San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-23
JE VS. DISAGREE
ON SETTLING
IN RUSSIA
Some Think Offer Of Soviet
Government Fraught
With Danger.
By NORMAN HAPGOOD
Universal Service Staff Correspondent.


On the question of helping Russian
Jews to settle on the land in the
Ukraine, about which J. have already
given some information, there are de-
cided differences among the leaders
of Jewish opinion, including the Zion
lists now in session in Vienna.
On the one hand you have the view
of DIR. Weizmann, president of the
World Zionist organization, and other
men prominent in Jewish thought,
that the policy of the Soviet govern.
ment, assisted by funds from amer
lean Jews, is fraught with danger in
the future because of the national
istic feelings Of the Ukraine and the
probability that when the Bolshevik
hold over all RUSSIA is weakened the
UKRAINE is likely to be one of the most
disturbed regions.
AROUSE FORD'S PREJUDICES
Whenever any part of Russia is dis.
turbed, il there is any considerable
number of Jews present, one faction or
another-usually the most reaction
ary--finds it profitable TO stir up big.
otry at the expense of the Jews. This
has often been done in the Ukraine
before and in Poland under the czars
Just as it is done outside of Russia,
as in Austria, Germany and Rou-
mania. Apparently since the Dreyfus
trial it has been stamped out in France.
The famous Bayliss trial was in the
Ukraine, in Kiev. 1t was the last no
torious effort of the czarist regime to
stage the imbecile legend that Ortho'
dox Jews kill Christian babies TO use
their blood in certain rites. and it was
taken part in by Boris Brasol, since
active in the United States in COM
bining propaganda for q czarist res
toration with propaganda against the
Jews.
The first thing that set my mind
going actively about the inside meth
DDS by which Henry Ford's prejudices
were aroused against the Jews was
the information given me by two in.
nous Russian statesmen that. Brasol
had written for the Dearborn indie
\ pendent.
l FORCED OFF FARMS.
1t will be seen that there is
vast historical background for the
dispute now raging. Those who
favor colonization in the Ukraine dis
trict Say that they were accustomed
TO living there and that il they go in
larger numbers on to the land they
will be happier and will gradually
be more useful citizens.
II is often charged against the
Jews in Russia, as elsewhere, that
they live by their wits and do not
get down to hard, productive work,
such ms agriculture. Those who say
this usually leave out of account the
fact that the Jews in the period when
they created their own religion were
a pastoral people and that the bitter
religious controversies of centuries
led many nations TO prevent their
holding land, shut them out of the
universities and the army, and put
many other disabilities on them, thus
forcing them to rely on the trading
instincts that Near Eastern people
naturally have.
To this argument for going onto
the land comes back the counter ar
gument that the black lands stretch
ing from the Ukraine across to the
Volga are richest and best land in
Russia, and that for the Jews to get
il away from the Russian peasant
will mean further trouble.
PUNISHED FOR ABILITY.
This argument implies that the
jew is punished for his ability, how
ever he uses it. The bigotry Of the
past has its toll in the soreness of
today.
As a matter of fact it is impos-
sible even for the present Communist
government of Russia to keep farms
from passing from the less competent
to the more competent peasants, and
the government last spring was COM
PEELED reluctantly to legalize the tax
ing over of nOn-paying farms by ADLER
neighbors and the payment of wages
from the successful to the unsuccess-
full farmers.
To realize the difficulty of this
Ukraine question it should be remem-
bered that the Ukraine is the old
pale of settlement. We all know our
expression, Beyond the pale"
Pale, in that connection. means fence.
As long ms Poland was in the Rus
sian empire, Poland proper and the
Ukraine were about equally the
regions to which the government drove
the Jews out Of the cities. In both
regions there we're frequent and ter.
rible maSsacres.
ONE TRIBE FAVORED.
mentioned before the fact that
the Crimea, south of the Ukraine, is
also the Russian riviera and that the
fashionable Russians who used TO
winter there were of the class al
ways busy with anti-Semitism. At
present, Of course, all that is ended
and the Crimea is full of sanatoria
for broken down soldiers,
But those who are afraid Of moving
Jews from the cities to the Ukraine
and the Crimea are thinking Of the
time when the pendulum in Russia
takes some kind Of swing. l have
already observed that II such n SWING
is slow and gradual, the danger will
not exist, or will be vastly less. For
completeness it may be added that in
the Crimea there have long been "A
small part of the Jews-a few thOu-
sand-Who were specially favored by
the Russian government and even al
lowed to hold land. Why? Because
they are what are called non-Talmud
Jews.
They came through Asia Minor to
the Caucasus, along the Black Sea to
the Crimea. In the Caucasus, con-
seClently, there is today a tribe of
mountain Jews who are non-Talmud.
OFFERS NO OPINION.
The mass of Russian Jews got into
tbe Russian empire because when Po-
land was independent, King Sigis.
mund invited the Jews from Germany
4 ~. II IL