Now-editorial Notes

Dr. Jacob G. Lipman, Dean of Agriculture at Rutgers University and director of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, has been awarded the Chandler Medal of Columbia University for 1934. According to the announcement of the Medal Committee, “Dr. Lipman’s work on the determination of the nature of the chemical action produced by bacteria in making both organic and inorganic components of soils available for plant food has been of great importance to agriculture all over the world.”

The medal will be conferred at a national assembly of scientists at Columbia in November.

Dr. Lipman, who came to this country as a Russo-Jewish immigrant boy in 1887, was one of the pioneer Jewish farmers in Woodbine, N. J. He is a graduate of the Baron de Hirsch Agricultural School. Since his graduation he has devoted himself to various phases of scientific work regarding agriculture and has become recognized as one of the foremost authorities on the subject in the world. His monographs on “Education and Research,” “Rural Settlements” and technical papers on soils, soil bacteriology and agronomy are considered both here and abroad as authoritative contributions of great value.

If, by chance, Dr. Lipman had emigrated from Russia to Germany instead of to the United States, his scientific achievements and contributions would have placed him now in the category of the despised and persecuted “non-Aryan” intellectuals.

ALLENBY ON FASCISM

Viscount Allenby, the modern liberator of Palestine from Turkish rule, discussing Fascism, said:

“Mosley made an ass of himself. I do not think Fascism is needed in Britain, nor in Canada, nor in the United States.”

The Fascist leader in England, Mosley, has recently discovered that his movement is not making any headway. Some of his prominent supporters have abandoned him and his Fascism, which was patterned somewhat along the lines of Hitlerite Nazism. The recent savage antics of the Nazis have opened the eyes of many reactionary people in other lands, who at first believed they could strengthen reaction in their countries by emulating the Hitlerite methods. Now they have convinced themselves that these revolting methods could not be transplanted in a civilized country.

COMMON SENSE

City Magistrate Jonah J. Goldstein has written a very interesting and useful book, “The Family in Court.” In his Foreword he warns the reader thus:

“I am neither a stylist nor a master of English. Through a ghost writer I could have masqueraded as either or both. I refrained from employing a ghost for fear of having substance whittled by style.

“Through this book the author is chatting with you in the hope of arousing interest in the subject of the Law’s Mishandling of Domestic Relations.”

Magistrate Goldstein’s book is full of “human interest” stories based upon cases that came up before him and other judges. It is marked with flashes of genuine humor and wit. It is a simple but deeply sympathetic analysis of the ills resulting from misunderstanding, from indifference, from cold legalism, in the old-fashioned attitude of the court toward domestic relations. And the author proposes the remedy.

“Human maladjustment affects the community at large as seriously as an infectious disease,” writes Magistrate Goldstein. “When the medical scientist seeks new cures for old ills, he enters the laboratory with a desire to probe, study, test and experiment until he has found a cure. In the same spirit as the scientist enters the laboratory, so the Domestic Relations Court should be used as a laboratory for the study of human behavior in an effort to find cures for old ills.

“One thing is certain—old ways and methods have failed.”

The book ends with a few remarks on the “magic” judicial gown. The author is just as modest in his conclusion as in his foreword.

Thus he writes:

“The judicial gown, as you know, is a black silk robe that the judge wears. With many, it acts as a magic robe. The moment he dons it, he becomes all-knowing. He acquires the knowledge, experience and training necessary for the solution of any problem or any controversy. Many judges who, without it, could not rig up an electric bell, with it, acquire the scientific knowledge necessary to pass on patents involving highly technical engineering matters. Without the gown, many of them limit their reading to the newspapers; with it, they become literary critics and censors. Without it, they could not solve or diagnose or prescribe concerning matters in their own homes; with it, they acquire the knowledge, training and experience of psychologists, physicians, psychiatrists, religious leaders, educators and child guidance experts.

“For some unknown reason, my judicial gown lacks the magic power….

“And so I venture the opinion that there is no magic to the judicial gown; that it is, in fact, just a fairy tale. A lawyer without social vision becomes a judge without social vision. By social vision I simply mean the desire and ability to see further than your nose; to treat individuals in their relation to society and to think of society when you are prescribing for the individual—to think not only of yesterday and today but also of a better tomorrow.”

The common sense, the vision and the sympathetic understanding with which the author treats the complicated problems that come before the Domestic Relations Court cannot fail to serve a good purpose and to lead to essential reforms.