"THE CONQUERING JEW."

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2522, 24 July 1915, Page 9

"THE CONQUERING JEW."

Mr. John Foster Fraser, whose many iratliier carelessly written but always very readable travel- sketches- are so well known, has now tried his hand at much more ambitious work in the shape of ; a detailed examination, of the position, occupied in the world to-day .by the Jewish race. '-His book, -"The Conquering Jew" • (Melbourne, Cassell and Co.; Chriatchurch, Whitcombo and Tombs) is certainly a most interesting study of a most fascinating subject, but a. more accurate titlo would have been, I think, '-'The Successful Jew," for the pnrely worldly material successes which Mr. Fraser instances as having been achieved by Jews in various parts of the world he has visited can. scarcely be proporly dignified by the name of "conquests." It is an astonishing record .this"which Mr. Fraser sets forth,, and to tell the truth it is a record so generously detailed ais-to threaten, in places, to become a mere list of names. The author disclaims' any desire to writo from either a pro-Semitic or anti-Semitio .point of view. He examines the position of the Jew whorever he finds him to be any considerable factor in the life of the community, and notes his good and bad points with equal care, but seems a trifle chary of drawing special conclusions or expressing very definite opinions. ' '

Undoubtedly the Jew, as a Jew, 'exercises a tremendous influence in niodern s(>cial life, especially in England, America, and Germany. He is at the lead of most of fho great financial houses, ho has—especially in Germany— a firm hold on the newspaper Press, ho reaches out for personal power, and not seldom ho succeeds in attaining his full ambitions. Mr. Fraser admits that while tho Jew is "gloriously brilliant in innumerable paths of life, he is not original;" Much of his success is due -to his recognition of the value of education. "Proportionately there are far more illiterates amongst Christians than Jews." Various explanations of this, says the author, may be provided. "The most patent is that the Jew has a dosire for knowledge— sometimes for its own worth, as in the case of the Christians—but generally because he is shrewd to appreciate its value in commercial undertakings. -"As to tho unpopularity of the Jew, especially with "the 'lower and' middle-class Gentile,"- Mr. Fraser considers this . is 'due to sevoral causes. In England, those, causes are set down as "display, ostentation, lovo of luxury, desire to get the'best for-his money, wonderful success in all circumstances, aloofness and suspicion of the Gentile, his absolute sobriety, to join trade

onions, a tendency tc work entirely 'on bis own,' chiefly and generally displacement of the Gentilo in every ca_so where t'he Jew enters into competition with him."

Mr. Fraser seems to avoid certain which must crop up on any careful study of the modern Jew and his position in —and' towards —tho countries in which lie lives, hut from whose national lifo he Tomains, of deliberation, coldly aloof.. Many, readers will beg leave to differ from the author's opinion, expressed in the final chapter of his book, that "the Jew is destined to go," but will "live in future generations of other races." In support of this theory, Mr. Fraser puts forward some_ plausible arguments, to which space limits unfortunately forbid a reference in detail. A very readable book, however much one may feel disinclined to accept tho AUthor'-s conclusions.