A mericatt Awish Periodia Carter

May 16, 1941

CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, OHIO

P urely Commentary •

The Genius of America

Remember the last Presidential campaign? Do
you recall the active part taken in it by Dorothy
Thompson, in behalf of President Roosevelt's re-
election? It was a hurtful pill for Wendell
Willkie, whose nomination Miss Thompson was
among the first to advocate, but who later, as a
result of the critical international situation, be-
gan to look upon the Republican candidate as
too inexperienced for the terrific job ahead.
Last week, at the testimonial dinner in honor
of Miss Thompson, Wendell Willkie was one of
the notables who appeared to pay honor to the
brilliant columnist; and among those who sent
messages of greetings to the dinner were Presi-
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister
Winston Churchill.
In reviewing such sportsmanship, you can't
help but thrill in the genius that is ours, and
in the greatness of a people which finds its best
brains united in time of crisis. America can well
be proud of such a spirit, and as time goes on
admiration for Mr. Willkie increases.
Governor Herbert H. Lehman and Mayor
Fiorello LaGuardia were at the Dorothy Thompson
dinner. Dr. Frank Kingdon, president of Newark
University, was chairman of the committee which
sponsored the dinner.
Our good friend Meyer W. Weisgal, executive
vice-president of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi
League, supervised the plans and is to be creditcd
with the major share in the Dorothy Thompson
dinner arrangements. Look at the record, and
you'll find that Weisgal's accomplishments in the
last 15 years rank among the most significant
ill American Jewish life. As editor of the New
Palestine, he produced the Herzl and Hebrew
University volumes which will remain epics in
English-Jewish literature. He fathered and di-
rected the "Romance of a People" and Franz
Werfel's "The Eternal Road", two of the most
magnificent spectacles of modern times. He di-
rected the Jewish Palestine Pavilion at the New
York World's Fair. He is a brilliant organizer, as
the Dorothy Thompson dinner proved it once
again.
•

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Dorothy Thompson's Social Decalogue

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Calling for a revolution "based upon the in-
dividual person, and based upon his desire to im-
prove himself as a human being," Miss Dorothy
Thompson charted a plan for social organization
toward which men must strive, in her address
at the dinner given in her honor. She incor-
porated her plan in the following decalogue:
"I. I believe that nobody can have life,

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liberty, or the possibility of happiness unless
his country is alive, free and happy. Since
the nation is but multiplied neighbors the
admonition to love your neighbor as yourself
is the first law of survival.
I believe that my nation's existence
"2.
is threatened whenever the existence of a
neighbor nation is threatened. My life is tied
up with that of my country, and the lie of
my country with that of other countries.
Therefore, I believe in the rights of other
nations because I believe in the rights of my
own.
I believe in the basic equality of all
"3.
persons, nations and races. Superiority of
gifts, talents, or wealth. whether of persons,
nations or races, only increases the relative
obligation of those so endowed to the rest.
Superior gifts entail superior responsibilities.
Freedom is not given to men for self-
"4.
indulgence or self-aggrandizement, but to en-
able them to make themselves more perfect
members of a more perfect society.
Wealth is not the bookkeeping that
"5.
is called finance, but consists of the natural
resources of the earth, air and water and
labor applied to their transformation into
useful products. All ownership, whether of
resources or of the skills for their develop-
ment, i s wealth in trust for the people as a
whole. Possession must be justified by use,
with due regard to the conservation of re-
sources against their exhaustion and the con-
servation of human beings through proper
periods of rest and recreation.
Work is essential to the development
"6.
of every person alive—physical work, mental
work and spiritual activity. To close or fail
to develop opportunities for work, as long
as there are things to be done that the hu-
man mind can envisage, is a social crime and
a crime against the individual person. All
measures to decrease production when parts
of th e nation and earth are ill-provided for,
are irrational and evil. The resources of the
earth, water and air plus machines and plus
human skills of hand and brain are capable
of assuring a decent material life for all if
rationall y organized and integrated.
Democracy means the sovereignty of
"7.
humanity, through cooperative action, freely
discussed and freely executed. It means the
continual and integrated use of all free
energies under the discipline of a common
objective.
All creative functions in society are
"8.
of equal value. The mechanic is not inferior
to the scholar nor the scholar to the me-
chanic, nor the farmer to the industrial
worker, nor the worker to the planer or
executive. Compensation for various activities
shodd not vary so greatly that vastly differ-
ing social classes are created. A social order
should be sought which is not the s tratified or-
der of masters and slaves, or management and
workers, nor a categorized order of exclusive
castes of administrators, intellectuals, farm-
ers and industrial workers. but is integrated
as a n orchestra is integrated, in which the
piccolo player is recognized as no less essen-

5

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and the Legal Chronicle

Bnai Moshe Sunday Avukah to Elect
Officers May 28
By Philip Slomovitz School Graduation
All members of Avukah are
On Sunday Morning requested
to come to the May

tial than the violinist, and the unity of the
whole, from the conductor down, is imposed
by the music scheduled to be played. The
score of the social music is the common pur•
pose of the neople.
The materialistic conception of his-
"9.
tory that conceives of man as essentially an
economic animal, and the biological interpre•
tation that conceives of him as a beast of
prey, are false. Man is body, mind and spirit,
with needs, desires and aspirations in all
three elements of his nature. History is the
record of humanity's strivings for self -reali-
zation in all parts of its being.
The individual life attains its fullest
"10.
expression and therefore its deepest happi-
ness only when directed to a social and moral
purpose which even the fear of death cannot
deflect. The observation of truths is useless
unless translated into social pra .ctice. I in-
tend, therefore, to seek their realization and
to live and work, without fear or equivoca-
tion, in the hope that America may find the
way to a new life and be an inspiration to
the whole world."

On Sunday, May 18, at 11 28 meeting at the Mackenzie
A. M., in the main auditorium Union at 8 P. M. There will be
of the Bnai Moshe Synagogue, election of officers and a social
Dexter and Lawrence, there will in connection with this last
be held graduation services for meeting of the year.
On May 21, at the Mackenzie
the 9th graders who will enter
the high school of the Su n day Union, Auvkah will have as
school and for the 12th graders speaker Isaac Franck of the Jew.
who are completing their 12- ish Community Council. All are
year course. Many of the senior invited to attend this meeting.
All Avukah members inter-
graduates are returning for post-
ested in going to the national
graduate work.
The 9th graders who have sue- summer camp of Avukah in Lib-
cessfully completed their courses erty, N. Y., from June 15 to
are Marilyn Hass, Daniel Kay, July 1, should contact Cynthia
Shirley Korngeld, Constance Le- Malitz, To. 7-4077, or Nettie Sel-
vine, Walter Nussbaum, Delores igson, To. 6-5620, or the treas-
Onpenheim and Beth Weiner. urer, Sant Iskowitz, for further
The 12th graders who are grad- information regarding the na-
uating are Sandorf Elden, Shir- tional or midwest camps.
ley Hersh, Rose Klein, Sam
Klein, Rita Peisner, Seymour
Shoen, Elaine Sobel, Ruth So-
bel and Milton Weiss.
Besides the awarding of dip-
If the right people study this plan—especially
those who are destined to profit by the upsurge lomas, awards will be made for
in business, but who begrudge others just op- the best scholarship and best at-
graduating
in
the
portunities—then America and the world at large tendance
will inevitably be better when the present conflict classes and lower classes.
The program for the gradua-
is over.
tion exercises are: School Choir,
•
directed by Miss Jewel Klein;
The President's Mother at the Dinner invocation, by Rabbi Moses Fis-
The best elements in America honored Miss cher; salutatorian address, by
Thompson, and it is to her credit that the lunatic Constance Levine, president of
fringe stood out as the one element that dislikes the 9th grade; greetings from
her. It has become a mark of distinction that the board, by Mitchell Feldman,
men and women of courage, who are battling chairman; valedictory address by
valiantly for democratic principles are attacked Ruth Sobel of 12th grade; con-
by the well known groups who are aligned with gratulations by E. Goodfriend,
the Nazi-Fascist forces and who seek to destroy president of Bnai Moshe; ad-
dress by Rabbi Jacob J. Nathan.
American ideals and democratic institutions.
All are invited to attend the
Miss Thompson was appropriately honored at
the dinner on May 6 when she was presented exercises. There will be a recep-
with a bust of herself made by the eminent sculp- tion in honor of the graduates
for Joe Davidson. The distinction was all the in the social hall after the cere-
greater because the bust was presented to her monies.
by Mrs. Sara Delano Roosevelt, mother of the
President.
French dramatist Henry Bern-
•
stein has finished his new play,
the theme of which is life in un-
A Bouquet for PM
PM, the militant New York daily, edited by occupied France—whose govern-
5-8400 •
the able Ralph Ingersoll, has become so con- ment recently cancelled his citi-
zenship.
cerned over the threat to the democracies from
the Nazi-Fascist quarters, that it devotes a major
portion of each issue to a challenge to Americans
CUSTOM MADE QUILTS & REMODELING
on social, economic and political questions, pub-
lished under the heading "What Are We Going
To Do About It?" The worst elements have been
exposed. Those who resort to racial and religious
TYLER 4.6728
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prejudice have been subjected to condemnation.
Parking in Rear of Store
Catholic bigots have been challenged, and the
true position of the Catholic church has been
outlined in PM's columns to indicate that the
Christian Front and the Coughlinites are not the
true representatives of the Roman Catholic
Church.
It was natural that the Daily Worker and
KOSHER
Social Justice, the Communist and pro-Fascist
Restaurant and Dining Room
publications, should have joined in attacks upo-i
PM and Editor Ralph Ingersoll. It was to b9
UNFACELLED FOOD
expected that Father Edward Lodge Curran, edi-
.%ir I 01111ili11114111 — Open 2I flours
PrIltile
Dining Room for Parties
tor of the Brooklyn Tablet, the counterpart of
Coughlin's Social Justice in the east, should have
12017 DEXTER BLVD.
issued a statement calling for a boycott of PM.
NOrthlawn 9786
But PM not only has the goods on the Com-
munist-Nazi-Fascist and the Coughlin-Curran com-
bines, but it apparently has the support of th?
ablest men in the Catholic Church. In its issue
of May 7, in which PM reported the attack upon
SIG WO J LAKE...)
it by Father Curran and the Brooklyn Tablet,
NEAR. GRASS LAKE, MICHIGAN
there appears the reproduction of an important
•
RECREATIONAL, SOCIAL ‘I.4
comment on the Tablet, Social Justice and Father
• EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES •
Coughlin by one of the most eminent Catholic
priests in America. On the stationery of the
National Catholic Welfare Conference, of whose
administrative board the Most Rev. Edward
• BASEBALL • VOLLEY BALL
• SWIMMING
• CAMP-CRAFT
Mooney, D. D., Archbishop of Detroit, is the
• HORSEBACK RIDING • HIKING
• BOATING • DRAMATICS
chairman, the Right Rev. John A. Ryan, D. D.,
• PING PONG
director of this Catholic organization, wrote as
• PHOTOGRAPHY
• FISHING
• TENNIS
follows to James J. Kokesh of 629 Asbury St..
St. Paul, Minn., addressing the letter to Mr. and
Mrs. Kokesh:

DEFEND

YOURNOME,700

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CLEAN

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LEADER CARPET CLEANING CO,
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Under Excellent Supervision

"I received your recent letter in which you
say that H. R. 1074, if passed, 'will destroy
our parochial schools.' I have just read the
Bill and find in it nothing to justify such a
fear. All that the Bill proposes is to give
federal money to the states to be used for
physical education in the schools. That would
not destroy or even injure the parochial
schools; moreover it would be quite possible
to have the Bill amended so that part of the
money could be made available for physical
education in the parochial schools.
"As a matter of fact. the Bill has not the
slightest chance of being enacted by this
Congress.
"Your judgment that 'this country is drift-
ing into Communism fast,' is utterly wrong.
There is no indication of that. You must have
been reading Social Justice or the Brooklyn
Tablet or recalling some of the wild speeches
made by Father Coughlin. Don't let your-
selves be fooled or frightened by fakers."

There is nothing to be added to this letter,
except to point out that it is dated April 2, 1941,
and to indicate that Dr. Ryan adheres to a con-
sistent view of opposition to the crack-pot policies
of the men and the newspapers he condemns.
The Catholic church is vindicated by the actions
of men like Father Ryan, and the activities of
the Coughlinites have never been more blatantly
repudiated. The lunatic fringe is noisy. But PM
and its fellow liberals are vindicated. Dr. Ryan's
letter proves it more effectively than anything
else we have read in a long time.

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