Part 8 (1/2)

(Pages 36-37.)

Of what value are all the opinions and advice given here without the aid of the press? We will attain our aim only when the press will be in our hands. Our people must direct the daily publications.... We need great political newspapers which will mold public opinion-criticism, the literature of the street and the stage. In this way we will crowd out the Christians step by step, and will dictate to the world what it should believe in, what it should respect and what it should curse. We will repeat the sorrowful cry of Israel and the complaints against the persecutions which are directed against us.... With the press in our hands we can turn wrong into right, dishonesty into honesty. We can shake all foundations and separate families. We can destroy faith in all that our enemies believed until now. We can ruin credits and arouse pa.s.sions. We can declare war; we can give fame or disgrace. We can uplift or ruin talent. (Page 43.)

[_The following are parallel extracts from the imaginary Rabbi's speech vouched for by the author of the novelette as fact a number of years later._]

SECOND STAGE OF THE LIE-”THE RABBI'S SPEECH”

When we become at last the sole possessors of all the gold to be found on earth, the power will practically be transferred to our hands, and the promises made to Abraham will be fulfilled. Gold-is the greatest power on earth, it is might, reward, the instrument of every authority, it is all man, both fears and desires.... The problem before us now is to facilitate even to a greater extent the means of contracting these loans and thus to become the sole managers of all the valuables, after which the exploitation of all their railroads, mines, forests, large factories and industrial plants, as well as of all other real property, including duties and taxes, will fall into our hands, as a security for the capital lent to us by the various states.

Agriculture will forever remain the princ.i.p.al source of a country's wealth. The possession of large plots of land will pave for us even a broader way to honors and will strengthen our influence over the highest officials of the country. From this follows, that our efforts will be directed towards inducing our brethren in Israel to make large agricultural purchases. We must, therefore, do our utmost to break up large estates into small parcels, in order to be able to purchase them in the easiest and quickest way. Under the pretext of trying to help the working cla.s.ses, it is necessary to oppress the large landowners with taxation in all its severity.

When these possessions will thus gradually be transferred in our hands, the whole labor of the Christian proletariat will become for us a new source of tremendous profits.

Commerce and speculation-these branches, most plentiful in their fruits,-must never be suffered to slip out of the hands of the Israelites,-with this object in view the people of Israel must direct its ambition towards those high offices of authority which have the power to distribute honors and esteem.

Since the Christian Church is one of our most dangerous enemies, we must work tirelessly to weaken its influence, and in order to accomplish this, it is necessary to use all our efforts to implant in the Christian intellectual cla.s.s ideas of Atheism, scepticism, dissension and to call forth religious disputes among the newly-formed groups and sects of Christendom.

It is very important for us to pretend to be expounders and protagonists of social questions prevalent at the time in a country, especially of those whose aim it is to better the fate of the workingman; but, in reality, our efforts must gravitate towards possession and rule over the movements of public opinion.

The blindness of the ma.s.ses and the tendency of their leaders to fall for oratory as empty as it is loud, will make them easy prey for us and a double weapon for our popularity and credit. With the aid of oratory, our speakers will be able to make people believe our artificial enthusiasm which Christians usually attain through genuine sentiment....

Once we become absolute masters of the press, we will easily be able to refas.h.i.+on the ideas of honor, of virtue, of faithfulness-and to deal the first blow to the family-conception which is considered to this day as the most sacred inst.i.tution and which must be reduced to a state of decay. We shall then be able to uproot the belief in that which our enemies, the Christians, shall have wors.h.i.+pped until that time and instead of that, having brought up the army in a spirit of infatuation with the various pa.s.sions, we shall openly declare war upon everything which the Gentiles are at present revering and wors.h.i.+pping....

[_The following are extracts from the new version of the ”protocols”

introduced by Nilus in 1905, showing the different stages of the forgery._]

THIRD STAGE OF THE LIE-”THE PROTOCOLS”[*]

[Footnote *: These extracts are taken from ”The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion,” published by the Beckwith Company, New York, 1920.]

All the wheels of the government mechanism are driven by the motor which is in our hands, and that motor is-gold. (Prot. 5.)

To make it possible for liberty definitely to disintegrate and ruin Gentile society, industry must be placed upon a speculative basis.

The result will be that all products extracted from industry from the soil will not remain in their hands but will pa.s.s through speculation into our possession. (Prot. 4.)

The aristocracy of the Gentiles as a political force has pa.s.sed away.... But as owners of land, they are harmful to us in that they are independent in their sources of livelihood. Therefore at all costs we must deprive them of their land. The best means to attain this is to increase land taxes and mortgage indebtedness. These measures will keep land owners.h.i.+p in a state of unconditional subordination. (Prot. 6.)

See second quotation above.

At the same time it is necessary to encourage trade and industry vigorously and especially speculation, the function of which is to act as a counterpoise to industry.... It is necessary for industry to deplete the land both of laborers and capital, and, through speculation, transfer all the money of the world into our hands, thereby throwing the Gentiles into the ranks of the proletariat.

(Prot. 6.)

It is for this reason that we must undermine faith, eradicate from the minds of the Gentiles the very principle of G.o.d and soul and replace these conceptions by mathematical calculations and material desires. (Prot. 4.)

We have taken good care long ago to discredit the Gentile clergy and thereby to destroy their mission, which at present might hamper us considerably. Their influence over people diminishes daily.