The Southern Israelite. (Augusta, Ga.) 1925-1986, June 28, 1930, Image 13

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Page 13 To R mind You That— Campbell Coal Company s not only the high- ulc of coal and coke idsonie Electric Lighting Fixtures Builders Hardware of Mmlern Type. Prac tically Everything t Goes into Build ing a home. Ja. 5000 240 Marietta St. BUY YOUR ICE FROM FULTON ICE CO. T. A. KNIGHT, President THE SERV ICE CO. Plants Located East Fair Street MAin 2400 Berkele Street MAin 3941 Lee Street WEst 1742 ALL MODERN PLANTS 300 TON CAPACITY SAM R. GREENBERG, President P J BLOOMFIELD, Secretary Sam Greenberg & Company uneral Directors ambulance CHAPEL 5 Forrest Ave., N. E. hone WAlnut 7909 ATLANTA, GA. The Southern Israelite H. L. MENCKEN VIEWS ANTI-SEMITISM (Continued from Page9) was engaged by a Jewish impresario, surrounded by Jewish attendants only. Fhe “self-confessed” “anti-Semite” followed my glance, and said: “Here I have a Jewish publisher, a Jewish as sistant, a Jewish proofreader, a Jewish secretary. 1 hey all read my last book. Not one of them felt offended. They are not professional Jews.” He stopped for a moment, stretched like a wrestler preparing to tackle an opponent, and continued: “I am for free speech. So is the Jewish intelli gentsia supposed to be. Free speech means, above all, the privilege of being wrong. I don t think Hoover is a great man. I think the Americans are a silly people. I sign my name to that. Your Jews claim free speech. Why should they be annoyed at me now for speak- ink my mind?” “No. I am not apologizing,” lie went on. "I want to make that clear. Rut some of my critics will enjoy that Jew ish attack. Especially my Catholic friends. They call me a Jew when they want to call me names. They actually believe I am one. I owe that to a good friend of mine in Baltimore in the old days. Meyer Rloch was his name—he was a judge with a lot of leisure on his hands. He used to sup ply me with a vocabulary of Yiddish words which I-used freely in my col umn in the “Evening Sun.” Whenever T wanted to get even with some hypo crite T called him a paskudniak or a shotah. That irritated him more than the title of ‘imbecile’ or ‘idiot’ would have done. He thought T was using some mystical Semitic curse that would bar his entrance to heaven. T never answered these critics when they quali fied me as belonging to that unpleas ant race. If the Christians were to make a pogrom on Jews T would be out of luck. T suppose.” T succeeded in getting a question in edge-wise: “What modus vivendi do vou propose for the Jews in America?” The Nordic critic of the Nordics hesitated for the first time. Then a thought struck him : “The best thing might be to import some Arabs and have them do their stunt. They seem unite efficient at throat-cutting. These Mohammedans could also attend to some of my Jesuitic friends. Rut it would be an expensive process. To at tend to New York alone one would need millions of these blood-thirsty Arabs. The easier way would be as similation. T am for it. Of course, it is feasible. Get your professional Jews to lay down on their propaganda. Stop them from convincing the Jews that they’re different. I have watched as similation work out perfectly. The Jews can become an integral part of Ameri can life and vet keep their identity if they wish. But it should not be an ag gressive identity which is the result of an inferiority complex. German Jews, who came here with a background of Western civilization, adapted them selves quite easily. The Russian Jews, with their Slavic stamp, have a harder time. But they get there. First they intermarry with the German Jews, and then they branch out among the goyim. Intermarriage is a success. The only unsuccessful intermarriage I know of is that of mv friend Ludwig Lewisohn. But then it was not due to any racial discrepancy, but to the nature of the case. His wife was too old, and a inachashefeh besides.” , “You mention Lewisohn, I inter posed. “He surely is an intellectual who at first tried to assimilate, to in tegrate into American culture, ^what ever that may be. But he couldn t. T he upstream struggle threw him right on the Jewish banks. Besides, he is one of your German Jews. PL L. M. observed: “Friend Lud wigs case is a peculiar one. If a Jew fails in the literary field it does not necessarily mean that lie failed as a Jew. Ludwig was persecuted as a Ger man. not as a Jew. I know that be cause we were in the same boat in those years. But Ludwig is a mystic. He was too proud a German to believe bis troubles were due to his German descent. He preferred to see himself as a rejected Jew. But as soon as he raised the cry of Jewish persecution he was saved. Oswald Garrison Vil- lard, of “ Fhe Nation", could not coun tenance free America discriminating against a literary figure because he was a Jew. And some of his new- found Jewish friends mobilized to save him. \\ ell. he is well off these days. I visited him a few weeks ago in Paris. His apartment is the richest home I saw in France. A butler hovers about and a chauffeur salutes when lie steps into his car. His studio is crowded with old menorahs and all kinds of Jewish antiquities. Looks rather nice —all that bric-a-brac. Ludwig has grown fat on his kosher food, lie has made a success of his Jewishness, but lie would have done it even without his kosher complex, once the war hys teria was over and lie was freed of his private troubles. “That’s just the trouble. Mr. Mencken. If we are Jews the goyim get mad, and if we try to assimilate, they don’t ac cept us,” I countered. “I don’t believe it,” smiled H. L. M. “Assimilation does not imply losing your identity. Just try not to be un pleasant and stop thinking that you're ’it.' You live in this country; try to behave as others do.” "That would be rather un-Mencken- ian, Mr. Mencken. Do you want the Jews to become self-satisfied Babbitts?” “Ach! Quatch! Don’t go into fun damentals. Things are much simpler. 1 don’t want you to bless prohibition and to accept Hoover as the greatest American. Just get along and keep your identity as much as you like, but don’t make petty cash out of princi ples. You get my point. Don’t shout that you’re different. If you are, you can’t help yourself. But earlocks and kosher food don’t make you the chosen people. Zionism is different. If you want to live differently and have your own two-by-four country just like all those Wilsonian creations in the Bal kans, go right ahead. Tt’s not going to last, anyhow. Nationalism is now on its highest crest. It will break its back before long. But then you have to learn to accept the cry: ‘Go to Jeru salem.’ as the Americans used to tell the Germans to ‘go back to Berlin.’ “I am sick and tired of this national ism, anyhow. That goes also for racial ism. There is no pure race, the anthro pologists tell us. So why not mix? Why not get our bloods intermingled? Something interesting might result. I want to travel without visas, on one passport, without crossing any fron tiers. I am sick and tired of calling a man a Catholic or a Jew. “And when you write your interview don’t put on the soft pedal. I don’t apologize. I am entitled to my preju dices. I don’t like the Danes, but I do like the Swedes. What of it? I am getting to like the Frenchmen. Yes terday I dined with one and today I’m going to have lunch with another. I can get along with the Jews quite well. With some of them, anyhow. Some times I even serve them kosher food when they visit me. If you want to cull me an anti-Semite, you’re welcome to it. There is one thing I want you to remember, however. I am not half as anti-Semitic as some of your own Jews. Thus spoke Henry Louis Mencken! (Copyright, 1930, SAF Syndicate) in the World 46 Stories High 3400 The New Morriion when completed, will contain ClliCAgo’N MORRISON HOTEL Corner Madison and Clark Sts. Closest in the city to offices, theatres, stores and railroad stations 1944 Rooms $Z.$0 up All outside with bath, running ice water, bed-head lamp and Servidor. A house keeper on each floor. All guests O enjoy garage privileges. q Modern in construction, luxurious in appointments and convenient to all piers and amusements. American or European Plan GARAGE ATTACHED In Philadelphia Choose HOTEL MAJESTIC BROAD ST. AND GIRARD AVE. PHILADELPHIA Only hotel in Philadelphia with a subway entrance from main lobby 400 LARGE ROOMS Single room, running water $Z.M For two $3.St Single room, private bath $3.tt For two SS-tt-St.M Wire at Our Expense for Reservations! JNO. C. GOSSLER Mgr.-Dir. 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