(3 of 5)
Cheers. Upon the appearance of the recantation comments—both cheers and jeers broke forth at once. Some potent Jews, including Nathan Straus and Otto Hermann Kahn, resolutely refused to talk. Some cheers:
"We are glad he is getting sensible."—Samuel Phillipson, Chicago merchant.
"Henry Ford shows himself to be a man of real character."— Judge Harry M. Fisher of Chicago.
"His apology comes late, and we hope it is sincere and that he will not again be led into harming a people as he has done to the Jews."—Manager S. H. Simon of B. Manischewitz Matzoth Co.. Chicago.
"Ford has shown himself after all a man of some reason."—Max Shulman, Chicago Zionist.
"I am glad Mr. Ford is alive and will reap the joy of righting the almost unforgivable wrong he visited upon the Jewish people."—Rabbi Isaac Landman, editor of the American Hebrew.
Jeers. "We respectfully suggest that the last sweet dose of love and kisses be ladled out to Mr. Ford's new-found friends by leaving the name Ford off the new car. Let it be called instead, let us say, the Solomon Six, or the Abraham Straight-8"—New York Daily News.
"Mr. Ford's statement is very greatly belated. It would have been much more to his credit had it been written five years ago." Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck & Co.
"While it is better late than never to confess having done an injury, it is impossible to overlook the fact that in Mr. Ford's case it it decidedly late."—New York Times.
"Mr. Ford advances an empty head to explain his cold feet, and the only plausibility is contained in the fact that it took him until advanced years to discover that Benedict Arnold was not a modern writer and that the Revolution was not fought in 1812."*—Chicago Tribune.
"Mr. Henry Ford has in his character a certain naïve quality that makes his acts or words credible no matter how far they may seem to clash with logic or probability."—New York Evening Post.
"It is hard to imagine Mr. Ford so wrapped in cotton wool that the major activity of his own magazine was unknown to him; that he was as unaware of what the Dearborn Independent was doing as if he had been a Tibetan monk."—New York Sun.
Requital. Executive Editor David N. Mosessohn of the Jewish Tribune† made bold to advise Henry Ford on how to requite himself to the Jews. He wrote:
"The spirit of American fair play should inspire Mr. Ford to impose upon himself the solemn duty of taking steps to counteract that influence with the same energy and enterprise that was employed in his name to spread the ideas he now acknowledges were false. As the world's richest man, Henry Ford has the unique opportunity of making an amende honorable to the Jewish people by sponsoring a world-wide campaign of education against national chauvinism, religious bigotry and racial antagonism."