The Washington weekly post., 1900-12-18
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS."
faeter Hitherto usueted BY the Ese sf
.he Political Esessmist.

the Political Economist.
Prom tbs New Yerk Tines
One scarcely expected to see In 81. Pc
tersburg a demonstratIye rebuke. imply
ing organized sentiment. to anti-Senitism
Considering the attitude OF Russian law
and Russian Officialdom toward the Jew.
the riot occasioned last Thursday by the
presentation OF an anti-Iewish play In the
Russian capital IL most remarkable. But
:, demonstration Is not, as one might
gather from the cable dispatches a reac-
ton against long ages Of Jewish persecu-
tiOn-the attempt 10 reform the attitude
OF the state toward a prosecuted class
but simply the outward manifestation o..
the idea held by an educated ard phlIo-
sophieal body OF students that antt-semit-
Ism as at present defined represents a
dangerous force at work at the very base
OF the existing order Of things This
force, which had its inception in the, Drey-
fus case in France. has been augmented
and unified during the Boer war. until il
now includes the reactionary elements In
all the larger European states. whether
known under the names OF Anti-Semitie
Clerical. AnglOphObe, Nationalist, or a
combination Of ALL
IL Is long call from Dreyfus' island
TO st. Petersburg. from 1895 to 1869 and
yet IN the protest of ST. Petersburg STU
dents against play calculated to arouse
race hatred was also a protest against
perDetuating those conditions which made
the Dreyfus case possible When the fact
that Dreyfus had been Illegally convicted
daWned upon the candid French mind. the
men who considered it public duty to
have the case reopened We're met by the
~ II Tt4.g
arouse an anti-Semitic Storm" And il
was this bogy which the Nationalists
Clericals. and ROyalists Haunted in the
faces Of those whose only aim was to Sc
cure justice for the Individual; and when
the word had lost its power to alarm
they all banded themselves together under
the name of Patriots" and openly attack
ed the government, which at the eleventh
hour had rescued the country from their
sinister influence. How complete the res
cue was has just been shown by the alb
senee OF any general anti-republican. anti
British feeling in the demonstrations
which have just signified the personal
sympathy of France toward Mr.. Kruger.
There have for some time been indiea-
tons that these reactionary elements
these factions, rearing themselves against
the universal idea of truth and Justice of
freedom OF thought and action, were not
confined TO France. II was only when the
South African war came that IL was re-
Vealed that anti-Semitism was merely a
means TO promote some sort OF union Of
action among the various Clerical and
anti-lAberal elements on the continent
which could be concentrated and directed
against Great Britain as the supreme rem
resentative of all those things which the
reactionists Of every country in Europe
VociferOusly denounced. And. unconscious
ly or not. inspired by the same underlying
principles OF protest which identify the
reactionists abroad, Mr.. Bryan conducted
a campaign in this country which struck
peculiarly responsive note among the
iTreconcilables of Europe
The appearance of international reac-
ton upon the stage of the worlds politics
constitutes a factor which has so far es-
capped the eye Of the political economist
II has nothing in common with existing
governments, nor does it seek. like social
Ism, a general reciprocal and co-onera-
i've equality. Still, it is a movement
which, in Europe at least, cannot but
cause monarchies TO examine themselves
IN the light of modern progress. and 10
strengthen their stability by supporting
all those liberal and forward tendencies
Whlch are so abhorrent to the reactionists