Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-02-17
MEMPHIS APPEAL
SATCROAY, : FEBRUARY IL, 1888
AN AMERICAN JEw.BAIrER.

AN AMERICAN JEW.BAITER.
The New York Sun, Of Friday last, had
column and half OF its matter devoted to
a communication dated from 'Greenvillp,
Miss" and signed Frank Wilkeson." 1t
begins with copy of what it calls "a Jew
trust deed" by which the planter engages
his property as security for the payment OF
advances and supplies made by the merchant
who "csrries" him. The writer proceeds to
say that, scattered along the banks Of the
Mississippi, in the region known as "the
bends," and in the interior, are Jew traders;
these establish themselves where there is
"6lth, injustice, and woe" The Jews, on
learning at the close Of the war that he own
ers of Southern soil were without means and
also 100000 ignorant blacks, liv-
ing as he does on misfortune and
ignorance, hocked 10 the South. There
came from the Storage of ocean
steamers column of dirty Jews, fight Of
hook .nosed vullures anxious TO feed on the
cotton States They had themselves suffered
persecution, but had learned ne mercy. They
opened stores, gave credit, made from
seventy to 200 per cent. profit, and talked
only business and smut. They created a
credit system that impoverishes the
black laborer and ruins the white planter.
White planters do not Cypress negroes nor
extort from them. Jew traders are the peo-
pie that do these things. The planter has
no money; he goes to the Jew for credit. The
Jew says money is tight, very tight; the
planter becomes eager; the Jew becsmes
cold, and affects reluctance. Finally he
puts the planter into The mill and turns the
screws on him, gets trust deed Of all his
real and personal property, which stipulates
that goods are to be charged at credit prices,
and ten per cent. interest for credit
is drawn besides. Generally the bulk
of the goods are not drawn until the
cotton-picking time, but interest is
paid steadily from the date of the deed,
the Jew making seventy five per cent. profit.
The planter has to charge his hands high
he -..4~Sss Lai ue0ls; the negroes, finding the
cotton they raise will not pay, 60 away;
cotton Is lost, there is no money to pay the
Jew, and great tracts of land have in this
way passed into their hands. The earnest
Saxon men say, savagely; "Some day we
will kill the whole id outfit" A Missis-
sippian, savage because the Jews play cards
and drink with the negro, get him drunk,
and then charge goods to him, and also cheat
in weights, said: "D-n 'em, l should like 10
kill all OF them and feed them to nv alli-
gators" The writer, for his part, saye: II,
for one, ana just sick of the squashy senti-
mentalism cultivated over the expulsion of
the Jews from the districts of Russia, and
over the warfare on them in Germany"
He owns that there are some good
Jews, but they do not come on the banks
of the Mississippi. This is a sketch of
an Indictment against the Jews, which
sounds wondrousy like some that used to be
drawn up, thirty years ago, against the
Yankees. There is truth in ii, no doubt, too
much, but why is the indictment made out
against the Jew? Why is he made the scape-
goat Of the ubiquitous? Because he has no
friends? There are men to-day who, when
the war was over, in the pity and sympathy of
their kind hearts lent money and gave credit
to people who had come back to their homes
penniless. There are men who are poor to-
day because when the cotton was baled it
was sold to others. The merchant was ruined;
the planter is rich to-day on the capital that
merchant supplied. This will tell why trust
deeds became necessary, and those who made
them necessary went to the church, not to
the synagogue. 1t may seem truth 10 the
New York readers of the Sun that planters
haggle with Jew traders about money be-
ing tight, very tight, and go CD, bat we in
Memphis know that there is not q
merchant on Front street TO whom any
decent, honest, honorable planter cannot GO
aud be treated as one gentleman treas another,
as the mass Of planters around here are
treated, and are perfectly satisfied with their
treatment. But there are planters who have
forfeited all good character. If they, in
their dith onesty, go TO Jew or Christian
equally dishonest, the smarlest rogue of the
two will ruin the other. There are Jews
who have neither mercy nor principle, but
unhsppily they have no monopoly OF those
deficiencies. There are people of Christian
birth that are competent to take upon them
selves all the indictment from Greenville
charges against the Jews. If the Jew
should win in the hateful rivalry for wealth,
it is not because the Christian had the least
rascality, but because the Jew had the
most ability. We have said this in vindica-
tion Of the Jews as people, as we know them.
We do not condemn whole people because
Of such characters existing as some of those
said 10 be found along the banks of the Mis-
sissippi. We have Jews among us, good,
honorable upright, amiable men; men OF
broad public spirit, liberal and ever ready
with their contributions in any cause OF
mercy or public need; we have known
many Jews whose virtues mmanded OUT
reverence and whose kindly qualities won
our love. The Jews are like other people,
neither better nor worse, and it is unjust,
illiberal and unfair TO single them out and
make them the scspegoats for a system oil
robbery and wrong sgsinst which the Vicks-
burg Herald not long ago protested in earn
est terms as practieed by certain class OF
planters.