TOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12070, 13 September 1902, Page 4

TOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE JEW IN' AMERICA. The recent attack upon Jews in New York has been universally condemned by newspaper opinion in America, many journals paying high tributes to the part which the Jews play in the social, political, industrial, find commercial life of the nation. Says ,the Boston Transcript:— "The

Hebrew element ha* grown strong and is growing stronger ill this country, but it* advance has been by means that should challenge our admiration rather than provoke hostility. We have recently called attention to its prominence in the?"business operations of the nation. Without its record the marvellous story of progress in the United States could be written in fewer chapters than is now the cane. But it is not iii business aloue that the.-*; people hare ! won distinction. We find in their ratio, many notable educators, reformers and philanthropists, and even men who are i leaders in the higher ethics of statesman- ; ship. Then record as observers of th« i law will compare favourably with that of any other class. In fact, they rather excel in this respect, their reverence for lavr being an inherited quality. 'I hey are coming to the front also in the? control of those mighty engines that make public opinion. Archbishop Ireland recently said of the newspaper of to-day: ' Ir is read Dv all, it is believed by nearly all. Its in", flueme is paramount ; its responsibility is tremendous.' Now. by recent purchase of the Philadelphia Ledger, Mr. Adolnh Ochs, ,i. Jew becomes the virtual owner and director of four prominent journals, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Tinier and the Chattanooga Times being the other three. He can influence public opinion perhaps to an extent not possible to anr other single individual in this country, because all these papers are conducted according to the best journalistic standards tow prevailing, and they justly command confideuce. The New York World is another paper also conducted by a Jew, and in London the Jewish clement is dominant in journalism, though that is foreign to our present purpose. Perhaps the quality of the Jew which most arouses hostility" besides his canny opportunism, is his tenacity his genius for success. But that quality when considered as an abstraction and given a national application is something of which !we boast. It is the very quality which is i feared and resisted abroad, and "that upon which we pride ourselves in our industrial and commercial superiority over other nations. .As we have already intimated, remove what the Jew in America has done to help us attain this standing, and it would not be nearly so significant as it is. It J3 about time that the spirit of prejudice ceased, or was kept within bounds." THE rOWKRS AND PALESTI.VK. International politics cannot be regarded as tending to any simple solution. Russia has bewildered the world by changing the base of her Far Eastern policy. Aiming for a time at ascendency in Korea, she has recently turned her energies to the transformation of Manchuria. But it is a radical error to conclude that the Near East liaslost the political importance which belonged to it. in the minds of the diplomatists, in the days of Palmerstoa and Kinglake. If Pekin is the focus of interest in the Par East, Jerusalem is still the pivot of policy in the Near East. The* eyes of all Russians are centred on Palestine/ This is the one supreme fact which is destined to shape the destiny of the civilised world in the near future; but unfortunately it is also the fact least kept in view by Western minds. Holy Russia Las long since set its heart on the possession of the Holy places of Zion. Thousands of Russian pilgrims are every year to be seen lit Syria. Ominous signs are everywhere apparent in the present aspect of things in Palestine. For instance, to the traveller by rail from Jaffa appears a substantial two-storeyed stone station, bearing the name " Jerusalem." But what is that neat village of stone buildings, with red tiles, and beautiful orchards, displaying manifest tokens of thrift and energy? It is the German Temple Colony. That is one striking sign to those who know how to interpret it. The next is full of the same meaning, Mr ib is the new- and handsome gate, constructed in that breach in the wall of Jerusalem made on the occasion of the Ktiser's memorable visit. It stands as a. symbol of the German Emperor's purpose to stamp Teuton influence deeply on the Near Fust. But there are counteracting, insignia. The evidences of Russian power are nuch more striking. On the western side «£ Jerusalem rises the great green dome of a Russian cathedral, while beyond the eastern wall, on the very summit of the Mount of Olives, soars the roof of t Russian convent. When the late French Emperor, Napoleon 111., persuaded England to join France in the conflict known as the Crimean, he drew us into a struggle which had its real origin in a politico-eccle-siastical dispute about the repair of a zincroof over the Holy Sepulchre. , The Catholic Church and the Greek Church squabbled over the, prerogative of preserving the snored edifice; but the religious incident was soon lost sight of. The issues which create mutual distrust now are more confused than ever. Racial antipathy,, ecclesiastical jealousy, commercial competition, and very far-reaching territorial aims all enter into the situation. The Zionist Hebrew covets the site of his traditional nationality. The French, who honourably left Syria, at the yielding of l'almerston, cherish a sentimental longing for the possession of the glorious Lebanon. Germany thirsts for paramount mercantile profits in the East. Britaig watches nervously the encroachments on territories bordering on her .highway to India and approaching her Egyptian appanage. Above all, Russia knows well that she holds all the Turkish Empire in pawn as long as the Sultan is impotent to pay the great war debt which is never demanded, but can never be repudiated. Were any other Power to attempt to expel the Turk from Jerusalem, all Russia would be ablaze with an eruption of the fiercest fanaticism.

riIVSICAi; DETERIORATION". Nothing is of more importance to a na» tion than the maintaining of its efficiency, physical and mental, at the highest possible standard. There is mote than poetical expression—there is unexaggerated scientific truth—in the statement that the land is hastening to destruction where " wealth accumulates and men decay." The fate that overtook empires in. the past threatens those which are in existence, if similar causes of deterioration are allowed to come into winhindered operation. There are signs that these evils are not without a present 'influence, and from the pulpit, the press and the scientific platform there are warnings given which ought not to pass unheeded. Sir James Crichton Browne, as presidentjof the International Congress for the Welftre and Protection of Children, recently delivered an address on physical efficiencywf children, and declared his contention that insufficient feeding during infancy and childhood was the principal cause of the dwarfing and enfeeblcment observable among the British people. This physical deterioration is a l'actwhich impresses itself quickly upon the attention of any acute observer. There was a time when the Briton was accustomed to compare with pride the average height and shoulder measurement of the British regular with the average of the French army— comparison not altogether fair in its ignoring the distinction between a selected soldier and a conscript. _ But-even with this advantage the coatrttf

»n so longer be continued. The British standard has had to be lowered again and fr rjain. Of 11,000 men who volunteered in Manchester for service in South Africa only 3000 were accepted as physically fit, and of these only 1200 came up to the itandard of what a soldier ought to be. The JTospital. commenting on the difference between the, Indian and colonial soldiers and the Londoners -who thronged to stare at them in recent demonstrations, described the crowds as composed of men "any one 0 f whom the average Indian or colonial soldier could break across his knee." (sir

James Browne is earnest in his warning thai there is evidence of a. striking kind that the people of our large towns, at any rate, are physically deteriorating. '•The diminished death-rate upon which we had been wont

to pride ourselves, is but a sorry comforter - jf the population we are keeping alive is increasingly sickly and debilitated, and lechjiical education would be of small avail if the standard of health among our working ilasses was being gradually lowered.'' He asks for "a measu ing as well as ;,. muni wring of the people." 1 lie u-e of scales and tape, so that there may be records for comparison.

nil; cable KWS. The British press is astonished at the audacious proposals advanced by the Boer generals at their interview with Mr. Chamberlain, and applauds the litter's courtesy Slid firmness. Cape residents are amazed a the wildly extravagant demands of the generals. The American press is also surprised at the new demands, while even Trench and German journals are constrained to approve of Mr. Chamberlain's attitude. In the Cape Parliament Mr. Merriman, one of the leaders of the Afrikander Bond, anoved a resolution denouncing the movement for the suspension of the Constitution, and applauding Sir J. G. Sprigg for refusing to agree to the suspension. He declared that force, of aims would alone secure the suspension of the Constitution, end charged Lord Milner with conspiring to destroy the liberties of the Cape colonists. The Duke of Orleans, who was ostracised by English society owing to a letter which he wrote to a French caricaturist, approving of a vile sketch slandering the late Queen, Victoria, has apparently been forgiven, by King Edward, who has intimated to him that the door of England is again open: to 'him. The Duke and Duchess have accordingly arrived in London. The German Eraperor's speeches in reference to the Poles, .which were intended to neutralise the effect of his earlier utterances, have failed in their purpose. It is reported that France and Spain have formed an alliance. The insurgents in Colombia are proving successful. They are reported to have overwhelmed the .Government forces at Santa Marta, and to have terribly mutilated the dead. At the German army manoeuvres the lessons learned from the South African war were to some extent adopted, while wireless telegraphy .was largely and successfully used.