The European importation at this period was the race theory. Originated in France by Gobineau, taken up in Germany by scientific thinkers and made the rallying cry of political parties, the theory was adapted to American conditions. In Germany and France the “great race” was the Teuton, below whom were ranged in order the Alpine, the Mediterranean, and the Semite. The safety of the Teuton and therefore of civilization as a whole depend on the purity of blood of the Teuton and his guarding from contamination by alien blood. The Semite, in particular, is a menace by reason of his lower moral and social standards and his inability ever to be assimilated by the higher races; he must be driven out of power and if possible out of the “sacred German land” itself. In the United States this theory was taken over bodily by such writers as Lothrop Stoddard and Grant Madison, with the trifling change that the word “Teuton” was altered to “Nordic.” This was done in order to include the many sub-varieties of the older immigration, most of whom came at some time from northern and western Europe. The Klan and the writers in the Dearborn Independent echoed them. The Russians in the United States attacking the Soviet government, many sub-groups of new Americans who imported their anti-Semitism with them, and the constant flood of letters, periodicals and books regarding the growth of mob violence, political discrimination and social obloquy in Europe, furnished the connecting link. The race theory became acclimatized. Peculiarly enough, one of the most radical statements of the race theory was by a Jew, Maurice Samuel in “You Gentiles,” where he showed quite unintentionally how the theory is reversible to form opposite conclusions on the same premises. To Samuel, Jew and gentile are two radically different sorts of people, as the anti-Semite agrees; the difference he finds, however, is one of temperament, of viewpoint. [90]To you (gentiles) life is a game and a gallant adventure, and all life’s enterprises partake of the spirit of the adventurous. To us (Jews) life is a serious and sober duty pointed to a definite and inescapable task. [91]We know nothing of science for science’s sake, as we know nothing of art for art’s sake. We know only of art for God’s sake.... Art and science, this is your gentile world, a lovely and ingenious world.... But not our world, not for us Jews. To this we may contrast the remark of Irwin Edman: [92]The Jews have been accused so often of impossible racial defects that they have in self defense, ascribed to themselves wholly imaginary racial virtues.... They have added to the unfavorable myths invented by outsiders a whole folklore of favorable myths about themselves. The reprints from the Dearborn Independent can match this sort of hasty generalization a hundred times over in the language of anti-Semitism.