The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in EuropeWashington, Booker T.
History
The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in Europe
Washington, Booker T.
Poor -- Europe; Working class -- Europe
When I reached Prague in Bohemia I learned that among the masses of the
people there is little distinction made between Jews and Germans, since
both speak the same language, and the Czechs, confusing the one with
the other, hate both with a double hatred, first, for what they are,
and then for what they seem to be.
In Vienna and Budapest the Jews, through the newspapers which they
control, seem to exercise a powerful influence on politics. I remember
hearing repeated references while I was there to the "Jewish press."
In Prague it is said that every German paper but one is controlled
by Jews. Jews are represented, however, not only in the press in
Austria-Hungary, but in the army and in all the other professions.
They are not only financiers and business men, but doctors, lawyers,
artists, and actors, as elsewhere in Europe where they have gained
their freedom. Nevertheless it is still against the law for Jews and
Christians to intermarry in Austria-Hungary.
I have referred at some length to the condition of the Jews in other
parts of Europe where they have profited by the social and political
freedom which was granted them in the course of the nineteenth century,
because their progress there is in such striking contrast with their
condition as I saw it in and around Cracow, in Galicia; as it is,
also, just across the borders of Austria-Hungary, in Russian Poland
and Roumania, and as it seems to have been in other parts of Europe
seventy-five or a hundred years ago, before the gates of the Ghetto
were opened and the inhabitants emancipated.
Some notion of the conditions under which the Jews lived, in almost
every part of Europe, a hundred years ago, may be gathered from the
restrictions which are imposed upon them to-day in Russia and Roumania.
In Roumania a Jew can neither vote nor hold office in the civil
service. He is excluded from the professions; he is not permitted,
for example, to become a physician or even open a pharmacy; he is not
permitted to live in the rural districts; he may neither own land
outside of the town nor work as an agricultural labourer. In the mills
and factories not more than 25 per cent. of the employees may be Jews.
Although they are practically restricted to business enterprises, Jews
may not become members of chambers of commerce. Jews are bound to
serve in the army, they pay heavier taxes, proportionately, than other
portions of the community, but they are classed under the laws as
"aliens not subject to alien protection."
In Russia, Jews are not allowed to live outside of what is called the
"Pale of Settlement," which includes twelve provinces on the western
and southwestern borders which Russia has annexed during the past
two hundred years. Only merchants who pay a special license of 1,000
rubles, or about $500, university graduates, and a few others may live
outside the pale. A Jew is not even permitted to live in Siberia unless
he has been sent there in punishment for crime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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