"Nigger Gin"
By Henry Ford
In "Collier’s Weekly," during the year 1908, solid truths appeared, which are in point today as proofs of what was transpiring. "Collier’s Weekly" was the first journal in the land to print the names of Jews in connection with the liquor debauchery of the country. Even so, it had been going on a very long time. There was a specially scathing attack on what was called "Nigger gin," a peculiarly vile beverage which was compounded to act upon the Negro in a most vicious manner. The author, Will Irwin, spoke of this gin as
· "The king iniquity in the degenerated liquor traffic of these United States."
This author and Collier’s 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 – all were Jews! The maker of one brand of "nigger gin" which had spurred certain Negroes on to the nameless crime, was one Lee Levy. Mr. Irwin detailed some of his experiences investigating the gin sold by a number of companies, all bearing Jewish names. The gin was cheap, its labels bore lascivious suggestions and were decorated with highly indecent portraiture of white women. "I never saw it in any saloon which bars the Negro," he wrote. Widely sold brands of cheap, noxious gins and other liquors, made by and brazenly sold under Jewish names, caused newspaper and police comments upon the peculiar lawlessness among negroes. With reference to the Negro Question, "nigger gin," the product of Jewish poisoned liquor factories, was its most provocative element.
The date of the appearance of this gin on the United States market is the period when Negro outbursts and subsequent lynchings became serious. The localities where this gin was sold are those where the disorders prevailed.
