The times., 1898-01-22
JEW BATTING: ITS REALCAUSE

Inc pT6S6Ill dIll-Cc1filllC eDulllllOu III
France is giving rise, it would appear,
to a great deal of more or less useless
speculation as to the underlying causes.
Some ascribe it to ignorance, which is
absurd, because, in the first place, the
movement is largely supported and
stimulated by men belonging to what
are called the educated classes, and,
second, because the French people, as
a whole, are not ignorant in the sense,
for instance, in which one would apply
that designation to the great masses
of the Russian population. Others
again claim to find the reason for this
fin de steele outbreak of fanaticiSm IN
more selfish, even though more refined
motives than those to be found in ig-
norance pure and simple. Political ex-
pediency, avarice. envy, religious big
otry are some of the causes assigned.
Each and all of these perhaps enter
into the consideration of a problem, the
solution Of which has taxed the inge-
nuity of the truly enlightened minds of
almost every civilized country, So
called. for centuries. 1t is not difficult
to find traces of them in every outbreak
against the Jews, no matter Wnetnef IL
occurred among the besotted peaSantry
Of the Cars donlinions, or was stirred
UP in the congenial soil of the Prussian
'.junkerthum, by that rabid reactiopa-
ry, Stoecker, one of the professed fol-
lowers of Him who laid down the COM
nandment, Love thy neighb0r as
thyself' But he that looks only at
these agitations as they present them
selves in past and contemporaneous
history obtains merely glimpse of the
surface of events IL he would get at
the real cause of Jew-baiting, If he
would discover the quintescence OF 50
Irrational an exhibition of all that is
evil and contemplate in human nature,
he must turn back into past ages and
scan the progress and development of
nations from the very opening OF the
Christian era. He must go back to Col
gotha.
The persecution of the Jew began al
most with the crucifixion of Christ.
The burden with which he had laden
himself by not only repudiating, but
putting to death the One who preached
d gospel of love and of peace, and
whom millions soon came TO acknowl-
edge as the Divine Saviour of mankind,
was one which bore down more heavily
upon him as time passed. In no in
stance in the worlds history has the
fat that the sins of the parents shall
be visited upon their children and their
children's children even unto dis
tant generations found more exact
exemplification. 1t was but short
time comparatively before the Jewish
people ceased to exist as a nation and
were scattered to the very ends of the
earth. Whether, in accordance with
the word of Jehovah, that. He would
send His people among all the nations
of the earth, or in obedience to some
other inexorable and inScrutable dis
penSation of Providence, the Jew was
soon found in almost every country of
the then known world. and to-day ey-
cry country of every continent knows
him.
1t is q fact-strange, indeed but
fact none the less-tkat the advent of
the Jew in any country, in any com
was almost Immediately fol-
lowed by increased prosperity. but it
is all the more strange that the people
whom he came and with whom
he soon Unidentified himself should have
failed to recognize this circumstance.
II is an almost automatic statement to
say that the growth or decay of ma
ton is indicated by. if it has not been
directly dependent upon, the treatment
which that nation accorded to this
race A glance at the his
tory OF Europe suffices to establish the
correctness of this assertion. Look at
Spain and Portugal. Their glory faded
from the very moment almost when
they drove out the Jews. Look at Rus
sia, Bankruptcy and ruin Eaye been
the result of the shameful treatment
the Jews have experienced there Look
at Ireland The Jew is hardly ever
found there, and its poverty is well
nigh proverbial. Look at Austria,
where Jew batting is rampant just
nowl So long as the Jew was ostra-
a
gar among the nations of Europe; her
credit a byWord, her money below its
face value; her promises To pay not
respected even by her OWN people. 1t
was not until Jewisf bankers took
charge of her finances that she was
dragged from this slough of despond
and became, commercially and ffnan-
,ialiy at least. semi-respCctable On
he other hand, look at every country
N Europe in which the personal and
political rights of the Jew have been
and find il prosperous in al
most every particular. Last. but best
IF all look at America, and in her rec
ignition of human rights and in the
equal chance she gives to everyone,
whether Jew or Gentle, find the cause
IF her prosperity, her greatness, her |
glory. past present and to come
The ostracism with which the Jews
we're visited, in political and social. and !
10 a certain extent. even in business
ife, soon compelled them to devote
themselves exclusively to certain lines
IF trade in which their natural fore
sight. shrewdness and thrift produced
he logical results, individual prosper
ty and III many cases. wealth. Their
,ppressors in some instances. were not !
blind to this fact, and while they made
he Jews pay, dearly for such immunity |
rom persecution as they were able
md willing to grant from time to time, |
hey were not foolish enough to carry
fGeir tyranny so far as to kill the geese
hat laid the golden eggs Those old |
eudal monarchs and their aristocracy |
we're brutal, but they were no fools. |
Vow and then it happened that some |
few whose greatness of mind and in
elect illumined his surroundings |
otind his way into the learned pro-
essions, and even into those circles |
hat dealt with the affairs of State. III |
such cases also he soon ranked with !
he very foremost, but this very prom
nence too often wrought his downfall. !
because he was not strong enough to
'attle against the bfgotry and preju- |
lice of his time. 1t was and is the |
success of the Jew that was and is |
his crime.
History repeats itself in this as in /
nearly every other instance The op- |
preston of the Jews in Russia, the |
Jew batting Of Stoecker, in Berlin the I
brutality of LueSer. in Vienna; the !
Hep. hepi" of these days in Paris.
ed by Drumont. and even more in the
provinces. may parade some specious /
easons for their Justification but un-
lerIying them all is the envy of the
Iew's prosperity. His thrift is his Of
ense. He has dared TO be Industrious
instead of indolent: he has dared to
ave the fruit of his labors instead of