“... in governing the world the best results are obtained by
means of violence and intimidation.... In politics, we must
know how to confiscate property without any hesitation, if
by so doing we can obtain subjection and power. Our State,
following the way of peaceful conquest, has the right of
substituting for the terrors of war, executions less apparent
and more expedient, which are necessary to uphold terror,
producing blind submission.... By new laws we will regulate
the political life of our subjects as though they were so
many parts of a machine. Such laws will gradually restrict
all freedom and liberties allowed by the Gentiles.... It is
essential for us to arrange that, besides ourselves, there
should be in all countries nothing but a huge proletariat,
so many soldiers and police loyal to our cause; ... in order
to demonstrate our enslavement of the Gentile Governments of
Europe, we will show our power to one of them by means of
crime and violence, that is to say, a reign of terror; ... our
programme will induce a third part of the populace to watch the
remainder from a pure sense of duty or from the principle of
voluntary service.”
Bearing in mind when this was published, we see, fifteen
years later, a government established in Russia of which
a high percentage of the leaders are Jews, whose _modus
operandi_ follows the principles quoted, and whose mainstay
is a Communist Party, which answers to the last quotation.
We see this, and it seems uncanny. The trouble is that all
this fosters indiscriminate anti-Semitism. That the latter is
rampant in Eastern Europe is a fact. That its propaganda in
France, England, and America is growing is a fact also. Do
we want, and can we afford to add exacerbated race-hatred to
all our political, social, and economic troubles? If not, the
question of the “Jewish Peril” should be taken up and dealt
with. It is far too interesting, the hypothesis it presents is
far too ingenious, attractive, and sensational not to attract
the attention of our none too happy and none too contented
public. The average man thinks that there is something very
fundamentally wrong with the world he lives in. He will eagerly
grasp at a plausible “working hypothesis.”
What are these “Protocols”? Are they authentic? If so, what
malevolent assembly concocted these plans, and gloated over
their exposition? Are they forgery? If so, whence comes the
uncanny note of prophecy, prophecy in parts fulfilled, in parts
far gone in the way of fulfilment? Have we been struggling
these tragic years to blow up and extirpate the secret
organization of German world dominion only to find beneath
it another more dangerous because more secret? Have we, by
straining every fibre of our national body, escaped a “Pax
Germanica” only to fall into a “Pax Judaeica”? The “Elders of
Zion,” as represented in their “Protocols,” are by no means
kinder taskmasters than William II and his henchmen would have
been.
All these questions, which are likely to obtrude themselves
on the reader of the “Jewish Peril,” cannot be dismissed by
a shrug of the shoulders unless one wants to strengthen the
hand of the typical anti-Semite and call forth his favourite
accusation of the “conspiracy of silence.” An impartial
investigation of these would-be documents and of their history
is most desirable. That history is by no means clear from the
English translation. They would appear, from internal evidence,
to have been written by Jews for Jews, or to be cast in the
form of lectures, and notes for lectures, by Jews to Jews. If
so, in what circumstances were they produced and to cope with
what inter-Jewish emergency? Or are we to dismiss the whole
matter without inquiry and to let the influence of such a book
as this work unchecked?
The publishers believe that the vast majority of the Jews in this country
have never heard of the Protocols, and would denounce the plan which
they set forth. The Jews here, constituting about three per cent of the
population, enjoy the same rights and privileges as other citizens. All
are equal before the law and all are free from persecution on religious
grounds. American Jews are regarded by their fellow citizens, and for
the most part doubtless regard themselves, as Americans of Jewish faith.
They have indeed a special ground for gratitude to the country of their
adoption, for they have found here opportunities which they did not enjoy
in many other countries. They have shared in all the activities leading
to prosperity and they have prospered. That they do, in fact, recognize
their favorable situation is shown by the statements two of them are
reported by the New York _Times_, in its issue of May 4, 1920, to have
made at a mass meeting held on the preceding evening at Cooper Union
under the auspices of the Independent Order of Brith Abraham, to express
the gratitude of the Jewish people to Great Britain for taking the
mandate for Palestine. Judge Gustave Hartman, Grand Master of the order,
is reported to have said in part:
“We didn’t know what a home was until we reached this greatest of all
republics, the United States of America. Here we are given free and equal
opportunity under the free institutions of this country. In this country
the Jews have lived and prospered, and in all this country there are no
better citizens than the Jewish people.”
Judge Otto A. Rosalsky said “that it became the duty of the Jewish
citizens of America to cherish the ideals of this country and keep them
intact, so that they might be handed down to their children’s children.”
Doubtless American Jews will recognize the menace to American
institutions and American prosperity of any such political conspiracy as
is outlined in the Protocols. But the situation demands more than tacit
disapproval on their part. Bearing in mind the close parallelism shown
to exist between the “Protocols” and the actual policies of Bolshevism
as practiced in Russia, the dominant position occupied by the Jews in
the Soviet Government, and the open sympathy and approval given to
international Bolshevism by prominent Jews outside of Russia, it is
vitally necessary that the American Jews should by word and deed express
their condemnation not only of Bolshevism, but of any plan or program for
world domination similar to that contained in the Protocols. Aside from
their position on these matters, there is no likelihood of any change
in the favorable situation of the Jews in this country unless by their
own conduct they convince the American people that they are hostile to
our institutions or to our system of government, or that they desire
to constitute within the borders of the United States a race apart,—to
be treated as members of a foreign nation, enjoying special rights,
privileges, or immunities.