The frightful massacre of Jews at Kishinev in 1903 likewise resulted from a newspaper propaganda very similar to that which is now being carried on by the Dearborn Independent and the London Morning Post. On that occasion an unexampled and unprecedented outburst of horror thrilled the whole civilized world. John Hay, our then Secretary of State, said: "No person of ordinary humanity can have heard without deep emotion the story of the cruel outrages inflicted upon the Jews of Kishinev. These lamentable events have caused the profoundest impression throughout the world." President Roosevelt said, "I have never in my experience in this country known of a more immediate or a deeper expression of the sympathy for the victims and of horror over the appalling calamity that has occurred."
The Kishinev outrages were the direct and logical outcome of the campaign of calumny and hatred against the Jews waged by the local newspaper, the Bessarabetz, owned and edited by a Moldavian named Kroushevan. Except for the specific charge of "ritual murder," with which I shall presently deal, the campaign of Jew-baiting pursued by this journal, which produced such disastrous and monstrous results, was the counterpart of that now being carried on by the Dearborn Independent. Kroushevan charged that the Jews were conspiring to secure world dominion; he charged that the economic power of the Jewish race in Russia was a peril to the nation; he charged that Jews were responsible for Socialism and social unrest. The anti-Semitic articles appearing in this country and in England during the past few weeks are quite like those which used to appear in the Bessarabetz.
Of course, the crowning infamy of the campaign of hate waged by the Kishinev paper was the charge of "ritual murder." A Christian boy, named Ribalenko, belonging to the village of Doubossar, midway between Kishinev and Odessa, was murdered, his body being found in an orchard. The Bessarabetz at once declared that the boy had been killed by the Jews for sacrificial purposes, thus reviving one of the most terrible and most infamous libels ever directed against any race or sect—a calumny that has been exposed and refuted again and again. Subsequently, after the mischief had been done, it was proved that the boy was murdered by his uncle and the care-taker of the orchard in which the body was found—both of them Russians and Gentiles. The murderers confessed their guilt, the motive for the crime being gain.
The horrors of 1891 were repeated and even excelled at Kishinev in 1903 as a result of this propaganda. It is not necessary to go into the gruesome details of the numerous nameless sex mutilations, the awful outrages committed upon young girls and their gray-haired grandmothers, the shockingly brutal and bestial murders, the well-authenticated cases of nails driven through the eyes of a woman and the cutting out of the tongue of a two-year-old child; let these brief references suffice. It is all too evident from the most reliable accounts of the massacre that hatred born of resentment and fear had made the Gentile mobs as savage as wild beasts. They were no longer human.
Thus far neither the Dearborn Independent nor the London Morning Post has reproduced the "ritual murder" lie. Perhaps neither will do it. Probably not. At the same time both papers have done their utmost to create in the minds of their readers a readiness to believe that or any other infamy when attributed to the Jews. There is not, and there cannot be, any assurance that in the soil thus prepared by these papers, others more ignorant or less scrupulous will not successfully plant belief in the ancient legend of sacrificial murders committed by Jews. And even if this never happens at all, the fact remains that in charging that the horrors of Bolshevism were deliberately instigated by Jews, British and American anti-Semites have appealed to the same unreasoning, instinctive, primal passion. For Bolshevism, primarily a political and economic program though it be, impinges upon religious faith and religious authority. Thus do the anti-Semites play with fire in close proximity to the high explosives of human nature.
It was not the ancient, insensate hatred inspired by belief that the Jews kill Christian children in their Paschal rites which made the Kishinev pogrom possible. That added the element of savage fanaticism to the antagonism and resentment already developed by the economic position of the Jews. The extortions practiced by Jewish money-lenders the superior business capacity, perseverance, and resourcefulness of the Jewish traders and shopkeepers as compared with their Gentile rivals; the intense competition of Jewish artisans, superior to the average Russian workman in intelligence, industry, thrift, sobriety, and ambition—all these things resulted in bitter antagonism. Upon that economic fear and resentment religious fanaticism fastened and flourished.
Herein lies the danger of the anti-Semitic propaganda in this country and in England. It is invoking economic fear and resentment. The non-Jew is adjured to contemplate the spectacle of the Jews ousting the Gentiles from one industry after another, gradually assuming leadership and control of our industry and commerce, thanks in part to superior intelligence, skill, and diligence, but in part also to a lack of moral scrupulousness. So the Jew is presented as a dangerous economic rival to be feared and guarded against. The Gentile is thus taught to look upon Jewish prosperity as a sort of parasitism, and as a menace to the well-being of all non-Jews, even where the withdrawal of Jewish enterprise and activity would mean ruin for Jew and Gentile alike—a condition long recognized in the principal Russian cities. Now, I do not deny that some of the worst aspects of capitalism have been developed to a special and notable extent by some Jews. Neither do I forget that others have developed the very noblest social idealism. The point I am now making is that hatred of the Jew, even when it is motivated by economic fear and resentment, will inevitably nurture every other form of anti-Jewish prejudice. If the campaign of the anti-Semites succeeds in cultivating that fear and hatred in the minds and hearts of our people, there can be no assurance against the occurrence of pogroms here.