Now-editorial Notes

Tammany Hall, somewhat reorganized after its recent humiliating defeat, has appointed a Jewish secretary, “Bashful” Bert Stand. Tammany’s new leader, James J. Dooling, is in many respects quite a new type of man chosen to head the organization that has been identified with such bosses as Tweed, Croker and Murphy.

Bert Stand is following in the footsteps of his father, Leon Stand, an election district captain under Edward J. Ahearn, to whom the new secretary of Tammany refers as his “adopted father.”

In an interview for the Jewish Daily Bulletin, Mr. Stand said that politcs run in his blood and referred to Adolph Stand the eminent Jewish Deputy in the old Austrian-Reichstag as his uncle. He described himself as a Democrat first and a Jew second. He pointed to himself as a “shining example” when asked whether politics is a worthwhile field for Jewish youths. He said that there was no prejudice in New York civic life, adding:

“Don’t forget we have a Jewish Governor and an Italian Mayor. That in itself ought to be enough to set at rest any doubt as to whether the Jew or any one else has a chance in New York politics.”

I have never before heard of Mr. Stand and do not know of his qualifications, his brand of Jewishness, his type of Democracy. Undoubtedly Tammany knows his qualifications well and is sure that he can be depended upon for Tammany purposes. His appointment to this post of strategic influence in local politics is a concession to the changing conditions which the “Tiger” has felt so painfully of late. It does not mean that New York Jews have been accorded any special recognition by Tammany because of this particular appointment. It rather means that Tammany is endeavoring to mend its broken fences by being able to point to the fact that it now has a Jewish secretary for the first time. If Tammany is to be reformed, if it is to abandon some of the ways and characteristics that made New York politics notorious throughout the world; those now at the head of the organization, Gentiles and Jews, will deserve considerable credit. If Tammany is merely to be given a new coat of paint of outward respectability while actually carrying on in the same old manner, the leaders, whether they be Gentiles or Jews, will be discarded and will again meet with public rebuke. In that event the appointment of a Jew as the secretary of Tammany Hall will reflect no honor on New York Jews.

American Jews should receive their appointments or nominations for public office not as Jews, just as American Protestants or Catholics should be chosen for public office not because of their religion. Nor should there be any discrimination against candidates or officials because of their faith or creed. Only character, fitness and public-spiritedness should be the tests by which men and women are to be chosen for public office.

AN EFFECTIVE DENIAL

Lord Nuffield, the English motor magnate, denied the rumors regarding his sympathies for the Fascist movement in England and his financial aid to the Fascist leaders, in the following effective note, addressed to the Jewish Chronicle, of London:

“During the last few months it has, from time to time, been brought to my notice that there are rumors in circulation to the effect that I have given financial support to the Fascist movement in this country, and that my tendencies are therefore anti-Jewish; and a somewhat unfortunate cartoon which was published in the Evening Standard on Friday, June 29, has, I am afraid, done much to convince public opinion that such is the case. I feel that it is scarcely necessary for me to say that there is not an atom of truth in either of these allegations — I never subscribed to the Fascist movement nor supported it in any way, neither have I the least antipathy toward the Jewish race.

“It occurs to me that the best means of evidencing the fore going statements may be for me to make a subscription to a Jewish charity, and I am therefore enclosing this company’s cheque for £250, which I should be grateful if you would add to the fund which you are promoting — the Central British Fund for German Jewry.

I am, etc.,

“Nuffield,

“Morris Motors, Ltd.,

“Cowley, Oxford.”

This is the most striking method of denying the unfortunate rumors. During the past few weeks a number of prominent Englishmen have either denied or severed their connection with the so-called Fascist movement in England, which is a sort of combination of Italian Fascism and Hitlerite Nazism. The intellectual and political leaders in England have denounced the outrages of Nazism on various occasions. Since the Hitler blood bath of June 30, the arrogant speech before the Reichstag in which Hitler tied to justify his savage butcheries, and the latest Hitlerite Nazi machinations in Austria culminating in the Dollfuss assassination and the brazen putsch that failed, no decent person in England or elsewhere can regard Hitlerism in any form with anything else than abhorrence and disgust.