VIEWS AND REVIEWS
Prof. Seligman Foresees Anti-Semitism
PROF. SELIGMAN, who is an authority on economic subjects, in an interview which was published during the month, spoke of immigration as an economist. He said that while the time has not come for the complete shutting of the gates of the United States, it must be remembered that while it is very nice to be a haven for all who come or who desire to come, "we must first find out whether we can afford to be generous." "When we had lots of free land," he said further, "when our resources were practically unlimited we could well afford to be generous. But we are beginning to have problems of our own. We must, therefore, begin to look into these problems before we do anything else. We can not be forever the dumping ground of Europe. In time we shall have to shut our gates entirely. As I said before the time has not yet come. But when it comes, we shall have to do it in the interest of those who are here. We can not neglect the interests of those who are here for the sake of those who wish to come here. Again I wish to say that while immigration of Jews from Russia has not solved the problems for those who remained in Russia, it has brought us problems. I said twenty-five years ago when the Russian immigration began that it will not solve anything but create a problem here. We are beginning to have a Jewish problem of our own. I look in the next generation to some important developments in this respect. Large Jewish immigration brings with it dislike of the Jews. America is no different from any other country. All people are alike. Immigration brings economic problems and the results will be the same as in other countries." He did not mean to imply that we shall have political anti-Semitism in the United States, for universal suffrage makes that impossible, but "we shall have other forms of anti-Semitism, social in the first place and economic in the second." Prof. Seligman's views are those of an impartial student, but his conclusions
do not differ materially from those expressed in The Outlook which are reprinted elsewhere in this issue.
Baron David Guenzburg Dead
The untimely death of Baron Gunzburg, which occurred last month in St. Petersburg, was a terrible shock to Russian Jewry as well as to many Jews outside of the Russian Empire.
Baron David Guenzburg was the son of the late Baron Horace Guenzburg, who died last year. David was born in Kamenetz Podulsk, in 1857. He received private instruction at home from Adolph Neubauer, Senior Sachs and Hirsch Rabinowich. At the age of twenty he received the degree of "candidate" at the St. Petersburg University, after having attended the lectures of Stanislas Guyard at Paris and Baron Rosen in St. Petersburg. Later he studied Arabic poetry under Ahlwardt at Greifswald. He edited Moses ibn Ezra's "Tarshish," a poetical work and had ready for publication an Arabic translation and commentary of the same book. He contributed extensively to various learned journals in Russia, as well as to the "Revue des Etudes Juives" and other publications. He was an enthusiastic patron of Jewish art and published with Stassov "l'Ornament Hebreu" in which examples are given of Jewish ornamentation from various manuscripts from Syria, Africa and Yemen. His private library was one of the largest private collections in Europe and contained many rare books and manuscripts.
Guenzburg was not merely a scholar. He took a most active part in all affairs pertaining to Jews and was the recognized leader of Russian Jewry, after his father's death. The government as well as the Jews recognized him as such and he was in many instances instrumental in bringing some relief of his suffering brethren.
In the internal affairs of Russian Jewry, there was hardly anything of importance done without the advice and knowledge of the deceased baron. He was the moving