No Real Peace is Possible Without Abolishing Racialism, American Historian Says

Citing Russia as a country where anti-Semitism is a crime under the existing laws, and where no racial problem exists despite the multitude of races composing the population of the U.S.S.R., Prof. Harold H. Fisher, Stanford University historian, declared here today that there can be no realistic peace after this war unless a system is designed which would do away with the racial theory and religious prejudices.

Dr. Fisher, who is the official historian of the American Relief Administration, served in the American Expeditionary Forces as a captain during the First World War. Later he was an officer of the American Relief Administration distributing American relief in Russia and other European countries under However. He now suggests that a Council of Nationalities be formed along the same lines as it exists in Russia, expressing the belief that such a Council might solve the nationality problem of Europe.

“The Russians solved the race problem, not only in theory, but in practice, by their treatment of the hundred-odd national and racial minorities in the Soviet Union,” Dr. Fisher says. “We might take a lesson from the Soviets, whether we like their politics or not. Soviet policy toward the nationalities, he continues, “is based on two general principles. First, within the Soviet Union there is no superior race or nation ordained to rule over its neighbors, but all the nationalities, regardless of race, color, culture and number, have equal rights. Second, there is a destination between those activities and institutions which concern the common interests of all the people of the union and those activities and interests which chiefly concern the people of a particular area.

“The first principle not only permits but encourages national groups to preserve their languages and traditions and develop their distinctive culture, but not at the expense of other national groups. The second principle promotes and facilitates the cooperation of all these groups, regardless of differences in language, national traditions and size, in those economic and other enterprises such as communications which transcend the boundaries of nationality and on which the well-being of the people rests.”