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The Southern Israelite
Page 7
As Jews Seem Jo Heywood Mroun
America s Most Independent Columnist Gives His Views on Anti-Semitism
An Interview
By JOSEPH BRAININ
■,,,>({ Broun is America's
minus columnist. Since his
tin'll from Harvard he has
tsehall reporter, dramatic
literary critic and column-
; was his vigorous defense
i eo and Vansctti which
his dismissal from the
Seta York World. His daily
in the Scripps-Howard
<papers and his weekly page
I lie X at ion have made his
e mark: "It seems to Me. By
■xtcood Broun'' nationally fa
s' In this exclusive interview
a to the Seven Arts Feature
Syndicate and The Southern Is
raelite. Broun declares that anti-
in it ism in America is on the
in, rease; says that Mencken "is
iII wet" about the Jews; and con
fesses that there is no cui-and-
ilncd solution to the Jewish prob
lem- The Editor.
is something unconventional,
min and very individualistic about
••id Broun's writings. And the same
> to Broun the man. His person-
charming indeed. But nothing in
Milky, genial six-footer betrays the
. the satiric commentator who has
tor himself the title of America’s
dependent columnist. 1 visited him
ipartnient in West 58th Street, in
1 building in which he maintains an cm-
<m bureau for the jobless. His
would make the hair of any bal-
v turn white. It is the small den of
"tudent. and gives evidence of strict
- to the maid to keep out. Cigarette
cover the floor; books and news-
submerge desk, bed and chairs.
•’ this confusion emerges the type-
a lighthouse in the sea of dis
ci iantly overlooking all this chaos,
himself, well at ease, looking a bit
'its deep in a comfortable chair,
• ready for an interview. He
not wait for questions, but tackles
tlie hull by the horns;
'Upjx>se I should begin by telling
hat there is no such thing as anti-
tn. Almost any Yankee would be-
'aying: ‘I have no prejudice
’ the Jews — some of my best
are Jews,’ and then go on reciting
' 1!-known litany which you know
t. I won’t. There is discrimination
the Jew; as a matter of fact, anti-
feeling is rising around here. Why
* 1 don’t know. I’ve tried to
>t out, but without success. Some
-t '. together with my colleague
Britt of the New York Telegram,
nt to investigate anti-Jewish dis-
Bon in New York. We did not
•v any sociological authorities. We
ur first-hand information, and we
nmination against Jews in hotels
tment houses is vanishing. Park
'till has a few apartment houses
ru le is ‘no Jews.’ Doubtless the
' think this slogan will increase
ue ot their real estate. But if a
applicant has enough money and
Americanized—that means ‘dumb-’
,se- he can get even into ’those
e * c! ’ : *ve places.
"In the business world, however, dis
crimination is real. Of this there is no
doubt. The results of my previous investi
gations were confirmed by recent inci
dents during my present ‘Give-a-Job-till-
June’ campaign. I received a number of
letters offering jobs to stenographers and
clerks with the proviso: ‘Christians only.’
No reasons were given. When I tried to
make these prospective employers of
Christians only talk, and even offered
them a premium if they would give me
one logical reason for this discrimination,
the results I obtained were nil. The usual
answer was that the Jewish holidays in
terfere with the smooth working of a busi
ness organization. But this reason does
not carry' conviction. The true reason is
pure, undiluted prejudice, and prejudices
are not based on logic. If they were they
would not be prejudices.”
This seemed an appropriate moment for
getting Brmm’s comment on H. L. Men
cken’s attitude toward Jews. According
ly I asked the fearless surveyor of the
American scene what he thought of Men
cken’s views as expresed in his latest
book and in the inteview he gave me the
other day.
Heywood Broun smiled broadly and
said: ‘‘Don’t tell me that the Jews are
taking him seriously. The editor of The
American Mercury is having some fun,
and is rather pleased that he is getting
good publicity for his book. He knows
well enough that if you want Jews to read
you you must attack them. That’s why the
Ixxik I’m writing with Britt will not get
a tumble from the Jewish readers, f, for
one, refuse to think that Mencken, an
intellectual and a liberal, means what he
says against the Jews. I believe that Ford
was the first and last prominent Amer
ican who had the courage—or, rather,
stupidity—to stamp himself publicly as an
anti-Semite, And even he eventually came
to know better. But Mencken cannot
plead ignorance. As for the reasons he
gives—they are trivial. They remind me
of what happened to me the other day,
when I sent my trousers to my tailor for
pressing and the boy' brought them back
with the news that the tailor was closed
on account of the Jewish holiday. I felt
annoyed, but at myself, not at the tailor.
1 felt like kicking myself for not know
ing the Jewish calendar. My impressed
pants surely would not justify my becom
ing an anti-Semite and qualifying the en
tire Jewish race as ‘unpleasant.’ No. In
his views on the Jews my friend Mencken
is all wet.
“With the exception of this recent in
explicable Mencken eruption I know of
no instance of anti-Jewish feeling in in
tellectual circles here. You may counter
by asking: ‘What of the great American
universities?’ I’ll admit that they have a
numerus clausus, even if it is unofficial.
I’ll agree that the universities are the
hotbeds of anti-Semitism in this country.
But I’ll deny that our universities are to
be counted among the intellectual forces
in the United States. I’m prepared to de
bate against the proposition that univer
sity deans and professors are liberal and
rational—thinking human beings. This
university anti-Semitism, which hides
under the hypocritical cloak of a higher
nationalism, is one of the saddest ex
amples of American civilization. If only
they had the courage of their petty
chauvinism—if only they had even the
semblance of a theoretical basis for their
anti-Jewish discrimination! But they have
nothing of the kind. The reaction of these
pseudo-intellectual leaders is identical
with that of the mob. The attitudes of
both spring from legends.
“According to all the rules of the game
the Jew should be the type most admired
by the average American. He, the Jew,
is the best illustration of romance in busi
ness and of the rather overworked slogan
’a pauper today, a millionaire tomorrow.’
These Jewish successes that bridge the
abyss between the errand-boy and the
millionaire in one generation should, by
rights, become the heroes of our economic
system. Men like Benjamin Winter, and
there are plenty, are the best propagand
ists for our capitalistic system. The Ben
jamin Winters renew and strengthen the
belief that America is the land of equal
opportunity for all and that this economic
system is the best. And here is a para
dox. Americans, instead of acclaiming
these men, |x>int to them as the evil, the
source of anti-Semitism. ‘Why?’ you may
ask. I don’t know. I can only speculate.
Perhaps because the Jew travels in one
generation the distance which it takes the
American several generations to cover.
In other words, the Jew is too fast, too
successful. Yet it strikes me that there
is a tremendous contradiction in this re
action which condcms what it preaches.”
"It is not strange, Mr. Broun,” I re
marked, "that at the same time we are
accused of being the essence of anti-cap
italism? The terms ‘Jew’ and ‘Communist’
are getting to be synonymous in the minds
of your anti-Semites.”
“It is not strange,” the columnist re
plied. “Those who look for a scapegoat
for capitalism find him in the Jew. Those
who look for a scapegoat for Communism
find him in the Jew. The range of Jewish
types and activities is so large that you
do have outstanding representatives in
both camps. Logically this versatility
should defeat any attempt to see in you.
the prototype of either evil. But the mob
can see only one facet. Only a thinking,
reasoning individual can be aware of
several aspects of a question simultane
ously. That is why the Jew is the target
of lx>th capitalist and Communist anti-
Semites. One is tempted to suggest that
the capitalist anti-Semite debate the Com
munist anti-Semite; then one could pray
for a double knockout, which would be
the only logical result. But, as I have al
ready said, where there is anti-Semitism
there is no logic. Consequently such a
debate would end in a double victory in
stead of a double defeat.
“The American is not aware of the
presence of the Russian immigrant. He
knows only of the Russian Jewish immi
grant, so that what is Russian is, to him,
Jewish. The fact that the Jews from
hardly two per cent of the Russian popu
lation has not penetrated to his mind.
He sees the Russian revolution as a Jew
ish achievement; and therefore Commun
ist activities here are Jewish doings as
far as our anti-Semite is concerned. When
you discuss the Communist demonstra
tions here with one of these ‘racial au
thorities, he will tell you: ‘Those damn
Jews should all be deported.’ And our
university deans, who should know geo
graphy and statistics, join in the chorus
and sing along instead of enlightening the
poor, misled anti-Semites. That’s why you
have discrimination against Jewish pro
fessors and instructors, and that’s why
anti-Jewish feeling here is reaching
alarming proportions. Recently it has
shot up like a high fever—which proves
that something is wrong in our organism.
And what is wrong is the stupidity of
our university men and the hypocrisy of
our pseudo-intellectuals.
"1 have tried to diagnose this mounting
anti-Semitic fever and I have been able to
place my finger on one tangible and, of
course, unjustified source. You will be
surprised if I tell you. Any intelligent
man would, for it seems quite incredit-
able, the incident was so minor. But I
contend that one event, more than any
other occurence of recent years, was in
strumental in swelling the ranks of anti-
Semites. That event was the Leopold and
Loeb murder case. These two intellectual
and wealthy young Jews, atheists, cynical
deniers of all social and human traditions,
were exploited to the fullest extent by the
Ku Klux Klanners. They were pointed
out as types instead of being regarded as
abnormal, diseased freaks. On top of that
the fact that they were saved from the
electric chair through the influence of
wealth, instead of being viewed as an ex
ample of American travesty of justice,
was taken as a typical illustration of the
evil power of Jewish money. For a think
ing individual this is pure rubbish. Leo
pold and Loeb are just as representative
of the Jewish race as Mrs. Snyder, the
husband-killer, represents American wom
anhood. But arguments are useless in a
case like that. The anti-Semite got some
nourishing food, and, of course, grew big
ger.
"What we have in America is a mob
anti-Semitism that prevades the univer
sities and all but a small number of true
liberals and genuine intellectuals. That is
why the Klan collapsed. A mob cannot be
organized. If we had some official anti-
Semitic organizations, or at least a few
real anti-Semitic leaders like those in
Germany, it would be much easier to
fight anti-Semitism. One would have a
target to shoot at, a concrete object to
ridicule. But unfortunately American hy-
jx>crisy leaves anti-Jewish feeling un
labeled and anonymous. You can’t fight
an opponent who dons the invisible cape
and is always out of reach.”
“The American anti-Semites had a
Ford,” I interjected, “but the American
liberals never had a Zola. What can be
done to put a stop to the ever-growing
menace of anti-Semitism, Mr. Broun?”
Heywood Broun looked grave, weary
and puzzled. “Zola,” he answered, “had
the Dreyfus case to enable him to corner
his opponents. It was an open fight.
Frenchmen are impulsive and passionate;
their anti-Semites traveled under their
own colors. Here we try to solve a prob
lem by ignoring it. The two New York
papers for which I have worked—the
World ami the Telegram—are both lib
eral, but I am quite sure I could never
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