Apology to Jews

Henry Ford, having permitted his weekly magazine, the Dearborn Independent, generally to vituperate Jews since 1920 and so stir up an anti-Semitism strange to the U. S., last week recanted everything that that weekly had printed against Jews. His confession of error:

"To my great regret I have learned that Jews generally, and particularly those of this country, not only resent these publications [the Dearborn Independent and the pamphlets entitled "The International Jew,"] as promoting anti-Semitism, but regard me as their enemy. Trusted friends . . . have assured me that the character of the charges and insinuations made against the Jews . . . justifies the righteous indignation entertained by Jews everywhere toward me because of the mental anguish occasioned by the unprovoked reflections made upon them.

"This has led me to direct my personal attention to this subject, in order to ascertain the exact nature of these articles. As a result of this survey I confess that I am deeply mortified that this journal, which is intended to be constructive and not destructive has been made the medium for resurrection of exploded fictions, for giving currency to the so-called protocols of the 'Wise Men of Zion,' which have been demonstrated, as I learn, to be gross forgeries, and for contending that the Jews have been engaged in a conspiracy to control the capital and the industries of the world, besides laying at their door many offenses against decency, public order and good morals.

"Had I appreciated even the general nature, to say nothing of the details, of these utterances I would have forbidden their circulation without a moment's hesitation, because I am fully aware of the virtues of the Jewish people as a whole, of what they and their ancestors have done for civilization and for mankind toward the development of commerce and industry, of their sobriety and diligence, their benevolence and their unselfish interest in the public welfare. . . .

"Those who know me can bear witness that it is not in my nature to inflict insult upon and to occasion pain to anybody and that it has been my effort to free myself from prejudice. Because of that I frankly confess that I have been greatly shocked as a result of my study and examination of the files of the Dearborn Independent and the pamphlets entitled 'The International Jew.'

"I deem it to be my duty as an honorable man to make amends for the wrong done to the Jews as fellowmen and brothers, by asking their forgiveness for the harm I have unintentionally committed, by retracting so far as lies within my power the offensive charges laid at their door by these publications, and by giving them the unqualified assurance that henceforth they may look to me for friendship and good will."

The Confessors. Henry Ford's confessors in this matter were Arthur Brisbane, William Randolph Hearst's editor, and Louis Marshall of Manhattan, potent constitutional lawyer and president of the American Jewish Committee.

To Lawyer Marshall, Mr. Ford had sent two of his agents (Earl J. Davis of Detroit, onetime [1924-25] Assistant Attorney General of the U. S., and one Joseph Palma of Manhattan). They asked Lawyer Marshall how Mr. Ford could most efficaciously erase the Jewish animosity that he had created against himself. Mr. Marshall, speaking for all U. S. Jews, asked for a clearly defined, written recantation of the Dearborn Independent and "International Jew" articles.

Mr. Ford's answer to this was last week's statement, a copy of which he sent to Arthur Brisbane with the instructions: "Here's a statement that I have made. Write around it in any way you like." Editor Brisbane with a newspaper "scoop" in his hands, forebore using it exclusively; shared it with all press associations and Manhattan newspapers.

"Dearborn Independent." William J. Cameron, editor of the Dearborn Independent, last week professed to find Mr. Ford's statement unexpected. The current issue of that weekly mentioned no change in policy. Said Editor Cameron: "It is all news to me, and I cannot believe it is true. This is the first time I have heard of any such intention on the part of Mr. Ford, and I most certainly will get in touch with him and find out what is behind it."

Motives. Despite Henry Ford's plain words, some newspapers imputed base motives to him. The New York World published: "Looking for material motives, some ascribe political ambitions to the automobile king. "Mr. Ford's action is taken by political observers at Washington to be the first step in a move toward entering the 1928 campaign for the Presidency. The fact that he chose the Hearst newspapers as the initial vehicle for putting his change of heart before the country is interpreted as indicating William Randolph Hearst will push his candidacy.

"Others believe he is alarmed by the Ford Motor Co.'s striking loss of business in the last few years, although this has been due largely to competition of other manufacturers."

The Chicago Tribune, more circumspect, quoted an anonymous "Jewish financier and industrialist";

" 'I think that Ford has at last realized that he has been making a boob of himself. He knows Jews won't buy his cars. Even if they did not they are only 3,000,000 out of 118,000,000. But this is a funny country, the majority are inclined to take up for the under dog, and it is very likely that Ford's attacks on Jews did hurt his business with the vast number of Gentiles associated with Jews one way or another.

" 'Ford has been operating his plants as little as two or three days a week lately--a most expensive way to operate--and since he is under every compulsion to sell his new car, he cannot afford to indulge in any hobbies which create enemies and sales resistance.' "

Cheers. Upon the appearance of the recantation comments--both cheers and jeers broke forth at once. Some potent Jews, including Nathan Straus and Otto Hermann Kahn, resolutely refused to talk. Some cheers:

"We are glad he is getting sensible."--Samuel Phillipson, Chicago merchant.

"Henry Ford shows himself to be a man of real character."-- Judge Harry M. Fisher of Chicago.

"His apology comes late, and we hope it is sincere and that he will not again be led into harming a people as he has done to the Jews."--Manager S. H. Simon of B. Manischewitz Matzoth Co.. Chicago.

"Ford has shown himself after all a man of some reason."--Max Shulman, Chicago Zionist.

"I am glad Mr. Ford is alive and will reap the joy of righting the almost unforgivable wrong he visited upon the Jewish people."--Rabbi Isaac Landman, editor of the American Hebrew.

Jeers. "We respectfully suggest that the last sweet dose of love and kisses be ladled out to Mr. Ford's new-found friends by leaving the name Ford off the new car. Let it be called instead, let us say, the Solomon Six, or the Abraham Straight-8"--New York Daily News.

"Mr. Ford's statement is very greatly belated. It would have been much more to his credit had it been written five years ago." Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck & Co.

"While it is better late than never to confess having done an injury, it is impossible to overlook the fact that in Mr. Ford's case it it decidedly late."--New York Times.

"Mr. Ford advances an empty head to explain his cold feet, and the only plausibility is contained in the fact that it took him until advanced years to discover that Benedict Arnold was not a modern writer and that the Revolution was not fought in 1812."*--Chicago Tribune.

"Mr. Henry Ford has in his character a certain naive quality that makes his acts or words credible no matter how far they may seem to clash with logic or probability."--New York Evening Post.

"It is hard to imagine Mr. Ford so wrapped in cotton wool that the major activity of his own magazine was unknown to him; that he was as unaware of what the Dearborn Independent was doing as if he had been a Tibetan monk."--New York Sun.

Requital. Executive Editor David N. Mosessohn of the Jewish Tribune/- made bold to advise Henry Ford on how to requite himself to the Jews. He wrote:

"The spirit of American fair play should inspire Mr. Ford to impose upon himself the solemn duty of taking steps to counteract that influence with the same energy and enterprise that was employed in his name to spread the ideas he now acknowledges were false. As the world's richest man, Henry Ford has the unique opportunity of making an amende honorable to the Jewish people by sponsoring a world-wide campaign of education against national chauvinism, religious bigotry and racial antagonism."

Gleaners. As always in such case, men hastened to glean personal benefits from the situation. Arthur Brisbane, Hearst editor, established his intimacy with Mr. Ford; said: "Twice this year I have gone to Dearborn and have talked to him about the Dearborn Independent articles. On my most recent visit--on May 11--Mr. Ford, with whom I spent five hours at his experimental plant, told me he had made up his mind to discontinue absolutely and permanently in any publication owned by him all articles such as those that had given offense to Jews. He added that if his orders were violated he would--I quote his words--'shut the thing down completely and throw out the machinery.'

"Under what circumstances he eight weeks later wrote and signed the statement that he sent to me for publication I do not know." The effect of this was discounted by the interpretation furnished the New York World by its Washington correspondent, Charles Michelson: "Henry Ford's recantation of his anti-Semitism ... is taken by the politicians to be his first step towards entering the 1928 campaign for the Presidency. The circumstance that he made the Hearst newspapers his vehicle for the dissemination of his change of heart is interpreted as indicating that William Randolph Hearst is about to push the candidacy of the flivver king. . . . Obviously it would have been embarrassing for the publisher of a chain of newspapers, greatly depending upon department store advertising, to appear as the champion of the country's chief exponent of anti-Semitism."

Less solemn than this, more comical was the letter sent Mr. Ford by airmail from the Welcoming Committee of the Rockaway Chamber of Commerce. The Rockaways are a group of up-&-doing suburbs of New York. Charles A. Levine, transatlantic flyer, has friends there, and it is to do him honor when he returns from Europe that the Welcoming Committee is functioning. Its Chairman, shrewd Richard M. Gipson, wrote Mr. Ford: "At this time, when you have magnanimously attested your faith in the Jewish people, it would seem fitting that you should be present at the banquet to be held upon Mr. Levine's return from France. The Rockaways, so cosmopolitan in population, are the home of many distinguished representatives of the Jewish race, and your presence here would be striking evidence of the faith that you attest in them."

Edsel Ford. To Edsel Ford, only child of Henry Ford, and President of the Ford Motor Co., the Chicago Journal of Commerce imputed credit for Henry Ford's face-about: "It seems reasonable to suspect that Edsel Ford has had a hand in these evolutions and revolutions. Edsel has given a general impression of steadiness, of balance. In this respect he has been much unlike his brilliant father. Ordinarily a poor man, grown rich, must take pains so that his son shall not be spoiled. In the case of the Fords the procedure has been reversed. . . . Meanwhile Edsel Ford, growing up in the shadow of his father's greatness, seems to have taken a true measure both of his father and of himself."

*Referring to Mr. Ford's testimony in his $1,000,000 libel suit against the Chicago Tribune.

/-Herman Bernstein, editor of the Jewish Tribune, resigned last week to do private writing. He has pending a lawsuit against Henry Ford for $200,000 because he thinks scurrilous the Dearborn Independent's comments on his connection with Mr. Ford's "Peace Ship" of 1915. By transporting a bevy of pacifists and sociologists to Europe in 1915, Mr. Ford thought to get the "boys out of the trenches by Christmas." Europeans scoffed at him, frustrated him.