The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-13

Sgand1ngs
 latter is constantly searching for means to make English opinion not only pro- Russian but also anti-Se- Iaetic
 In Sfact, the campaign has been so successfully conducted that four of the more important London papers re- cently frankly defended Russia,s 'aiew of Jewish 'dasaloiIitieA The manner of defense and the logical se- quence of ideas clearly revealed that all the arguments had a common ori- gin, for all emphasize the following points in their defense of Jewish dis abilities in Russia:
 I. That the Jews are peddlers, H- quor dealers, and money lenders:
 2. That if they were free to move and trade at pleasure they would very soon feat up the til1ers of the soil .
 B. That it is out of their soIicita- ton for the peasantry and in order to prevent an extension among them of Jewish peddling, liquor dealing and money lending that the Russian gov- ernment shuts up the Jews in a, nar- row pale Of settlement loads them with severe disabilities and so inspires persecution against them that they are forced to leave the country.
 It is evident to anybody who reads the pro- Russian press of London that the line of argument falls under the three foregoing heads. This has a1- so been evident to David l.. Alexan- der, president of the London commits tee of deputies of British Jews, and Claude c. Montehore, president of the Anglo-Jewish associatien, who have finally been inspired to make some reply to the London press's defence Of Russia's policy. In a short document signed by both they take up the ar gunent point by point:--
 The first term of this proposition is we venture to say. utterly unrecogniz- able as a picture of the Jewish com r1unity in Russia Even if it were true that the Russan J ews are over wlaelrning peddlers, liquor dealers and money lenders. it would be no justi- fcation of their oppression. seeing that their participation in what you elsewhere call Legitimate trade and 1nnerce,'1 is severely restricted.
 But as matter Of fact they are not in any very large proportion either peddlers or money lenders, and they are not liquor sellers at all. for the l reason-curiously overlooked by you that in Russia, the state is now the l only liquor seller. The Jews of the pale are for the most part artisans and small shop keepers. They are also on a very large scale, male and fe-
 male, workers in the great industries
 Of the western province and this is
 attested by the large and powerful l trade unions they maintain. The second term of the proposition I is largely hypothetical but it is no1
 borne out by any of the known facts 1 We are indeed, not without some di | rect evidence on this head. For ex l ample, one of the first results Of the l May laws was to eliminate Jewish | fa. i the products of peasant labor. and tl1s l consequence was that a. nonop ely was created in favor of a, compara< 1 lively small band of non-Jewfsh deal
 CTS, and the peasants were at oncs merci1essly treated
 1 At harvest time, when taxes became
 due. they had to sell their corn to tht l grain dealers at less than a quarter 1 of the price it subsequ ently com I manded in the market
 l. For agricultural loans-the zenstvs reports are our authordty-interest a
 the rate of 300 per cent. was not un- commonly charged by orthodox mones l lenders Within the pale on the othei hand, Jewish competition kept credf at a. normal rate and the producer wa 1 able to secure a fair price for hi l crops. Even today in the pale, wher, 1 the great bulk of the Jews live ane l work and trade, the general econorni, I to that outside and statistics can bt l quoted to show that in these province l there is proportionately less drunk
 enness, poverty and crime. zThis doe not seem to confirm your prophec,
 of what would happen if the Russian
 Jew were relieved of his disab bilitie
 and was allowed to roam over the em
 pire as he pleased.
 The third term of the proposition I namely that the whole object of tn
 Russian government in expressing tn
 Jews to protect the peasantry from ex
 ploitation by Jewish peddlers. liquo
 dealers and money-1end ers-is equal ly irreconciliable with the facts. I theory the oppression of the Jews
 part of the nationalist and orthodo
 conception of the Russian state a
 expounded by writers of the type C the late M. Pobledonoszeff. F'unda mentally it's motive does not diffe from that of the exceptional regime
 reserved for the Poles, Films and oth CT so-called Heterogeneous national ities.''
 Tn practice it is partly concerne with the tactics of the uItra>-conserva } tive parties against the liberal move