The Sentinel, v.133 no. 12, 1944

              March 23, 1944
EINSTEIN AT 65
Princeton, N. J. (JPS)-Quiet
celebrating his 65th birthday her
Professor Albert Einstein has sent
cable to the London News Chronic
expressing concern lest "the Germs
peril . . . spring up again on a soil
jealousy and strife between the A
lies."
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THE SENTINEL
Plain Talk
"Rankin"
By AL SEGAL
ly
e,
a
le
an
' A Cincinnati gentleman writes that
A a democratic nation should do some-thing
to protect itself from Rankin.
(He means the Jew-bating Rankin who
is a congressman
and who carries
Rl his vilification into
the halls of Con-gress
. . . "Why
don't you at least
say something
about Rankin?"
What can I say
about Rankin that
Rankin doesn't say
much better for
himself? When
Rankin opens his mouth to spew chewed
over morsels picked up from the
gutters of anti-Semitism he makes a
self-revelation that is about all any
decent American cares to know of him.
He exposes himself as a man unfit
for public office and were I less a
democrat I might despair of democracy
that can produce Rankins. But then
I know that the social body is as prone
to take on imperfections as the physical
body. A physical body may present the
very perfection of beauty to the sight
but there may be a pimple on the
body's back that, if seen, would pro-claim
alas, there's nothing perfect in
the nature. May we, then, expect per-fection
in democracy? We can, there-fore,
regard a Rankin in the nature
of a pimple on the body of democracy
and, after all, a pimple on the back
is nothing to agonize about. One ac-cepts
a pimple, knowing that while it
is nothing to brag about, neither is it
something to lose sleep over.
With a Rankin pimple on its body,
the American democracy still goes
about its decent affairs, tending to the
justice and kindliness that are the es-sence
of democracy. Even while the
Rankin pimple is fluorescent, the de-cent
processes of democratic living go
on in the body. The President of the
United States is heard denouncing
racial and religious bigotry. Righteous
citizens all over the country are seen
uniting resolutely against the hate and
malice that destroyed Europe. Men
everywhere are determined that it shall
not happen to this democracy.
Why, then, bother too much about
this pimple?
In my life-time I have had expe-rience
of an occasional pimple. Eventu-ally
it disappeared and was forgotten
and for the life of me I couldn't even
remember where it had been. The body
of democracy has had Rankin-like
pimples before. They bloomed awhile,
disappeared and were forgotten. Back
in the 1850's they were the Know-
Nothing Party that proscribed Cath-olics;
later they were the Ku Klux
Klan; from time to time they have
been individuals like the current
Rankin.
What is disconcerting, though, is to
hear of the House of Representatives
rising to applaud Rankin after a re-cent
blatherskite utterance. As I have
said a pimple is nothing to brag about
even though it is nothing to lose sleep
over either. Intelligent people don't go
about applauding their pimples . . . "I
have a grand pimple. You should see
it ... None of that among intelligent
men."
True, when we were small boys we
used to show off our pimples and other
body imperfections . . . "Oh, boy you
should see my pimple! It's a beaut" .. .
But as we gathered intelligence we
became more discreet in the matter of
pimples and even ashamed lest they be
seen.
So Citizens who like to believe that
there is at least average intelligence
in Congress, were troubled to read of
the House rising to applaud the con-gressional
pimple. The tremendous
hand-clapping as much as said "He's a
beaut!" . . . News-magazine Time re-ported:
"As he (Rankin) trudged up
the aisle to his seat, with the conscious
humility of a great performer, the
House rose and gave him prolonged
applause. Why this tribute to the
House's most unashamed demagog?"..
Rankin had just given a speech
against the proposed Federal soldiers'
ballot. In the course of it he had men-tioned
Walter Winchell. The
"Who is he?" shouted Michigan's I
Congressman, Clare Hoffman. Deco
Then, according to Time, he replied: eco
"The little kike I was telling you D
about the other day, who called this O
body the House of Reprehensibles."
Time said: "This was a new low in 418-20
demogoguery, even for John Rankin, TE
but in the entire House no one rose
to protest."
I am disturbed by this but not
frightened: I am disturbed to see
adults revert to the adolescence that THE F
is proud of pimples-a manifestation
that is particularly distressing to ob- Sold
serve in Congressmen since we have * BOSTC
believed in their mental capacity to * CARS
handle the affairs of a great nation. * GOLD
I guess the only remedy in such a " MSA
case is the ballot box which, of course, Also at
is also the only cure for any attack Hardware
of Rankins the body of democracy willhave
may suffer. Yet, perhaps, it is desir- SEYMC
able to keep a Rankin in Congress as Phon
an exhibit testifying to the vigor of
democracy which keeps on being
healthy despite its pimples.
Indeed, when in the fullness of time,
Rankin, as must all men, departs from
this scene, it might be well to make
him permanent by placing a statue of
him in rotunda of the capital in which t
stand marble and bronze images of
their notable citizens that the various
states have placed there. Huey Long
is there, too.
Yes, a statue of Rankin to remind
the generations of democracy's vigor 1
that can take almost anything. The I
generations now unborn, will come
there and read the inscription:
RANKIN
A fungus-like political species well-known
in the United States and in eeeeeeeee
other political bodies.
This specimen was observed in the
House of Representatives in the middle
of the twentieth century.
It was deemed wise to preserve him
in immemorial marble for the comfort
of Americans who may at times de-spair
of democracy. TRO
Let this image admonish all such of
the powerfully resistant nature of "2834-b36
democracy which throws off its evil "eeeeeeee
growths and survives.
A nuisance while they last, Rankins Are
can be guarded against by a vigilant
public exercising wisely its suffrage.
Yet it is the opinion of natural P
scientists that, the human race being
wh t is, thhiet re always will be Ran-kins.
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