In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

| 109 15 A Personal and Confidential Letter to Louis Marshall (1917) Abraham Cahan In 1917, the postmaster general threatened to rescind the Forverts ’s second-class mailing privileges because of its opposition to America’s entry into World War I. This penalty probably would have bankrupted the Yiddish daily, as it did many antiwar newspapers. However, the Forverts was saved by the intercession of Louis Marshall, prominent attorney and head of the American Jewish Committee, who solicited the following statement of loyalty from the Forverts’s editor, Abraham Cahan. Cahan separately promised the postmaster general that he would henceforth refrain from commenting on the war. Dear Mr. Marshall: In reply to your kind inquiry of this date concerning the policy of the Jewish Daily Forward, I wish to say that it has been its desire to stand for strict obedience to the laws of the land. Whatever its policy may have been before the enactment of any particular law, it regards it to be its duty as well as that of its readers to observe unreservedly any and every law after its enactment. This policy has not been intentionally departed from. As the editor of the paper I propose in its future management to continue this policy and to do nothing or permit nothing to be done that may be interpreted as advocating or encouraging disobedience or defiance in any shape, way or form of any law promulgated by the government of the United States. To state the matter more definitely and concretely, it will be my policy from this time forth to see to it that the Forward is kept entirely free from anything that could either in letter or in spirit, be interpreted as breach or disregard of any of the laws enacted by our government for the purpose of prosecuting the war, or which might be regarded as inimical to our government. 110 | In Struggle The Forward, as you undoubtedly know, is by far the largest and most important Jewish newspaper not only in this country but in the world. It is not only the avowed and accepted spokesman of the hundreds of thousands of Jewish workers in all parts of the country, but the general cultural center of the great immigrant Jewish population. The Forward has a very large mail circulation, and the withdrawal of second class mailing privileges would seriously cripple if not destroy the publication. It would inflict a severe blow not only upon the publishers of the paper, but upon a large section of the Jewish population of the country. Yours sincerely, Abraham Cahan Source: Abraham Cahan to Louis Marshall, Oct. 8, 1917, Benjamin Schlesinger Records, box 3, folder 2, Kheel Center, Cornell University. ...

Share