Anti-Semitism and Progressive Era Social Science: The Case of John R. Commons

Abstract

This paper explores John Commons’s views toward Jews in order to assess whether his published writings contain assertions that today would be stigmatized as anti-Semitic. The evidence we provide shows that Commons’s racial characterization of Jews was framed within a broad and indiscriminate xenophobic framework. With other leading Progressive Era social scientists, in fact, Commons shared the idea that the new immigration from eastern and southern Europe would increase competition in the labor market, drive down wages, and lead Anglo-Saxon men and women to have fewer children, since they would not want them to compete with those who survive on less. Within this general xenophobic context, Commons developed assertions regarding immigrant Jews that show traces of explicit anti-Semitic accusations.

What Does It Mean? A Comment on the Alleged Anti-Semitism of John R. Commons

“…Fiorito and Orsi, ignoring this larger context, fastened on Durand’s citation of Francis Amasa Walker’s claim that immigration caused falling birth rates in America’s pre-existing white population (Fiorito and Orsi 2016, p. 59; Walker 1892). The descendants of America’s 1790 population, according to Walker, did not want to bring children into a society where they would be compelled to live with immigrants from eastern and southern Europe who were driving down living standards by accepting lower wages and befouling the social environment with their repulsive habits.…”

“…Fiorito and Orsi found a problem in Commons’s admission, written in 1934, that he was wrong since the New York Jews had organized a permanent union after this report was written (Fiorito and Orsi 2016, pp. 76–77).…”

“…In their account of Mark Perlman’s interview, Fiorito and Orsi cited words that cannot be found in the published transcript. For example, in their concluding remarks they wrote, “Still, as recounted by Perlman to his son, Commons did not hesitate to express disdain towards Jews on many occasions both public and private” (Fiorito and Orsi 2016, p. 75). These were not in the transcript.…”

“…These were not in the transcript. Moreover, Mark Perlman never used the phrase “veiled hostility toward Jews” (Fiorito and Orsi 2016, p. 59). In fact, it is impossible to find in that interview any word or deed of Commons that could be interpreted as unequivocally anti-Semitic.…”

“…In their recent article “Anti-Semitism in Progressive Era Social Science: The Case of John R. Commons” (2016), Luca Fiorito and Cosma Orsi set out to indict John R. Commons of anti-Semitism, defined as a “persisting latent structure of hostile beliefs towards Jews as a collectivity, manifested in individuals as attitudes, and in culture as myth, ideology, folklore, and imagery, and in actions —social or legal discrimination political mobilization against the Jew, and collective state violence—which results in or is designed to displace or destroy Jews as Jews” (Fiorito and Orsi 2016, p. 57; italics in original). Their indictment rests on three sources: an interview in which Mark Perlman spoke of his father, Selig; a report that Commons wrote for the United States Industrial Commission; and a book that collected articles written by Commons for the Chautauqua Institute.…”