by Henry Ford

(Reprinted from the 24 December 1921 Issue of the house journal of the Ford Motor Co., the Dearborn Independent and slightly edited by Raymond Bray to eliminate the numerous uses of "which" for "that" in the original.)

It has been shown how the American Whisky business became Jewish. The distillers of pure whisky that required years to make, were driven out by the manufacturers of drugged and chemicalized liquors that could be made in three or four hours. The latter, being cheaper and more intoxicating, so completely usurped the market that the public never knew that it was not whisky. It had stolen the name of whisky, and under that name the righteous indignation of the people prohibited it; and under that name still it is being sold by bootleggers at an advance of 1,000 percent. The use of the fraudulent label is not new, It is not a product of Prohibition days; it began with the advent of Jewish capital into the liquor business. Whisky, carefully and scientifically made, purified by long years of repose in the warehouse, was an American product; "red eye," "forty rod stuff," "knock 'em dead" and "squirrel whisky" mixed and sold the same day, were Jewish products.

The Pure Food Law came into the fight to protect the American industry, but it was flouted at every turn. Bad liquor was in such a deep state of public disgrace that the people paid little attention to Chief Chemist Wiley's efforts. They thought when he said "whisky" he meant the stuff that they knew as "whisky,: and they disregarded him. The degeneracy of the liquor business became deeper and deeper, to the amazement of both its friends and its foes, and no one had the key to the situation because no one saw, or seeing, had the courage to expose, the Jewish program behind the scenes.

To resume the story: Even after the cheap compounded liquors that masqueraded as "whisky" had won a commanding place in the market, to the serious detriment of the business in pure brands, the Jewish compounders were far from satisfied. There remained a few American brands whose names, by reason of their dependability , topped the list. Their very quality, though of limited quantity, was a constant challenge to the vicious mixtures of which the rectifiers produced millions of gallons a year.

How to remove those standard American brands, with their honest labels, from the market?--that was the problem that the leaders of the Jewish compounding business tackled. The first resort was characteristically, to trickery. Shipments of pure goods would be sidetracked somewhere en route, while the rectifiers drew off half the whisky and refilled the barrels with mixed compounds. People who have been amazed at the stunts of the bootleggers--the sidetracking of whisky shipments, the "robbery" of loaded trucks, and so on--would not be so surprised if they knew that every trick was used by the compounders of bad liquor twenty years ago! It was Jewish then, as it is Jewish now, but no one dared say so. Merely to list the tricks would require too much space. It was a nasty business from any point of view.

But still the standard brands held their place in public confidence. The Jew who claims to be the superior of the American in skill did not think of making a better whisky and thus winning the market; he thought to get rid of the better whisky that the vicious, adulterated product might own the field.

It was the day of Trusts. Big Business was amalgamating. It occurred to the leaders of the compounding business that if they could sweep all the honest distilleries into a combine with all the backroom rectifying places, put them all under one management and run down the quality of famous brands to the standard of cheap ones--cashing in on the names of the brands, and doubly profiting by decreasing the cost that quality requires--they could thus accomplish in a financial way what had been formerly tried by less respectable methods./

The inception of the idea of a "whisky combine" was legitimate. The Kentucky distillers (who must at all times be distinguished from compounders and rectifiers) endeavored in 1898 to establish a combination that would unite all the legitimate distilleries in the fight against the flood of counterfeit whisky. It is, however, significant that there was not enough capital in the legitimate whisky business to finance the plan. But when the idea was picked up by the makers of spurious liquor, there were millions of dollars at their command--just as today, with industry suffering, there are millions of Jewish capital at the disposal of the motion picture business!

In the Louisville Courier-Journal, February, 1899, the story of the first operations toward a combine is told, the language being inflated, of course, that hesitant distilleries might be stampeded. "Absorbed Kentucky Distilleries in a Mammoth Combine. Capital Stock $32,000,000. Some of the Biggest Plants in the State Involved. Sixteen in Louisville. Controls 90 percent of the Product and Nearly All Standard Brands."

"Levy Mayer, of Chicago, has acted as counsel in the drawing up of the papers. He becomes the general counsel of the new company."

This article contained a list of Kentucky distilleries, all of them American--that is, non-Jewish. It was the well-established brands, the names of quality, that were sought. These names were all non-Jewish.

"Levy Mayer, the general counsel of the new company said tonight: 'The Kentucky Distilleries and Warehouse Company is a reality and will bring prosperity to the state of Kentucky where depression has prevailed for some years on account of the discord which has existed among the distillers of Bourbon whisky, who for a generation prior enjoyed a great prosperity.'"

A most ingenuous statement. But Mr. Mayer is a most ingenuous man. However, there is some truth in his statement: it is true that the legitimate distillers had suffered from depression, not because the American people were not consuming liquor, however, but because the American people had been turned from pure whisky to "red eye"; and Mr. Mayer's smooth statement that this depression was on account of the discord which has existed among the distillers of Bourbon whisky" needs revision to "the fight between non-Jewish makers of real whisky and the Jewish makers of compounded liquor."

In the story of the combine a great deal is heard of Mr. Mayer and Alfred Austrian. Mayer is a Chicago Jew who is worth a story by himself. He is one of those Jews with whom candidates for the American presidency--mostly those candidates who are in debt-- feel it is necessary to stay when he invites them. Mr. Austrian is sufficiently well known by his connection with the baseball scandal. He was attorney for Rothstein, the gambler, whose name figured so prominently in that scandal and who is credited with doing things to the grand jury testimony in a way that makes a pretty tale. Austrian also appeared for two St. Louis Jew gamblers, implicated in the baseball scandal, who were afterward indicted. Austrian is also credited with being the author of the so-called "Lasker Plan" of baseball reorganization. The services of Mayer and Austrian to the liquor interests of Chicago and Cook County, were and are important.

There were Jewish names previously appearing. About 1889 Nathan Hoffheimer had tried to bring all the Kentucky whisky business under one head, and later Morris Greenbaum tried it. It will probably be conceded that both these men are Jews, and it is provable by the records that they were endeavoring to consolidate the whisky business. But the big stunt was really pulled off under the guidance of the two Chicago Jews, Mayer and Austrian.

"The various companies forming the Trust are:

"American Spirits Manufacturing Company, $35,000,000; Kentucky Distilling and Warehouse Association, $32,000,000; The Rye Whisky Distillers Association $30,000,000; the Standard Distilling Company, $28,000,000; and the Spirits Distributing Company, $7,500,000.

"The forerunner of the gigantic combination of the whisky interests of the country was the organization of the American Spirits Manufacturing Company upon the ruins of the Old whisky trust that was controlled and directed by Joseph Greenhut. . . . .

"Attorney Levi Mayer, of Chicago, who has been legal adviser of the whisky people from the inception of the American Spirits Manufacturing Association, was called to New York Saturday last to confer over the legal form of the charter and the closing of the negotiations."

The italicized portions indicate the connection, and it was a connection maintained to the end, and may indeed be continued yet.

Then, in the current accounts of this merger of the liquor business under Jewish control, another name appears. On March 15, 1899:

"Anglo Meyer, a big whisky buyer of New York, is in Louisville trying to buy a big lot of whiskies." It appears that Mr. Meyer put on a poor mouth and told how hard it was to buy whisky in big lots.

And then on March 17, two days later, this appeared: "Mr. Angelo Meyer, the wealthy Philadelphia whisky man, has been appointed one of the general managers of the business of the Kentucky Distilleries Company and is engaged in appointing men to take charge of the various departments of the combine's affairs."

The discrepancy in the above two paragraphs need not be charged to the untruthfulness of the newspaper reporter. Reporters as a rule faithfully report what they are told; but sometimes what they are told is not true.

"Mr. Meyer has commonly been called the Napoleon of the whisky trade. He is largely interested in the recently formed combine.

"'We intend to make plenty of whisky. No brand will be killed.' said Mr. Meyer."

Henceforth the names of Levi Mayer, Alfred Austrian and Angelo Mayer appear most frequently in the reports.

"Alfred Austrian, who is Levy Mayer's legal representative, says that all the distilleries now negotiated for will be absorbed in three weeks more."

In an interview today Mr. Angelo Meyer said, 'I believe confidently that in the next five years a business calling for 10,000,000 gallons of whisky a year will be built up."

In April 1899, another Jewish movement appeared: "Joseph Wolf, the Chicago whisky dealer, who is said to own more Kentucky whisky, independent o the Kentucky Distilleries and Warehouse Company, than any other individual or corporation, is behind the new whisky combine formed in Chicago with a capital stock of $3,000,000. The purpose of the new trust, which it is said will be given the title of the Illinois Distilleries and Warehouse Company, is to fight the Kentucky Distilleries and Warehouse Company."

The few remaining Kentucky Distillers were wary; they regarded Wolf, probably with reason, as simulating enmity to the other part of the Jew-made whisky trust in order to sweep into his net the remaining independents.

"Alfred Austrian and C. H. Stoll, attorneys for the Kentucky Distilleries and Warehouse Company, will leave Louisville today for Chicago to confer with Levy D. Mayer, chief counsel for the trust; and in fact, counsel for three big whisky and spirits combines."

Alfred Austrian, of Chicago, left last night for Cincinnati to close the deal for the celebrated Sam Clay distillery of Bourbon County.

Under an exciting headline detailing the departure of the Jew lawyer Austrian to Chicago to see the Jew lawyer Mayer, there is the story of a still greater whisky combine:

"The projected combination of all the whisky interests of the country will probably be completed in Chicago today. A rye whisky trust is now being formed and will soon be ready for incorporation and presentation to men with capital. . . . It is said that the capitalization of the rye whisky trust will be $60,000,000, and the combined capitalization of the five companies will amount to about $175,000,000. . . . Levy Mayer, of Chicago, Alfred Austrian, of Chicago, and C. H. Stoll, of New York, are the attorneys for the three trusts. Mr. Mayer being the chief counsel."

And still later, a statement by Levy Mayer:

"The new rye distillery combination will be the largest individual whisky amalgamation in the world. It is controlled and is being financed by the same people and the same trust companies of New York and Philadelphia now controlling and financing the Kentucky Distilleries and Warehouse Company, whose capital is $32,000,000; the Standard Distilling and Distributing Company, with a capital of $28,000,000; the American Spirits manufacturing Company, with a capital of $35,000,000;; and the Spirits Distributing Company, with a capitalization of $15,000,000.

"Rumor has it,: and Mr. Mayer smiled as he patted a big bundle of legal documents, "that after the rye consolidation has been perfected all the separate companies will be merged into one central company, which will have an aggregate capital close to $200,000,000. A whisky combination of that size will certainly hold foremost place among the world's liquor trusts and organizations."

Another dispatch: "Alfred Austrian today returned to Louisville from New York, where he assisted in forming the combine of the American Spirits Manufacturing Company (and the three other companies).

"Mr. Austrian leaves tonight for Chicago, where he expects to close the deal with Elias Bloch & Sons to purchase the Darling distillery in Carroll County, and with Freiberg and Workum to secure their two plants in Boon County."

Here it is possible to see the Jewish agents of Jewish capital hurrying to and fro with every assurance of success, working along well-defined lines, known to themselves but concealed from the public, building up a colossal structure that public opinion was to hurl down in two decades. But two decades were enough for enormous revenues to be derived from the criminal debasement of all kinds of liquor, which became more apparent from the time of the giant consolidation.

Whisky became so rotten that in Kentucky, the pioneer whisky state, there were only four whole "wet" counties by 1908. The first decade of absolute Jewish control put even the first whisky state in the "dry" column.

The Jewish compounders did not care how they marketed their goods, so long as they could sell them in quantities. The cheap "barrel house" appeared with its windows full of gleaming bottles and gaudy labels and "cut rate" whisky prices. The compounders became saloon owners toward the end of the saloon era, and many Jews went into the "barrel house" business for a quick cleanup. The proportion of vicious dives increased everywhere, and the moral guardians of society were amazed at "the wave of vice" that was "sweeping over the country"; but they did not have the key that explained it. The whisky business was riding to a wild finish, but the men at the helm knew exactly what they were doing every moment of the time. To look back upon that period, with all the facts at hand, makes it more and more apparent how fitting is the term, "boob Gentile."

Why, even Norman Hapgood knew how bad it was and Collier's Weekly, under his editorship, was the first journal in the land to print the names of Jews in connection with the liquor debauchery of the country. But those were the good old days, when Hapgood could tell the truth even about Hearst, the man for whom he now writes his graceless palaver of pro-Jewish propaganda

In Collier's Weekly, during the year 1908, solid truths appeared that are in point today as proofs of what was transpiring. There was a specially scathing attack on what was called "nigger gin," a peculiarly vile beverage that was compounded to act upon the Negro in a most vicious manner. Will Erwin spoke of this gin as "the king iniquity in the degenerated liquor traffic of these United States." This author and Colliers started a new fashion in giving publicity not only to the names of certain brands of liquors, but also the names of the men who made them. It turned out that the maker of a brand of "nigger gin" that had spurred certain Negros on to the nameless crime, was one Lee Levy. Mr. Erwin wrote:

"Because the South is not through with Lee Levy, and because its citizens may at least drive him out of business--if they cannot get him behind the bars--one declaration of the Commercial Appeal is worthy of reply. That paper raises a question of fact--it charges that Levy's gin, Dreyfuss, Weil & Company's gin, Bluthenthal & Blickert's gin, the Old Spring Distilling Company's gin, do not exist; or that, if they exist, their sales are insignificant. Let me present my own evidence on that point."

Mr. Erwin then details some of this experiences. The gin that he was discussion was provocative of perculiar lawlessness, its labels bore lascivious suggestions and were decorated with highly indecent portraiture of white women. "I bought, for evidence, many other brands, some emanating from the big liquor cities and some put up by local people; but I could always get Levy's. I never saw it in an saloon that bars the Negro.

"In Galveston, which prides itself on its clean government, some brand or other was for sale in nearly all the corner grocery 'drums.'

"In a Negro street of New Orleans I saw five saloon shop windows in one block that displayed either Lee Levy's or Dreyfuss, Weil & Company's. This latter firm is more clever in its work than the others, much more delicate and subtile in its labeling policy. It takes one who understands the Negro and his slang to appreciate the enigma of their wording; it all comes in a 'caution label' on the obverse of the bottles.

". . . . Such gins were sold everywhere in Birmingham . . . . .a bottle of the stuff, half empty, had been taken from a Pickens County Negro just after his arrest for the nameless crime.

"Levy--so the gossip of the liquor trade has it--grew rich through this department of his business. Dreyfuss, Weil & Company advertise everywhere that theirs is the most widely sold brand in the South. And more and more one hears of tragedies that lie at the end of this course."

That is a sample--an expurgated sample--of what went on in every part of the country. Newspaper reporters will remember how the police used to wonder about the change that came over certain foreign communities. "They come here nice people,: the experienced police captain would say, "but in a short time they are giving us all sorts of trouble. They don't do that in their own country."

"It's the drink," somebody would suggest.

"No, they drink in their own country, they drink all the time there. It's the kind of drink they get here that does it--the 'rot-gut' that drives them wild.: That was the captain's diagnosis, made a thousand times, but no one was the wiser. No one saw the key, which was the Jew.

In the South a terrible lynching period came and divided the country into pro-lynching and pro-Negro parties, but still no one saw the reason for it all. The race question rose to threatening proportions, the Americans of the North and South looked at each other askance, there was a cooling of sympathy between the regions. Northerners were inclined to look at Southerners as unjust and inhuman in their treatment of the Negro, and Southerners were inclined to look upon Northerners as temperamentally unsympathetic and stupidly ignorant of what the conditions were.

Behind it all were the products of men like Lee Levy and Dreyfuss, Weil & Company, to use only the names quoted from Colliers.

The ancient Jewish policy of Divide-Conquer-Destroy was in operation. Jewish policy favors disunion as a preparation to the kind of union that Jewish leaders want.

Jewish influence was strong for disunion in the Civil War. Jewish influence is directly behind the present attitude of the Negro toward the white man--look at the so-called "Negro welfare societies: with their hordes of Jewish officials and patrons! Jewish influence in the South is today active in keeping up the memory of the old divisions. And, with reference to the Negro question, "nigger gin," the product o Jewish poisoned liquor factories, was its most provocative element.

Trace the appearance of this gin as to day, and you will find the period when Negro outbursts and lynchings became serious. Trace the localities where this gin was most widely sold and you will find the places where these disorders prevailed.

It is extremely simple, so simple that it has been overlooked. The public is being constantly deceived by an appearance of complexity, where there is none. When you find the fever-bearing mosquito, yellow fever is no longer a mystery.

The same policy of "Divide-Conquer-Destroy" tells the story of the liquor traffic. Jewish influence divided between distilling and compounding, drove out distilling, and in the end destroyed the traffic as a legalized entity.

It needs to be said, however, that the destruction is not part of the Jewish intention. "Divide and Conquer" is the formula as the Jewish leaders conceive it, as, indeed, it is stated in the Protocols. The "destroy" comes as Nemesis upon Jewish achievements. Russia was divided and conquered, but just as the Jews had conquered it, the canker worm of fate began to consume their conquest. The story is repeated wherever Jewish intrigue has succeeded. Whatever the Jews can succeed in making Jewish, falls!

It may be fate. It may be Destiny's way to the survival of the fittest. That which succumbs to complete Judiazation, as Jewish leaders conceive it, may deserve to fall. The justification of its destruction may appear in the possibility of its Judaization. Anything that can be Judaized is to that extent sentenced to oblivion.

The story of Jewish control of liquor has now been carried through two stages, the "Divide and Conquer" stages. The third stage follows with swift and relentless steps. Blind though the country was to the Jewish character of the liquor business, it was blind to the ravages of that business upon society.

There came a sentiment that moved ceaselessly through the country, and mounted to stormy power; people could only speak of it as a "wave." The term became hackneyed by overuse, but it was accurately descriptive. The indignation of the people, the arousal of their just moral resentment was as a flood that rose to cleanse the land. The attack was on liquor, and the attack was just. The attack was on liquor and it came none too soon. The country was drenched in vile concoctions that rapidly undermined large sections of the population. Crime increased and domestic misery was everywhere. The people attacked the only thing they could see--they attacked the stuff and the places that distributed it. They did not see the $200,000,000 Jewish whisky combination, they did not see the sinister devices by which strong drink was made vile and viler with the growth of Jewish control.

The people rose and swept away the saloon. They did not sweep away the stocks of liquor. The did not sweep away Jewish interest in liquor. They left the source untouched. And that source is still existent.