“The only way to break down ‘underground societies’ is to bring them out in the open, but to deny them the right to meet is a restraint in advance,” declared Arthur Garfield Hays in an address today before the Booster Club. His address served as an answer to widespread criticism which arose following his recent legal defense of a Nazi organization in a case before Vice-Chancellor Bigelow in Jersey City.
“These organizations thrive because they get their inspiration from the fact that they are secret and not in the open,” he said. “Drive them out into the open and they will destroy themselves.”
Although he believes a boycott of stores carrying German goods would be held illegal, Hays declared his belief in the boycott and in every other means possible to make those in power in Germany come to terms. “I would extend the boycott to any extent,” he said.
Speaking of his recent trip to Germany, Hays denied there were outward assaults or insults to the Jews as such, but said conditions have become almost unbearable today.
Anti-Semitism in America is due to prejudice caused by ignorance and inexperience, he declared. “So long as we have equal rights under the law we can take care of ourselves.”
Hays condemned the recent German blood purge “as the meanest and most audacious revolution in the history of the world.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
