One-third of Polish Jewry Deprived of Every Means of Existence, French Paper Reports

One million Polish Jews, or one-third of the total Jewish population there, is at this moment deprived of every means of existence, while another million is approaching the abyss, says a recent article in the Paix de Droit (Peace and Justice), a journal issued in Paris, a copy of which has just been received at national headquarters of the Allied Jewish Campaign.

The present crisis in Poland is one of the most acute with which the country has been afflicted during the course of the last few years, says the article. Certain industries are completely paralyzed, particularly the metallurgical and textile industries; the number of bankruptcies and judicial liquidations is constantly increasing; the army of unemployed reaches a record—more than 300,000 unemployed, one-third of the number of workers engaged in the industry of the nation. And it is even not yet certain that the crisis has reached its peak.

JEWISH SITUATION

It would be a mistake however, continues the article, to say that there is an exact correspondence between this crisis and the tragic condition of the Jews, and to draw the conclusion that an improvement in the general economic situation would have a favorable effect upon the Jews for any length of time. A merciless struggle is being carried on by the government against the Jewish merchant class, which constitutes almost one-half of the Jewish population of Poland. Although Jews only constitute 11 per cent of the population, they pay 40 per cent of the total taxation, one of which, particularly heavy and unjust, is the tax upon business turnover. On the other hand, an economic evolution is working itself out by the development of consumers’ cooperative societies which is a shrewd blow at small businesses. By standardization and by the establishment of cartels of producers for internal and external commerce, the march of these events brings about the destruction and the ruin of large and middle-sized Jewish business establishments.

GOVERNMENT AGAINST JEWS

Since the reestablishment of the Polish state, the various governments which have succeeded one another have had one common item on the programs of each of them; that is, to cast the Jews out, says Paix de Droit. The economic doctrine of the actual ministries is without doubt framed in such a way as not to be expressly anti-Jewish; nevertheless, since it is by no means sympathetic to private initiative or to freedom of commerce the consequence quence is that it works out against the interest of Jews. Moreover, nothing whatever is done to make possible for those who are discharged from their positions their rehabilitation in some other form of activity.

“It is necessary to elaborate a vast economic plan, for the realization of which the help of overseas Jewry, and particularly American Jewry, is indispensable,” declares the paper. “It will be necessary also to create favorable political conditions, to get in touch with the government authorities and with the more important municipalities of which many, Warsaw in particular, carry on an anti-Jewish policy. This then should be the object of the Jewish policy at the present time. It is a vast enterprise and requires tremendous efforts, but in view of the mass misery which confronts them, it is the only course. It must be put into operation immediately; otherwise it may be too late.”