native Jew. It is a question, therefore, what will be the "passport" in the case of an applicant who does not possess such a document.
The principal feature in the Artisans' Bill is that only those may become "master-workmen" who can prove "the right of reciprocity in their country." Those who cannot prove this (i. e. Roumanian Jews) must obtain an authorization from the Chamber of Commerce, and as M. Panu, a well known Roumanian journalist remarks, the Chamber will not give it. The Bill also provides that in public works preference is to be given to Roumanian workmen, and that tenders shall only be accepted from Roumanians and from foreigners who can "offer reciprocity in their country," which Roumanian Jews are unable to do. Workmen must therefore be Roumanians in every public undertaking as far as possible (i. e. in cases where other than Jews are avai'able). In spite of these provisions, which make Jews practically ineligible for all public undertakings, the Roumanian workmen are still dissatisfied. As soon as they saw that the Bill was drafted they made a manifestation outside the Chamber and riotous scenes ensued, in which much blood was shed. They are determined to impose their own extortionate demends at any price.
The Bourse measure prohibits any Exchange transactions from being carried on in places where there is no Bourse (and this is the case in ninety per cent. of the towns) with the assistance of a private agent. Only official agents are to act as intermediaries. Wherever there are a very considerable number of agents, one-fifth may be foreigners. In this way, Jews will be debarred from a calling which hitherto in this country has been almost exclusively in the hands of Jews.
The Bill on Commission Agents will also have the effect of driving Jews out of this vocation. Up to now nearly all agents have been Jews, and the Lawyers' Bill which is now being discussed by the Bucharest Bar has also in view the exclusion of Jews from the profession.
GORKY AS AN AGITATOR
Maxim Gorky is the subject of an article by M. E. Semenoff in the ""Revue Blanche (Paris). Gorky is said to be the first Russian to write a book of which 30.000 copies were sold in Russia.
The critics fail to explain his popularity, probably because they are not at liberty to do so.
The anti-Semitic papers, however, agree that he is a demagogue, a revolutionist, and a Marxist. Mikhailovski describes the creed of Gorky as “‘ a glorification of force and beauty, a necessity of harmonious thought, including all the manifestations of life, and effort toward the suppression of certain narrow forms of life to make place for more comprehensive forms.’ The Re view writer is convinced that Gorky’s popularity as a novelist is due to his position as a political agitator, and his method of playing this role is very clever. In his “ Waulachian Legend,’ published in the Journal of Kharkhov, he violently blames Russian society “for its miserable manner of living when it might be looking for the fairy.’”’ The allegory is so plain, that the Russian reader undestands perfectly what the author means; his heart vibrates when he reads in “The Declaration of the Life Worker,” “ You’shall not ask for but to take the things to which you are entitled and which vou need.’’
Just now there is circulating in Russia in many dialects a letter which Gorky wrote to a Zionist, of St. Petersburg, and which was published in Die Welt. The letter was reprinted in the April Maccabæan. He counselled the Jewish people to fight for Zionism without being discouraged.
"Unlike his predecessors," the writer in the Revue Blanche says, "Gorky does not seclude himself in the serene regions of success ; he comes into the valley of tears and lamentations, and devotes all his strength to the struggle for emancipation.
The Lemberg paper “Slovo Polskie,” learns from Warsaw that recently domiciliary searches were made in the houses of leading Jewish citizens, mostly doctors, lawyers, journalists, artists, etc., and that a lady doctor—Mme. Huzarska—and about thirty Jewish students were arrested. The police, it is said, refuse to give any reason for these proceedings, which are considered to be the more inexplicable as their victims are known to have no connection with politics or with any revolutionary movement.
According to the Jerusalem correspondent of the “Echo de Paris,” M. Emile Zola, who has for some time been travelling in Asiatic Turkey, has just reached Jerusalem. The object of his journeyings is supposed to be to obtain local color for his next book, in which Zionism will play a considerable part. M. Zola is said to sympathize with the Zionist aims, the correspondent adds,