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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Poland would be created from all three 

 of the incomplete tribal districts of the 

 partitioned kingdom. Some of the lead- 

 ers of the Austrian Government an- 

 nounced an intention of giving autonomy 

 to Galicia. 



When the war came to an end, tremen- 

 dous governmental changes occurred in 

 the countries where the Jews are so 

 greatly congested (see also page 23). 



The dreadful destruction of life, the 

 necessity for rehabilitation of these coun- 

 tries where the war raged with such vio- 

 lence and destruction, must necessarily 

 give greater economic value to every man 

 who survives. The loyalty which the 

 Jews have shown to their respective gov- 

 ernments in these countries under a. most 

 trying ordeal ought to impress their gov- 

 ernments with the claim that they make 

 to equal treatment. 



While it is true that in the past much 

 of the cruelty to the Jews has been imme- 

 diately prompted by popular prejudice, 

 nevertheless it is also true that, with the 

 increase of popular control in all coun- 

 tries, their condition has ultimately been 

 much improved. A war like this, which 

 must be carried on by the people, in- 

 creases their ultimate power. 



REPRESSIVE MEASURES ALWAYS HARMEUL 



Harsh and repressive measures have 

 not helped the solution of the Jewish 

 question. The result reminds one con- 

 stantly of ^Esop's fable of the contest be- 

 tween the wind and the sun in removing 

 a man's coat from his back. The harder 

 the wind blew, the closer the man held 

 the coat to his body. It was only when 

 the sun with its warm rays increased the 

 temperature and created discomfort that 

 the man removed his coat. 



The harshest persecution and injustice 

 merely strengthen the peculiarity of the 

 Jew in his adherence to his ancient cus- 

 toms, in his exclusiveness, in his use of 

 cunning to avoid outrage, and in his ad- 

 herence to his religion and its ceremo- 

 nials. Give him the sunlight of freedom 

 and the balmy encouragement of equality 

 of opportunity and he assimilates himself 

 to his environment with all the quickness 

 of perception, all the energy, all the en- 

 terprise, all the persistence with which 

 he is so remarkably endowed. 



If education and opportunity and free- 

 dom and equality are extended to them 

 in the next generation, the traits to which 

 objection is made will become less and 

 less conspicuous, and Russia's great do- 

 main, which needs people of energy, peo- 

 ple of keenness, people of enterprise, 

 people experienced in trade, people of 

 financial genius, will find a benefit in the 

 presence of the Jews. 



JEWS IN UNITED STATES 



From the East End of New York and 

 through centers of population in this 

 country where Jews are gathered, by the 

 million and hundreds of thousand, come 

 the youth of the race who soon manifest 

 a spirit of Americanism and get on. 



They succeed in trade, they succeed in 

 the professions, they succeed in business, 

 and they move their homes to less 

 crowded districts and acquire all the 

 taste and views and fashions of their 

 fellow-countrymen. 



They cultivate little or no solidarity in 

 politics, and they manifest a disposition 

 to disintegrate as a community. They 

 retain a loyalty to the race, but not a 

 strict adherence to the ceremonial, and 

 they intermarry with Gentiles. 



A number of modern books written by 

 Jews deplore this fact. They fear that 

 Israel will be swallowed up in the na- 

 tions. They are an excellent, law-abiding 

 part of our population. Of course, crim- 

 inals come from among them, poor and 

 miserable as some of them are, but the 

 criminal statistics do not show their per- 

 centage of criminals to be as great as that 

 of the entire population. 



When we consider the congestion in 

 New York in the East End of one million 

 Jews, and that this has come within the 

 last thirty years, it seems remarkable that 

 it has not given more trouble to our civ- 

 ilization and our government than it has. 

 These are the lessons which an investi- 

 gation by Russian statesmen into our ex- 

 perience would furnish. 



STRENGTH OE THE JEWISH CHARACTER 



The Jews of the world, in countries 

 where they have had equal opportunities, 

 have won their way not only to great 

 financial power, but to places of com- 

 manding influence in journalism, in the 



