s-bow is a beautiful weapon, which
inspires me with mournful feelings when I have time to devote to them.
But it belongs by rights to a museum.

Now, there certainly are districts to which desperate Jews go out, or
at any rate, are willing to go out and till the soil. And a little
observation shows that these districts--such as the enclave of Hesse
in Germany, and some provinces in Russia--these very districts are the
principal seats of Anti-Semitism.

For the world's reformers, who send the Jews to the plough, forget a
very important person, who has a great deal to say on the matter. This
person is the agriculturist, and the agriculturist is also perfectly
justified. For the tax on land, the risks attached to crops, the
pressure of large proprietors who cheapen labor, and American
competition in particular, combine to make his life hard enough.
Besides, the duties on corn cannot go on increasing indefinitely. Nor
can the manufacturer be allowed to starve; his political influence is,
in fact, in the ascendant, and he must therefore be treated with
additional consideration.

All these difficulties are well known, therefore I refer to them only
cursorily. I merely wanted to indicate clearly how futile had been
past attempts--most of them well intentioned--to solve the Jewish
Question. Neither a diversion of the stream, nor an artificial
depression of the intellectual level of our proletariat, will overcome
the difficulty. The supposed infallible expedient of assimilation has
already been dealt with.

We cannot get the better of Anti-Semitism by any of these methods. It
cannot die out so long as its causes are not removed. Are they
removable?

CAUSES OF ANTI-SEMITISM

We shall not again touch on those causes which are a result of
temperament, prejudice and narrow views, but shall here restrict
ourselves to political and economical causes alone. Modern
Anti-Semitism is not to be confounded with the religious persecution
of the Jews of former times. It does occasionally take a religious
bias in some countries, but the main current of the aggressive
movement has now changed. In the principal countries where
Anti-Semitism prevails, it does so as a result of the emancipation of
the Jews. When civilized nations awoke to the inhumanity of
discriminatory legislation and enfranchised us, our enfranchisement
came too late. It was no longer possible to remove our disabilities in
our old homes. For we had, curiously enough,