THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
The only Jewish publication in the State of Michigan
Devoted to the interests of the Jewish people
Vol. I. No. 22
DETROIT, MICH., JULY 28, 1916
$1.50 per Year
Single Copies 5 Cents
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The T error of Russia
= :=. _
(Translated from the Yiddish of the "Day")
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You wish to know whether Jews
are now prosperous in Russia. Well
yes, business is not bad. Some Jews
even made fortunes. You must not
forget that the country is enjoying
a wave of prosperity, one might
say. The government let contracts
amounting to a total of hundreds of
millions of roubles. The peasant
does not drink. This is a fact that
cannot he disputed. He is able to sell
all that he has three to four times
higher than in normal years. Oc-
casionally even still better. A dozen
of eggs now commands the unheard
of price of sixty copecks, and if you
offer a farmer on the market forty
copecks, he will reply : "Why for
forty copecks i can use them in my
own family." You can o:ca:;ion-
ally see in cities that a peasant after
having sold his truck, will go to a
jeweler and order a ring for his
wife, which costs a hundred roubles.
The value of money is all upside
down right now. There is a stream
of prosperity through the country,
and it is not to he wondered at that
Jews get their share of the wave of
prosperity, but you may believe me
that z any number of Jews, even of
these who have made a fortune
amounting to several hundred thou-
sand dollars, those who have ac-
cumulated a half million and more
are ready at a moment's notice to
give up all that they have, to re-
nounce all their fortune and their
prospects in a financial way, if they
could only obtain permission to
emigrate from Russia. There is
only one wish, that of saving one's
life.
This is not due to the feeling that
the way in which money was accu-
mulated is a disgrace to the Jews.
not even on account of some humil-
iating experiences, like that of an
engineer, who had a government's
contract. and which i shall relate.
This engineer, after having been
awarded the contract, conies to an-
other office, and the moment he en-
ters, he is greeted with the question.
"You are a Jew ?" "Yes." is the
answer, "I am a Jew, and I have
been given this contract by the
ministry of war."
"Get out of here." A raised 1.t
points to the door, and the Jew ir;
ordered out in the most disgraceful
fashion. But even not on account of
such experiences are people tired of
their lives, nor because the whole
country is under a pall of dishon-
esty in public life. Plainly speak-
ing, in all offices highway robbery
is common in Russia in a manner
Even the public prosecutors have
their share in this corruption, and
there is no member of the bench
free from this moral taint. Yet, all
this is not the cause of the disgust
PHILANTHROPIST WHO GAVE. MILLION FOR
PALESTINE COLONIZATION
MRS. JOSEPH FELS
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which has no parallel even in her and .the fear which has seized the
own history. The Jew as merchant Jew. The real cause is a fear, a
is actually forced to take part in certainty of impending pogrom.
It is not a pogrom like one of
this organized loot. The whole at-
mosphere is filled with moral decay. those that we have been accustomed
Everything is demoralized, and to for the last thirty odd years, not
every government official, high or even a repetition of Kishineff and
low, has his bank account of no Odessa, but something which will
less than ten thousand roubles. eclipse everything that horror-
stricken Jewry has ever witnessed
before. After the Greek Easter
holidays, every Jew asked .himself,
"Why was there no pogrom?" He
had expected it. Comical as it may
appear, our people were actually
disappointed at this fact. ;Nobody
understood why such expectations
were not honored by reality. The
air is filled with the question, and
with the hint which is almost as
one would say, "Wait, brother, it
won't take very long." The gen-
eral conviction among Jews and
non-Jews alike, is that pogroms are
bound to come. The whole life of
the Jews centers around the ques-
tion, not "Will it come?" but when
is it going to come?" "When will
that terrible anxiety be over ?" Now
you .understand, how people live
under such conditions, and how
happy they are at the commercial
prosperity, and at the prospects
along these lines.
What I wrote now, I heard al-
most verbatim from a man, who a
ays ago returned front a trip
r
most of the sections of the
o
Pale, and he knows what he is talk-
ing about. He has seen all this with
his . own eyes, and not just in the
large centers of population, where
such talk and agitation is not new,
but all over in every town and vil-
lage, you can hear the question
asked, "when will that terror be re-
alized?"
If you wish to understand the
cause of the anxiety, you must re
member the previously reported
new charge against the Jew: This
new charge is more dangerous than
any that was circulated before. The
Jews are supposed to be responsi-
ble for the numerous desertions
from the army, and it is said that
they send agitators all over Russia
to persuade the peasants to desert.
Again in order to understand the
situation we must keep an eye on
the actual powers that guide the
destiny of the Russian army.
Nominally the commander in chief
of the Russian army is now the
Czar himself. Practically. how-
ever, the commander in chief is the
head of the staff of the commander
in the field, our old enemy, General
Alexeyeff. He is constantly in the
company of the Czar, he decides
every military movement, and
passes on all orders,.on all move-