Austria’s new trade laws, in full effect today, completely deprived 10,000 Jewish salesmen, canvassers and itinerant merchants and their families of their means of livelihood by forbidding them to call on customers to take orders. The decrees bar several branches of trade in which the Jews had been heavily represented.
House -to- house salesmen no longer are permitted to solicit new business even when calling on old customers to collect instalments on previous sales.
Seven thousand Jewish representatives of clothing and textile concerns are particularly hit by the decree. Three thousand Jewish salesmen of commodities used in the homes are also affected.
The decree strikes a crushing blow at the small instalment houses which are effectually debarred from collecting old debts from non-Jewish clients.
Austrian authorities are vigorously administering the new law and have already arrested and punished Jewish salesmen and instalment collectors. These arrests have also been made in lines not particularly mentioned in the new laws, the authorities alleging that there has been “a suspicious soliciting of orders.”
While the decrees do not specifically name the Jews, they have been directed at branches of trade in which the Jews are most heavily represented and in which the Jews, almost exclusively, would be hit.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
