Labor, Non-jews Play Major Boycott Role, Untermyer Holds

Reichsfuehrer Hitler’s speech Sunday, in which he indirectly but with sufficient plainness so as to leave no room for doubt, cast blame for the world boycott of Germany upon the Jews, was the subject of a statement issued yesterday by Samuel Untermyer, president of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights.

The statement attacks Hitler for his “long-continued misrepresentations” concerning the boycott and emphasizes the fact that organized labor and Christians have played a far more important role in the move than the Jews. Mr. Untermyer points out that an international convention, to be held at Brussels in October, will “demonstrate the non-sectarian character of the movement.” The statement follows:

“In view of the persistent, long-continued misrepresentations of Herr Hitler for the last eighteen months, repeated yesterday, and of the many likewise, misleading assertions of his Minister of Propaganda, in all of which it is sought to have it appear that the existing world-boycott which is steadily growing in scope and intensity is a Jewish campaign, it becomes necessary to emphasize the fact that this is in no sense a Jewish boycott except to the extent that the Jews are participating in it with organized labor and Christians. The Jewish Congress, which has held the center of the stage at Geneva for a few days, is only one of 100 or more organizations that are participating in this boycott. There is to be an international convention at Brussels in October that will demonstrate the non-sectarian character of this movement.

JEWS ½% OF POPULATION

“The Jews of the world number 16,000,000 souls, which is less than one-half of 1 per cent of the world’s population. In America they number 3,000,000. No such trifling fraction could alone have accomplished any such result. This is a spontaneous and ever-growing uprising of civilization, inclusive of all creeds and races.

“Our organization, which started the movement here and abroad, is distinctly non-sectarian, although I happen to be its president Among its directors in this country are and have been from the beginning such distinguished national, non-Jewish figures as Col. Theodore Roosevelt, James W. Beck, George Gordon Battle, former Ambassador James W. Gerard, Mayor F. H. LaGuardia and others.

“The Catholic and Protestant churches and their peoples, and all Christianity that is sought to be destroyed and substituted by paganism, organized labor that has been exterminated in Germany and its hundreds of millions of property confiscated, the Masonic lodges that have been barred, the hardearned emancipation of German women that has been set back for a century—these are the forces behind this boycott. It is the world’s protest against the barbarous, medieval policy that is sustaining this boycott.

“At first it was believed that with the lapse of time these suicidal policies that have aroused the hostility of the entire world would be reversed, but it has now become evident that nothing short of the destruction of the Government of this band of fanatics will solve the problem.”