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###oth of whom received an overwhelming welcome.

Mr. Goldberg concluded his speech with a reference to the difficult work ###f the American Jewish Congress, and plea for the financial support which would enable the Congress to continue ###he campaign, a campaign which prom-###sed to be protracted and difficult.

One of the most impressive incidents ###f the evening was the few moments of #rayer in Hebrew offered by Rabbi M. S. Margolis, the 80-year old President of the Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, who followed Ab. Goldberg. The whole audience rose out of ###espect for the venerable Rabbi, who, though sick, and barely able to walk, had insisted on participating in the meeting.

Mayor John P. O’Brien said, “It is a privilege to be here this evening and to be able, in the name of the people of the City of New York, embracing #s it does men and women of many races or creeds, to join in a protest against religious and racial persecution.

“The reports of happenings in Germany in the last few weeks as to the treatment of Jews have been so shocking as to seem wellnigh incredible. I was delighted, accordingly, to read in the morning papers the telegram from Secretary of State Hull to Rabbi Wise indicating that the reports from our diplomatic representatives in Germany were to the effect that the reported persecution of the Jews in Germany was greatly exaggerated and that the government was taking stern measures to prevent recurrences of any of the excesses that had taken place.

“I am sure that the real Germany condemns disgraceful raids on Albert Einstein’s home, the destruction of Feuchtwanger’s literary creative manuscripts, maltreatment of the great Bruno Walter and any hounding of the great liberal minded Jewish journalists and poets.

“It is difficult to believe, my friends, the excesses of the demagoguery of which we have been reading in Germany could have been sanctioned by the German people. They could not be sanctioned by the government of Germany; they certainly are not sanctioned by the Germans in our city—a city of various races and peoples who live together amicably, respecting the traditions, the creeds and the races of all law-abiding citizens. The Germans here, whether Protestant, Catholic or Jewish, could have no more sympathy with the reported intolerance in Germany than could the great body of the German people in the Fatherland itself.”

United States Senator Robert F. Wagner declared that he spoke as an immigrant boy from Germany, who had climbed the ladder until he had reached one of the highest positions in the United States. He said that he spoke as a friend of the German people, and one who honored and loved the land of his childhood, cherished by history, and was proud of her accomplishments. “With that as my background,” he continued, “you can readily understand that to me tolerance, liberty, equality of opportunity are not just pretty words. They are to me the breath of life, the beat of my heart.

“As I read the the reports of the occurrences in Germany that are responsible for this meeting, I am filled with horror and dismay. There is a lump in my throat as I consider that others less fortunate than I are being denied the very blessings of equality and opportunity which I enjoyed.”

Of Hitlerism, he said, “the emergency of this destructive spirit is of concern not alone to the Jewish people, it is a menace not only to the German people; unless it is dissipated, it threatens to blot out every prospect of progress, to poison the very springs of our civilization.”

Bishop Manning, who followed Mayor O’Brien, took occasion to protest against religious persecution in Soviet Russia as well as against what was occuring in Germany. He said:

“Race prejudice, oppression, religious persecution have no right to exist anywhere in this world, and we have no right to condone or countenance them.

“We appeal here tonight for their cessation everywhere in the name of right, of humanity and of religion.”

Former Governor Alfred E. Smith received a tremendous ovation when he rose to speak. The whole audience stood up and applauded, and it was sometime before he could make himself heard. He said:

“There is no denying the fact that there has been a kind of council of pussyfooting about whether we should have this meeting or not. There was a great cross-fire and current of opinion that was in conflict. I got all kinds of telegrams and all kinds of cablegrams telling me there wasn’t any reason for a meeting, that nothing had taken place, that we wanted to avoid the possibility of hysteria in a time like this. Well, all I can say about that is that where there is a good deal of smoke there must be some fire. And the only thing to do with it, not in our interest alone but in the interest of the future of the German people is to drag it out into the open sunlight, and give it the same treatment that we gave the Ku Klux Klan. So as not to be exposed to the tomfoolery of it, of the antics of it and the picture of the throne of the Imperial Wizard and all the rest of the bunkum that goes with its ritual; it died a natural death. And it don’t make any difference to me whether it is a brown shirt or a night shirt.

“Now there is one thing that we are all sure about and that is the platform of the ruling party in the Germanic state. It was anti-Semitic, it was the intention, the avowed purpose of the men that ran on that platform, to separate the Jews from the life of Germany.

“Well, I don’t know whether all candidates at all times in all parties really intend to do all the things they say they are going to do. But I do know that sometimes some of their enthusiastic followers may labor under the impression that they are carrying out the master’s will, and that is the thing that I am pretty sure we got to be careful about.

“This fact, however, remains: That up to the present moment, if we look at the record, the responsible head of the German Government has said nothing in denunciation of this conduct.

“I read something in the paper where somebody attempted to excuse it by the sudden revolutionary change in the government. Hitler was in the last government. He was in the last government, and the result of the recent election has only been to expand his power.

“While, of course, we are all concerned with the stories of the conduct of the Nazis toward the Jewish people, I am concerned a little bit with the spiritual side of it. We might expect this from some parts of the world, but certainly it comes as a great shock when it comes from Germany. And I am satisfied, as far as my conscience is concerned, that no such attitude as that squares with the heart and the conscience of the rank and file of the German people.”

Mr. William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor, said that he spoke in the name of the millions of members of the Federation, on whose behalf he protested against the atrocities perpetrated against the Jews in Germany. He declared: “I transmit to the officers and members of the German trade unions, the masses of the people, the hosts of labor in Germany and to the Jewish people an expression of sympathy and interest. Labor in America wishes them to know that it is not unmindful of the suffering to which all of them are being subjected and that it fully appreciates the difficult and distressing experiences through which they are now going.”

James N. Rosenberg, vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, was introduced as one of the men active in the great work of relief, which the American people had carried on in Europe after the War, and as one who had given of his best efforts to provide food and medical help for Germans as