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January 15, 1943 - Image 6

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Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish Chronicle and the Legal Chronicle, 1943-01-15

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4

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE

Published Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.

JACOB H. SCHAKNE
JACOB MARGOLIS

Pres.-Gen. Mgr.
Editor

General Offices and Publication Bldg., 525 Woodward Ave.

Telephone: CAdillac 1040 Cable Address: Chronicle
Subscription in Advance
$3.00 Per Year

To insure publication, all correspondence and news matter
must reach this office by Tuesday evening of each week.
When mailing notices, kindly use one side of paper only.

The Detroit Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on sub-
jects of interest to the Jewish people, but disclaims respon•
sibility for an endorsement of views expressed by its writers

Entered as Second•class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post-
office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of 'March 3, 1879.

Sabbath Readings of the Law

Pentateuchal portion—Exodus 10.1-13.16.
Prophetical portion—Jeremiah 46.13-28.

JANUARY 15. 1943

SHEBAT 9, 5703

The "Miracle" of Production

In his speech on the state of the nation
President Roosevelt spoke of the "miracle"
of production that was achieved by Amer-
ican industry in the last year.
The word miracle is in quotes as it
should be, for there can be little doubt
that when the President announced his
production program a year ago, he had a
complete picture of our ability to produce.
He had received a detailed statement of
the installed horsepower and power re-
sources; the number of skilled workers;
the time necessary for tooling ; and the
time needed for changing over from peace
time to war time production.
It would have been a miracle if we had
produced the kind, quality and quantity
of war goods with less horsepower, power
resources, technological and engineering
skill, transportation and communication
facilities.
The great achievement caused little or
no wonderment among those who are even
superficially acquainted with American
scientific and technological growth, and
we may be sure that despite the pooh-
poohing by Adolf Hitler and his gang,
the industrial engineers and scientists of
Germany know that we have produced
and will produce the goods to carry on
this global conflict.
Goebbels and his aids will ridicule our
claims and will make every effort to keep
this information from the German people.
The great bulk of the American people
has learned that we really can produce
vast quantities of goods and services with
our modern industrial set up. Despite
7,000,000 men in the armed forces we
have produced more than 50 per cent
more steel and have carried more than
50 per cent more freight on our railroads
than in the most productive year in our
history, 1929.
All this vast production of war goods
is designed to protect and perpetuate our
freedoms.
The question that is disturbing many
thoughtful and socially-minded men and
women is this: Will we have the wisdom
and statesmanship, if and when we have
removed the danger to our freedoms, to
utilize all this vast productive capacity so
that we may enjoy our freedoms and
particularly the freedoms from fear and
want?
Because of our preoccupation with the
affairs of the world we frequently forget
that we have many unsolved domestic
problems.
These problems are not presently acute,
but we may be reasonably certain that
when peace does come they will come to
the fore. Plans must be made now for
meeting the problems that will confront
us. It would be most unwise and unstates-
manlike to do nothing about them now,
and hope that when they do arise we
shall be able to meet them without dis-
turbance and dislocation.
The "miracle" of war production can
be matched by the "miracle" of peace
time production, if we show the same
interest, cooperation and willingness dur-
ing peace times as we are now showing
during these trying times of war.

Britain Must Act •

G. D. H. Cole, chairman of the Fabian
Society, urges Britain to allow immediate
admission of Jewish refugees from Nazi
terror into Palestine. In the circular dis-
tributed in Britain he says: "It is idle to
make appeals to humanity in other coun-
tries, if Britain refuses the one thing
really in its power."
G. D. H. Cole is one of the ablest and
most highly regarded among the liberal
British economists. He understands all the
implications of his demand. He knows and
appreciates the complex and contradic-
tory British position in the Near East and
Palestine and yet he insists that it is
idle to make appeals to humanity and
do nothing yourself, especially when you
are in a position to do so.
The refugees from Nazi terror are a
stubborn fact, that no amount of ration-
alization can alter.
Britain controls immigration to Palestine
—this, too, is a fact.
What repercussions and disputes may
follow the admission of Jews into Pal-
estine are speculative. We doubt that
even the most hard-bitten Arab national-
ist would object to admitting refugees at
such a time as this. And even if there
were such, that should not influence
Britain in a matter of life and death of
so many hapless victims.
There are times when political con-
siderations, and expediency, should play
no part in decisions. The case of the refu-
gees is such an instance, and if Britain
is to deserve the respect of decent, hon-
est, forthright men, she must give heed
to the urgent appeal of Mr. Cole and his
co-workers of the Fabian Society.

Unseemly Anxiety

January 15, 1943

PLAIN TALK

by AL SEGAL



This Layman

MR. SEGAL: Perhaps
D EAR
I should begin by stating that

I am not Jewish . . . I am most
sympathetic toward Jews and their
great suffering. I have been think-
ing a great deal about them and
how an amelioriation of their con-
dition might be brought about and
anti-Semitism subdued.
Such an inquiry naturally leads
to the question: What are the
points of irritation that cause con-
flicts on which anti-Semitism
thrives? What may the Jew do
to blunt these points of irritation.
May 1, therefore, with the great-
est respect, suggest that the Jews
call a conference for clinical self-
study. Bluntly, the question such
a conference would put to it-
self is: What's the matter with
us? There is saving power in
men knowing themselves—J. F. R.,
Cincinnati.

A A A

0, my dear J. F. R., I think
I know precisely what's the mat-
ter with me, the Jew. I know all
my vices. I may as well confess
that at times I am a terrible per-
son. What people say of me is
quite true: I am frequently a
selfish man. in this nhase of me
I am wrapped up entirely in my-
self and all my aspirations have
to do with myself and my own wel-
fare and my aggrandizement.
As a selfish man I spend my
life in the business of increasing
my goods, as if I didn't know
that at the end I will have only
the suit in which the undertaker
will clothe me. Of real estate I
will have only the six feet of
earth that enclose me, of paper
(my strong box is stuffed with
precious paper)) I will have only
the turning of a page commend-
ing me to the Most High, in the
prayer book.
I confess that as a selfish man
I am not only a horrib'e fellow to
contemplate but pretty much of a
damfool as well, considering that
at the end I will have nothing
of the goods that I go to such
pains to gather. As a selfish man
I will die without having lived
at all in the sense that living isn't
just a process of getting money
and things.

is enough, this same ego-centric
pursuit.
Yes. I'm sure of it. I have seen
non-Jewish people like me in all
the places of the world, in the
house next door, in the place
around the corner and the one
across the street, in every coun-
try. in the high spots and the
lowly ones.
I say this with no purpose of
justifying myself but merely for
the purpose of coming to the the-
sis that Jews are human beings.
It seems, sir, the people are amaz-
ingly like apples of which. in a
barrel, there is a diversity of
shapes and colors, though, upon
being bitten into, they turn out
to taste pretty much alike.
This presentment of the hu-
man nature to be found in Jeliis
may be startling to people who
have appeared to expect a loftier
standard of conduct in Jews than
in other intelligent creatures of
the earth: No selfishness, no love
of gain, a pure pursuit only of
the true, the good and the beau-
tiful.
In brief, sir, the faults of Jews
are the faults of the human race.
I do not mean to point any scorn
at the human race, for some of
my best friends are human be-.
ings. It seems to me that our
inquiry should be rather on the
question what's the matter with
the human race and what can be
done about it.
The human race is frequently
awful as observed in many of its
members. One must wonder at the
patience of God who has en-
lured the human race all these
ages instead of giving it a kick
in the pants and projecting it into
oblivion over the edge of the
earth. God being patient that long
suggests that he still has some
hope for it and, since God is that
patient, why should I be intoler-
ant of the human race or any
segment of it?

'1

The threat, if correctly reported, on
the part of Senator Burton K. Wheeler
to air before a Congressional Committee
the indictment of Elizabeth Dilling, Syl-
vester Viereck, William Dudley Pelley
and others on charges of sedition and con-
spiracy is, to say the least, rather unusual.
Senator Wheeler knows, or, should
know, that our governmental structure is
A A A
based upon the three co-ordinated
branches of the legislative, judicial and
HE HUMAN RACE is a
executive and he knows that one can
sorry-looking outfit hut, then,
it has had some very distinguished
invade the strictly demarcated functions
members—people like Isaiah and
of the other only in exceptional cases, as,
Jesus, Confucious and Buddha,
for instance, impeachment proceedings,
Moses and St. Francis, Savana-
A A A
rola, John Brown, Beethoven and
which are in their nature judicial, are
Mendelssohn. People like these sug-
carried on by the Congress.
VOU SEE, SIR, I am not spar- gest that the human race is not
If Senator Wheeler and his colleagues "- ing myself in the least of my without considerable merit and
Yet as I examine my- may yet rise to manly stature.
who believe that the alleged seditionists selfstudy.
self in the role of sometime sel-
So, my dear sir, please be pa-
were indicted by Attorney General Biddle, fish
man, I become aware that I tient with me, the Jew, and all
on insufficient evidence, or on evidence look remarkably like some one others of the human-kind. My
procured by illegal means, then he can I have seen. Yes! This desire faults are yours, too, and my few
to amass wealth! This selfiove! virtues are in you as well.
advise counsel for them to raise objec- This
folly all unaware that a
Look at my faults and be re-
3
tions to the indictment and seek to have man can't take it with him. In pentant
of your own which are
it dismissed. Should counsel fail to make sonic one else I have seen it all mirrored in mine. I may say it
a sufficient showing on motions to have before! You know, sir, I, as a is certainly a fault in you that
Jew, amaz'ngly resemble you are so quick to ascribe to
the indictment dismissed, those charged selfish
a lot of people who are not Jews.
special faults which need
have their day in court, and can be con- This same avid quest for money, others
special inquiry. At the same time
victed only on evidence that is of such this same ignorance of how much
See SEGAL—Page 9
quantity and quality that would convince
the jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
Indictments do not mean conviction in
our criminal courts. An indictment is the
showing of the prosecution only, and the
defense has an opportunity to attack the
evidence of the prosecution as well as the
method of its procurement, and unless the
evidence convinces beyond a reasonable
doubt, the judge will instruct the jury to
acquit. If the trial court should fail in
its duties, and this covers a very large
area, the defendants can appeeal to the
Circuit Court of Appeals, and if not satis-
fied with the findings of the Circuit Court
of Appeals, can appeal to the Supreme
Court of the United States.
Our present Supreme Court has been
'45
described by critics of that court as one
of the most fair and liberal courts in the
history of that august body.
This episode is rather amusing in view
of the fact that Attorney General Francis
Biddle has been accused of being too
patient, lenient and magnanimous, by
those who would give short shrift to those
who would obstruct the total war effort
of the country.
Senator Wheeler can be assured that
these accused will receive a fair, consti-
2
tutional trial before a jury of their peers.
The record of Francis Riddle guarantees
0'4;
that. The Senator's anxiety in this instance
is unseemly and unjustified.
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