The Human Touch

It seems to me to be bad business, calling people anti-Semites who may not be so. In times of stress a good offensive may be the best defense, but this strategy should not at the same time ignore the necessity of not creating any more enemies than you can manage with your resources. There are also the other maxims about letting sleeping dogs lie and about making a man into the image of the name you give him. A man may be indifferent or neutral to what we call “The Jewish question,” but you can always make sure of his enmity by insisting upon its existence.

It is an unpleasant way of attesting the purity of your own Judaism, to throw off the fence into the camp of anti-Semitism those who truly were not so until you had to set work on the business of name-calling. Even when you are sure, by the process of intuition, that a man is a latent anti-Semite, don’t make the latent potent. You may rouse the sleeping dog of anti-Semitism, if you wish, when your capacity for dealing with already expressed anti-Semitism is greater than the sum of your already declared enemies. I don’t believe that Jews can afford to add the doubtful cases of anti-Semitism to the already declared and professed. It is an absurd thing to create enemies by giving them names and reputations to which they may not be technically entitled.

THE TRAIN FOR LIBERTY

All this editorialization has its illuminating and illustrative point in the story of the old fellow at the railway station who wanted to know when the 5:15 for Liberty was leaving. The guard replied that, since it was already 5:20, that train had already left. The old fellow persisted in his question, whereupon the guard replied, less patiently, that it had left and that it was the last for the day. The old fellow, persisting in his question, was finally told, with complete loss of patience, that there was no train for the desired station until tomorrow, whereupon the old man, in disgust, spat out the word: “Anti-Semite!”

The other evening a group of five got aboard a Fifth avenue bus. One of them, a man, and a somewhat loud-mouthed one, kept his stand on the platform leading to the top of the bus, which was then crowded. Within the bus others were seated, awaiting their chance to grab the first seats vacated at the top. One of those who was, so to speak, “in line” for a top seat muttered something about these . . . using an uncomplimentary reference to Jews. It would have been easy to have lost one’s temper over that insult, but silly, for the man at whom had been directed the insult was—an Italian.

A JEWISH OBLIGATION

I recall, in connection with this whole business, the attitude of a relative by marriage who laid upon himself the obligation to comport himself in such a manner, no matter how small or how large the community in which he happened to find himself, that no Jew coming after him would suffer by the repute which his own conduct had brought upon the word “Jew.” And I believe now that his way of “fighting” was far more effective than the leaping-at-the-throat of-fensiveness of Jews who are always vigilant to defend the name of Jew. I believe that a good deal of latent anti-Semitism is susceptible to conversion to reason.

When a man comes up against the menace of Pelley-ism, it is a good thing for him to be able to recall that no Jew he ever knew in his home town ever had the repulsive qualities that such professional anti-Semites as Pelley— now happily, and temporarily, shorn of his power to make mischief—impute to Jews. I don’t say that Jews should be “good” Jews or “white” Jews in the way of assuming masks which deny their true character. I simply mean to point out that some Jews, by being themselves and by bearing in mind the obligations to their race, can do far greater good than those militant name-callers who are ready to shout anti-Semite at the drop of a chip from the shoulder.

MORE BARTER

After concluding the book barter by which I acquired the two-volume New Oxford dictionary. I decided to suspend barter, for one does not pluck a dozen or more books out of a well-weeded collection without giving the wounds a chance to heal. But only a few days after the massive dictionary had been installed, another person who called cast covetous glances at my poor few books and before I was aware of what I had said, of what I had committed myself to, another raid was being conducted and an armful of books, most of which I shall never miss were being hauled off triumphantly by the party of the second part who will make amends, if that’s what it may be called, with a daub of his own composition. But no matter how good the daub, all trades are off until further notice —and that will be for a long time, too.

I Heard the other day a curious anecdote of a hard-boiled factory and mill executive who, late in life became associated with a rather fashionable publishing house which he thought he could manage on the same martinet and time-clock principles which had helped him make a fortune in other fields. Realizing perhaps that he did not know enough to select manuscripts, he confined himself almost exclusively to the job of extracting a full eight hours worth of work, and if possible more, out of each employe’s day. One of his favorite devices was to time the small employes during their enforced retreats into privacy and at the end of five minutes knock on the door, yelling: “You’ve been there five minutes; isn’t that enough?” Later on he was reported to have given up this mode of enforcing efficiency. This man has now departed this more or less good earth and is probably comparing notes on efficiency with the most hated newspaper owner of all time, Frank Munsey, who forced grown men employes to smoke their cigarets in the wash rooms of, among other places, the New York Globe.

Keep up with Jewish news by reading the Jewish Daily Bulletin, only English-language Jewish daily newspaper.