Friday, July 21, 1944
"Plenty of Room for All"
U. S Senator James Mead's
Impression of Palestine
New York Leader's Book "Tell the Folks Back Home"
Is a Thrilling Travelogue With an Interesting
Description of Jewish Progress in Zion
New York's United States Senator James M. Mead was
a member of a Senatorial commission to study conditions on
all fronts on which Americans are active in the struggle for
liberty. He visited all territories of the United Nations—Rus-
sia, China, India, Africa, Arabia, the Pacific Islands, Australia.
In the course of his travels he had occasion to witness
Page Thirteen
THE JEWISH NEWS
Author Huxley
Opposes Term
'Jewish Race'
$25,000 Prize Winner
Native Detroiter Author
Of Postwar Job Program
Roosevelt's Use of Term
By MURRAY FRANK
Herbert Stein, the 28-year-old
May Again Arouse Wide
economist, whose plan for post-
Discussion of It
President Roosevelt's use of
the term "Jewish race," in his
statement to Congress regarding
the establishment of a temporary
haven of refuge in this country
for 1,000 refugees, again may
arouse wide discussion as to the
the progress of Jewish pioneer-
validity of the use of the term.
ing in Palestine. He saw the
"Just add Atlantic City, too,
Julian Huxley, in his provoca-
Chaplains of all faiths in action and you've got it," added one of
and spoke with soldiers—Jews, our party. "It has the most mag- tive book "On Living in a Revo-
lution," (published by Harper),
Catholics, Protestants — on all
fronts.
deals with the issues of "race"
* * *
and "blood" in most interesting
fashion. Mr. Huxley declares:
• His tour began on July 25, 1943.
He went to Morocco and Guadal-
"Our statesmen, who should
canal and Jerusalem. He cov-
know better, often speak of the
ered every important sector in
British race,' the 'German race,'
the world that is not dominated
the 'Anglo-Saxon race,' the 'Jew-
by the Nazis. In Morocco he saw
ish race,' etc. Such phrases are
the Jews who have been "con-
devoid of any scientific signifi-
demned to live by antiquated
speairef g neitrici
i- ca.
law only tn.. the Aralia..*H,„Vaa
ally substitute some such word as
'bite Mell a-h."
'people' or 'group' for the word
But in the Holy Land he saw
'race' if they desire to convey
that there is "plenty of room for
any meaning—and if they do not
all," and he was so impressed
wish to play into the hands of
that he labelled one of the chap-
Hitler and those who think like
ters in the book describing these
him."
travels, "Tell the Folks Back
Dealing with the Jews, he de-
Home" (D. Appleton-Century
clares that "the Jewish problem
r Co.) : IN THE HOLY LAND:
is far less a 'racial' than a cul-
.! PLENTY OF ROOM FOR ALL."
U. S. SENATOR MEAD
tural one. Jews are no more a
* * *
distinct sharply marked 'face'
It is an interesting book and is nificent beachfront and board- than are German or English. The
one of the best published descrip- walk I've ever seen." •
Some one's wife spoke up and Jews of the Bible were of mixed
tions of our numerous war fronts.
said
that what was impressive descent . . Jews of Africa, of
It is also an ideological book, and
was
the
healthy children. "They Eastern Europe, of Spain and
the author, to emphasize the need
Portugal, and so on, have become
for a just peace, concludes the actually are bigger than their markedly different from each
volume by quoting in full the parents," she said. "That -city is
Catholic, Jewish and Protestant bustling, clean, and spacious— other in physical type. What
joint statement on "Principles of not full of smells and filth, and they have preserved and trans-
twisted alleys and disease, like mitted is not 'racial qualities' but
World Peace."
The references to Palestine are some other Middle Eastern cities. religious and social traditions."
contained in one of the most But we're so fond of it because
fascinating chapters in the book. the whole population is happy. - Mr. Huxley's splendid book
The following quotations are of Think what those poor Jewish deals with the inescapable ele-
refugees fled from to get here."
particular interest:
ments in the present world eco-
* * • * •
* * *
nomic revolution. He outlines
A Jewish Holiday
Palestinian Experiences
the need for a reasonable stand-
One of the group told this one
BY JAMES M. MEAD
in less serious vein: "I went t6 ard of security and welfare for
Owen Brewster (U. S. Senator
the entire world after the war in
from Maine) and I flew over to a Hebrew fortune-teller here last
week," he said, "and she fore- order that the revolution may re=
Palestine one morning, with
Father James A. Carey and two told the exact date of Hitler's suit in a victory for the demo-
captains as our guides. Father death—on a Jewish holiday." cratic way of life.
Carey, who is both a major and "And what date is it?" we asked.
a chaplain, also accompanied "Oh, she didn't give a date," was
Archbishop Spellman there on his the answer. "Any day Hitler. dies BUY AN EXTRA BOND!
will be a Jewish holiday!"
recent trip.
The Jews in Palestine, however,
From the air the Suez looked
like a ditch in the sandbox back are not waiting for others to hur-
home, and the whole flight was ry that happy day, we found.
over a dreary waste until we Official enlistment figures here
finally hit the great green oasis are 28,000 Palestine Jews in the
of the Jewish settlements. Corn- British Army, 1,000 in the Brit-
ing into Palestine was like flying ish Navy, 5,000 in the supernum-
out of Death Valley into lush erary police and 16,000 in the spe-
cial police who are considered
southern California.
"How come it's so green here?" part of the home military force.
I asked one of our guides. "Be- Counting only the first two cate-
lieve it or not that's just the gories, Palestine has almost as
work of Jewish farmers," he re- many volunteers at the anti-Axis
plied. Palestine has surely kill- battlefronts, as our entire -Se-
ed the myth forever that Jews lective Service Army, in propor-
are city-dwellers by nature. Be- tion to our populations.
fore the Zionist immigration, and
The Promised Land
irrigation, that used to be desert
While we were inspecting the
like the rest."
crack Army rest-centers this
Flying low over Tel Aviv, we afternoon, we heard the dough-
blinked our eyes still wider, for boys expressing hearty admira,-
it was a modern city, streamlined tion for the Jewish accomplish-
and shining—like a movie-flash ment here. One red-headed Irish-
of something out of postwar man, 'a veteran of El Alamein,
America. .
lolling on a sundeck overlooking
Lunched at Consul-General gren pastures, said feelingly:
Lowell C. Pinkerton's, an unpre- "Man, after that desert stuff, I
tentious place after viewing the sure see now why they call this
feudal hilltop palace that is the the Promised Land!"
, residence of Sir Harold Mac-
Flying back, our military guide
Michael, Britain's current "High said: "You know, what's happen-
Commissioner and Commander- ing seems to be about what Law-
in-Chief" here. "There is just rence of Arabia predicted. He told
one plain fact about the Palestine those Arabs he loved so much
problem," said one of our aides. that the importation of the Jews
"And that is that while the Jew- would bring the 20th century sud-
ish population here has risen denly into lands where the march
from 50,000 to 550,000 since the of time- stalled a thousand years
last war and thus become the ago. The Arabs had a great cul-
world's Zionist refuge, the Arab ture. Their numerical system
population of Palestine has itself made possible the modern world,
shot up from 500,000 to a million. and our great religion of the West
If 'the Arabs' don't want the began here, too. Lawrence
Jews here, then they forgot to tell thought JeWish enterprise, cash
the Arab masses about it; the and technical gifts might even
Arab masses flock here as to a restore the great Arab nation to
goldmine and health resort."
the glories of its past."
An Equal Wonder
Owen Brewster looked down at
Tel Aviv is apparently an equal the wastes monotonously unroll-
wonder to everybody. "There ing beneath us and remarked:
isn't a building there that is over "If you ask me, it looks as though
This Advertisement
15 years old," said our aide, "and there is plenty of loom for all."
paid for by a group
the sidewalk cafes with their
of professional men.
music remind you of Vienna de-
BUY AN EXTRA BOND!
spite the modern architecture."
war employment was chosen the
best from approximately 36,000
plans submitted for the Pabst
contest, and was awarded a
$25,000 prize, just about missed
being a second generation Amer-
ican. His father was born in
Bilsk, Poland, some 55 years ago
and was brought here at the age
of 5. His mother was born in
Brooklyn, N.Y. They now reside
in Schenectady, N. Y.
Herbert was born in Detroit in
1916, the year when his father
went to work as a machinist for
Henry Ford.
In 1929, when Herbert Stein
was 13, his father obtained em-
ployment as a machinist for Gen-
eral Electric and the whole fam-
ily moved to Schenectady.
Awish educa-
tion did not extend beyond the
Sunday School of Congregation
Emanuel in Detroit, and stopped
before he had reached the ma-
turity of Bar Mitzvah.
At his office at the .War Pro-
duction Board in Washington,
where he is the chief of the
Economic Analysis Section, Herb-
ert Stein recalled college days
which were much after the style
of those of other poor Jews' sons.
Dishwasher and Student
He had to work hard, man-
ually, to obtain his college train-
ing as a scholarship to Williams
College, Williamstown, Mass.,
only covered his tuition.
The folks back in Schenectady
were able to cover only part of
his upkeep, and so it looked for
a while as though he would not
be able to use the scholarship.
He solved the problem by be-
coming a dishwasher in a frater-
nity house. He was graduated
from Williams at the age of 20,
and that same year his alma
mater published Herbert's first
lengthy study on "Government
Price Policy in the U. S. During
the World War." He was, thus,
a full-fledged economist at the
age of 20.
For the next two years Herbert
Stein was at the graduate school
of the University of Chicago per-
fecting his knowledge of econ-
omic theories and principles. In
MICHIGAN IS BEHIND
1938, he was called for a Govern-
ment job in Washington, and
accepted. He started out with the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp-
oration, then went to work for
Leon Henderson under the Na-
tional Defense Advisory Corn-
mission in July 1940, and, finally,
in January 1942, ended up with
the War Production Board.
Major Thesis of His Egan
The main thesis of Stein's plan
is that, in order to attain full
time employment after the war,
the level of output has to be
about 40 per cent higher than it
was in 1939, and that can best
be accomplished by stimulation
of private expenditure and pri-
v a t e enterprise. Government
spending as an instrument of
economic stabilization should be
held down to a rri_in-fuffi. T r-6-
proposes: ',1 following specific
:pui-.17tes to provide stable full em-
ployment:
1. Remove some of the basic
uncertainties which repress the
general level of private expend-
iture and, particularly, private
capital expenditure.
. 2. Remove the powerful factors
which discriminate against the
assumption of risk.
3. Counteract Some of the
fluctuations in private capital ex-
penditures.
•
4. Prevent such fluctuations
from exerting a cumulative effect
upon the economy.
These are the main points of
Stein's plan. It contains much
that is strikingly similar to the
Baruch-Hancock plan, recently
prepared for the U. S. Govern-
ment, and there- is a good deal
that is entirely new and original,
(Copyright, 1944, by Independent
Jewish Press Service, Inc.)
Million Prayer Books
Given Jewish Soldiers
NEW YORK (JPS) — The
Jewish Publication Society of
America has completed the de-
livery of over one millions copies
of prayer books ordered by the
National Jewish Welfare Board
for the use of men and women
of the Jewish faith in the armed
forces of the U. S.