he
assurance that is born of intimate knowledge that French Socialism
shows as little sign of having been inspired by alien influences,
Jewish or other, as British and American Socialism. I stress this
point not because I would defend the Jews against the charge that they
have manifested unusual sympathy for Socialism (which, indeed, if
true, I should hold to be a virtuous distinction), nor to apologize
for or to deny the splendid contributions of individual Jews to the
Socialist movement. My concern is to enter protest against the charge
that the Socialist movement of the world originated in the ambitions
of Jewish imperialists and is neither more nor less than part and
parcel of a great international Jewish conspiracy. That is a stupid
travesty of history, and a dangerous one.

I have spent the greater part of my life in the Socialist movement, in
close and intimate comradeship with both Jews and Gentiles belonging
to nearly every civilized nation. I am as proud of the comradeship of
my Jewish comrades as I am of that of any others. My readers will
perhaps understand that I deeply resent the implication that through
all the years of struggle and sacrifice I have been either the
unconscious dupe or the willing agent of any kind of selfish
conspiracy, Jewish or other. It is, of course, difficult to disprove
such an accusation brought against a great movement, and, therefore,
by implication against the individuals belonging to that movement. If
I should charge that Mr. Henry Ford is engaged in this anti-Semitic
propaganda for purely selfish and mercenary reasons, that he has
become the spokesman and agent of great unscrupulous capitalist
interests who seek to destroy their Jewish competitors and to profit
thereby, he would find it difficult to establish the contrary by
definite and concrete proof. As a matter of justice, nothing of the
sort should be expected. The burden of proof rests upon the person
making the accusation. In like fashion, when the _Dearborn
Independent_ charges that the international Socialist movement is one
of the agents of a vicious Jewish conspiracy against Christian
civilization, it is in honor bound to submit proofs. This it has not
done, nor has any other paper making the charge. I _know_ that the
charge is a cruel and cowardly falsehood, a libel upon millions of
honest and honorable men and women, to utter which is an infamy and
degradation.

The charge is one that has been leveled against p