Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/187

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PROBLEM OF RUSSIAN JEW
171

from the Liberal Professions, only from 5 to 7 per cent. of Jews being allowed into the Russian Gymnasia and the Universities. The Jew has had no share in the partial political enfranchisement which followed the Russo-Japanese War, and he is suffering throughout the present war more than any other nation, more even than the martyred Belgians and Serbians.


XI

The greatest religious philosopher and political leader the Russian race has produced, the Catholic Vladimir Soloviov, has put in a nutshell the arguments in favor of the Jews:

"Poland presents a remarkable phenomenon. The social elements there are represented by separate nationalities. The Russians constitute the agricultural population of the villages. The Upper Class is constituted by Poles. The Industrial population of the towns by Hebrews. If the Hebrews, not only under favourable but generally under most unfavourable circumstances, manage to establish a firm hold in the cities of Western Russia, that simply proves that they are more capable than the Russian peasant or the Polish nobility to constitute an industrial class. If, on the other hand, such an