Educated Jews without means are now
rapidly becoming Socialists. Hence we are certain to suffer very
severely in the struggle between classes, because we stand in the most
exposed position in the camps of both Socialists and capitalists.

PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS AT A SOLUTION

The artificial means heretofore employed to overcome the troubles of
Jews have been either too petty--such as attempts at colonization--or
attempts to convert the Jews into peasants in their present homes.

What is achieved by transporting a few thousand Jews to another
country? Either they come to grief at once, or prosper, and then their
prosperity creates Anti-Semitism. We have already discussed these
attempts to divert poor Jews to fresh districts. This diversion is
clearly inadequate and futile, if it does not actually defeat its own
ends; for it merely protracts and postpones a solution, and perhaps
even aggravates difficulties.

Whoever would attempt to convert the Jew into a husbandman would be
making an extraordinary mistake. For a peasant is in a historical
category, as proved by his costume which in some countries he has worn
for centuries; and by his tools, which are identical with those used
by his earliest forefathers. His plough is unchanged; he carries the
seed in his apron; mows with the historical scythe, and threshes with
the time-honored flail. But we know that all this can be done by
machinery. The agrarian question is only a question of machinery.
America must conquer Europe, in the same way as large landed
possessions absorb small ones. The peasant is consequently a type
which is in course of extinction. Whenever he is artificially
preserved, it is done on account of the political interests which he
is intended to serve. It is absurd, and indeed impossible, to make
modern peasants on the old pattern. No one is wealthy or powerful
enough to make civilization take a single retrograde step. The mere
preservation of obsolete institutions is a task severe enough to
require the enforcement of all the despotic measures of an
autocratically governed State.

Are we, therefore, to credit Jews who are intelligent with a desire to
become peasants of the old type? One might just as well say to them:
"Here is a cross-bow: now go to war!" What? With a cross-bow, while
the others have rifles and long range guns? Under these circumstances
the Jews are perfectly justified in refusing to stir when people try
to make peasants of them. A cros