Louis Marshall Stirs Chicago Conference Reviewing J. D. C. Work

Full Text of American Jewish Leader’s Address Before Delegates of Constructive Relief Conference Given (Jewish Daily Bulletin)

The keynote address of the Constructive Relief Conference of the United Jewish Campaign and the Joint Distribution Committee was delivered by Louis Marshall at the Sunday afternoon session.

Mr. Marshall, in reviewing the history of the Joint Distribution Committee’s work for the past thirteen years, lauded the devotion and untiring efforts of the members of the Committee, and said:

“I think that I can regard this subject objectively; that I can dissever myself from the various activities that have been conducted since 1914. It will enable me to give an estimate of the services rendered by the men who have really done the work.

“You have seen them at our various conventions; you have known what they have done in a certain sort of way, a tentative manner. You have sometimes had the opportunity of shaking them by the hand, but you do not know, as those know them who have worked with them, and who have noted the manner in which they have forgotten their own interests, their own selves in order to accomplish the great work which the Joint Distribution Committee has achieved in the last thirteen years.

LAUDS J. D. C. LEADERS

“Mr. Felix M. Warburg (applause) has been at the head of the organization, has devoted his health to it, to the exclusion of his own business, has devoted himself to it day and night, year after year, has denied himself the privileges that would be his if he only reached out to them; and has traveled across the Atlantic, around the world, in Russia, for the accomplishment of what he thought would help the great work.

“When, this morning, he gave an account of his last trip and of the work in Russia, I confess that I found tears rolling down my cheeks. I am not ashamed to confess that I have not as yet become so ossified that I have lost human emotion. I can always confess that I can sometimes find myself in a rage from injustice. The man who cannot get mad on occasions is not a man.

“There is Colonel Lehman (applause.) The service which he has rendered for the Joint Distribution Committee in its work, constructive work, in its financial work, in the advice and the judgment that he has exercised in connection with its many problems, could not be purchased for a million dollars, and he has given his service with a smile on his face. He has been cheerful at all times even when the demands have been too much; and those who have been associated with him love him for what he is, for what he has done and for the way in which he has performed his services.

“There is Mr. Baerwald (applause) a distinguished banker, a man whose; time is of the utmost value. But no moment has existed during all these years when he has not been ready, willing and able to perform the most remarkable services, and his eye has always been on the balance sheet; his eye has always been on the expenditure of money; he has kept informed of every dollar that has been received and every dollar has been spent, and he has accounted for it.

“There are so many others, I think would not be able to get through this afternoon. You take the men who have been on our committees, how they have studied the great problem, how they have kept informed of everything that goes on abroad, the correspondence that has been conducted by them, the interviews to which they have submitted. Nobody has been turned away; nobody has been met with a deaf ear; whoever had anything to suggest was received with welcome and the results are to be seen in the work that has been done.

“But I am going to pass over a lot of men; I know they won’t think it amiss if I don’t mention them, because there is one thing; about the Joint Distribution Committee and about the American Jewish Relief Committee and about the Peoples Relief Committee and the Central Relief Committee that we are all on a par; we all speak the same language, whether it is Yiddish, Russian or something else, it is the same language, the language of our people, the language of Judaism.

DAVID BROWN’S ACHIEVEMENT

“Excuse me, if I do not make a mishebeirach, but there is one man I do want to talk about. Some men say it is easy to spend money but it is difficult to get it, and that is true. That is the reason we are here this afternoon, and the man whom I will not insult by calling him a “go-getter,” the man whom I hail as a genius, is David M. Brown. (The audience arose, cheered and applauded.)

“If you only knew one hundredth part of what he has done during these recent difficult years to present to the public our problem, to explain to them our difficulties, to indicate to the Jews of this country their duty; how as a lay preacher he has spoken in almost every city of the Union, how as an investigator he has gone into the lands to meet people whom we are trying to help, and to save and to regenerate, how his name is a household word in Poland and in Russia and in Roumania and everywhere Jews live and suffer.

“If you knew how he has sacrificed his strength, his vigor, his time, you would not oven then be able to visualize, as I have said, one hundredth degree of what he has done and how much he deserves from as and from all men who have suffered, and from all women and children who have agonized in the land across the sea.

“If a man’s soul can eventually be wafted to the Creator and before the heavenly throne by the blessings and the prayers that have gone forth for him, David Brown will be among the ##, (tremendous applause).

PROMISE WAS {SPAN}##{/SPAN}

“We have placed upon the land we the Jews of the United States ## of families with are now becoming self-reliance happy ## people and ## are earning their ## children will grow up a ## on their ##.

“We are not always pay much attention to these ##. There are must ## and ##. We have had them in Israel from the very regretting. The ## are no longer heard of, while the ## with are seeking in ## an accomplish something, to fight for justice and righteousness and for humanity and for the human race, are the great figures in history.

“Last year we were here. Some people then were skeptical; they were doubting Thomases. Now a skeptic and a doubting Thomas answers the purpose in the world. It would be a misfortune if everybody was of the same mind. It is well to have people who present the argument con as well as pro. Sometimes the cons are right, and here we are the affirmative in our minds. We are not negative, not destructive. We are trying to build, and we have the builders; we have Rosen, and we have Dr. Kahn, and we have the men and women who have worked with them and who have been enlisted in this sacred this holy cause.

THE FRUITION OF HOPES

“Now, this year we meet and we have seen the fruition of our hopes; we have learned what has been done, how it has been done, learned that it has not been done {SPAN}##;{/SPAN} that everything is carefully thought out that there has been progression. Beginning in a small way we have grown stronger and stronger, have done more and more and have improved our methods more and more. Nobody contends that the Joint Distribution Committee is perfection: there is nothing human that is perfect, but one thing is certain that we have tried to do our best (applause). We have tried to be {SPAN}##{/SPAN} and loyal to the {SPAN}##{/SPAN} that has been committed to our {SPAN}##;{/SPAN} we have tried to save {SPAN}##;{/SPAN} we have tried not to {SPAN}##{/SPAN} them because it did not such some theory of our or somebody else’s to do one thing rather than another.

“Now, I do find fault. I do not do in every frequently before such a body of friends is I have here. I do find fault that some of our friends take too much for granted. It should never be done. Sometimes people who are in office rely upon their ## and upon the fact that if anybody says anything everything is all right and approved Mr. Gillis (## representative off the ## Relief Committee) is an exception. He always talks rights out in meetings. If he does not agree with us there, he is honesty and uprightly objecting. Others are the same. We do not act unanimously.

“We finally reach a commission in which all agree, and nobody talks if the decision is against him, but everybody has his day in court, and whenever a decision is received against me. I am perfectly ## in the end if I have ## my day in court, and have been listened to. There is the way which the ## Distribution Committee and every member connected with it,” Mr. Marshall declared.

The concision of Mr. Marshall’s address will be punished to-morrow.