Now–editorial Notes

Amost twenty years ago I received a letter from Thomas A. Edison, which is of peculiar interest now. It was written in response to my inquiry regarding an article in which Edison had expressed his views on the role of the Jews in Germany during the first months of the World War. The Edison letter, dated Orange, N. J., November 13, 1914, follows:

“Your favor of the 9th instant was received. I think I cannot do better than to quote to you the reply I made yesterday to a letter to me by Mr. Jacob H. Schilf It was as follows:

“Replying to your favor of the 9th instant let me say that I have not seen the newspaper article you refer to, but I remember what I said and it was this: that he Germans took all the credit for the great advance of their nation in commercial prosperity, whereas the fact is that the milicary group that rules Germany had brains enough to take the advice of the great Jewish bankers and business men. and gave the captains of industry a free hand, thus enabling them to build up the normous industry of modern Germany. I instanced the Bleichroeders, Ballin, Rathenau and Loewe, and said that if one went down to the bottom of things in the great and most successful industries, one would dig up a Jew who furnisned the ability that made them a success.

“Trusting the above will be a satisfactory reply to your inquiry, I remain

Yours very truly,

“THOS. A EDISON”

The German military group which ruled Germany before and during the war had brains enough to allow the Jews to build up the enormous industries of modern Germany. If the German military group had also had brains enough to take the advice of Rathenau and Ballin In 1914, there would have been up World War, for these Jews would have eautioned them against the mad adventure.

After the War Rathenan worked hard to win back for Germany the honor, prestige and prosperity lost through the War, and while he was on the eve of rehabilitating Germany, he was murdered by two deluded Nazi youths. Albert Ballin, the genius who had built up the German shipping industry, and who had urged the Kaiser to abandon submarine warfare, was driven to suicide by the ingratitude of his imperial friend. Walter Rathenau was assassinated because he was a Jew and because he was trying to transform Germany into a strong and prosperous democracy.

Then came Hitler, the Austrian hysterical agitator, and made himself dictater of Germany by the most extravagant promises to give bread with honor and martial glory to the German people. Rabid anti-Semitism constituted the major part of his program. Now he is fulfilling his promises to crush the Jews, and in doing this he is at the same time destroying the industries which the Jews had built up for Germany.

The rise of Hitler in Germany and the menace of Hitlerism to the world have been defined by many students of international affairs. One of the most interesting definitions now comes from Prince Hubertus Loewenstein, in his new book entitled “The Tragedy of a Nation–Germany, 1918-1934,” He says of Hitler:

“He is the incorporated sham rococo style that has still an attraction for certain strata of the German people, and on the lines of this sham rococo all points of Herr Hitler’s program can be explained. His Socialism is that of the industrials of the Nineties…His Nationalism is an oleograph of Bismarck in the uniform of a grenadier, and his reconstruction of the State is as an old Prussian sergeant might conceive it. But everything is wrapped in vague and misty ideas that must appear to emit the tremulous light of creativeness; and with rare skill, as we grudgingly grant him, and with the mien of an idealist and a good bourgeois he has the courage to utter rubbish and lies.”

Prince Loewenstein is less surprised that the German people should be duped by him than that other nations should be hoodwinked. He writes:

“All countries of Europe, with the one exception of France, accept all these endearments of Hitler’s seriously even when they are in obvious contradiction to his deeds. And they will go on with it until the Nazis feel strong enough to let loose another European war.”

Prince Loewenstein convinced that Hitler and his Nazis are striving toward war, says:

“Between the lines of all peace orations destined for foreign consumption the doctrine can be discerned that salvation lies only in a new war… In Germany the amount of ammunition is towering higher, while enormous cellars are being filled with steel flasks containing highly compressed and extremely expensive poisonous gases.”

Prince Loewenstein might have included the poisonous gase of hate that Hitlerism is exporting to other lands in his war against the Jews who had helped to build up Germany’s industries and culture.