The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-03
lola ON ANTI-SEMITISM
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE NOVELIST
JUST PREVIOUS TO HIS TRIAL.
He Kept the DreyfuS Agitation Alive
from Sense of Duty-His Life IA
Guest for Truth and Justice


Emile lola the burning question of anti
Semitism in France. The report of our
first conversation, which ] contributed to
the Humanitarian. was taken at time
when the agitation, though violent had not
outstepped the limits of newspaper polemlcs.
AT that time lola was still speaking of it
as the "imbecile anti-Semitism" with much
contempt in his voice.
II cannot believe" he said, 'that France,
the great, generous, enlightened nation,
will tolerate movement which, springing
into being a century after the French revo-
luton and the declaration of the rights of
man, throws us back into the dark night of
the middle ages. The movement is an idiotic
one, fostered by certain men who wish to
derive from their connection with it a no.
torety which they could not obtain in any
other way. Formerly it was usual to direct
the fury of the mob against the church.
The proletariat was invited every morning
in those days-I am speaking of ten or
twelve years ago-to breakfast off a priest.
The present plat du jour is Jew, as fat
and prosperous Jew as the pamphleteers
can dish up Yet, with all their shouting.
these men cannot stir the people of France,
with their love of justice and their good
shows that all these pernicious teachings
have had any effect upon them whatever.
It must be rather disheartening to Drumont
and all the rest of his school to see that
after all their efforts to incite the mob
against the Jews not single pane of glass
in the windows of any Jew in France has
been broken. That is why l speak of this
anti-Semitic movement in France as an inn
NAcNat
HYPOTHETICAL SOCIALISM.
This conversation took place, it must be
observed, before any attack had actually
been made upon the Jews. The agitation
had even then attained sufficient dimen-
sions to fill M. lola with alarm He said:
Il have to admit regretfully that the
movement has taken a great hold in France.
but | do not admit that the people really
understand it's significance 1t is merely ac-
cepted by the mass of the people as the
newest form of socialism. The Jews have
been made to represent in the eyes of the
ignorant the have-alls. the, capitalists.
against whom the demagogueS have always
directed the furies of the proletariat. In
stead of crying as they used TO cry zen
years ago, Down with the capitalists, the
people are now taught to cry, Down with
the Jews the leaders of the antt-Semltlc
campaign acting largely in the interests oa
the Catholic party, having inouceu tnen .n
into the belief that all the capitalists are
Jews, that it is the Jewish money which
employs all tine labor of France, that the
whole nation is vassal to the, purse OF
Absurdities, yes; which, however. the peo-
pie have come to believe. So that the cry
of Down with the Jews from the mass Oh
the French people means nothing but down
with the capitalists Anti-SemltlSm as IL
exists to-day in France is a hypocrltlcal
form of socialism. 1t is a lie of course that
all Jews are capitalists, that all Jews have
no love for anything but the acquisition OF
wealth by the labor of others, and NOBODY
~ ln1d aRc n
campaign. And nobody better than the
leaders of this campaign know that II the
Jews do show wonderful superiority IN tne
matter of money-getting, it Is because we
trained them to this in an apprenticeship
of eighteen hundred years
THE WORK OF A FEW MADMEN.
At the time of his first talk he was much
inclined to plume himself upon the fact that
in the whole of France the campaign had
only resulted in calumny. The attacks in
the press had not resulted in any actual
violence; nevertheless, he saw that it was
thitherward tending:
II have been surprised to notice the APP
parent development that it is taking. Sur
prised indeed. The very initiation of the
movement stupefed me-that there should
be a return to fanaticism, an attempt TO
light up a religious war in this epoch OF
ours, one hundred years after the revolution,
in the heart of our great Paris. IN the Gays
of democracy, OF universal toleration, at the
ment being made everywhere toward equal
ity, Justice, and fraternity. A handful OF
madmen. cunning or id1otlc, come ana Shout
in our ears every morning, Let us XIII the
Jews. Let up devour the Jews. Let
US massacre them. Let us exterminate
them Let us get back to the days of the
gibbet and stake Is it not inconceivable?
Could anything bemore foolish? Could any
thing be more abomindble?'
Questioned about the popular report as to
the syndicate of Jews alleged to have been
formed for the purpose of saving Dreyfus
from the penalty he had incurred. lola as
serted that the syndicate was myth
There is no syndicate of Jews to free
Dreyfus. There is no syndicate Of Jews,
the world over, for any purpose. That they
bers of no other religious faith is there
such great solidarity, that q Jew can AL
ways count on the assistance of his fellows,
is fact. and the primary cause of this, as
/ have lust pointed out is that they were
bound together by centuries of common suf-
fering. Their solidarity, their helpfulness
to each other. are very fine traits in their
character They have realized kind of
universal freemasonry which others might
do well to initiate. Who can make griev-
ance of that against them? Naturally, these
attacks on the race, If / may use that eX-
preston, viii only serve to bind them more
closely together.
ousy, and M. lola regretfully compared the
different methods in which the Jews were
treated in England and France:
''In the world of business, the Jews are
disliked because they are, for the reason
have Indicated much more skilled in mat
tiers Of finance than the Christians. When
was writing my book L Argent, l used to
go to the bourse every day to try and get
some comprehension of that part of society.
and [ remember being told by a Catholic
banker that the Christians could not com
pete with the Jews in money matters All!
monsieur he said. they are much stronger
than we are They will always get the bet
ter of us If that were true would be
very humiliating for the Christians. But /
don't believe that 1T is true. / believe that
with work and intelligence our bankers
could do just as well as the Jewish bank
ers. Indeed, know many bankers who are
not Jews who are fully as successful in
their undertakings, and who show as much
acumen and judgment in their enterprises
as their Jewish rivals
The second occasion on which / saw Mon
sieur lola in this connection was on the
day before the list of the witnesses to be
called in his defense was published. He
was in a state of great mental agitation,
and the impression that his manner pro-
duced upon me. who have so long regarded
him with sincere admiration and affection,
was decidedly a painful one. He was al
most hysterical in his aftirmations of ORGY
fuss innocence in his protestations that
the government well knew that he was In
nocent and had been wrongfully convicted.
lola HISTORICAL
There was a pathetic ring about the cries
of "C'est monstreux. monstreux" with
which he qualified their action in OBTAINING
In prison a man whom everybody, every
body. tell you, knows to be innocent. He
had tears In his eyes as he read out to me
a passage from Remains Life of jesus,
which, he said, had been sent him by an
anonymous friend for Maitre Laborie," and
SO exactly described what the government