Arbeter Fraint, December 14 1888, page 2
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. . . . although we know that the Parliament has very little use for the working class, that the Socialists are elected by the people, this shows us that the Jewish people are slowly beginning to become a bit more self-aware, and if things continue in this vein, we will also soon have better times.
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On Monday, the unemployed of London sent a committee of six people to the Lord-Mayor of London [to discuss the issue of] employment. When he saw them, the committee explained to him the reason for their visit and that they did in no way come to ask for charity. Quite the contrary, they wanted the state [country] to give them work. The Lord-Mayor replied that the city employment [bureau] is not part of the state administration, except in the case of private contractors, and, therefore, he cannot be of any help; however, for them, the six delegates, he can find work. The delegates responded that they did not come to ask [merely] for themselves, but on the contrary, on behalf of all the unemployed people of London. “This is something the government cannot do,” replied the Lord-Mayor. “But the government can lend support,” one delegate responded. “The Irish landlords, the Scottish crofters support an army of volunteer soldiers.”
“So we are to bring back the answer to our comrades that the Lord-Mayor sends them stones instead of work,” another delegate said. Of course, the Lord-Mayor shouted, “No!” and added that the man had a lot of nerve. The delegate answered: “This is the usual response of the wealthy and the agents of the government, when they are told the naked truth.” In the end, the Mayor told them that he would see that “something was done” and so on and so forth. But we know how much that “something” is worth to the worker. We are interested in this story in so far as it affects the simple worker (not the Socialists). They are beginning to understand what the government can do for them and know how to respond.
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Cunningham Graham, whom the Speaker asked to leave Parliament, because he was not too embarrassed to tell the “refined” gentlemen the truth, went immediately to the Black Province, where the nail and chain workers are located, and was convinced that their situation was a lot worse than that which Barnett had described in his report. Graham called meeting of the workers there and advised them to organize and build cooperative factories, so that they could rid themselves of their blood-suckers, their sweaters. He promised them that he would tell the people about it and try to convince Parliament to support their effort with money, but it is questionable whether he will be successful in on their behalf.
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In the meantime, the Socialist agitator, Mahone, remained there. He is helping
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to work out a project on the basis of which the cooperatives will be based. This project will be brought to Parliament by Graham and Koniber. Although we know full well that the government, which is so enthusiastically supporting Irish thieving landlords to the tune of 5 million pounds sterling and denies ever wasting the people’s money on the parasite class, will not give money for this purpose, and if the project will not pass in Parliament, we are happy with this movement, because this will cause an uproar in the still blind workers, who have a good opportunity to see where their troubles come from.
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Equal rites for all by the court trumpet the capitalist judges and scholars. Quite right, and here is one of thousands of proofs of this: last week, a poor worker was fined 10 shillings and 32 shillings for court costs or a month’s hard labor, because he stole two pieces of wood worth six pence. The captain of a ship from an aristocratic family, who was drunk and caused a scandal in the street, beat the police severely when they demanded that he be quiet. His sentence was only to pay a fine of 3 shillings. The court thought that was equitable for such actions.
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There was a happy scene last Tuesday at the monthly meeting of the United Synagogues in the Central Synagogue Chambers at which Rothchild presided and at which Samuel Montigue took part. It was nice to see how these two “great men,” the “refined lord” and the “honorable” member of Parliament practically tore each other’s hair out. The English-Jewish newspapers say that this concerned the Board of Ritual Slaughter, and angry mouths say that it actually concerned Montefiore, who failed nicely in the last school board elections, because Montigue did not support him. Whatever the story is, both of these turkeys looked quite fine as they went gooble-gobble. “Take back your word,” Rothchild shouted. “I will recant! I will recant, my lord,” Montigue spoke up making a face like a wet hen, “but I will never work with you again.” Saying this, our Reb Samuel left the gathering, leaving the pouting “lord” there to carry on by himself. What shall we now say about these customers of Simkhe Baker’s Synagogue?
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Now one can say whatever one wants. The “W. Fr.”• is accepted by the most respected members of our community as an authority. They now follow its advice very precisely in that the local rabbis and idlers now very regularly, every fourteen days, give sermons for workers in the Duke Place Synagogue, and since they know that the “R. Fr.” was written for workers, they also read it out loud there regularly
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and refer essentially to the notice of Yom Kippur. It is hoped that it will soon be read out loud in all the synagogues instead of the Torah, and instead of giving the honor of reading the sixth section of the Torah to some ragged new immigrant—to show how they are befriending that poor stranger—they will read him the articles from “W. Fr.,” For example, “Schools Without Religion,” “The Day of Judgment is Here,” “A Prayer for The Day of Rosh Hashona,” “Let Us Tell [How Holy is the Day],” “Now This is a Sermon,” and issues 5, 35, 36, 37 and 43 of this year. In a word, we are very grateful to these people for their stupid abusive language about W. Fr., because our readers do not need their preaching, and those dumb animals that have not yet heard about our newspaper, now have the best opportunity to receive [some] understanding, since they meet him in synagogues.
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Monday, the 24th of December, the annual concert to benefit the Cigarette-makers and the Tabacco Cutters Benefit Society will be held in the Hebrew Dramatic Club, 3 Princess Street. The much-loved and interesting piece, “The Countess as a Beggar,” will be performed. We recommend that all of our friends to support this benefit.
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We very much regret that our comment under the report about Rakhman caused misunderstandings. The lack of clarity in this comment was only due to the fact that we lacked the space to make it longer. Rakhman is a member of the Princess Square Club “To Save the Morrow [?]”, with which our club is affiliated. We said that Rakhman did have anything to do with us. We meant to with us, the advanced Socialists. At the past special members’ meeting at our club, which was called to discuss club business, Rakhman asked for permission to say a few words concerning the report in the W. Fr. about him. He was allowed and he tried to refute all the accusations against him. Violent debates ensued, which lasted several more hours and ended with the club’s electing a committee of three men, who would seriously look into the matter.
Capital and Work
or: Where does Wealth Come From?
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V How Does One Do Good Business?
In order to show clearly how honestly the businessman “earns” [his money]. I will give an example of something with which every Jewish reader is familiar: In the story of Joseph, which I already mentioned in the previous article, it is written that Joseph’s brothers saw an Arab caravan coming from Gled [sic] approaching. Their camels were laden with a variety of merchandise: spices
