlessly and consistently eliminated, being singled out before the rest of the population as the undesirable element.”
The protest added: “For many years a movement for an economic boycott of the Jews has been legally developing under the protection of the laws of the country, and the present physical attacks upon the Jews, which are being disclaimed by the Government, have been made possible by the economic boycott which the Government itself instituted and abetted.”
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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.
