Today -100: June 17, 1922: Of thoughtful Jews, melons, and helicopters

A. Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard says that restricting the number of Jewish students in Harvard might be Good for the Jews: “The anti-Semitic feeling among the students is increasing, and it grows in proportion to the increase in the number of Jews. If their number should become 40 per cent. of the student body, the race feeling would become intense. When on the other hand, the number of Jews was small, the race antagonism was small also. . . . If every college in the country would take a limited proportion of Jews, I suspect we should go a long way toward eliminating race feeling among the students, and as these students passed out into the world, eliminating it in the community.” Alfred Benesch, the lawyer (and Jewish alum) to whose letter Lowell is responding, replies that the logical conclusion of Lowell’s argument is that a complete ban on Jewish students would solve the problem of anti-Semitism. Lowell says a committee on the proposed Jew Quota will be formed and it will “get into communication with the thoughtful Jews in this country.”

Harvard is also accused of segregating black students in dorms and dining halls.

Congressional Republicans tell Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon to fire Democratic officials (including some who actually aren’t) in the Treasury. He tells them to suck his melon balls.

A helicopter (a plane with lifting propellers on its wings, I’m not sure that really counts as a helicopter) rises seven (7) feet in the air in a demonstration before US Navy experts.

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