It is no news that Jews should be held responsible for every kind of woe and trouble arising in this world. Then, too, it is an old custom to place the blame on all Jews for what an individual Jew may do.

Along comes a plague like Bolshevism. Jews are blamed and held responsible for it because a few of their race happen to be at the head of the movement. It appears that, where Jews are concerned, justice hides her face, righteousness turns aside, human love withdraws into a dense forest, and even humble democracy stealthily leaves through the back door, that no one may see her flaming face.

What have Jews to do with Bolshevism? There were Jews before this movement 2started and they were accused of desiring to became more and more wealthy. They were labeled as a money-hogging people who forever pursued money and damned all the so-called ideas and ideals.

The world was, as a rule, divided in its conception of the Jew. Half the world considered us Shylocks, the other half as Nathan the Wise. One half of mankind saw in us the embodiment of Turgenieff's "Zsid" (Jew); the other looked at us in the sympathetic light of Scott's Jewish heroine Rebecca in Ivanhoe. One half saw a detestable deformed pagan; the second, the idealist and dreamer, as in Daniel Durrando.

Of no other people have so many contradictory opinions existed. If one so desired, we were labeled as the only ones that brought light to this world 3of civilization. On the other hand, we were crucified, burned, driven and enclosed in ghettoes, forced to wear a sign of shame on our clothing.

We were elevated as kings and degraded as beggars; as the greatest wise men, the worse fools; the best people, the lowest outcasts. We were pictured in the loveliest clothes and in the ugliest hanging rags; but never were we put in the correct pose or portrayed in the true colors that make us what we are. We are not those proud valiant souls whom some favored with titles, nor are we the crawling worms, as others would have it. We are rather like all other people; we possess the same personal emotions, the same good attributes and faults with which all persons are both blessed and accursed.

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Many of us have perhaps developed an avidity for personal property, but the Diaspora life forced upon us was greatly responsible for that.

In free lands where we were permitted to breath as freely as the rest of the people, where we were permitted to enjoy light and sunshine and to develop unmolested, we readily adjusted ourselves to our immediate surroundings and were not in the least different than the rest of the people around us.

In the French Republic, Jews were Frenchmen; in liberal Austria, they considered themselves full-fledged Austrians; even in Germany, where intellectual Anti-Semitism flourished, Jews thought of themselves as Germans.

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Whenever a frail spark of light and enlightenment became visible in darkest Russia, Jews immediately became all Russian. Only then, when they were repulsed with bloodiest pogroms and exceptional prohibitive laws, did they begin to realize that they are, after all, but strangers; they are Jews.

In God's blessed country, from its very beginning, Jews did not consider themselves anything else but Americans.

Not only did we know and feel this, but at every opportunity displayed it. The history of America is interwoven with examples of Jewish loyalty, devotion, and sacrificing willingness. Such names as Soloman, Turo, Mendoza, and several others contributed their bits of enlightenment that shone in the times in which they lived, helping to heal the wounds of charges that from time to time were carried here from other places.

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Thus it was in the beginning when this Republic was born and so it has ever remained. The Jew has always remained loyal to America, true to her principles and traditions, for which he was forever ready to give up his goods and possessions and even his life. The American flag became the Jews symbol of everything that is good and clean and unspotted. It is this flag that he stands ready to defend and shield at all times under any conditions.

Can anyone prove that Jews have had among them a Benedict Arnold? The past is our best evidence. In every critical period of the country, we stood ready to fulfill our duty just as did that famous soldier of the unfortunate city of Pompeii.

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The World War made this clear and outstanding. Although we do not say that we deserve any special recognition for this, nor ask for any, yet we do not desire to be hit with dirt and insults or have the situation used as an opportune time to accuse us of Bolshevism and all such things that have not the slightest truth in them.

Yes, we are accused of being Bolsheviks. The accusation is not directed against the few but against all Jews. True, they do not openly accuse us. The American Press is liberal enough to come forth from time to time with explanations of the falseness of holding Jews responsible for Bolshevism. They do us a good turn when they explain to their readers that between Judaism and Bolshevism there is nothing in common, and that Trotsky the Bolshevik has long ago murdered Trotsky the Jew.

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This in itself is a small comfort. As the days pass, the influence of this accusation is felt more and more keenly. Native or foreign Anti-Semites wield this whip at all times. In many shops and factories, Jews are discharged on grounds of Bolshevism. Jewish workers and craftsmen are not being hired for work, not really because they are Jews, but because they have been termed Bolsheviks whom everyone fears as a horrible pestilence.

It often occurs that a manufacturer learns of the unrest existing among his workmen. This is quite a usual thing. Workers work so long, gather so many complaints, that they bond together and make demands to right their wrongs.

Unrest among workers means dissatisfaction of working conditions and not that 9they are Bolsheviks. A demand for higher wages and shorter working hours still does not mean Bolshevism. I know of cases where certain manufacturers ascribed this very unrest to Bolshevism. Such thoughtlessness is truly a laughing matter. It happened, already, that a Christian superintendent conceived the bright idea of quelling this unrest by segregating the Jewish workers, branding them Bolsheviks, and discharging them without any ceremony.

I know of other cases where Bolshevism was used as an excuse not to hire Jewish workers.

This occurred but a few days ago: A Jewish soldier who so loyally served his adopted country, went to seek a job as carpenter. He wore his soldier's 10uniform. The foreman told him they needed a carpenter. Naturally, the Jewish soldier was overjoyed but this did not last very long. The foreman recognizing a foreign accent inquired what his nationality was.

"I am a Jew," the soldier answered.

"I am very sorry, but I cannot hire you. I have orders not to hire Jews." The foreman's reply fell like a thunderbolt.

Why should this be so? Has Judaism become a hindrance to securing a livelihood in America?

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No, not his Judaism, not his Jewish accent hindered this Jewish soldier in securing a job. It was the cursed spreading accusation that Jews are Bolsheviks. This foreman, in spite of the Jewish man's uniform, his honorable discharge papers, saw only a Bolshevik.

No, we Jews are not Bolsheviks. We are the scrapegoats for Bolshevism and that is very tragic.

M.B.