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Page 6 The Southern Israelite An Uncensored Interview with the Editor of the “American Mercury’’ i This is the first inlcrviciv flint II. L. Mencken Iws ever given to any newspaper on matters of Jewish interest. This interview, secured especially far the Seven Arts Teat are Syndicate and 7 he Southern Israelite, deals in a re markably straightforward and frank manner with Mencken's views on the Jewish people and on the Jewish problem. I\ noivn throughout the world for his savage attacks on Habbitry anil for his ruthless condemnation of people and things he does not like, Mencken, in what is almost an autobiographical airticle by him, answers the numerous critics who have sprung up to attack him for the viezvs he ex pressed in his latest book, " Trea tise on the (iods.” lie does not withdraw; he does not apologize. Hr reiterates his opinion in vigorous, Rabelaisian fashion. Here is revealed a nezo Mencken, a man who knows Yiddish and prepares kosher food for some Jews who visit his home in Haiti- more, a man who is acquainted with the Talmud and has made an intimate study of the ghetto. This article will undoubtedly cre ate a national sensation, for, for the first time, it puts into un mistakable language and in final form H. I.. Mencken’s position on anti-Semitism.- Till'. Immtok. This is a strange interview. Perhaps it is not so much an interview as a truthful transcription of what 11. L. Mencken says about the Jews when in a tete-a-tete with one. After seventy- five minutes of conversation 1 still don’t know what Mencken thinks about the Jews. I merely know how he talks about them. H. L. M. did not try to impress me. There was no attempt on his part to discourse learnedly on Judaism or even anti-Semitism, lie made no pretense at literary form or witticisms in his talk. There was no sequence in what he said, nor will 1 try to give it any sequence now. Frequently he contradicted himself. To be entirely frank, I will tell you— this is strictly between ourselves—I gained the impression that Mencken has done very little thinking about the Jews. He is too close to them. He al ways has been, since bis early child hood. I am sure he almost feels like one of them. That is why his approach to things Jewish is straightforward, betraying no conception of the problem involved. As a matter of fact, after seventy-five minutes with the exuber antly healthy, grinning Baltimorean you almost become convinced that there is no problem. At other times his words sound strangely familiar. He uses the same turns of phrase and ideology as one of the Babbitts he caricatures. But then he grins so broadly that you are mystified. Is H. L. M. simply having a grand time at your expense? Is he trying to poke some fun at the Jews, the Goyim, and himself? His naive blue eyes in bis massive head betray no secrets. So I give you his mono logue as well as I remember it. Here he is, the indomitable American rebel who calls the Jews the most unpleas ant of races. When you accuse him of anti-Semitism he smiles, grins, and laughs out loud. Take him or leave him. We are sitting on a comfortable By JOSEPH BRAININ lounge in the “American Mercury” of fice, smoking cigars and conversing. Or, rather, I am listening to H. L. M.’s monologue. The stocky, robust Balti morean “Attila”, or “super-egoist”, as some of his enemies choose to call him, is in an expansive mood and gives me his views on the Jews. After the virulent attacks which had been heaped upon him for the uncomplimentary comments on our race in his most re cent volume, “ Treatise on the Gods,” I had expected to find him in a repent ant mood. But the great American rebel is in the very best condition, de spite a slight cold, and enjoys his black cigar in most epicurean fashion. A joy of life that will not he downed ema nates from his typically German coun tenance and an irrepressible vitality gives a genuine and healthy flavor to all his words, even to his most banal utterances. “There is a great commotion among the Jewish intelligentsia, Mr. Mencken. Your calling us the most unpleasant race on God’s earth has aroused 'all your former friends to a high pitch of excitement. 1 have come to ask you a straightforward question: Are you an anti-Semite?” Mencken’s smile broadens to a grin; then be laughs. “I never answer critics. I will make no exception in the case of my Jewish critics. They can go to hell. Jews don’t know when they’re well off. In the three hundred pages of mv book I have devoted just one paragraph to them. If the Jews don’t like what I say about them, what should the Catholics and Protestants say? As a matter of fact, they do say it. The Catholics, I mean. The Prot estants are so used to being dragged about and trampled upon that they haven’t the guts to protest. 1 used my very best abusive vocabulary on them. 1 called the Jews unpleasant. Well, I stick to that description. I don’t apol ogize. \\ hat are you going to do about it?” I am not doing anything. IT. I.. M. looks in the pink of condition. No body would suspect him of nearing his fiftieth birthday this September. More over, he smiles, and seems to enjoy having been made the target of the Jewish intelligentsia’s attacks. He laughed at the cartoon which the Yid dish daily, “The Day," published about “Mencken the anti-Semite”, and he had a wonderful time reading the ar ticle by Dr. Margoshes attacking him for his anti-Jewish leanings. “The trouble with you Jews,” he con tinues, "is that you have professional Jews. 1 hey have a special knack for making themselves unpleasant. They shout and protest when they should smile. They smile and look the other way when they should protest. They pick on a paragraph in a 300-page book for no reason whatsoever. They train their heavy artillery on a sentence that might well have been overlooked if they had not projected the spotlight upon it. I expressed my wonder that the Jews had produced the greatest poetry. I said that they don’t look it. Don’t forget that my book is about religion, not about individuals. I don’t like religious Jews. I don’t like re ligious Catholics and Protestants. So everything should be in order. And it would be in order without your pro fessional Jews. “But here they are, looking for an issue. Here they are, creating anti- Semitism and anti-Semites. It is their profession. T hey must do it—else busi ness would be slow. No Jew likes slow business; here’s another crack that Dr. Margoshes can add to his collection. I am really sorry that your profess sional Jews did not tell me that they would look for quotations in my book. I had intended to devote a whole chap- ler to showing up the silliness of Jew ish religious rituals. 1 would have had some real fun. But the book was too big as it is. I will have to accommo date them some other time. Besides, I’ve said much stronger things about the Jews elsewhere. Look up my in troduction to the translation 1 made of Nietzsche’s ‘Anti-Christ.’ That’s one your professional Jews missed.” •The super-critic of America was well started by now. To interrupt him would have been futile. II. L. M. was having a glorious debate with himself. “But Mr. Mencken.” I interjected feebly. Without breaking off the editor of "The American Mercury” passed me his box of matches, and went on : “I was discussing anti-Semitism in this country with a friend of mine the other day. lie told me: ‘A great wave of anti-Semitism is gathering. The Americano is getting to believe that all the communists in this country are Jews, and one of these days he is going to hit out.’ I differ with my friend. I say that one professional Jew is more dangerous for the Jews than a hundred thousand communists. Louis Marshall was worth half a million communists by himself. 1 remember when he raised an issue against a two-by-four politi cian because that idiot had said or done something about reviving the supersti tion of the Jewish blood libel. Mar shall didn’t rest till he had that third- rate politician scared to death. There was a typical example of abusing one’s power instead of meeting the situation with proud contempt. That is the dan ger. If the Americano gets the idea that the Jews are abusing their power lie’ll accumulate irritation, and one day he may burst. Communists are no dan ger. They get hit over the head by policemen and, in addition to tbeir humps, get the sympathy of the public. 1 he Americano never kicks an under dog. “Jews should learn from what hap pened to the German-Americans. They were a decent lot, just like the Jews. But for every 2,000 Germans one could find about five professional German- Americans. That proved their doom. They be came chesty and supersensi tive. American politicians exploited them for their own political ends. These politicians were always on hand, at all German functions, and never failed to praise old Bismarck. They were always ready to drink Bruderschaft with the German-American voters. But when the United States entered the war and overdid itself in Germanophobia these Bruderschaft-drinkers were in the front ranks of the hysterical anti-Germans. Bismarck suddenly became a Hun. I enjoyed it. I was one of the Huns— I fought that hysteria. But my Ger man friends, my professional German friends had the lesson coming to them.” H. I,. M. did not mention the fact that due to his unrestrained comments lie was listed in Washington as a rep resentative of Wilhelmstrasse, that his mail was opened and his telephone tapped. He fought Wilson to the bitter end. Mencken was one of few German-Americans who his views on the Allied war enjoyed the battle in which h< was n: against all, and despite the ; ardshins he suffered now laughs at the who! thing. "Don’t be surprised if you find vour ‘good friends’ on the other side of the fence as soon as trouble starts Mayor Walker could make capital'out of anti-Semitism he would not hesitate a second.” The author of “Prejudices" took time out to light his cigar, so 1 swiftly delivered my question: ‘‘But why are we such a disagreeable race, Mr Mencken ?” Mr. Mencken corrected me. "I used the word ’unpleasant’, and advisedly It’s a nice word,” he chuckled. "That's exactly what you arc. The Jews go about like sandwich men carrying big signs: 'I am a Jew.’ They parade ii in front of you. They shout it into your face—not as an answer to a ques tion. but aggressively, without solicita tion. Now I am a German, hut I don': recite aloud from morn to midnight ‘Every day in every way I am becom ing a better and bigger German.’ But these professional Jews insist on yell ing: ‘I am a Jew. Make no mistake about it—don’t think that I’m one oi you fellows. I am a Jew.’ It sound? as if they were saying: ‘I am a Jew and you’re a swine that eats unclean food.’ It has the same tone as: ‘I am a Jew and on speaking terms with God. but you’re just a goy (Mencken used that word). It’s just like those Catho lics clamoring that they are the only people who will go to heaven. If ! have to spend my time in heaven with Jesuits or some old ear-locked Jews who know less about life than a public school boy, then write me down for a ticket to hell. "I am against prohibition. The Jew ish religion harbors hundreds of pro hibitions, only they have the word tret for it. You tell me that after all the big majority of the Jews is not strictly religious. That’s true. That s why they are the more unpleasant, because they follow these prohibitions just out o silliness. They tell you: ‘I am a Je" and I can’t eat with you—I am a Jew and can’t ride with you on Shabbc* or on some holiday.’ All that rna e them downright unpleasant, ^nen come to my New York office on otr ‘ Kippur I enter a morgue. I cant use the telephone. There is nobody to con nect me with the outside world. 1 dead, just like the rest of New ® r .„ Well—isn’t unpleasant the right word The American Bernard Shaw. as H admirers call him. smiled. Rcinne .. burst out laughing, but his l eU blue eyes looked genuinely ann ^-. We were sitting in a sort ot rj’CJPjJ - room. His publisher. Mr. Altrei a man of typical Semitic a lH xa . crossed the room. An inten>< long-nosed young man was ». c . with an agitated elderly son * ^ in a corner of the room. thetic face of H. L. M. was almost 1 v oW sight, all alone in a Semitic nv ; his pargraph about the Jew- . .. . as a rather feeble protest a- Semitic environment that ha it him like a ghetto walk Lo ] animal of the jungle the Ge. (Continued on Page