MERCHANTS OF HALE
Jack, Homer A.
Merchants of Hate A MEASURE OF FREEDOM, by Arnold Forster. Double-day. 256 pp. $2.50. CHARACTER ASSASSINATION, by Jerome Davis. Philosophical Library. 259 pp. $3. Reviewed by Homer A....
...Indeed, this book names names even if it is not quite the "documented dynamite" heralded by Walter Winchell...
...Yet if these commandments are read, especially the third commandment against reading liberal magazines, perhaps Washington, D. C. will no longer have the largest single city circulation of The Progressive...
...Forster devotes important chapters to the KKK and to such "patrons of patriotism" as Gerald L. K. Smith, Joseph Kamp, Upton Close, and Merwin K. Hart...
...For example, cursory surveys show that college students are less anti-Semitic than non-college students, yet college seniors do not differ significantly in this regard from college freshmen (although young college graduates show less anti-Semitism than older alumni...
...Because of the times in which we live, Character Assassination deserves to be read...
...In recent years, A. D. L. has come a long way...
...It is certainly Forster's privilige to condemn Mayer and The Progressive, just as long as he would not censor Mayer or The Progressive...
...There is an interesting chapter summarizing, with the help of Elmo Roper, 10 years of public opinion polls on anti-Semitism...
...Thus if A Measure of Freedom is necessarily limited to several areas of anti-Semitism, the day-to-day work of the A. D. L. happily extends to Negro rights, and there is also little evidence of any alleged "hush-hush" policy...
...Forster unambiguously says that "today there is little argument about the wisdom of exposing democracy's enemies . . . nor is there controversy any longer about the indivisibility of racial and religious freedom...
...There are important appendices listing detailed information about those many anti-Semitic organizations and periodicals which are still surviving...
...Yet the author apparently feels in his own mind that only a "measure" of freedom should be given to those who defame a group—to a Termin-iello or to the producers of Oliver Twist...
...There is a mine of other hard-to-find information, including sections on the smears against Franklin D. Roosevelt, "hitting labor below the belt," and current attacks on prophetic religious leaders...
...One of the most interesting chapters of the book is his account of suing The Saturday Evening Post for libel...
...by Ruth G. Weintraub (Doubleday, 1949...
...Other chapters discuss anti-Semitism in the college and university admission's office, on the campus, and in professional sports...
...Yet Smith and his crowd apparently failed to win any serious following last year, and it is comforting to learn that the pickings were so slim for the bulk of the hate merchants that at least 35 once-active anti-Semitic groups disappeared during 1949...
...It is feelingly written, even if in places it is badly thrown together...
...one that will safeguard free speech against both censorship and its own excesses...
...In writing about character assassination, Davis knows whereof he speaks...
...So far, there appears to be great promise in the use of public opinion surveys in this field, but the accomplishments have been limited to date...
...The book is worth owning if only for the reprint of Thurman Arnold's humorous yet tragic "Ten Commandments for Pure Conduct of Government Employees...
...For example, in enumerating those who step "over the line that distinguishes honest opinion from hate mongering," Forster names Milton Mayer for his article, "The Wheel of Hate" (in the March 1949 issue of The Progressive, about pianist Walter Gieseking...
...Forster earnestly if naively hopes for "a middle ground...
...Forster has produced a much better book that its predecessor, How Secure These Rights...
...Forster called the piece a "scurrilous" libel of Jewish organizations...
...Reviewed by Homer A. Jack ARNOLD FORSTER'S book, A Measure of Freedom, is kind of an annual audit of some of the targets of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith...
...Jerome Davis' book is a different sort, encompassing a larger field of civil liberties but including a chapter on anti-Semitism...
...Indeed, the author elsewhere admits that "one must use the weapon of public condemnation with intelligence and caution...
...Estimates are made of the "take" of these hate-lers—for Smith the amount exceeded $150,000 in 1949...
Vol. 14 • July 1950 • No. 7
