The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-09-29

OF THE JEWS
Russia Is Not the Only Place Where
the AntI-semitic outrases
Are Carried
SITUATION IN ENGLAND
Only Difference is That the English
Do Not Go So Far as to
Murder Their
Victims.

tNAOAN, oepU. ID Inc only QlI-
ierehce between Monmouthshire and
Russia Is that the English rob and
peat us and destroy our property,
out they do not murder us, while in
Russia murder is as much feature of
the program as loot and assault"
The editor of the Jewish World, the
most influential Jewish newspaper in
Great Britain, made this statement to
the United Press today in discussing
the anti-Semitic riots which have
been sweeping over the villages of
South Wales.
We have investigated the disturb
ance thoroughly he said, land can
ind no specific reason for them. No
one incident or series of incidents
occurred to precipitate them We
were told at the outset that the Jew
lsh property owners in Monmouth
shire were 'rack-renting, that is. ex-
acting the last penny that could pos
s1bly be extorted from tenants. This
was true-in just one instance. A
Jew, who had come to the village OF
Tredegar from East London, where
rack-renting prevails, and who owns
four Or five mean houses in Tredegar,
screwed up his rents and so earned
! the enmity of Jews and Gentiles
alike. But the riots did not start in
! Tredegar Rack-renting was not
Tredegar's reason for turning on the
Jews, though perhaps it was it's e.
cuse. 1t certainly does not explain
the sudden growth and spread of anti
Jewish sentiment in score of towns
and villages.
These disturbances, so rare in
England, can be explained only by
looking into the heart and mind of
man. We are, all of us, Jews and
Gentiles, savages at heart, by nature
cruel, cowardly and thievishly-in.
clined. Education and ordered gov
eminent have given us veneer of
, Responsibility, but they have not
changed our hearts. We all have, for
example, the inclination to take what
we want, even though it is not ours;
but we do not steal because theft Is
not respectable, because our neigh
bors would point the finger of scorn
at us, and because the law would
punish US.
Now and again, without apparent
reason, the savage in us over-comes
the forces of repression. and we stand
revealed-cowards, DULLES, thieves.
| This is what occurred In Monmouth
shire.
"There is no racial antipathy
against the Jews in England 1t Is
simply that when towards lust for
blood and loot, they naturally turn on
those least able to defend themselves
the Jews. 1t was SO in the middle
ages, and it is so today. Human ma
| ture has not changed
There is, also, some criminal
common sense in these riots. Jews are
more often than others shopkeepers.
Many Of them are jewelers. and pawn
brokers and clothiers. Their premises
are worth looting,"
A correspondent of the United
| Press who visited a number of the
Monmouthshire villages reports that
the coal mine districts are practically
/ under martial law, that squads of
cavalry are patroling the hills, and
that fresh outbreaks are momentarily
I expected, though it is impossible to
/ conjecture where they will next arise.
More than 10000 soldiers are in Mon
! mouthshire.
| An analysis of the situation on the
SPOT seems to bear out the theory of
the editor of the Jewish World" The
rioting started at Ebbw Vale. A doz-
en- Young men, all more or less
drunk, came out of public house,
and laughing boisterously, smashed
| the windows of the pawnshop next
door. A few trinkets were taken. The
proprietor of the public house
says he heard one of the young men
complaining that the pawnbroker
would not let him have as much mon
ey as he wanted on pair of shoes.
So far as he ascertained, this was
the start of the whole trouble. The
anti-Jewish feeling" spread in few
Guys W OMI, iNly LII uludMl
and Tredegar and to all the smaller
colliery towns where there are Jewish
tradesmen.
Even church goers caught the fever.
On a Sunday evening in Brynmawr
people coming from church Joined the
mob that was smashing shop windows
and doors, footing premises and as
saulting the occupants. Women as
well as men scrambled for their
share of plumber. and "anti-Jewish
feeling" was very this cloak for
the real motive of the disorders loot.
Thousands of Jews, old and young,
were driven from their homes into
the hills, and many of them are still
hiding. Meanwhile their homes have
been stripped Of everything Of value