The forces driving men towards the Anti-Semitic camp are far stronger
than the forces acting upon these old hobbies of women's suffrage, of
prohibition and the rest. They are personal, intimate forces arising
from the strongest racial instincts and the most bitter individual
memories of financial loss, subjection, national dishonour.
For instance, any German to-day to whom you may talk of his great
disaster will answer by telling you that it is due to the Jews: that the
Jews are preying upon the fallen body of the State; that the Jews are
"rats in the Reich." For one man that blames the old military
authorities for the misfortunes following the war, twenty blame the
Jews, though these were the architects of the former German prosperity,
and among them were found a larger proportion of opponents of the war
than in any other section of the Emperor's subjects. That is but one
example; you will find it repeated in one form or another in almost
every other polity of the modern world.
The Anti-Semite has become a strong political figure. It is a great and
dangerous error at this moment to think his policy is futile. It is a
policy of action, and a policy which may proceed from plan to execution
before we know it.
There used to be quoted years ago--and I have myself quoted it with
approval--a famous question put by a close and reasonable observer of
public affairs upon the Continent, to the most prominent of Continental
Anti-Semites in that day. The question was this: "If you had unlimited
power in this matter, what would you do?" The implied answer was that
the Anti-Semite could do nothing. He could not make a law which would
segregate the Jews for they could escape that law by mixing with those
around them. He could not make a law exiling them; for, first, it would
be impossible to define them; secondly, even if that were possible,
those defined would not be received elsewhere. What could he do? The
implication was, I say, that he could do nothing; he was supposed, in
the presence of that question, to admit his futility.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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