a strange assertion, but a strange situation. To mention the Jew has always been dangerous to the non-Jew; but why also dangerous to the Jew? The Jewish explanation of anti-Semitism, that it is in the blood of the other races, that the moment they see a Jew they hate him, cannot be defended. Most non-Jews can testify that it is untrue of them. But it is a most amazing condition if even a mention of Jews arouses this feeling. Why should it?
However, the statement is of doubtful fact-value. The Jew himself should be the first to protest against having to go concealed all his days. He should welcome the use of his definite racial name, and he should not demand that it always be used in laudatory connections. A Jew should not be a Jew when he is elected to the United States Senate, and a “Russian” or a “Pole” when he is caught bootlegging. He should take the luck of life with the other races, and this would come to him without discrimination if he did not first arouse the spirit of discrimination by insisting on discrimination in his own favor.
It is probably much nearer the truth to say that publicity is a preventive of “Jew-Baiting.” People should not be confined in a condition which makes the use of the word “Jew” unusual. It should attract no more attention than does the use of any other racial name.
Mr. Page was, before his ambassadorial days, an editor of the Atlantic Monthly, a magazine which is an integral part of American life. To read the Atlantic is a certificate of character. It is one of the few publications that preserve the American spirit in literature. It is still worthy the glory of the group that first made its name known wherever sound thought expressed in good writing is appreciated. The Atlantic is not in need of this appraisal, it is too well established in the regard of the class of minds that give color and sinew to our intellectual life. In Mr. Page’s day the Atlantic may never have touched the Jewish Question with even so much as the tip of a discreet pen.