A Republican National Publicity Committee ad in today’s NYT:
Headline of the Day -100:
This doesn’t refer to blacks, who are discriminated against in the segregated army, but to Jews. The problem arises from Cavalry Capt. Le Roy Eltinge’s book Psychology of War (1915), which says of the Jew: “For centuries he has been without a country. He doesn’t know what patriotism means. ... He has not been a soldier for over 2,000 years. ... The soldier’s lot is hard physical work. This the Jew despises. He does not have any of the qualities of a good soldier”. The War Dept orders him to delete all direct references to Jews, so that bit is changed to: “Another large proportion of our population is made up from those who, through they have no particular home on the earth from which to inherit their ideas, have peculiarities of physique and of mind that make them foreign in tastes and mental attitudes to all other classes of our population.” Evidently that’s not offensive because it doesn’t spell out the people to whom it’s obviously referring.
Can’t help but notice that the paragraph preceding that one is about the negro: “By association we know something of what he will do, but as we think with a different kind of brain we do not perceive the why of his acts. In other words, we will not be able to get the best out of him as a soldier because we do not understand how to touch the mainsprings of his character.” Eltinge also elaborates on the respective martial characteristics of the southern European and Anglo-Saxon races.
The new 10¢ coin, the Mercury dime, is out. People are lining up at the Sub-Treasury office and speculators are paying high prices for them because they might be recalled to be replaced because these have the designer’s initials, which the Treasury considers impermissible advertising. To be honest, the only reason I’m including this story is to mention that the Chief Clerk of the Sub-Treasury office in New York is named Wesley S. Twiddle.
"Eltinge also elaborates on the respective martial characteristics of the southern European and Anglo-Saxon races."
ReplyDeleteLet me guess that Eltinge considers the martial characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon race superior to the other races, as was the custom.
"The Anglo-Saxon fights stubbornly in defeat. The Latin makes a more enthusiastic and dangerous attack, but sinks into deepest dejection and hopelessness under a reverse." Etcetera.
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