The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-19
THE FUTURE OF THE JEW.

An English Writer Believes That He
 May Work Out His Destiny In Ar
 menia.
 The majority of living Jews are sub jects of the emperor of Russia. The Jewish question in Russia is regarded by the Russian ministry as an insoluble problem. Some six millions of Jews are pent up in the sixteen western proVln- ces Of Russia and the ten provinces or i Poland. Rapid increase and low death rate of the chosen people" impale their Russian rulers on the horns of dllem- ma. Massacre is no longer available as an expedient for thinning out the super fiuous Hebrew subjects of the car. Pestilence possesses no terrors for the Jew; long residence in the slums of Flu rope has rendered his constitution i'm mune against the terrors of smallpox or typhoid fever. If pestilence' or mas sacre is not within the region, of prac- tical Russian politics, the ministry of which M. Pobedonostzeff is the respon- sibe spokesman is equally unable to let the children of Israel go and to give them chances similar to those of the orthodox inhabitants of Russia.
 One dire consequence of this over crowdng and constant multiplication of the inhabitants of Russian Jewry is the spiritual, moral and physical degenera- tion of it's inhabitants. The continued misery, the absence of hope, the con- stant assertion of their inferiority by tho ruling authority, have modified the original characteristics of the majority of the Russian Jews. They are not permitted to be gardeners, to hold land, to live in the country, or to take part in agriculture; and they are debarred from the healthy means of life open to the rest of their fellow-subjects The consequence is that in order to provide bread for his family-the Jew marries , early as matter of course-many of them are compelled to resort to dishon- esty in order to escape starvat on.
 Probably the five and three-quarters million or six million Jews under the rule of the czar form the unhappiest community on the face of the earth. Intellectually endowed far beyond the average European, they (except small fraction of them) are deprived of the means of education, and their spirits are depressed by the compulsory re- strictions arbitrarily imposed upon them. What wonder, therefore, that a considerable number of the Russian Jews are driven by the errors of the Russian government to exploit vice, since they are not permitted to develop industry? If many Russ an Jews live by preying on the weakness and pas sion of others. the reason is neither that they have double dose of original sin nor that parasitism is an indeliple char acteristic of the race, but that the poor Jew is compelled by the government of Russia to make a choice between starv- ing and wrong doing.
 The vast majority of Russian off, cials and citizens believe that the Jews are merely parasites-that they cannot I live except as middlemen, money-lend- CTS and exploiters of vice. The French have recently come to the same conclu- sion. It is based on fact? Wherever material comfort and personal safety are obtainable there is the nimble brain, the delft finger and the sensitive organ ization of the Jew to seek them. In other countries medicine music, law, surgery, politics, Journalism ard, art are being rapidly captured by the Jewish race. In Russia, except to a very few. careers in those professions are closed against the Jew. Russia is honest in this matter. The ministers hold that 1t { is better to lose limb or an eye than to enter whole into destruction. Rus sia does not affect to love the Jew. | She believes him to be to-day what he was in the time of Moses-the devoted worshipper of the golden calf To keep |. the Jew from contact with the main body of the Russian people is, accord ingly, an integral part of Russian poli- cy. He is not allowed to settle i:4 Sibe- ria, and, unless drastic change be made in the administration and control | of Jewish subjects of the czar, all the material for bloody tragedy are to be found within the Russian pale.
 As the Russian empire comprises one- seventh of the land surface Of the slobs, and covers an area of nearly nine mill ! lion square miles, the exclusion of the Jews from the higher ranks of the Rus sian civil and military services, not withstanding their admitted intelectu- al superiority, is the most extravagant compliment ever paid by great gov- erning race to downcast wanderers on the face. of the earth--without a com mon country or common language or common policy. With the tremen- dous task confronting the czars minis 1 ters in the Classification of Asia from the Caspian Sea to Port Arthur, and with the absence of middle class such as that which is the strength of Britain, whence is Russia to draw her admins l trative material if she continue to ex- clude from her service the ablest of her subjects2 In an undeveloped country such as Russia the presence of one Jew in eight hundred of the population would scarcely seem to constitute for midable danger to the state. Russians, however, think otherwise; and the oEly alternative practicable is to give the Jews a larger area of settlement, either contiguous to the Russian pale or in Armenia. when that country finally comes under the scepter of the Great White Czar.
 Notwithstanding that the state of the Jew in Russia is parlous, he is not much happier in Austria or in Hungary, although the power that he exercises and the conditions of his life are wholly | different. Education is open to the Austrian Jew. The proportion of Jews 1 in the Austrian universities is much in excess of what might be expected from their actual number in the country.