Die Welt

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No. 25 — Vienna, 17 June 1904 — 4 Thamuz 5664. — 8th Year.

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On the Jewish Migration.

A marked rise in Jewish emigration is reported from Russia and Roumania. This will occasion no great surprise. Conditions in those countries are such that now, in the better season, when travel is less arduous, the number of emigrants naturally increases. Moreover, the war is telling so adversely upon economic conditions in Russia that the poorer classes of the population have in truth no choice but between emigration and certain death by starvation. This quite apart from the agitation against the Jews, by which the national-Russian circles indemnify themselves for the outward misfortune that pursues Russia in the war.

This strong swelling of the stream of emigrants has very lately been materially furthered by a wholly accidental circumstance. The Continental lines, together with other shipping companies, have combined in a merciless competitive war against the Cunard Line. Fares to America have, at least for the duration of the struggle, frequently been reduced by two-thirds. It cannot yet be foreseen how long the struggle will last or in whose favour it will be decided. Meanwhile the agents of the several companies are making unheard-of efforts to procure as many passengers as possible for the lines they serve. At these minimal prices the agents may count upon a great number of buyers for their tickets, and since the agent's commission is paid at the same rate as before, it is easy to understand that the favourable conjuncture is being exploited with all their might.

This accidental competitive struggle appears not to be without great effect upon the Jewish migration. In London, whence the passage to New York can now be made for two pounds sterling (formerly it cost over 6 1/2 £), a lively stir is said already to prevail among the Jews of the East End, since all those who, for want of means, came only as far as London instead of to America, now wish to profit by the favourable chance. An unforeseen and considerable exodus from the East End is to be expected in the coming weeks, at which most English Jews, precisely now, in the period of the Alien Bill, will not be especially displeased.

But among the Jews of the East, too, the effect of this struggle among the great shipping companies is already beginning to be visible. It may be assumed that the number of Jewish immigrants into America, which was already extraordinarily high last year, will become still more considerable this year. The groups of emigrants passing through Hamburg and Antwerp are likely this year to call upon the assistance of the Jewish corporations of the West far more than usual.

We take note of all this if only because such occurrences speak a more urgent language than the most logical theoretical disquisitions. How precarious must be the existence of a people when such chance events can already produce a sensible reaction upon its stability! How many thousands upon thousands are waiting only for the first opportunity to shake from their feet the dust of the land in which they were born and bred, and to venture the leap into a new existence wholly unknown to them, to wander into a foreign country whose language they do not even understand, of which they believe they know only this one thing, that there is work to be had there! He whose eyes are not opened by such occurrences is, indeed, not to be won for a serious conception of the Jewish problem.