“ What really then was specifically Jewish? And is one entitled to assume, in general a peculiar idiosyncrasy in the attitude of the Jew towards all enduring arrangements?
[Page 146] I believe so; yes, and I believe that this specific Jewish characteristic of infringing the law, expresses, before everything else, the idea that the Jews regard their offences against right and morality, as not being the particular concern of any individual amongst them, but rather as being the discharge of a code of commercial morality, accepted by and current amongst the Jews, and that their business habits are only those, which are sanctioned by the majority of the Jewish business people. We are bound to conclude, from the general and continued practice of fixed customs, that the Jews do not at all regard their irregular mode of trading as immoral, and consequently as unpermissible, but are convinced, on the contrary, that they are acting in a perfectly moral manner — the ‘correct’ right as opposed to a ridiculous conception of right and morality.”
As a matter of fact, our moral perception of things is “ senseless” so far as the Hebrew is concerned; it is too lofty for him. If there is any pronounced feature about Hebrewdom, whereby it can at once be distinguished from the rest of humanity, it is precisely this absence of moral sensitiveness.
In reality the Hebrew is a lower type of being, in whom all those qualities are wanting, which confer a real dignity upon mankind— honour, a sense of shame, a conscience and moral consciousness. As our entire existence is confined within these barriers, we are naturally not so free to carry on the competitive struggle, whether it be of a spiritual or economic nature, so effectively as the person, who declines to recognise any such restraints. Just as a cleanly being steps aside to avoid a foul mire, into which a swine plunges with satisfaction, so does a man, with clean instincts, revolt against following the Hebrew into the swamp of moral degradation. If he tries to do so, either he or his better nature is ruined.
And this is the peculiar difficulty of the present time, that we have allowed ourselves to be overcome by the swinish predilection of the Hebrew, that we have descended from our moral altitude, in order to scuffle with him in the mud and mire for our daily fodder. It is vain to hope that one will ever be able to elevate the Hebrew to the plane of nobler manhood; for at least three thousand years, he has shown himself to be incapable of improvement, and he will always remain so. It is a fallacy to maintain that this moral deficiency made itself so glaringly conspicuous in the Jew, owing to his compulsory detention in the Ghetto, and would leave him as soon as he was permitted to move freely in a moral community.
[Page 147] This fond expectation has been bitterly disappointed by the actual facts: the Hebrew, with his insensibility for higher moral values, will invariably drag down the rest of the community to his own low level, whenever he is permitted full scope for his baneful activity. The same presumption has shown itself to be false also, in countries, where the Jews have enjoyed unrestricted freedom for centuries, such countries for instance, as England, the Netherlands and the United States. In these lands, as well as in France, where they have had complete civic rights since the end of the eighteenth century, and now are the undisputed masters*, their nature has not altered by one hair-breadth.
Sombart speaks in the highest terms of a certain Jewess, the so-called “Glückel von Hameln,” who lived from 1645 to 1724, and wrote her own biography. But, in spite of his praise, he added the significant remark:
“ All the aspirations and endeavours, all the thoughts and feelings of this woman centred themselves on Money. For the whole 313 pages of her memoirs, she speaks of nothing else but money, and of acquiring riches.” (Page 156).
And it is this trait especially, which proclaims the lower nature, and which predominates in the Hebrew; for we are entitled to maintain with confidence, that the man is by so much the more spiritual and moral, the less his thoughts are influenced by material considerations.
The noblest spirits, taken from any period, have seldom been good managers. The interest concerning money did not occupy their minds to any considerable extent, and was regarded as a secondary consideration. It was the noble Nazarene, who announced: “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” The more idealism, the more spiritual purity and dignity, and the less regard for money.
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* After Martin, Levy is the name, which occurs most frequently in the French business world, a fact which the well-known Dr. Bertillon has established by reference to the various address-books. (T-gl. Rundschau, Nr. 291 of 1913).
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[Page 148] The Hebrew endeavours to substitute cunning in the place of the idealism, in which he is so conspicuously lacking, and to compensate for his deficiency in moral feeling and in deep instincts, by a more subtle understanding. The intellect — the cool power of calculation — belongs, by no manner of means, to the higher spiritual functions; invariably it forms but a poor substitute for the deeper spiritual forces, which are wanting, for the feeling and perceiving discernment of things and connections between things. Just as the Hebrew endeavours in the economic life to substitute the mere possession of money for the ability to work and create, in which he is so deficient, so does he endeavour to conceal his lack of the deeper, spiritual capacity by a veneer of sham culture. It is, for this reason, very questionable praise, when Sombart refers again and again to the “pre-eminent intellectuality” of the Jews; In reality, all that he means is the mental cunning, the subtle process of calculation, which is peculiar to a low order of intellect.
Deviation in the trend of Jewish life.
Now we will occupy ourselves for a short time with the economic side of the matter: the Hebrew desires to possess riches in order to obtain mastery over others, and to oppress them; and it is in this particular, where there is a great difference between the acquisition of money by Jews, and the acquisition of money by other races. Certainly there are plenty of business people amongst Aryans and Christians, whose inclination is predominantly towards making money, and people, enough and to spare, who do not pay much attention to the moral side of the question, and regard all means and methods as equally good, provided that money can be acquired thereby. But, in one respect, they impose a restriction on themselves; they content themselves with guarding and enjoying their wealth; they do not begrudge others, besides themselves, the opportunity to acquire wealth and to enjoy it. It is quite different where the Hebrew is concerned.
[Page 149] It is, as if he is consumed by an inappeasable hatred towards all, who happen to possess something; as if he felt himself alone entitled to claim all material possessions in this world for himself and for his people; as if he could not rest so long as goods and money still remained in the hands of those, who are not Jews. This frame of mind finds unconcealed expression in the Talmudic-Rabbinical writings. One finds there, for instance:
“God created the world solely for the Jews, and accordingly all property in the world belongs to the Jews.”
The Talmud therefore declares: “ The possessions of those, who are not Jews, are equivalent to possessions without an owner and the first, who seizes the same, is entitled to them.”
This is no theoretical interpretation; the Jews take it, and act on it in deadly earnest. They regard it as their special mission in life to travel all over the earth in order to acquire all the possessions of the Goyim. They do not consider that they have fulfilled their duty to their God, Jahweh, until all the riches in the world are in their hands, so that they can lay the same at the feet of their idol. It is for this reason that the real Jew is animated by a feverish restlessness to dispossess the Goy of his property. It is, as if he suffered mental distress, so long as there remained any property in his vicinity, which he had not yet acquired. It is precisely this behaviour, which draws such a sharp dividing line between the Jewish and “Christian” business and usury practices. The Hebrew does not only desire to gain, but to ruin and enslave others as well. The young deputy Bismarck, speaking in the Lan
dtag of 1847, furnished a classical proof of this contention:
“ I will give an example, which contains the whole history of the relations existing between Jew and Christian. — I know a rural district where the Jewish population is numerous, where there are peasants, who cannot call a single object on their farms their own property, where the entire furniture, from the bed to the stove, belongs to the Jew, and where the peasant pays a rent for each separate piece of furniture; the growing corn and the corn in the barn belong to the Jew, and the Jew sells the corn for bread, seed and feeding purposes back to the peasant again, by the peck. I, at any rate, in the course of my professional duties, have never come across nor even heard of a Christian practising usury comparable with this.”
[Page 150] Anyone, who is acquainted with the activity of the Jews in Bavarian Franconia, in Hesse, in the north of Würtemberg and other places, can provide more than enough instances of a similar kind.
The Jew, when doing business, is always impelled by a double motive: not only does he desire advantage for himself, but he wishes, at the same time, to cause damage to the other side. It is for this reason, that he will not reject a piece of business, that brings him in nothing, so long as it serves his purpose of weakening others. His aim is to sweep all competitors away. “He does not ask”, says Sombart, “if a profit can be made or not, or if it will be necessary to work for a time without making a profit, simply in order that, later on, he may make all the more profit”. This is the “great”, startling innovation, which the Jew has introduced into business life, and which celebrates its economic triumph in the form of the great “Stores”. At the back of the Jewish fighting tactic, is always lurking the idea of monopoly — of sole domination — the desire to annihilate all competitors.
A dark instinct for disturbance and destruction, for confusion and dissolution, all of which facilitate the plundering of others, is the most marked feature in the Hebrew; for, in the universal ruin, the richest booty falls to his share. In this respect he resembles the vulture, which, scenting its prey, hovers over the battle-field. The ruin of others brings him his surest spoil.
Whilst the merchant of former days willingly restricted his activities to dealing in one speciality, in one particular district, the Hebrew, by preference, deals everywhere with everybody. The former division of trade, according to specialities, had the great advantage of enabling the merchant to acquire a far more thorough knowledge of his goods, and, at the same time, to provide, in his particular line, the greatest variety of choice.
[Page 151] The Hebrew, on the contrary, whose original business-occupation was always in the old-clothes shop, in which secondhand articles of all kinds were to be found, has not been able, even at the present day, to free himself of his preference for a medley of second-hand rubbish: he preserves the character and atmosphere of the old-clothes shop, even in his emporiums of trash and his great “stores”; yes, and even into his great industrial undertakings. Even Sombart perceives in all this, what he describes as a characteristically Jewish touch, and acknowledges that the great “stores” are almost exclusively in Jewish hands.
Sombart mentions with pride, that the Hebrews are the fathers of the “hire-purchase” business; and this may well be the case. (Compare page 117). One must not run away with the idea, which is for ever being trumpeted forth in the advertisements of these business, namely that sympathy with the small man was the motive, which originated them. A far different tendency is at the root of the movement. Just as the Hebrew buys up the harvest, for a mere song, from a peasant, who is short of money, or is in other difficulties, while the grain is still on the stalk and even before it is ripe, so does he secure for himself, by means of the “hire-purchase” system, all the wages of the poor man for weeks and months in advance. In Faust the Jew is spoken of as follows:
“ Er schafft Antizipationen—
Die Schweine kommen nicht zu Fette, Verpfändet ist der Pfühl im Bette,
Und auf den Tisch kommt vorgegessen Brot.”
(Goethe) [“ He creates anticipations . . .
The swine are never left to fatten
Pawned is the pillow in the bed
And the very bread, which is placed on the table, has been eaten in advance.”]
The Jew knows how to prevent the unfortunate people from taking their money elsewhere, by binding them over in a legal agreement, to assign the proceeds of their labour to him for a long time in advance. The “hire-purchase” system is therefore a particular and valuable link in the chain of business operations, by which the Jews suck up the money in circulation.
[Page 152] It prevents the saving of money by those, who are not Jews, and quickens the return flow, even of the smallest stream of money, into the reservoir of Judah. Certainly all these Jewish practices have introduced a novel and peculiar atmosphere into modern business life, but it is certainly not a healthy and beneficial one. The final injurious effects of this kind of commercial activity upon the economic life are not immediately apparent, for the excessive stimulation of the economic life produces, with its colour, variety and movement, a positively dazzling effect. But it is no less certain that this Jewish tendency, in the economic life, is continually bringing public morality to a lower and lower level, and is destroying all regard for the general welfare of the community.
The principle of ruthless selfishness has obtained the mastery, and the right of the individual to enrich himself, by any and every means, has established itself, even if the rest of the community suffer grievously thereby, and both state and morality are sacrificed. Social harmony has been replaced by mutual enmity, everybody fights everybody, and this can only end in universal destruction. It is no longer a cause for wonder when active business people break down prematurely from nervous exhaustion in their best years, and when all manner of insidious diseases and social disorders arise out of this mad state of affairs. We are being continually and insistently informed that all this must be so — that all this is inseparable from progress. We perceive, at any rate, that the physical and mental powers of mankind are giving way, under these malign influences, to the verge of complete extinction.
This method of destruction must be opposed by a wise and sensible discipline, whereby all the material requirements of life can be satisfied without impairing the constitutive powers of mankind. This disciplinary system must adopt, as its standard, the principle that the preservation and elevation of mankind are of more importance than the mere increase of business, and the accumulation of world riches.
[Page 153]
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XII.
The Hebrews as supporters of Capitalism.
Sombart advances the question as to whether the Jew possesses a special capacity for capitalism. It appears most extraordinary to us that such a question should ever have been propounded. Capitalism is not an activity, which calls for a special kind of capacity, but a condition, the cultivation or administration of which, calls for certain qualifications. Even, in the case of the Hebrew, capitalism, for its own sake, is not regarded as the main object, but rather as a means for increasing his own power, and for enslaving those, who are not Jews.
Thus, the question will take the following shape: does the Hebrew possess a special talent for amassing capital, and for giving a capitalistic formation to the economic life? Nobody has ever been in doubt concerning this fact.
Sombart claims for the Hebrews the merit of being the founders and upholders of modern world-wide commerce, of modern finance, of the Stock Exchange, in fact, of the commercialisation of the entire economic life; of being the parents of free trade, and of free competition, of being the exponents of the modern spirit in the realm of business. We will cheerfully concede all this, but, at the same time it is perfectly clear to us, that this modern spirit is by no means a good spirit, for it is the spirit of the disintegration of political economy, of the destruction of the productive nations. The explanation of the idea of capitalism, which, according to
Sombart, is as follows, seems strange indeed to us:
“ Capitalism is the name we give to that organisation of economic intercourse, by which two different groups of the population — the owners of the means of production, who, at the same time, carry on the work of directing, and the ordinary work-people who own nothing — cooperate, so indeed that the representatives of Capital (i.e., of the requisite store of the necessary goods) are the real economic subjects, that is to say, hold the power of deciding the nature and direction of the economic management, and bear the responsibility for the issue, whatever it may be” (page 186).
[Page 154] According to this, Capitalism characterizes itself as the economic method of the proletarian state, which is ruled and guided unresistingly by a few financial magnates, as a new edition of slavery in its most acute form. In actuality, this is the ideal of the Hebrew, to whom it has been promised in the Talmud, that a time will come when every Jew will possess 2800 slaves.
The only question is whether the other nations regard such a state of things as desirable, and are willing to help to bring it about. This might be expressed in a somewhat more general fashion as follows: the capitalistic economic system regards the formation of capital as the principal aim of economic activity.
According to this system, capital, and not man, is of most importance. This system places man and his spiritual needs on a lower plane than the accumulation of capital. Moneymaking is regarded as the first principle of life. And the object of this creation of capital? — the domination and exploitation of mankind by means of loan-servitude.
The Riddle of the Jew's Success Page 17