The usual enumeration of the business relationships of Turkey, Frsia, Syria, and Palestine includes the facts that those countries buy c th, 'sewing machines, and other manufactured articles from the United States, and that we buy from them large quantities of beautiful rugs, and also dates, Smyrna figs, Turkish tobacco, hides, wool and the like. This list sounds imposing, but in normal times before the Guat War the total trade of all these regions with the United States amounted to only twelve or fifteen million dollars, or less than with New Zealand. Since the war the figures have been far lower. New governmental conditions are indeed opening avenues of trade that were formerly closed, but the relation of America to the Near East through missions, philanthropy, and the. journeys of sight-seers to Constanti! nople and especially Palestine have more effect on American life that/ have our direct commercial dealings.
A still greater effect of the Near East is the fact that it has con tributed to the United States as well as to the rest of the world certain racial stocks, such as the Syrians, Armenians,, and especially the Jews, whose influence upon business has been extremely, great in proportion to their numbers. The Jews and Armenians are generally recognized as having unusually clear cut racial characteristics. These includo great business capacity; unusual perseverance and tenacity; great thrift and economy; a tendency to avoid politics, military occupations, and the walks of life that make them conspicuous as leaders and rulers; and a tendency to excel in less conspicuous but no less influential lines including not only business, but science. Of course, few Jews have all these qualities; and some depart from them widely. Never theless, they represent fairly well some of the main characteristics of a race which has produced an extraordinary succession of unusually' able men. Perhaps no race today in proportion to its numbers has a greater influence upon business all over the world; none has had so profound an influence upon religion and thus upon moral standards• and perhaps none has proportionately contributed more to the world', scientific progress.
The origin of the racial traits of the Jews, as of every other race, imp still beyond our knowledge. Certain environmental influences, how ever, have tended to preserve those members of the race who were most' strongly inbued with the qualities mentioned above. While Palestine
is generally spoken of as the home of the Hebrews, as the early Jew were called, most of that country was inhabited by them for only a shor time. The ancestors of the modern Jews came from the rough little , plateau of Judea, a tiny tableland about 45 miles north and south 15 east and west. It staads like a little island surrounded on all sides more fertile regions which the Jews could easily see from their homes Generally their rough hills protected them from attack even thong' the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Assyria marched and fought on tin Philistine plain only twenty miles away, but it was not so easy to guard against the temptation to give up the hard life on the infertile plateau and go down to the rich plains. So the Hebrews who had the least strength of character or the most love of adventure and of innovation were tempted, as Samson was, to leave stony Judea and settle in the richer regions from Egypt to Babylonia. The people who remained in the Judean hills, and became the ancestors of the modern Jews were those who had extreme persistence and were willing to endure compara tive poverty for the sake of the ideals which they had set up for them selves. Thus a process of natural selection may have taken place, much like that which in Scotland under somewhat similar physical conditions has probably helped to make the Highland Scotch so sturdy and determined.
Another type of selection went on through deportation and persecu tion. The leaders were carried captive to Babylonia. When their descendants returned to reoccupy Judea it was only the more religious and the ones like Nehemiah who stood most strongly for the old Jewish habits that came back. During later centuries the Jews, like the Armenians, have been subjected to repeated persecution which has exerted a still further selective effect. Much of the trouble arises because the persecuted race has acquired a degree of industry and per sistence greater than that of their persecutors. Each persecution increases this difference, for the less strong-minded Jews or Armenians give up their own religion and become parts of the surrounding com munity. Even now certain so-called Turkish or Kurdish villages of fanatical Moslems show their Armenian origin by retaining Christian customs such as the sign of the cross before meals. The loss of these weaker elements has strengthened the racial character of the remaining Armenians.