The times., 1898-01-23
JEW-BAITING: ITS REAL CAUSE

france is giving rise, it would appear,
TO 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 Tor this
! fin de steele outbreak of fanaticism in
more selfish, even though more refined.
motives than those to be found in iS-
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 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 whether it
| occurred among the beSOtted peasantry
! of the Cars dominions, or was stirred
! up in the congenial soil of the Prussian
] ''junkerthum," by that rabid reactiona-
| ry, Stoecker, one of the professed fol-
! lowers of Him who laid down the conf
nandment. Love thy neighbor as
| thyself" But ne that looks only at
! these agitations as they present them
| selves in past and contemporaneOus
| history obtains merely a glimpse or the
surface of events If he would get at
! the real cause Of Jew-baiting, II he
| would discover the quintescence of so
| 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
a 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
childrens children even unto dis
tant generations, found more exact
eXempifica ton. 1t was but a short
time comparatively before the Jewish
people ceased to exist as 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 ev- !
cry country of every continent knows |
him.
1t is a fact-strange. indeed. but a |
fact none the less-that the advent Of |
the Jew in any country, in any COM
munity. was almost Immediately fol-
lowed by increased prosperity, but it
is all the more strange that the people
among whom he came and with whom
he soon Unidentified himself should have
failed to recognize this circumstance. I
1t is an almost automatic statement to /
say that the growth or decay of a ma
tion is indicated by, If il 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 a I
Spain and Portugal. Their glory faded
from the very moment almost when
they drove out the Jews Look at Rus
sial Bankruptcy and ruin have 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-baiting is rampant just
now, So long as the Jew was ostra-
rised and oppressed Austria was a beg
gar among the nations of Europe: her
credit n bywOTd. her money below its
face value: her promises to pay not
respected even by her own people. 1t
was not until Jewish bankers took
charge Of her finances that she was
dragged from this slough of despond
and became. commercially and finan-
ciaily at least, semi respectable. On
The other hand, look at every country
in Europe in which the personal and
political rights Of the Jew have been
and find it prosperous in al
most every particular. Last, but best !
1f all. look at America. and in her rec
OgnitiOn of human rights and in the /
equal chance she gives to everyone. I
whether Jew or Gentle, find the cause
Of 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
% a certain extent, even in business
ife. soon compelled them to devote
themselves exclusively to certain lines |
If trade. in which their natural fore ! .
light. shrewdness and thrift produced !
he logical results. individual prosper
ty and. In 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 5
md willing to grant from time to time, :
hey were not foolish enough to carry
heir 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 not fools. / =
Vow and then it happened that some
ew whose greatness of mind and in | :
elect illumined his surroundings :
ound his way into the learned pro-
and even into those circles
hat dealt with the affairs of state In
uch cases also he soon ranked with
he very foremost, but this very prom !
hence too often wrought his downfall | I.
ecause he was not strong enough TO
attic against the bigotry and preju-
ice of his time. 1t was and is the
uccess of the Jew that was and is =
eckoned his crime. !
History repeats itself in this as in
Iearly every other instance The op-
,ressiOn of the Jews in Russia. the .
ew-b batting cf Stoecker. in Berlin: the
brutality of Lueger. in Vienna: the
Hep, hep," of these days in Paris. /
I'd by Drumont. and even more in the 5
rovinceS, may parade some speciOuS II
easons for their Justification but un- e
erlying them all is the envy of the 4
ew's prosperity. His thrift is his of Y
ense. He has dared to be Industrious n
instead of indolent: he has dared to I
ave the fruit of his labors instead of c