(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 refashion 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 worshipped 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 worshipping....
[_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 ownership 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.
(Prot. 17.)
It is indispensible for our purposes that, as far as possible, wars should bring no territorial advantages. This will shift war to an economic footing and nations will perceive the strength of our superiority in the aid we render. Such a condition of affairs will place both sides under the control of our international agents with their million eyes, whose vision is unhampered by any frontiers.
(Prot. 2.)
We will represent ourselves as the saviors of the laboring cla.s.ses who have come to liberate them from this oppression by suggesting that they join our army of socialists, anarchists, communists, to whom we always extend our help under the guise of the fraternal principles of the universal solidarity of our social masonry....
(Prot. 3.)
We will adopt for ourselves the liberal side of all parties and all movements and provide orators who will talk so much that they will tire the people with their speeches until they turn from orators in disgust. (Prot. 5.)
We shall handle the press in the following manner ... to end of Protocol 12.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE RUSSIAN SPONSORS OF THE FORGERY
Nilus on the Protocols-Only "the G.o.d-Anointed Tsar of Russia" Can Save the World-Pa.s.sages from Nilus Omitted by Translators-On Tolstoy-On the Emanc.i.p.ation of Women-On the "Sanhedrin" and "its Faithful Ally, England."
In 1905 the second edition of Serge Nilus"s book appeared, printed on government presses at Tsarskoye Selo, containing a new and elaborated version of the protocols.
The translators of the Nilus protocols published in his 1905 edition, a copy of which is in the British Museum, have deliberately omitted numerous pa.s.sages from his prologue and epilogue. These pa.s.sages show clearly the purpose of the volume. Nilus writes: "We may perhaps be reproached, and justly, for the apocryphal character of the doc.u.ment presented. But if it were possible to demonstrate its accuracy by doc.u.ments or through the testimony of trustworthy witnesses, if it were possible to unveil the faces of those who are at the head of the world conspiracy and who hold its b.l.o.o.d.y strings in their hands, then the very "mystery of lawlessness" would be infringed upon, and it must remain intact until its incarnation in the "son of destruction."" Then he goes on to say that the world is rushing towards its destruction, and that there is only one force that can save it, and that is the "G.o.d-Anointed Tsar of Russia." The omitted portions of the Nilus book show distinctly that it is a work of propaganda for the Russian autocracy. Nilus denounced Leo Tolstoy, the emanc.i.p.ation of women, and all movements leading toward progress.
The editors of the protocols in Europe and America, realizing that these pa.s.sages would disclose to intelligent people the real motive of the Nilus protocols and thus discredit them, have deliberately omitted them in the translations.
Here are some of the omitted portions of the notorious Nilus book, which are his own utterances and do not purport to const.i.tute a part of the Protocols. They are translated from a photographed copy of the volume in the British Museum:
"We have succeeded in obtaining for our use from a man close to us, now deceased, a ma.n.u.script in which are described with unusual precision and clearness the course and progress of the universal fatal mystery aiming to bring the apostate world to an inevitable catastrophe. This ma.n.u.script was given to us about four years ago (in 1901) with the a.s.surance that it was an accurate copy-a translation of the original doc.u.ments stolen by a woman from one of the most powerful and sacred directors of Freemasonry after one of the secret meetings of the "initiates" in France, the present nest of the Freemason"s sect. This ma.n.u.script under the general t.i.tle "Protocols of Meetings of the Wise Men of Zion" I now call to the attention of all who wish to see or hear. These "Protocols" at a first cursory glance might seem to be what we are accustomed to call truisms; they are more or less commonplaces although expressed with a boldness and a hatred not altogether customary in commonplaces. A proud, deeply-rooted, ancient, for a long time secretly growing,-and what is more frightful than all,-a religious rage boils between the lines, bubbling over and escaping from the overfilled vessel of violence and vengeance, already approaching complete triumph.
"It must be mentioned, by the way, that the t.i.tle of the ma.n.u.script does not fully justify the contents: these are not protocols of a meeting but rather the report of someone in power, divided into parts which are not even always logically connected: the impression remains that this is a fragment of something much more significant, the beginning of which has been lost. The origin of the ma.n.u.script, as given by us above, furnishes sufficient explanation of this.
"We may perhaps be reproached, and justly, for the apocryphal character of the doc.u.ment presented. But if it were possible to demonstrate its accuracy by doc.u.ments or through the testimony of trustworthy witnesses, if it were possible to unveil the faces of those who are at the head of the world conspiracy and who hold its b.l.o.o.d.y strings in their hands, then the very "mystery of lawlessness" would be infringed upon, and it must remain intact until its incarnation in the "son of destruction." In the complexity of the present criminally-earthly process _we must not search for direct evidence_; we are forced to content ourselves with indirect proof and of these it seems that the attention of the sad Christian observer is fully satisfied.
"The history of the Rothschilds show that the whole republican era of France is due to Zion and that not a single one of those elected to office has to this time ever done what he promised to do, if the demands of his electors did not coincide with the plans of the government of Zion.
"What has become of unfortunate France!...
""Let him who has ears, listen!""
""Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
""Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
""Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which G.o.d hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth."