The World's Foremost Problem
Being a Reprint of a Series of Articles Appearing in The Dearborn
Independent from May 22 to October 2, 1920
November, 1920
Preface
Why discuss the Jewish Question? Because it is here, and because itsemergence into American thought should contribute to its solution, andnot to a continuance of those bad conditions which surround the Questionin other countries.
The Jewish Question has existed in the United States for a long time.Jews themselves have known this, even if Gentiles have not. There havebeen periods in our own country when it has broken forth with a sullensort of strength which presaged darker things to come. Many signsportend that it is approaching an acute stage.
Not only does the Jewish Question touch those matters that are of commonknowledge, such as financial and commercial control, usurpation ofpolitical power, monopoly of necessities, and autocratic direction ofthe very news that the American people read; but it reaches intocultural regions and so touches the very heart of American life.
This question reaches down into South America and threatens to become animportant factor in Pan-American relations. It is interwoven with muchof the menace of organized and calculated disorder which troubles thenations today. It is not of recent growth, but its roots go deep, andthe long Past of this Problem is counterbalanced by prophetic hopes andprograms which involve a very deliberate and creative view of theFuture.
This little book is the partial record of an investigation of the JewishQuestion. It is printed to enable interested readers to informthemselves on the data published in The Dearborn Independent prior toOct. 1, 1920. The demand for back copies of the paper was so great thatthe supply was exhausted early, as was also a large edition of a bookletcontaining the first nine articles of the series. The investigationstill proceeds, and the articles will continue to appear as heretoforeuntil the work is done.
The motive of this work is simply a desire to make facts known to thepeople. Other motives have, of course, been ascribed to it. But themotive of prejudice or any form of antagonism is hardly strong enough tosupport such an investigation as this. Moreover, had an unworthy motiveexisted, some sign of it would inevitably appear in the work itself. Weconfidently call the reader to witness that the tone of these articlesis all that it should be. The International Jew and his satellites, asthe conscious enemies of all that Anglo-Saxons mean by civilization, arenot spared, nor is that unthinking mass which defends anything that aJew does, simply because it has been taught to believe that what Jewishleaders do is Jewish. Neither do these articles proceed upon a falseemotion of brotherhood and apology, as if this stream of doubtfultendency in the world were only accidentally Jewish. We give the factsas we find them; that of itself is sufficient protection againstprejudice or passion.
This volume does not complete the case by any means. But it brings thereader along one step. In future compilations of these and subsequentarticles the entire scope of the inquiry will more clearly appear.
October, 1920.
Contents
I. The Jew in Character and Business
II. Germany's Reaction Against the Jew
III. Jewish History in the U. S.
IV. The Jewish Question—Fact or Fancy?