Government Commission in White Russia Plans to Help Small Town Jews

Industrialization Offered as Alternative for Farming; Compromise Including both Adopted (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Plans to relieve the situation of the small town Jews, constituting the bulk of the Jewish population in the Republic of White Russia, are being formulated now by a government commission appointed for the purpose of finding ways and means to bring relief to the much afflicted part of the Jewish population.

The commission includes among its members representatives of the Commissariat of Agriculture, the Commissariat of Public Works and other government departments. At the sessions held to date a heated debate developed as to the nature and origin of the Shtetel, the typical Jewish small town in the former Pale of Settlement.

Opinion was divided among the members of the government commission, some contending that the Shtetel was an artificial product which sprang up because of the Czarist regime and the enclosure of the Jewish population within the Pale of Settlement. In view of this the Shtetel has no economic future under the new conditions and the only solution to the small town Jewish question in Soviet Russia is to transfer them to agriculture. The others argued that the Shtetel was a natural growth, having its economic foundations and, if proper aid is provided, it may develop into a useful factor in the economic fabric.

For this purpose the Shteltel should be industrialized, they argued. This can be brought about by aiding the artisans. The Shtetel is more than a town, since it possesses in its immediate vicinity the necessary raw material and has labor available.

The amount of skill and industrial experience accumulated in the Jewish small towns can be furthered by providing credits and through other facilities, turning the population in the small twons into a real productive element.

The arguments of the followers of industrialization won the day in the commission. The commission decided that while continuing the development of agricultural colonization, especially with the population of those towns unsuited for industrialization, it will seek ways of introducing industries in such towns which have the facilities for it. In order to carry out this plan on a large scale it was decided to collect data before starting the work.

A delegation of nine students was appointed at City College, New York, to ask President Frederick B. Robinson to reinstate Alexander Lifshitz, who remains suspended although he has withdrawn his statements concerning the faculty in connection with his objection to military training at City College. The delegates were selected by more than 150 undergraduates at a meeting of the Social Problems Club. If Dr. Robinson refuses to reinstate Lifshitz, according to the resolution, the student delegation has been directed to go to Mayor Walker.