Says Poland Must Drop “fear Complex” Towards Jews to Achieve Prosperity

If Poland could only drop the "fear complex" which it exhibits towards its Jewish population and cooperate with the Jews in the development of industry, not only the Jews of Poland, but the non-Jews as well, would be greatly helped towards the attainment of prosperity. This is the opinion expressed by Morris D. Waldman, secretary of the American Jewish Committee, in the current issue of the "Jewish Quarterly Review," reviewing a book by Georges Glicksman on the "Economic Aspect of the Jewish Question in Poland."

At present, the population of Poland is too large for the agricultural and industrial resources of the country, and birth control would be an obvious remedy for excessive population, thinks Mr. Waldman, but birth control is impossible there because of the attitude towards it on the part of the churches.

"The remedies must be found in other and perhaps slower, more tedious and more costly directions," says Mr. Waldman. "And they lie largely in the hands of the Polish government, from whom the initiative must come. Its efforts must be based on an objective view of the situation and upon a realization of the truth that an unhealthy condition of any element in the population unavoidably injures the country as a whole. Boycottage in its various ugly forms, denial of employment in public and allied activities and in large industries, preference shown in subsidization of industrial and commercial cooperatives, discrimination in granting of credit, excessive taxation, discrimination in governmental and municipal appropriation to Jewish educational and charitable institutions, though understandable, are the product of a fear complex as destructive to the country at large as it is to the Jews. It reflects a primitive statesmanship, the futility of which is discernible by comparison with the conditions existing in Occidental countries where the Jews constitute indispensable and important assets of the population."

In concluding his article, Mr. Waldman says:

"The whole policy of the government of Poland reflects a fear complex, fear of its neighbors, fear of its own minorities, especially fear of its Jews. A development of industry in Poland would surely evoke support from America, not only by direct help to the Jewish population, to whom these new opportunities would be opened, but, through a growing confidence thus generated in the future of Poland, in the form of large financial credits badly needed by the government and municipalities of Poland and its financial and industrial institutions."