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The Southern Israelite
Pagt 9
tfr Charles H. Joseph
A READER LIVING? IN BROWNS
IM SORRY THAT BEING AT THE
moment about three thousand miles
from the scene of the testimonial din
ner given for David A. Brown that I
can’t give my impressions first hand
„f the occasion. But I can say some
thing about David A. Brown. First
,,f a ii I know of no one in American
Jewish life who so richly deserves
such a tribute from his fellow-relig-
innists. He has made an extraordi
nary contribution to Jewish welfare
the world over. A contribution that is
beyond calculation. It is said that
every crisis in a people’s life brings
to the surface a leader capable of
meeting the situation. And it does
seem that David A. Brown was the
man of the hour when European Jew
ry was stricken helpless and hope
less by the war. He showed himself
to be a leader who had a genius for
organization. With uncanny ability
he built up one of the most efficient
human and humane money-raising
machines ever created in this country.
And David Brown was the human dy
namo that gave it power. And it func
tioned so successfully that millions
and millions that were poured into
Russia bringing to declassed and de
spairing Jewry a reason for continu
ing to live.
1 HAVE OCCASIONALLY WRIT-
ten in a light vein concerning Mr.
Brown, calling him the world’s great
est super-salesman and giving him
other affectionate Rotarian pats. But
beneath it all has been great respect
for the world’s most successful
"schnorrer” for worthy causes. He
not alone has had the job of raising
the money but he has been farced to
map out the campaign of collecting
much of it. For there is frequently
quite a distance between the pledge
and the payment. He has been har
nessed to these tasks of collecting
huge sums of money for relief that I
question, even if he retires to other
fields of endeavor, whether he will
be able to resist the call of duty when
it comes again to him. I was very
much interested in reading an account
"f a meeting to launch a campaign
for the relief of 57,000,000 persons
affected by the famine in China. I
noticed that David Brown was chair
man of the Board of Directors of the
China Famine Relief. So when the
meeting was called only 150 persons
out of the 8,500 invited, were present.
This angered Mr. Brown, who in
< araeteristic fashion, said that if we
a< Power to call a fast of just
' ' nty-two hours then we would un-
' ers ^ an d a little of what starvation
He sa id the suffering of the
* idren was so great that in many
instances they were put to sleep by a
at er or mother who cannot stand
suffering. It was direct heart
peals like these that made him so
^uccessful in arousing groups to a
a-ization of the suffering of others.
X '* ' n truth, only the fewest of
b' u* 16 * ma *D na tion to appreciate
vv , \ Laese terrible famines mean
scJr, 1 . "r a P e ^ ar remov ed from the
anH v, , )av *d Brown is a great leader
v : p X ^ aS p en dered his people a ser-
> will never be able to repay.
ville, Pa., sends me this:
“Dear Mr. Joseph:
“Your comments are always in
teresting, and I would thank you
for your opinion of the following
incident.
“A high school teacher embar
rassed his Jewish students re
cently by telling the following
joke to enlighten his class on a
point in ‘Problems of Democracy.’
He said: The captain of the ship
rushed about frantically, and
speaking to a Jew on board ex
claimed: ‘The ship is sinking!’
But the Jew calmly answered, ‘Let
it sink, it ain’t mine’. As soon
as the teacher finished telling the
story the other students turned
to stare and to sneer at the Jewish
children. Is it possible that anti-
Semitism at college begins in the
High School?”
INSTANCES LIKE THESE ARE
being brought constantly to my at
tention. They represent in the main
merely an evidence of poor taste on
the part of teachers. Of course it
also indicates a lack of common sense.
Some teachers are so thoroughly stu
pid about everything except teaching
that they fail to understand that
children are extremely sensitive to
ridicule and to being singled out in
an uncomplimentary fashion. The in
structor in question should have con
sidered that he had Jewish pupils and
they might be embarrassed if he re
cited such a story. When I was a
youngster going to school in a coun
try village and the only Jewish pupil
in the room, it made me feel uncom
fortable to hear the class sing: “Solo
mon Levi, Solomon Levi, with his
coats and vests, etc., etc.” I can’t re
call the teacher but I know that she
had no prejudice in her mind and no
malice in her heart. Yet she didn’t
think. If she had she would never
have used such a song as a regular
part of the class in singing. But I
hasten to assure the young lady who
wrote to me that anti-Semitism in the
college does not begin in the High
School. It begins in the home. And
at a very early age.
EDDIE CANTOR, WHO WHOOPS
it up in “Whoopee,” is somewhat of
a philosopher. He’s going to retire
next year from active stage work and
to devote the remainder of his life to
leisure of a constructive kind. He
says that he is interested in philan-
throphy, and expects to give consider
able time to that field of endeavor.
He is a director of the Brooklyn Jew
ish Hospital. Cantor is only 37 years
of age, which is rather young to re
tire. But when he says that he has
five daughters and he has never seen
one of them graduate from school—
when one gets caught in the wheel of
dramatic performances death is about
the only excuse that will go with the
management or the audience if the
actor fails to appear. So this young
man has probably lived and worked
(Continued on Page 13)
^ •*>"+** ** **, **, **. ^ ^
Atlanta Merchants
Atlanta is a city of more than 340,000
, persons, according to the estimate of The
■ Southern Bell Telephone Company. Mer
chants doing business in Atlanta must neces- ^
sarily pay overhead as based on a city of
340,000.
Since T he Georgian is read in more than
half the homes of Atlanta (last A. B. C.
audit) it is impossible to reach much more
than half the city of Atlanta unless adver
tising appears in The Georgian. This makes
the merchant face the following problem:
How can he do business on a logical
basis when paying all the expenses of busi
ness in a city of 340,000 persons and ac
tually do business with persons representing
about half that figure? All his overhead will *
be out of line.
It is well-known among merchants who
study markets that Atlanta department
stores, for instance, do less business than '
should be done in a city the size of Atlanta
by $10,000,000 each year. It seems logical
in view of the fact that The Georgian covers
more than half the city that many merchants
are not taking advantage of the regular
advertising in The Georgian which they
should.
The advertising department of The
Georgian has compiled figures on the Atlanta
market which every merchant should study.
Since service to its advertisers is of prime
consideration, it welcomes every opportu
nity to present figures on the Atlanta mar
ket in their logical sense. It is safe to say that
the merchant who is doing business in
Atlanta without studying these figures is
» handicapping his business.
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