“Louis Marshall’s reply to Mr. Ford was a classic, and should be read from every Jewish pulpit in America. Mr. Marshall never appeared better qualified as the spokesman for American Jewry,” declared Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of the “New York Times”, in a statement to the “Jewish Tribune.”
“To forgive is human, but to forget is divine,” Mr. Ochs said.
“The damage that the “Dearborn Independent” and its auxiliary publications have done can never be repaired; and, like the fiction of the ‘wise men of Zion,’ will make periodical, malicious appearance for many years to come. Nevertheless, Mr. Ford has shown superb moral courage in his wholehearted recantation, and has gained in the respect and admiration of his fellow men.
“I hope he will do the amende honorable to Sapiro and Bernstein; and particularly, that he will reimburse Sapiro for the enormous expense to which he was put in challenging the richest man in the world to do him all the injury possible by means of inexhaustible funds and cohorts of over-zealous investigators.
“I should like to join in a testimonial to Sapiro who made the fight and won the victory. It could only have been done by a man whose character and career were without serious blemish. Mr. Ford’s countenancing and aiding a baseless, vituperative campaign against the Jews has always been inexplicable to me, for my contacts with him have been agreeable and have left me with a good impression of his personality, and his outlook on life and its responsibilities. This was enhanced last year by the close acquaintance of his son, Edsel Ford, whom I found to be an intelligent, broadminded and genial young man, with a charming wife and an interesting family of children.”
The leading editorial in the “Nation,” this week comments on Henry Ford’s apology.
“Henry Ford? He is an enigma still,” the paper writes: “Did he make his sudden apology to the Jewish race as a means of settling the libel suits that were piling up against him? Or in the hope of propping up an overgrown business? Or must one take at face value the amazing statement that he had just learned that the anti-Semitic campaigns of his “Dearborn Independent” had aroused resentment among the Jews? In any other man such naivete would be impossible. But, recalling the almost incredible simple-mindedness displayed by this billionaire on the witness stand in the Chicago “Tribune” suit ten years ago, one hesitates. He has before this trusted himself and his fortune to lieutenants who proved ill-chosen, has stood by them far too long and then dropped them in cruel and impetuous disgust. The man is so remote from all accidental contact with ordinary human beings, and from the miscellaneous associations which come to literate persons through their casual reading, that it is conceivable that he did not realize to what length of race prejudice his magazine had gone or what universal disgust its blind Judeophobia had inspired.”
Commissioner of Accounts James A. Higgins, who was asked by Mayor Walker to investigate conditions at the city hospitals, questioned twenty-five witnesses Thursday regarding conditions at Kings County Hospital Brooklyn. N. Y. This hospital figures in the investigation the Mayor is making into charges of anti-Semitic activities on the part of members of the staff. Most of these witnesses were former patients.
Commissioner Higgins said the result of his investigation would be made public when he reports to the Mayor.
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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.
