Minni'tiftilf t I 
 
 ill i 
 if I 
 
 iilii 
 
 iiiii 
 ■I ■'' 
 
 Hi P; lil. liWi 
 
 !''i ,. f . 
 
 l^i liH i I li I 
 
 luiiiiiiii ii I lilt I M t >;]< iiti» 1 11 it "t 111 
 
 lil'iii*! 
 Ill ijl' 
 
 iil!liilU:i 
 
fyxmll ^nivmH^ Jitat^g 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 . yjW>fl ^AkC^I-^^ 
 
 A....l'^*5.A'5^ iUs-U^oA 
 
 4553 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 135.R9S61 
 
 Russia at the bar of the American people 
 
 3 1924 028 676 827 
 
B Cornell University 
 B Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028676827 
 
Russia at the Bar of 
 the American People 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF KISHINEF 
 
 Records 'and Documents ColleSled 
 and Edited by 
 
 ISIDORE SINGER. Ph.D. 
 
 Pyojecior and Managing Editor of " The Jewish Encyclopedia^^ 
 
 NKW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 FUNK & WAGNAIvI^S COMPANY 
 
 MCMIV \> 
 
CoPYBiaHT, 1904, BY 
 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 
 
 [Printed in the United States of America] 
 
 Published March, 1904 
 
Zo t^ (SUtnore of 
 
 Beo (Uapofeon Bet?t 
 
 QSom ^ejjtemfier I5, I856, 
 
 ©tci Sanuftrg I3, I904. 
 of (new <Borg Cttg 
 
 (pregiienf of f^e 3niepen^enf ^ber of (j^'nat g^'inf^ 
 (g:uf ^ of f ^e q^is^inef ^ef ttton 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Peeface vii 
 
 iNTEODtrCTOEY : THE FUTUEE OP THE 
 
 EtrssiAN Jew in Ameeica xv 
 
 Poem: "Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani ? " . xxxi 
 I. The Authentic Account oe the 
 
 KiSHINEF MASSACEES 1 
 
 II. Four Geeat Indignation Meetings . . 32 
 
 III. The Independent Oedee op B'nai 
 
 B'EITH Ill 
 
 IV. EussiA AND Its Jewis?: Peoblem . . . 142 
 Y. The Judgment op Gentile Eussia . . 168 
 
 VI. An Ameeican Eye-witness 232 
 
 VII. The Teial op the Kishinef Eiotees . 248 
 
 Poem: Daniel Begub Aeayot .... 285 
 
 Index 291 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In a few days tlie cemetery of Kishinef will again be 
 the melancholy center of a dramatic scene: hundreds of 
 men, women, and children, following Jewish traditions, 
 will attend the erection of tombstones in honor and mem- 
 ory of the martyrs of the massacres of April 19 and 20, 
 1903. This work, appearing, as it does, simultaneously 
 with the sad ceremony in the Beth-Olam of far distant 
 Bessarabia, is designed as a memorial of free and pros- 
 perous American Israel, to be placed upon the graves of 
 the unfortunate victims of Eussian barbarism. How- 
 ever, not only to keep in sacred remembrance our poor 
 brethren and sisters and their innocent children, who, 
 on the holy Easter Days of the Greek Orthodox Church 
 of holy Eussia, were pitilessly massacred under the very 
 eyes of the soldiery and police of His Imperial Majesty 
 Czar Nicholas (II.) Alexandrovitch, but at the same 
 time to draw up with absolute impartiality a memorial 
 to be presented at the bar of the civilized world and, in 
 particular, of its noblest and most illustrious represent- 
 ative, the American people, has been the Leitmotif of the 
 editor in compiling this "Sefer Zikkaron," this "Mem- 
 orbuch" of Kishinef. 
 
 Murawief, de Plehve, and Pobiedonostsef, with or 
 without the consent of their imperial master, have the 
 power to arrange behind the closed doors of the court 
 of Kishinef a shameful judicial comedy forbidding the 
 presiding judges, the prosecuting attorney, and the at- 
 
viii PEErACE 
 
 torneys of the victims to throw the slightest light upon 
 the crimes perpetrated — ^yes, to mention the very names 
 of the vile and cowardly murderers who had not courage 
 to face in the open the widows and orphans whose hus- 
 bands and fathers they have assassinated in the dead of 
 night. But none of the statesmen of the Eussian Auto- 
 crat is strong enough to prevent the reopening of the 
 case at the bar of the Supreme Court of the modern 
 world — Public Opinion. 
 
 Satisfied with the modest r61e of Eecorder, I have lim- 
 ited myself to the presentation of the bare facts and what 
 might be called the documents in the case. In Chapter 
 I. is presented the masterly account of the massacres as 
 related by Herr Told. In Chapter III. is reproduced the 
 official annual report of the Executive Committee of the 
 Independent Order of B'nai B'rith. In the closing 
 chapter (VII.) is given ar6sum6 of the trial of Kishinef, 
 which Dr. Armand Kaminka, Secretary of the "Israe- 
 litische AUianz zu Wien/' had the kindness to com- 
 pile for the present work on the very spot. The wit- 
 nesses I have called to the witness-stand (Chapters II., 
 v., and VI.) are men of the highest standing in public 
 life, science, and literature, and, with the exception of 
 three, all Gentiles belonging to the Greek Orthodox, to 
 the Eoman Catholic, and to the various denominations 
 of the Protestant Church. The remaining chapter (IV. ), 
 from the practical point of view the most interesting 
 section of the entire book, presents, with the events of 
 Kishinef and the sympathetic intervention of the gov- 
 ernment and people of America as historic background, 
 two different solutions of the Judeo-Enssian problem — the 
 one offered by Arnold White, the semi-official spokes- 
 
PEEFACE ix 
 
 man of tlie government of the Czar, the other by Jacob 
 H. Schiff, the authoritative representative of the Jews of 
 America. 
 
 After having thus briefly summed up the purpose and 
 contents of the present work, I wish to offer the reader a 
 private document of the highest interest, which, in view 
 of its source and genuineness, represents a precious tes- 
 timonial of the lofty patriotism of the Eussian Jew, 
 throwing at the same time a curious flash-light upon his 
 tragic fate. 
 
 While collecting my material in the early summer of 
 last year, I placed myself, among others, in communication 
 with Colonel John B. "Weber and Dr. Walter Kempster, 
 the two chief members of the commission which was sent, 
 in 1891, by Congress to Eussia and other European 
 countries for the investigation of the immigration ques- 
 tion. Both of these noble and fearless advocates of the 
 persecuted Eussian pariah immediately placed their in- 
 formation and collaboration at my disposal. Colonel 
 Weber' s plaidoyer has been embodied in the book itself. 
 The letter of his colleague and friend. Dr. Walter 
 Kempster, may here find its' proper place. 
 
 Letter of Dr. Kempster 
 
 Milwaukee, Wis., July 4, 1903. 
 
 I am very glad to learn that you are to prepare a 
 book upon a subject now agitating the people not only of 
 the United States, but of the civilized world ; and if 
 what I have written heretofore may be of any value in 
 the work you have undertaken, I shall be gratified. 
 
 It is not generally known that when our report was 
 written it was first submitted to President Harrison be- 
 fore being printed, and at his request it was modified, 
 
X PEEFACE 
 
 because, as he said, the people might be disinclined to 
 believe the statements therein contained, which were, 
 however, true to the letter, and were not in any particu- 
 lar overdrawn in any respect. I have long since felt 
 that it is almost impossible to make the people of the 
 United States understand the real situation in Eussia. 
 Matters are so incongruous, so unlike anything that the 
 people of this country are familiar with, that there is no 
 standard of comparison which will enable them to judge 
 of the conditions to be found by any one interested in the 
 search. 
 
 I have had considerable experience in making investi- 
 gations in eleemosynary institutions in various parts of 
 the United States — indeed, I may say, in various parts of 
 the world — and the statement made [in your letter] that 
 there are few if any Jewish dependents confined in insti- 
 tutions maintained at public expense is well borne out. 
 I do not now recall more than two cases out of the many 
 thousands inspected, and these were located in frontier 
 towns so remote from Jewish organizations of any kind 
 that there were none of their own people to look after 
 them. Having been associated more than thirty years 
 of my life with institutions in part or in whole main- 
 tained at public expense, I think I may say I have had 
 a fair opportunity for observation, and the extreme 
 scarcity of Jewish dependents in such institutions has 
 always attracted my attention. 
 
 During the continuance of our Eussian investigations, 
 one circumstance appeared which was most pathetic. 
 In every locality visited, even where the pressure of 
 Eussian officialism was felt most keenly, there was 
 among the Jewish people a sentiment of loyalty which 
 was amazing. Stripped of their goods, banished from 
 the country of their birth, exposed to hardships which 
 few emigrants know, enduring privations sufficient to 
 quell the stoutest hearts, almost without exception they 
 mourned, and mourned genuinely, at the thought that 
 they were to be exiled from Eussia. Notwithstanding 
 
PEEPACE xi 
 
 the persecutions to which they are subjected, the pov- 
 erty to which they are reduced, the wretchedness which 
 surrounds their lives, they nevertheless cling to the 
 hope that they may be permitted to reside within the 
 realm and among the people who have for generations so 
 cruelly maltreated them. And I know from conversation 
 and observation among those whom I have met in this 
 country since their expulsion, that to-day many of them, 
 altho they have been fairly prosperous since they 
 came here, long to return to their country of oppression, 
 sorrows, and horror ; they still bewail their lot, and con- 
 tinually moan that they are not permitted to return to 
 the Czar's country. When spoken to concerning assist- 
 ance to relieve those who are in bondage, they hold back 
 their means, expressing the hope that the time is at hand 
 when relief will be sent to them, and they will be recog- 
 nized as citizens in a land to which they were originally 
 invited. To me this state of mind was one of the most 
 touching experiences we had, and, altho incompre- 
 hensible in itself, it speaks volumes for the loyalty of the 
 people to the land of their birth. And it must not be 
 believed that this strange patriotic feeling is found alone 
 among the poorer classes. I was amazed to find it also 
 among those that are educated and have standing in the 
 professions. 
 
 Particularly do I recall two gentlemen, attorneys who 
 lived in St. Petersburg, both of whom had "the right to 
 reside there " by all the canons of Eussia's peculiar 
 code ; and yet these two gentlemen were in hourly antici- 
 pation of the dreaded summons to leave the country, 
 and this idea seemed to be to them one of the most 
 dreadful things that could occur. I assured them both 
 that men of their talents would very speedily find recog- 
 nition in this country, and that they would do vastly 
 better here than there, financially and in any other way, 
 but my words were all to no purpose. The very thought 
 of leaving that wretched country seemed to fill them with 
 sickening dread, aind this same sentiment permeates the 
 
xii PEEFACE 
 
 rank and file of the Jewish population in Eussia so far as 
 my observation went. 
 
 If one reads side by side with this curious contribu- 
 tion to the psychology of the Eussian Jew the historic 
 documents in Chapter V., in which the most eminent 
 Eussian statesmen, Church dignitaries, and economists, 
 from Catherine II. down to the present year,* plead for 
 fnll emancipation for the Jew in Eussia, not only for the 
 sake of humanity, but for politico-economical reasons, 
 the obstinacy with which the Eussian government keeps 
 in slavery and is systematically starving to death 4,000,- 
 000 of its loyal subjects must needs appear an insoluble 
 puzzle to aU who are not acquainted with the funda- 
 mental principles of the politico-religious development 
 of the Eussian state and nation. But even if we admit, 
 for argument's sake, the standpoint of the Eussian au- 
 tocracy in its dealings with the unfortunate dwellers of 
 the vast Ghetto which stretches from Libau on the Bal- 
 tic to Odessa on the Black Sea (who for racial and relig- 
 ious reasons that are stronger than even the Cossack's 
 knout, naturally resist the intended conversion of them- 
 selves into Greek Orthodox moujiks and kulaks), is the 
 present situation within the Pale, as revealed on more 
 than one page of the present work by impartial and com- 
 petent observers, anything but an undisguised avowal of 
 political, economical, and moral bankruptcy on the part 
 of the Czar ? 
 
 The recital of the prayers for the rest of the souls of 
 the dead of Kishinef will be echoed with the roar of the 
 guns of Eussia' s and Japan's fleets and armies in the 
 
 * See August Scholz : Die Juden in Bussland. Berlin, 1900. 
 
PEEFACB xiii 
 
 Far East. Tlie poor Eussian soldiers and sailors sleep- 
 ing their eternal sleep in the cold earth of Korea and on 
 the bottom of the TeUow Sea, like the Bessarabian Jews 
 who had been butchered to the sounds of last year's 
 Easter bells, are Adctims of the same national and relig- 
 ious policy which, let us hope, sooner or later wiU dis- 
 member the proud empire of the Czar, and bring to 
 naught the dream of Peter the Great and his successors 
 to plant the Eussian eagle and the Greek cross from the 
 Bosphorus to the heart of the Chiuese Empire. 
 
 The Editok. 
 New Yoek, March, 190i. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN JEW IN 
 AMERICA 
 
 By EMTL G. HIESCH 
 
 Tlie study of the future of the Eussian Jew in the 
 United States is of vital importance, because upon his 
 success and failure depends the very fate of Juda- 
 ism itself in this land. Numerically even now the 
 dominant factor in American Jewry, the Eussian Jew 
 wiU at no remote day also assert his leadership in aU 
 movements expressive of the genius of his race and relig- 
 ion. It is the Eussian Jew who wiU mold the character 
 of the synagog and its ambitions in the "Western world. 
 In measure as he will rise socially, intellectually, 
 morally, and spiritually, will the standing of Judaism 
 and the influence of the Jew be accorded distinction and 
 recognition. Should he deteriorate in character and 
 capacity, he will drag down with himself every one of 
 his faith and blood. These propositions admit of no 
 dispute. They require no further evidence than the 
 testimony of statistics. The German Jew, who only a 
 few decades ago fancied that it lay with him to deter- 
 mine the development of Judaism in this land, was en- 
 titled to cherish this conceit by the logic of events that 
 had forced to the rear the Sephardic coreligionist of his. 
 But to-day it is he that is in the hopeless minority. As 
 
xvi INTEODUCTOEY 
 
 yet lie refuses to accept tlie decree which wiU relegate 
 him to the second rank, for he affects superiority in 
 wealth, culture, education, and liberalism o^^er his Eus- 
 sian brother of later arrival. Yet even in these respects 
 the Eussian Jew is fast crowding him. 
 
 The equation between poverty and Eussian Jewry is 
 by no means absolute. Among the immigrants of a de- 
 cade ago and their children there are not a few who have 
 followed the example of their German predecessors of 
 sixty years ago. By dint of energy, industry, and econ- 
 omy, a goodly number have amassed fair competencies 
 and even more. They are developing now into a factor 
 in the commercial world by no means inconsequential. 
 Nor are they much behind their non-Eussian kinsmen in 
 eagerness for secxilar education and the graces it must 
 bring in its wake. Indeed, it may safely be said that 
 the passion for intellectual treasures is much deeper 
 among the recent refugees from the horrors of the Eus- 
 sian Pale than it has been — certainly within recent years 
 — among the German Jews. The reasons for this are 
 patent. Intellectual pursuits, even tho of a very narrow 
 range, have been the solace of the persecuted son of 
 Israel throughout the ages. With the larger world 
 barred against him, he has constructed a world of his 
 own, and his religion has shown him the way how to order 
 it with comfort and content. The sacred Law was indeed 
 his main preoccupation. To discover its profounder 
 implications as unfolded by the masters of former gener- 
 ations was not only a religious obligation, but it consti- 
 tuted the absorbing intellectual ambition of the children 
 of the Ghetto. This concentration of aim sharpened the 
 powers of reasoning to a remarkable keenness. The 
 
INTEODUCTOEY xvii 
 
 subtle penetration of analysis and induction whicli Tal- 
 mudical studies can not but develop is tbe intellectual 
 patrimony of the Eussian Jew in particular, because 
 upon Mm has been laid much more heavily and longer 
 the hand of the persecutor. Given new fields to which 
 to apply this inherited resourcefulness of the mind, the 
 Eussian Jew could not but attack and overcome, with 
 astonishing ease, obsta,cles that would have halted an- 
 other at the outset. Enrolled among the pupils of our 
 free schools, his children, tho in a strange land, have 
 found it no dif&cult task to push forward toward the 
 highest intellectual attainments. 
 
 It is not true that commercial activity is the sole mag- 
 net that will attract these sons of Jacob. The reverse 
 comes nearer the actual conditions. Commercialism, 
 originally forced upon the Jew, is even at this day not 
 his first love. If there be but the slightest chance to 
 escape the counting-room, the young ambitious Jew of 
 Eussian antecedents will avail himself of it. He has 
 rushed into the professions of medicine, jurisprudence, 
 engineering — even branches that do not promise imme- 
 diate or rich rewards, such as philology and archeology — 
 to a greater extent than any other component race of our 
 heterogeneous population. It is the Jews of Eussian 
 ancestry who are making name and fame for themselves 
 and their race in chosen specialties. The German Jew's 
 pretence that he is exponential of the intellectualism of 
 the Jew is refuted every day by the realities of the situ- 
 ation. 
 
 It is a foregone conclusion that with the conquest of 
 broader fields the intellectualism of the Eussian Jew will 
 open the door to the genial messengers of the refinements 
 
xviii mTEODTJCTOEY 
 
 wMcli attend on knowledge and science and literature, 
 and which even now, wherever environment permits of 
 their approach, are crossing the threshold of his habita- 
 tions. This prediction will undoubtedly be received with 
 skepticism by many, but these fail to remember that the 
 Russian Jew as yet, on the whole, makes his home in 
 congested quarters of the large cities. Lacking space, he 
 can not so order his domestic life as to provide the neces- 
 sary openness indispensable to the development of the 
 finer and more delicate graces of culture. But one who 
 will take the trouble to consult the statistics of our 
 libraries, or, if it were possible, the records of the visitors 
 to art galleries, will discover that among these people, 
 hampered for elbow-room, the hunger for things lofty 
 and beautiful is intense. Music has always had an ap- 
 peal for the wandering sons of Israel in every clime. 
 Perhaps this natural predisposition to lend expression by 
 song to the soul's undefined longings has, in the case of 
 the Russian Israelite, been deepened by the influence of 
 his Slavonic surroundings. Be the cause whatever it 
 may, musical talent is wonderfully frequent among the 
 dwellers of the Jewish tenement districts. This accounts 
 also for the popularity among them of the concert halls. 
 Indeed, they misread the signs who conceive Russian 
 Jewry as an inert mass of unlifted mental and spiritual 
 misery or even of physical wretchedness. The promise 
 of the best things is rich among them. It depends upon 
 them and their leaders, as well as upon the wise foresight 
 and instructed caution of others, whether this abundant 
 store of power and ambition be utilized to their uplift- 
 ing or their undoing. And, let it be repeated, their un- 
 doing would irrevocably signify the undoing of the Jew 
 
DTTEODUCTOET xix 
 
 and Judaism in this land of ours, and, some of us are 
 bold enough to insist, also on this globe of ours. 
 
 In order to have this stupendous energy of intellectual- 
 ism and its concomitants directed into the channel of 
 greatest possibility for good, it is essential that the dan- 
 gers lurking in the present conditions be not minimized. 
 A few of these are readily seen on the very surface. Con- 
 gestion within very much restricted quarters is a result 
 of the intensely urban character of the religion of the 
 orthodox Jew. The institutionalism of the orthodox 
 synagog is such that it presupposes the existence of the 
 congregational machinery. The provision that com- 
 munity of religious belief should control individual 
 religious conduct extends to the most intimate details of 
 private life, and without this provision the Jewish con- 
 science of the orthodox Jew is exposed to severe strains. 
 Thus his religion has predisposed the Jew to congregate 
 in urban centers. Persecution has reinforced this re- 
 ligious bias. In numbers there may not sometimes be 
 safety, but there is always consolation and encourage- 
 ment. The Tahnudical Eip Van "Winkle is credited with 
 the exclamation : ' ' Give me company or give me death ! ' ' 
 This feeling is intensely human, but among no set of 
 men is it more vital than among such as suffer from the 
 injustice of the world or the maladjustment of social con- 
 ditions. Suffering loves company. The Eussian Jew 
 has been a sufferer and martyr for weary stretches of 
 time. Small the wonder that the gregarious instinct is 
 strongly dominant in his soul. 
 
 The manner of his advent among us must be held to 
 be a third element in the creation of the cramped social 
 conditions to which he is exposed. Since the days of 
 
XX INTEODUCTOEY 
 
 Alexander III. the Eussian Jew has had to seek refuge 
 in our country, not so much in obedience to his own 
 private desire for a change as under compulsion. 
 Arriving one of a large number, the immediate problem 
 that confronted the individual Jew was how to earn 
 enough to keep body and soul together. At home — if 
 the Eussian Pale can be dignified by this sacred appel- 
 lation—he had been barred from all occupations that 
 might have made his transition to American life easier. 
 The only opening that he found ready for him, and an 
 opening that his coming widened more largely than it is 
 pleasant to remember, was the chance to master the 
 simple craft required in the highly specialized processes 
 devised for the manufacture of garments. This meant 
 for him the embrace of the sole species of house indus- 
 tries that the factory system of production had allowed 
 to survive. The sweat-shop claimed him under the alter- 
 native of starvation. Yes, this sweat-shop offered a field 
 for the display of his ancestral virtues ! Not restricted 
 to rules regulating the time of work, it enabled the emi- 
 grant, after a brief interval of apprenticeship, to put in 
 as many hours as his necessities required or suggested, 
 while every member of his family could be rendered 
 helpful in the task of winning bread for all. The noble 
 generosity of his coreligionists, confronted by the terrible 
 problem how to help these victims of Eussian atrocities, 
 made the road to the sweat-shop all the easier for the 
 Eussian immigrant. The implements were not beyond 
 the means of organized benevolence. Sewing-machines 
 could be furnished at a comparatively small original in- 
 vestment, and the handling thereof was a secret soon 
 mastered. All these circumstances cooperated to locate 
 
INTRODUOTOEY xxi 
 
 the new arrival in those sections of our great cities where 
 rents were cheap — not relatively, but absolutely — and 
 where the conditions were offered to intensify the effec- 
 tiveness, industrially speaking, of the monster system of 
 specialized productivity. Naturally, where the first-com- 
 ers had found a foothold, their successors in later years of 
 tidal immigration also sought and found their habita- 
 tions. It is thus that religion, the natural desire for 
 fellowship and society which misery always engenders, 
 and the social necessities conspired to create large Rus- 
 sian Jewish settlements in congested districts. This 
 feature of the situation is one of the elements of danger 
 which the well-wisher of the Russian Jew and of Judaism 
 at large in this country must not ignore. 
 
 In the first place, this segregation tends to the preser- 
 vation of non- American customs and conceits. The Rus- 
 sian proverb, " Russia is large and the Czar is far away," 
 expresses a truth applicable to social atmosphere every- 
 where. It is not the larger environment that modifies 
 our ideas or influences our conduct. The nearer entour- 
 age always is the determinant. The conservation of the 
 valuable predispositions which are brought to these 
 shores by European immigrants is certainly to be encour- 
 aged, for it promises enrichment of the fibers of our own 
 American character. But even these virtues and poten- 
 tialities for strength should be expressed in American 
 molds. Foreign idioms, be they those of the tongue or of 
 the manners, are entitled only to tolerance as private 
 peculiarities so long as they do not interfere with the 
 ability or hinder the predisposition to participate in the 
 development of the wider national life. That there are 
 peculiarities and predilections in the speech and man- 
 
xxii INTEODUCTOEY 
 
 nera of our Eussian brothers which call for consistent 
 efforts at reformation, and to combat which a wider ac- 
 cess to broader American life is desirable, few will have 
 the hardihood to dispute. If the Eussian Jew is to be- 
 come a factor for effective good in the American nation 
 — and he has, in an eminent degree, all the mental and 
 moral qualification for this high vocation and opportu- 
 nity — it is essential that there be an enlargement of his 
 own narrow stage, on which even the Jargon plays too 
 vital a role. 
 
 But congregation and segregation, it is needless to say, 
 almost automatically make for the exclusion of the wider 
 attractions. Even in speech and standard of living the 
 Jew must not remain a foreigner in this republic. It 
 was a great leader of liberal thought in the West who 
 framed the profoundly true sentence: " The Pale in Eus- 
 sia is a shame for which Eussian Christianity ought to 
 blush; but a self-chosen and artificially created Ghetto 
 in this land is a shame for which the Jew ought to blush. ' ' 
 While we are in the state of transition, allowances must, 
 perhaps, be made for the existence of tendencies of the 
 nature censured in this liberal leader's epigram. But 
 with him all friends of the Jew and the Jew himself 
 must recognize that what, at its best, may claim the ex- 
 emption due to a temporary makeshift shall not be 
 encouraged as a desirable accomplishment for all time to 
 come. The plea that the Jargon, for instance, is inti- 
 mately interwoven with the religious temper of this peo- 
 ple is altogether too ridiculous to be entertained by 
 reasonable minds. Nor shall shallow sentimentaUsm in- 
 terfere with the effort to overcome the difficulties in the 
 way of linguistic adjustment to American circumstances. 
 
INTEODUCTORY xxiii 
 
 There has been an excess of enthusiastic admiration for 
 the Jargon as a vehicle of thought and feeling. What 
 its reserve stores of power and its endowments of beauty 
 may be most of us have failed to discover. Admitted 
 that, in the past days of persecution, it has lent itself to 
 the tears of the Ghetto as no other tongue could have 
 done, it should not be aureoled in sanctity, and its 
 dominion should be allowed to become less autocratic 
 with the sweep of the onward-moving days. Artificially 
 to economize it as the medium of intercourse between 
 Jews of Eussian antecedents in America for aU time to 
 come will entail a waste of energy which, in addition to 
 the folly of the intention, will have to answer for a 
 fatile but by no means harmless endeavor to mark the 
 Jews of future generations as foreigners. 
 
 Trust to the influence of the public school for bringing 
 about the change which is imperative in this field would 
 be pardonable optimism were the conditions not such 
 as they are. The very congestion which has given a 
 new power of life to the Jargon also militates against 
 the potency of the public school. Even in the school- 
 room the children of the district are brought into con- 
 tact only with children of the district. The Jargon thus 
 intrudes into the sacred precincts of the public school. 
 Tho English is taught, the danger is always great that 
 the foreign intonation and twist wiU not be overcome. 
 This means a pronounced handicap for the pupils. In 
 later life the evil effects will become apparent. Obser- 
 vation has confirmed the diagnosis that nothing in this 
 land has contributed so forcibly to the spread of anti- 
 Semitic prejudice as the inability on the part of the first 
 immigrants of Jewish faith to overcome their German 
 
xxiv INTEODUOTOEY 
 
 dialect. The Jargon is another and still more deadly 
 source of prejudices. While the task is a tremendous 
 one, we must undertake to curtail the pernicious domina- 
 tion of this arrested German seasoned with all sorts of 
 linguistic condiments. At all events, those sentimental 
 and not always unselfish efforts to give the idiom stand- 
 ing as a literary dialect should be opposed. The well- 
 wisher of the Eussian Jew can not but deplore the in- 
 difference to this duty which prevails. The Russian Jew 
 must become American. And the offtcial language of 
 America is English. They who aspire to influence in 
 public life must be able to handle this tongue in a way 
 that their words be given a ready hearing. Outlandish- 
 ness in dress and manner is always an invitation to 
 ridicule, and the distance from good-humored laughter 
 to ill-tempered jeer is not very great. Yideant Oonsules ! 
 But, again, linguistic segregation enhances the peril of 
 political crystalization. By this term we would desig- 
 nate the foolish, or the stupid, or the evil-minded endeav- 
 ors to make the Eussian Jews as such and en masse a 
 distinct element in the politics of our municipalities and 
 the states. Professional Eussian Jewish foreignism for 
 political ends is of all evils to be dreaded by the Ameri- 
 can Jew the most dangerous. The peculiar atmosphere 
 of our American politics engenders easily this curious 
 phenomenon of "hyphenated Americans" — distinct 
 bodies of citizens brought together and held together, 
 not by the magic of a vital principle, but under the ob- 
 session of a foreign prejudice. And of all varieties 
 of this wonderful genus, that would be the most damna- 
 ble in which Judaism, divorced from its genuine impli- 
 cations, is joined to sordid political intrigue. The Bus- 
 
INTEODUOTOEY xxv 
 
 sian Hebrew- American as a factor in the political equation 
 is of all pretenders the least tolerable. There must not be a 
 distinct Jewish vote. The day when it clamors for recog- 
 nition because it is distinctly Jewish will be a day of in- 
 calculable evils for every Jew in this land. Segregation 
 is the opportunity of the designing politician whatever 
 his race or religion. 
 
 Even now there are many symptoms that indicate that 
 the evil has begun to work in our specifically Jewish 
 centers. Ambitious and not overscrupulous men — would- 
 be political leaders — have succeeded in making others of 
 ilk believe that it is an easy matter to control the as- 
 sumed "Jewish vote." These, who thus presume to own 
 the Jewish vote and deliver it, are the worst enemies 
 that the Jew and Judaism' have in this country. Noth- 
 ing is so vital to the future development and position of 
 the Eussiau Jew in America as the understanding on his 
 part that here he shall vote as an American citizen, 
 that the injection of Judaism into politics in the manner 
 in which foreign European interests or prejudices have 
 been twisted as means for the attainment of selfish ends 
 at public expense is bound to react with damaging effect 
 upon the Jew. He must be on his guard against all 
 demagogs, whether of his own blood or not, that appeal 
 to his segregated Jewish prejudices for political purpose. 
 Nothing will arouse anti-Semitism so virulently as 
 pseudo-Jewish poUtical parasitism. 
 
 In this connection it may be well to speak of the dan- 
 gers with which Zionism is fraught in its possible effect 
 upon the future of the Eussian Jew in this country. 
 Certainly it were unnatiu-al for the refugee from the 
 house of bondage (Eussia) to withhold his sympathy 
 
xxvi IISTTEODUCTOEY 
 
 from any movement tending to ameliorate the lot of hit 
 nearest of kin. It is to the credit of the Eussian Jew 
 that the Zionistic program has aroused his enthusiasm. 
 He should be the last to deny his help in treasure, 
 thought, and exertion to this international and, there- 
 fore, national Jewish protest against the brutality of the 
 world, this idealistic vision, this, perhaps, impracticable 
 hope soon to compel the nations to provide for the Jews 
 now under the ban "a legally assured home." But the 
 experience of Irish nationalistic societies in this country 
 points a lesson that should^not be overlooked. Let the 
 Zionists have a care not to be utilized by designing men 
 for selfish ends. Zionist lodges create the presumption 
 in the mind of American politicians that their leaders 
 command political influence with their members. The 
 appearance even of anything bordering on such a possi- 
 bility must be eliminated. Zionism and American poli- 
 tics must be rigidly kept distinct; unless this be done, harm 
 will result from the agitation, and the Jew in America 
 will have every reason to regret the day when Zionism 
 found its vocabulary. 
 
 Prom the point of view of an American Jew, Zionism 
 also recommends itself as holding the promise of solving 
 our own perplexities. Under normal conditions, the evils 
 of segregation would cure themselves. In measure as 
 the recent immigrants, by dint of thrift, reach the higher 
 planes of success, they will of their own accord strive to 
 find homes under less-restricted environments. This 
 movement out of the Ghetto is clearly discernible even 
 now in our larger cities. With the stream of refugees 
 from darkest Europe diverted elsewhere, it will only be a 
 question of a few years when the evils of segregation will 
 
INTRODUCTOEY xxvii 
 
 have righted themselves. But it is too much to hope that 
 this will ensue within the near future. What, then, un- 
 der prevailing conditions, is the nearest duty? The 
 overcrowding of the distinct Jewish settlements in our 
 larger cities must be counteracted. This necessary work 
 can not be carried to the desired accomplishment exclu- 
 sively from this side of the Atlantic. Before immigrants 
 set foot on our shores they should be induced to seek 
 homes farther West. In many a small town in the newer 
 states opportunities are open which are not to be found 
 in the older centers nearer the sea border. Concerted 
 action on the part of all the various agencies now organ- 
 ized to meet the exigencies of the situation is impera- 
 tive. And in this effort the cooperation of the Eussian 
 Jews themselves must be enlisted. This has been one 
 source of weakness : that up to very recent date no attempt 
 was made to secure the active colaboration of the Eussian 
 Jews themselves in enterprises of a benevolent or phil- 
 anthropic character, "^devised for the benefit primarily of 
 their own countrymen. Hereafter the line of cleavage 
 between German and Russian Jews must be ignored. 
 The policy of division, looking to passive acceptance on 
 the part of the Eussians and of active bestowal on that 
 of the German Jews, has wrought injury to both alike. 
 It has engendered, on the one side, distrust; on the other, 
 self-righteousness. A patronizing attitude has too often 
 characterized the one, while hostile opposition has marked 
 the other. The result has been detrimental to the best 
 interests of both. The interests of the German Jew in this 
 land are identical with those of the Bussian. Ifothing can 
 affect, for good or evil, one without also reacting upon the 
 other. And in no field are such senseless lines of sepa- 
 
xxviii INTEODUOTORY 
 
 ration more pernicious than in the domain of philan- 
 thropy. In order to overcome the evils of congestion, 
 the Eussian Jew's cooperation is indispensable. 
 
 That not all, but many, of their class may be induced 
 to take up farming is now beyond controversy. Colo- 
 nies on a large scale may have failed, but where the 
 attempt has been honestly and thoughtfully made to help 
 individual families to work out their destiny on a gov- 
 ernment claim under the homestead act, the results have 
 been most gratifying. A study of the records of the 
 Agricultural Aid Society in Chicago bear out every one 
 of the foregoing statements. There is not one accessible 
 panacea for every evil. Patience, hope, cooperation, 
 good will, and mutual trust are needed, and many meth- 
 ods of different devise may lead to good and desirable 
 changes. The Russian Jews may, after all, learn, and 
 they are learning 'it now, that self-help is always more 
 effective than aid from others. Their future is in their 
 hands. To them looks America, and the numerically 
 much smaller German Jewish community in America, to 
 show themselves worthy of the trust placed in them 
 when, in their terrible plight, the ports of this land were 
 opened, and the sympathy of all right-minded Americans 
 extended to them without stint. They have not proved 
 that the policy of America has been a mistake. Quite 
 to the contrary, the Eussian Jew, barring exceptional 
 cases, which to understand was to pardon, has done his 
 share to prepare himself for the privileges of American 
 citizenship. His children certainly will do honor to the 
 country that welcomed their parents, if not to a life of 
 ease, at least to a life of honorable toil and opportunities. 
 
 A word about the future religious development of the 
 
INTEODUCTORY xxix 
 
 Eussian Jew. If the precedent of the German Jew 
 counts for anything in making up this prognosis, it is 
 easy to trace the course of this development. Eigld 
 orthodoxy wiU not prevail. This is even now plain. 
 The danger at the present moment is that, with the 
 abandonment of the older forms, that for which these 
 stand will also be forgotten. Mhilism, under the intoxi- 
 cation of the newly acquired freedom, is the peril now 
 imminent. Eationalism, under the obsession of a half- 
 digested system of naturalistic philosophy, seems to be the 
 besetting sin of many of the younger men and women. 
 But after this period of fermentation, another of positive 
 reconstruction and crystalization is bound to ensue. 
 Perhaps the movement away from the synagog, which is 
 clearly marked in the younger generation, is due to the 
 feet that as yet men have not arisen among them who 
 join enough of Talmudic lore to full possession of scien- 
 tific information and 'philosophical culture, and thus, 
 while commanding the respect of the elder generation, 
 have a message for the younger. That these men shall 
 arise is of vital importance fto the Jew who would see 
 Judaism as a religion and not merely as a race, and who 
 desires that something sublimer and more universal than 
 Zionistic nationalism be central in the love and dominant 
 in the ambitions of the Jew of the future. The Russian 
 Jew of to-day will he the American Jew of to-morrow. 
 The synagog' s fate is in his hands. 
 
 A golden promise illumines the Eastern horizon. "We 
 have no doubt that the new day about to break will show 
 the Eussian American Jew as a man of power, with mind 
 well stocked and judgment well trained, with sympa- 
 thies well refined for all that is good, true, and noble, 
 
XXX INTEODUCTOEY 
 
 witli loyalty most intense for tlie best that America calls 
 its own; a citizen well worthy of the prerogative of the 
 sovereignity which American citizenship confers ; a Jew 
 deeply conscious of the beauty, the reasonableness of his 
 faith, the historic duty that birth from Jewish parents 
 imposes. Tho perhaps in his religious symbols he will 
 display somewhat of a romantic spirit, and tho when he 
 bethinks himself of Zion his heart will throb with pro- 
 founder emotions, his proclamation will withal ring with 
 the eternal verities to which the Prophets were the first to 
 lend word, and in behalf of which Israel, as the martyr 
 witness, had often to forfeit ease and give up life itself. 
 The Eussian Jew — then the American Jew — will not 
 refute the prediction which the earlier German Eeformers 
 treasured, that, after all, in America, Judaism will ex- 
 perience a Eenaissance full of promise for all humanity. 
 
"ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI ? " 
 
 (St. MattJiew xxvii, U6) 
 BY ISEAJEL DAVIDSON 
 
 From the Kishinef crater, in volcanic Russia, 
 
 A blast of hell-fire leaped to the earth, 
 
 That scorched the land of the Czar, 
 
 And razed the image of God from the face of 
 
 the Slav, 
 And unveiled the Tartar savage of yore, 
 A brother to the beast. 
 But out-bruting the beast that hides in the 
 
 jungles, 
 The man-beast crouched on the highway of life. 
 And plunged his ironlike claws in the heart of 
 
 his victim, 
 And laid him bleeding in the glare of the mid- 
 day sun. 
 And out-wiling the savage herds, that thronged 
 
 the forests, 
 That knew not God, nor heeded creed or law. 
 The Tartar savage drank the blood of his kin. 
 And ate the heart of his fellow, and then. 
 With hands uplifted heavenward called on Christ. 
 
xxxii "ELI, ELI, LAMA 8ABA0HTHANI ?' ' 
 
 ►And down from the cross the meek-hearted Jew, 
 Who offered his life on the altar of love, 
 Looked with infinite agony upon the crowd, 
 That worshiped his name but defied his word ; 
 The sorrow of centuries sat on his brow, 
 The torture of ages furrowed his face, 
 And from his heart the blood, so long con- 
 gealed. 
 Began to ooze once more, and drop by drop 
 It fell in the sea of Israel's blood, 
 Until its waves began to swell. 
 And mighty billows rose. 
 And the earth was flooded with blood. 
 But out of the depth, behold. 
 The bleeding, ever wandering Jew, 
 Christlike on a flaming cross appeared. 
 O'er his head a halo of suffering. 
 On his brow a crown of torture hung ; 
 And deep from his heart the cry 
 That once the death of Heathendom sounded. 
 Now in deep sonorous, solemn foreboding. 
 Through the world of Christ resounded, 
 "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI ?" 
 
Russia at the Bar of the American 
 People 
 
 I 
 
 AN AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF THE 
 KISHINEF MASSACRES 
 
 I. — Jews and non-Jews in Bessarabia 
 
 Among the 150,000 inhabitants of Kishinef there are 
 about 40,000 Jews. The non- Jewish population of the 
 city consists of Moldavians and Eussians. Kishinef is 
 the capital of the government of Bessarabia, which bor- 
 ders on Eumania. It belongs to the Pale — i.e., the 
 Jewish Sphere of Settlement. 
 
 The Jews of Kishinef were, on the whole, somewhat 
 better off than the rest of their coreligionists in the other 
 parts of the country, because Kishinef is the rich center 
 of one of the most fertile districts of Eussia. 
 
 The comfortable situation of the peasants in Bessara- 
 bia has exercised a favorable influence on the Jewish 
 inhabitants, altho in the two exceptional years of famine 
 it was chiefly the Jews who hungered and starved, 
 and contributions had to be collected for them through- 
 out Eussia among their coreligionists. But in spite of 
 
 1 
 
2 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 this fact — i.e., that in comparison with the misery of 
 their people in the rest of Eussia the Jews in Bessara- 
 bia were prosperons — the peasants never complained of 
 their unfairness in business matters. The relations be- 
 tween Jews and Christians were tolerable, and stood even 
 the severe test of the years of persecution, 1881-1883. 
 When at that time the whole of Southern Eussia was the 
 scene of outrages against the Jews, an attempt was also 
 made to arouse the people of Bessarabia to strike them, 
 but the attempt remained ineffectual. The Moldavians 
 said at the time : "If the Czar wills that the Jews be 
 slain, he has his army. "We, however, wiU not strike 
 the Jews." Only a few of the peasants were in favor of 
 \'iolence. But when one of them attacked a Jewish 
 butcher in Kishinef, he was struck to the ground by the 
 brawny ox -slayer, and that settled the matter. Nothing is 
 more characteristic of the relation existing at that time 
 between Jews and Christians than the fact that they 
 founded common benevolent societies, and that Jews 
 were members of the Board of Aldermen. 
 
 Within the last twenty years there have been no eco- 
 nomic changes whatever which could have called forth 
 an especial animosity against the Jews. The soil has 
 nowhere come into Jewish hands — indeed, tlie Jews 
 have no right to buy land. In commerce and industry 
 there is almost no competition between the races, be- 
 cause these pursuits are almost wholly in the hands of 
 the Jews. There are, to be sure, several large Christian 
 wholesale houses, but these can only profit by the Jew- 
 ish retail dealers. The number of Jewish capitalists 
 is exceedingly smaU, consisting of only a few large 
 leaseholders and some merchants. The only competition 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 3 
 
 which could possibly exist ■wonld be between Jews and 
 Greeks, which latter race handles the trade in wine and 
 tobacco. But even this competition has no importance. 
 It may be said in general that the Jews in Bessarabia 
 still form an almost indispensable factor of economic ex- 
 istence. The Moldavian peasant is neither advanced 
 nor capable and diligent enough to sell the products of 
 his labor independently. He needs the Jew, whose 
 activity and unpretentionsness he uses to his own advan- 
 tage. It was, perhaps, for this very reason that such a 
 tolerable relation grew up between the two classes. 
 How much the peasants of Bessarabia valued the Jews, 
 and how far they were from thinking that the Jews took 
 advantage of them, is'shown by the fact that, at the time 
 when the government drove the Jews out of the villages, 
 the peasants of Bessarabia petitioned to have the Jews 
 given back to them. The following noteworthy motive 
 was given for the i)etition : "The Jewish merchant or 
 commercial agent is a thousand times preferable to the 
 Christian, the Jew being satisfied with a much smaller 
 gain than the ChristiaiL" 
 
 II. — Kmschewem and the " Beuarabetz " 
 
 One single man succeeded in making a break in these 
 tolerable, and, for Eussian conditions, even exception- 
 ally favorable relations between Jews and Christians. To 
 him mainly are due the horrors of the April days of 
 1903. 
 
 Six years ago a journalist by the name of Kruschewan 
 started a newspai)er in Eishinef called Begsardbetz. 
 After the very first year Kjuschewan brought up the 
 
4 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 Jewisli question. He began with attacks upon the Jews, 
 which became more and more violent, until they reached 
 the most sanguinary fanaticism and madness. He found 
 powerful support for his undertaking among the official 
 classes. The Vice-Governor of Kishinef, Ustrugow, who 
 officiated as press censor, was one of the collaborators of 
 the newspaper. So, too, was the examining magistrate, 
 Dawidowitsch, who wrote the most seditious articles for 
 the same sheet. Several Christian physicians, who re- 
 garded the competition of their Jewish colleagues with 
 disfavor, likewise worked for the paper. It is an inter- 
 esting fact that, altho the Bessarabetz had very few sub- 
 scribers, it never lacked for money. The explanation 
 is very simple: the paper was supported by the govern- 
 ment, which published in it all official announcements. 
 Such a paper, patronized by the highest local magis- 
 trates and the leaders of society, and subsidized by 
 the government, soon came in the eyes of the inhabi- 
 ' tants to be no longer an expression of the opinions of the 
 'fanatic journalist, Kruschewan, but was regarded as the 
 official organ of the government. Twice was the at- 
 telnpt made to establish a respectable paper in Kishinef. 
 Both times the requests to that effect were refused by the 
 central government, upon the pretext that Mr. Kru- 
 schewan' s organ completely satisfied the official needs. 
 
 The paper was circulated even more among the higher 
 and lower classes of the Eussian population than among 
 the Moldavians. It found especially eager readers 
 among the "Starowjerzi," a fanatically inclined Eussian 
 sect. During five years in almost every issue of the 
 Bessarabetz the Jews were represented as blood-suckers, 
 deceivers, parasites, and robbers of the Christian, popu- 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 5 
 
 lation, and a pitiless war of extermination was preached 
 against them. 
 
 An event of great importance in its results was the 
 establishment of a Christian benevolent society called 
 " Bessarabetz^ " from which the Jews were rigorously 
 excluded, and where the Kruschewan party was the 
 ruling element. In this society discussions were held on 
 the Jewish question, and there is no doubt whatever 
 that the preparations for the massacre of April, 1903, 
 emanated from this society which had a great deal 
 of money contributed from many places, even from 
 Eumania; there were also considerable contributions 
 concerning the expenditure of which no account was 
 required. 
 
 III. — The Accusation of Ritual Murder 
 
 The ground was thus sufficiently undermined when 
 Kruschewan began to incite the population openly against 
 the Jews, accusing them of murder for ritualistic purposes. 
 In 1902, before the Easter holidays, a young Christian 
 was found dead in a well. Kruschewan immediately 
 began a wild campaign against the Jews, whom he ac- 
 cused of having killed the Christian for ritualistic ends. 
 It was established before long that a Christian had com- 
 mitted the murder, and had thrown the body into the 
 well to conceal his crime. 
 
 In the beginning of 1903 Kruschewan renewed his 
 anti-Jewish campaign in the most unheard-of manner, 
 preaching openly the slaughter of the Jews. In Dubos- 
 sary a young man was murdered, his body being thrown 
 into a garden, and the report at once was disseminated 
 that the Jews had killed a young Christian for ritualistic 
 
6 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 purposes. Kruscliewan published a series of articles, in 
 which he directly charged the Jews with the murder. 
 These accusations were read everywhere, in all inns and 
 taverns, on all public squares. If any one doubted the 
 truth of the terrible charges, he was easily convinced by 
 the observation that if the story were not true the govern- 
 ment would not permit such a thing to be printed. The 
 governmeiital authorities did not restrain Kruschewan's 
 work, and were in no haste to clear up the Dubossary 
 murder. When finally it was officially ascertained that 
 the latter had been committed by a Christian for covetous 
 reasons, when even the Bessarabetz was obliged to pub- 
 lish an official announcement to that effect, it was too 
 late. The announcement produced rather the opposite 
 effect. Kruschewan was allowed to make the statement 
 in so twisted a fashion that the suspicion that the guilty 
 Jews were to be shielded was only strengthened, and the 
 fanatical rage against them was only increased. 
 
 Soon after the murder at Dubossary, persons lusting 
 after ritualistic murder tales discovered a " mysterious " 
 case in Kishinef itself. 
 
 A Christian girl, in service at the house of a Jewish 
 merchant, had taken poison. In the night the merchant 
 heard the maid moaning. He at once hastened to call a 
 physician, who found that the girl was in serious danger, 
 and had her at once carried to the nearest hospital, which 
 happened to be a Jewish one. The physician at once 
 reported the case to the authorities. The maid testified 
 to the court official who came to the hospital that she had 
 poisoned herself, and that her master was not in the re- 
 motest degree guilty. The maid died in the Jewish hos- 
 pital. Soon reports of a ritual murder were flying 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 7 
 
 through the city. The syringe with which the physician 
 had injected morphine into the dying girl became a 
 "ritualistic instrument." When the girl was buried a 
 large crowd gathered at the cemetery. A government 
 official made- a funeral address, in which he observed 
 that Christian girls died remarkably often before the 
 Jewish Easter festival. The remark was repeated in all 
 circles. It came to light that the fable of Jewish ritualistic 
 murder had firm believers, not only among the unedu- 
 cated classes of the people, but also in intellectual circles 
 and among the highest officials. The governmental rabbi 
 of Kishinef went to the bishop, and asked him to tell the peo- 
 ple that the charge of ritualistic murder was a lying inven- 
 tion; hut the bishop refused the request. 
 
 A priest preached a sermon in a church, in which he stated 
 that the accusation of ritualistic murder was unfounded. 
 Thereupon he received an order from his superior, for- 
 bidding Mm in theftiture to make such speeches without spe- 
 cial permission. 
 
 As another instance showing how the population was 
 incensed against the Jews by the very representatives of 
 the government, the following fact may be quoted. 
 The already mentioned Vice- Governor of Bessarabia, 
 TJstrugow, on one occasion came to a vUlage where the 
 Jews had had a prayer-house for years without possessing 
 a ' ' legal ' ' permission for it. Instead of shutting up the 
 prayer-house, which would have been the extreme of 
 legal action in case had he wished to enforce the full 
 rigor of the law, he entered the house on the Day of 
 Atonement, the holiest festival of the Jews, and caused 
 the Thora roll to be torn out of the Holy Ark and 
 dragged in the gutter. He there trampled it with 
 
8 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 his feet, and then, having caused it to be wrapped in 
 dirty rags, ordered peasants to carry it in such a con- 
 dition to the town hall. Another time he arrived before 
 the house of a Jewish tenant. On some pretext he 
 caused him, with his wife and children, to be placed in 
 a cart, and ordered them to be brought to the city by 
 compulsory conveyance. He ordered the house and the 
 stable, in which the live stock was, to be closed up and 
 the doors to be sealed. He threatened the peasants with 
 severe punishment should they dare to open the doors. 
 The cattle died in the stalls — no one dared to feed them — 
 and the tenant became a beggar. 
 
 IV. — Preparation for the Excesses 
 
 The soil was then sufficiently prepared for a terrible 
 outbreak against the Jews. During the two weeks 
 before the Christian Easter the organizers of the move- 
 ment gathered in the hotel ' ' Eossia. ' ' Arms were bought, 
 and pamphlets and placards printed. One of these 
 pamphlets, which were widely circulated among the 
 people, began with the following sentence : "An ukas 
 (order) of the Czar permits Christians to execute 
 bloody justice (Krowawaja rasprawa) on the Jews dur- 
 ing the three holy days of Easter." A poster showed 
 the head of Christ with the crown of thorns, and bore 
 the inscription "God's punishment upon the icon- 
 oclasts ! ' ' The poster had the following subscription : 
 "Moscow in the house of the cloister of the holy Maca- 
 rius. Great Lubianka Street. Printed by the committee 
 of the confessors of the Holy Synod at Saint Petersburg, 
 February 4, 1903. The censor — Alexander Jeremonach. ' ' 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 9 
 
 People everywhere spoke opealy of tlie planned ex- 
 cesses against the Jews. It is notorious that the chief 
 of police in Kishinef remarked at his club that in a few 
 days people would break loose upon the Hebrews. A 
 few days before Easter the police commissioner, Dobros- 
 selski, came into the cigar-shop belonging to the Jew 
 Bendersky, and took five rubles out of his money-box. 
 When Bendersky looked on astonished at this strange 
 act, the commissioner said: "We are going to kill off 
 all the Jews at Easter anyway." The central place of 
 agitation was in the tavern ' ' Moskwa. ' ' A waiter in this 
 tavern, who had distributed thousands of handbills, stated 
 afterward that he had been threatened in a letter with 
 death if he did not distribute them. 
 
 At first sight it is almost impossible to understand why 
 the Jews did not do everything possible to protect them- 
 selves in face of this unmistakably serious situation. 
 The chief explanation is probably to be found in the fact 
 that, having been for years, day in and day out, provoked 
 and threatened, either they did not recognize, or they 
 undervalued, the unusual nature, the rude barbarism, of 
 this outbreak of hatred against them, and that, in the 
 second place, they trusted to the protection of the police 
 of Kishinef and of the garrison, several thousand men 
 strong. 
 
 The governor, altho ungraciously, promised aid and 
 the necessary protective measures, and the Jews in gen- 
 eneral were satisfied with this official promise. Only a 
 small portion of them, about one hundred to one hundred 
 and fifty persons, realized the gravity of the situation 
 and armed themselves in preparation for defense. 
 
 Otherwise, the Jews were contented with having the 
 
10 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 temple servants proclaim in the prayer-houses, on the 
 occasion of the Jewish Passover festival, that everybody 
 was to remain quietly at home during the Christian 
 Easter, to keep the shops closed, and not to enter into 
 any disputes with Christians. 
 
 The Jews went quietly and without too great anxiety 
 to their homes. 
 
 The night between Saturday (April 18) and Sunday 
 was dark and rainy. A policeman stood on every corner 
 of the outer streets. He was ordered not to let>^angers 
 in large numbers come into the city. The police K^lfiUed 
 their duty by permitting swarms of outsiders, especially 
 peasants, to come into the town. 
 
 V. — The First Day of the Excesses— Plundering— The First Murders 
 
 Early Sunday morning the sun began to shine, and 
 dried the damp earth. The Jews had still the last two 
 days of their Passover to celebrate. So ' little did they 
 suspect any evil that they put on holid^ Wtire and went 
 to the synagogs. Again at the cl^sS^f me service the 
 "Shamossim" (syuagog servants) proclaimed that no 
 Jew should leave his house. People went quietly home. 
 Jews even promenaded in the streets ; many stopped at 
 the carousels, and watched how the Christians were 
 amusing themselves. 
 
 Suddenly, toward noon, without any immediate cause, 
 without even the slightest altercation having taken place 
 between Jews and Christians, a band of Christian boys, 
 from ten to fifteen years of age, began to fall upon the 
 Jews. The Jews fled, the boys after them, without doing 
 them much harm. The band scattered quickly into the 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 11 
 
 cMef streets of Kishinef, and began to break windows in 
 the Jewish bouses and stores. Everything was at once 
 locked up. The police proceeded to chase and frighten 
 the lads, but arrested no one. 
 
 This procedure of the police, of course, encouraged the 
 marauders. The young boys had doubtless been sent out 
 by the organizers of the movement to assure themselves 
 completely of the attitude of the police, upon whose good 
 will they had already counted. It was about three in 
 the afternoon when suddenly a crowd of men appeared 
 on the square of the Nowyi Bazar, all of them wearing 
 red shirts. (The red shirt is part of the holiday costume 
 of the Russian workman. It is clear that the agitators 
 chose the workman's costume intentionally.) The 
 people shouted as if possessed. Without ceasing, they 
 cried: "Death to the Jews! Strike the Jews!" In 
 front of the Moskwa tavern this crowd of several 
 hundred arranged itself into twenty-four divisions of from 
 ten to fifteen men each. From there the destroying, 
 plundering, and robbing of Jewish houses and stores 
 began systematically in twenty-four parts of the city at 
 the same time. At first stones were thrown into the 
 houses in such numbers and with such force that not 
 only the window-panes but the blinds also were 
 destroyed. Then the doors and windows were torn out, 
 and the mob crowded into the houses and Jewish apart- 
 ments, hitting and breaking whatever there was to be 
 found in the way of furniture and fittings. The Jews 
 were obliged to deliver up to the robbers their jewelry, 
 their money, and whatever else they had that was valu- 
 able. If they offered even the slightest resistance, they 
 received a heavy blow over the head with a piece of 
 
12 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OP 
 
 broken furniture. The scene was especially lively in the 
 storehouses. The wares were either stolen or thrown 
 into the street and destroyed. A large Christian follow- 
 ing accompanied the marauders — officials, theological 
 students, etc. Ladies of the ' ' best society ' ' took articles 
 of clothing from th6 robbers, put on silk mantles on the 
 spot, or wrapped themselves in costly stuffs. The rob- 
 bers themselves, becoming intoxicated with drink, put 
 on the ornaments which they had found and clothed 
 themselves in the stolen garments. A shoe warehouse 
 was plundered in Gostinaja Street, and all the robbers 
 threw away their old shoes and put on new ones. The 
 policemen who were present did the same. To them all 
 the patent-leather boots were handed over. 
 
 The rage of the plunderers increased to madness. 
 With a sort of wantonness they threw heavy chests and 
 tables out of the windows upon the street, so that they 
 fell with a terrible crash and broke into pieces. Bolsters 
 were cut up and the feathers scattered in the air, where 
 they whirled around like snowflakes. Even broken and 
 destroyed objects were again broken by the fanatical rob- 
 bers into a thousand pieces. Hangings and bedcovers, 
 torn into shreds, were, in addition, sprinkled with 
 petroleum. 
 
 In the meanwhile bands were playing in the city garden. 
 With the sounds of the music were mingled the cries and 
 shouts of the marauders, the dual noise of falling fur- 
 niture and the crash of broken window-panes in the 
 thoroughfares of the city. 
 
 In the streets in which the mob was raging the elegant 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 13 
 
 world drove by in carriages, to enjoy the spectacle of 
 wild destruction. The Christians stood quietly at the 
 doors of their houses. They laughingly watched the 
 work of the PogromstscMki (plunderers). 
 
 It was the deepest irony that in the editorial rooms 
 of the Bessarabetz and in some buildings of the imperial 
 administration a number of windows were broken. A 
 revolutionary socialist, a Christian, in anger over the 
 excesses of the plunderers, got the better of them by 
 pointing out these houses as being Jewish. 
 
 About five_in_the~aflerHOon-<Ae _^r5<^ murWrofa Jew 
 occurred. The robbers attacked a tram in which 
 there was a Jew, and called to the other passengers: 
 ''Throw the Jew out to us!" The Jew was thrown 
 out, and received such terrible blows on the head from 
 all sides that his skull broke and his brains ran out. 
 The sight of the first Jewish corpse seemed to have 
 frightened the robbers for a moment. But when they saw 
 that the police patrol remained unconcerned and showed no 
 signs of interfering, they scattered into all streets with 
 the murderous cry: " Kill the Jews ! " 
 
 Soon afterward an occurrence took place of portentious 
 moment. The chief of police wfls out making calls, and 
 was driving in his carriage through a street in which plunder- 
 ing was going on. A band of robbers surrounded him and 
 ashed: "Is it permitted to Ml Jewsf" The chief op 
 
 POLICE DEOVE ON "WTTHOITT ANSWEEESTa. HiS SilcUCe 
 
 was a decisive event. The organizers of the movement 
 and the leaders of the outrages had hitherto kept in the 
 background. Now they saw, as did all Christians, 
 
14 BUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 that no hindrance was to be feared on the part of the 
 police, and that the Jews were delivered up to them 
 without mercy. From this moment the police, who had 
 until now merely let everything happen, joined the marauders 
 as active helpers. 
 
 In the streets where houses were being plundered the 
 Jews had to give up every attempt to protect them- 
 selves. If there were any such efforts the Jews were 
 hindered or arrested by the police. Moreover, they 
 were so taken by surprise by the marauders, and were 
 so little organized, and had also reckoned so confidently 
 on the police and soldiers, that now any individual oppo- 
 sition would have been impotent daring. 
 
 Only on the square of Nowyi Bazar did Jewish butch- 
 ers assemble to protect themselves and theirs. They 
 held their ground so bravely that they routed the bands 
 of robbers, which consisted mainly of fellows who were 
 as cowardly as they were wild. Thereupon the police 
 arrived during a collision and arrested the Jews ! 
 
 That was the last signal for the organizers and the 
 band of murderers. Until 10 o'clock at night their un- 
 loosed passions foukd vent in plundering, stealing, and 
 destroying. Seven other murders were added to the one 
 already mentioned. It also transpired that on this day 
 the robbers fell upon a beautiful Jewish woman to do 
 violence to her. Her son, a young gymnasium student, 
 defended her heroically. He saved the honor of his 
 mother, altho the murderous fellows put out her eyes. 
 Him they killed. 
 
 About 8 o'clock in the evening the train brought aid 
 from without to the agitators. Sixty men came to take 
 part in the excesses. They were no drunken vagabonds, 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 15 
 
 but young Eussians, men of iron power, all clothed 
 in workingmen's holiday dress. On their faces was an 
 expression as if they were there to do holy work. Their 
 first act immediately after their arrival was to destroy a 
 poor Jewish shop near the station. The band was 
 armed during the night by the organizers of the move- 
 ment, and it played an important part in what followed 
 during the bloody tragedy. 
 
 The excesses were gradually transferred from the cen- 
 ter to the outer portions of the city. Toward 10 o'clock 
 at night the rage of the exhausted bandits subsided. It 
 became quiet in the streets of the city. In the outer 
 districts the plundering lasted until 11 o'clock. Then 
 it became quiet there also. 
 
 The Jews kept watch in their houses in indescribable 
 anxiety, and yet in the hope that now the cause for 
 alarm was passed. 
 
 VI. — From Sunday to Monday 
 
 While the Jews were watching in feverish anxiety, the 
 organizers of the outrages were at work from 11 o' clock 
 till 3 in the morning, making every preparation for a 
 terrible massacre of the Jews. Who were these organ- 
 izers? Pissarschewsky, Semigradow, Sinodino, Bolin- 
 sky, Popow, and the examining magistrate, Dawido- 
 witsch — all of them men in respected positions, most of 
 them officials. Vice-Governor Ustrugow and Krusche- 
 wan kept in the dark. 
 
 Early in the morning weapons were supplied to the 
 marauders, particularly the young men from the country 
 who had arrived ta Kishinef the evening before. These 
 weapons were uniform: axes, iron bars, and clubs — in- 
 
16 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 struments of a sort that could break doors and shop 
 windows at a blow, and were even strong enough to 
 break open iron cupboards and coffers. The costume 
 also in which the men were clothed was the same. The 
 workingmen's shirts already referred to were put on by 
 a heterogeneous mob — ^by peasants, laborers, common 
 citizens, officials, students, seminarists, policemen, by 
 soldiers, and even by officers. The second system- 
 atical labor of the organization committee was the 
 marking of Jewish houses. On the first day Pissar- 
 schewsky and Sinodino had pointed out the Jewish 
 houses to the plunderers. The committee marked all 
 the Jewish shops and dwellings with a white chalk-mark 
 in the night. Next a permanent service was organized 
 for conveying directions, reports, and general communi- 
 cations. For this purpose several companies of bicyclists 
 were employed, which played an extremely important 
 part in what followed. The bicyclists were college 
 and theological students, and officials. But the organ- 
 ization committee did not restrict itself to the city 
 alone. Messengers were sent to neighboring villages, 
 and the peasants invited to come into the city and help 
 plunder the Jews. They were told to bring large bags 
 with them. 
 
 Toward 3 o'clock in the morning the preparations 
 were complete, and at that moment the signal was given 
 to commence. 
 
 VIL— The Massacre of the 20th of April 
 
 What now follows can never be described by human 
 pen. Not only because dreadful murder has closed the 
 mouths of those who might have been able to speak, not 
 
THE AMEEICAK PEOPLE 17 
 
 only because the murderers themselves never will speak. 
 What happened was so inhuman, so horrible, so many 
 were the kinds of atrocities committed, so much diabol- 
 ical immorality raged, that there is no language which 
 can fitly describe even a part of the horrors and atroci- 
 ties which forever have covered with shame the Eus- 
 sian government and its servile helpmate, the Eussian 
 Church. 
 
 From 3 o'clock Monday morning until 8 o'clock at 
 night wild hordes raged in the midst of ruins and rub- 
 bish which they themselves had piled up; they plun- 
 dered, robbed, damaged Jewish property, stole, burned, 
 and" destroyed it, and they pursued, killed, outraged, 
 and tortured Jews. Fanaticism, cupidity, cruelty, 
 bestial lust, and diabolical wickedness held shameful 
 orgies in the darkness of night and in the broad light 
 of day. And all classes were present at these orgies: 
 governor and vice-governor, soldiers and police, officials 
 and priests, women and children, peasants, day-laborers, 
 and vagabonds. 
 
 All the Jewish houses in Gostinaja, Charlampjewskaja, 
 Nikolajewskaja, and Sennaja streets were at once filled 
 with the terrible shouts of the murderers and the heart- 
 rending cries of the unfortunate victims. Almost every- 
 where the armed bands, consisting of from ten to twenty 
 persons, altho they were sometimes enlarged to from 
 eighty to one hundred, proceeded after the same system. 
 As on the preceding day, the warehouses and shops 
 were robbed to the last remnant. What could not be 
 carried away was torn in pieces or soaked in petroleum 
 and burned. Into the dwellings of the Jews the bandits 
 pressed with murderous shouts, demanding that all money 
 
18 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 and valuables be delivered over to them. K the Jews 
 complied, the robbers at the start contented themselves 
 with delivering severe blows to their victims and then leav- 
 ing the field to their followers. If the Jews had nothing to 
 give up, or if things did not move quickly enough, or if 
 the murderers were otherwise disposed, the men were 
 struck down, severely wounded, or killed. Women were 
 outraged in succession by the murderers before the eyes 
 of their husbands and children. Children had their little 
 arms and legs torn out or broken, and some were carried 
 up -stairs from the lower stories and thrown to the ground. 
 Sometimes a man took hold of a child and beat its head 
 against a wall until its brains ran out. 
 
 Undescribable panic reigned among the Jews ; there 
 was a wild flight into cellars, yards, upon the roofs, from 
 house to house, from street to street. Not a policeman, 
 not a soldier, stirred to help them. 
 
 Early in the morning a deputation of Jews, forty in 
 number, hastened to the governor to implore his protection. 
 He answered that he could do nothing, since he had as yet 
 received no orders from St. Petersburg. At the same time, 
 however, the same Herr von Baaben forbade the telegraph 
 stations to accept any private telegrams whatever for 8t. Pe- 
 tersburg. The deputation then asked at least to be 
 allowed to remain in the governor's yard, since raging 
 bandits were waiting for them on the public square 
 opposite. Eaaben, however, gave orders to drive the peo- 
 ple out of the yard if they would not go out themselves. 
 The company was hardly a few steps away from the 
 governor's house when the bandits fell upon them, 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 19 
 
 Under the very windows of the highest representative of the 
 Czar one Jew was killed and many were wounded. 
 
 The Jews' appeal to the governor, wMcli was most 
 natural in the face of their despair, marked a change for 
 the worse in their fate. The marauders now knew that 
 not only were they not in danger from the supreme gov- 
 ernmental authorities, but that they were even under 
 their patronage. It ipade little impression upon them 
 to see the policemen sffll at their posts and the soldiers 
 marching out from their barracks. They knew that the 
 troops were there only to protect the Christians from 
 any excesses. In order to avoid any mistake, the policemen 
 note undertook systematically to point out the Jewish houses 
 to the robbers. 
 
 Eobbery, murder, and outrage were now continued 
 with ever-increasing fary. Heads were cut off, and peo- 
 ple dipped their handkerchiefs in the flowing blood and 
 waved them as flags. The words, "Death to the Jews ! ' ' 
 were written on white flags with Jewish blood. Jews, 
 men and women, had their bodies cut open and entrails 
 taken out, and the empty trunks were then stuffed with 
 feathers. People jumped and danced on the dead bodies, 
 shouted and became intoxicated with drink, and men and 
 women of the so-called "best society," ofQcials, and 
 policemen looked on laughing at these actions, or took 
 part in them. "Women with child were beaten on the 
 abdomen with clubs until they died from loss of blood. 
 One such woman was cut open, and the unborn chUd 
 taken out and trampled under foot. 
 
 Some Jews thought they could escape by putting pic- 
 tures of Christian saints in their windows as the Chris- 
 tians did. They were terribly punished for so doing. 
 
20 RUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 They were denounced by the police, and, after hav- 
 ing their hands, arms, and feet bored through with 
 large nails, they were bound and killed by persons 
 under the leadership of theological students. In this 
 way the death of Jesus Christ was avenged upon 
 them. 
 
 Toward noon the madness of the bandits reached such 
 a height that they invented the most indescribable tor- 
 tures for their victims. 
 
 The following are some of the most horrible outrages 
 which were committed in the night and by day: 
 
 "Women, after having been outraged, had their breasts 
 cut off, and were then horribly disfigured in a way not to 
 be described. 
 
 Little girls were outraged until they died. One of 
 these victims, nine years old, was torn in two. 
 
 In one house the mother was outraged by all the 
 bandits in turn, in sight of her two little daughters, and 
 the children were then outraged in sight of the mother. 
 They were then driven into a slaughter-house, killed 
 there by blows of a hatchet, and then hanged. 
 
 Chaja Sarah Panaschi had nails driven into her nos- 
 trils until they came out through her skull. 
 
 David Chariton had his lips cut off, and his tongue 
 and larynx were then torn out with tongs. 
 
 Jechiel Selzer had his ears torn out, and was then 
 beaten upon the head until he became crazy. 
 
 The brave Benzion Galanter, who stood at the door of 
 his house with a revolver to protect his children from a 
 marauding horde, had his eyes put out and his tongue 
 torn out by the roots. 
 
 Meyer "Weissmann, who was blind in one eye, had the 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 21 
 
 sound one put out. He pleaded earnestly to be killed, 
 but the persecutors delighted in his agony. 
 
 A glass-maker had hidden himself in the cellar of his 
 house with his pregnant wife and two children. A 
 crowd pressed in. A blow with an axe cut off the man's 
 head, while the woman's belly was cut open. The chil- 
 dren were left alive, that they might see the bodies of 
 their parents disfigured in an indescribable fashion. 
 
 A gymnasium student who had taken refuge in a 
 closet was there strangled. 
 
 Hirsch Lys, who was found on the corner of Swet- 
 schnoi and Gostinnoi streets, had his wrists and ankles 
 wrenched out of place. 
 
 Two Jews were cut to pieces. Their mangled bodies 
 were stuffed into closets. 
 
 One Jewess received blows on the head, her one-year- 
 old child being used as the implement. As the child 
 was not yet dead, the finishing touch was given by break- 
 ing glass panes with its head. 
 
 A Jewish driver was driving a severely wounded per- 
 son to the hospital. When it was attempted to take the 
 Jew out of the carriage, it was discovered that he was 
 already dead. Half an hour later the same driver was 
 brought to the dead-house with his skull crushed in. 
 
 One girl had her nose bitten off by a brutalized Eus- 
 sian while he was outraging her. 
 
 A carpenter, after having been bound to a board, had 
 his arms and legs sawed off with his own saw. 
 
 A Jewess fled with her child to a Christian physician 
 and begged him to protect her. The physician tried to 
 drive her away. As she would not go, he tore the child 
 from her arms and threw it out of the window. The 
 
22 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 mother hurried down, and was murdered by the bandits 
 in the street. 
 
 These are some of the inhuman outrages. They have 
 been proved to be true by actual sight, by the testimony 
 of Christian physicians, and by Eussian papers which 
 have first passed under the eyes of the most anti-Semitic 
 and despotic of censors. 
 
 The synagogs were stormed and plundered with especial 
 fury. In one synagog a temple servant, with death- 
 defying courage, stood before the Holy Ark, in which 
 the Thora rolls were kept. Dressed in the Tallith (prayer- 
 mantle), and with the Tephillin (phylacteries) on his 
 arms and forehead, he awaited the approach of the mur- 
 derers to protect the rolls of the Law with his body. 
 He was murdered in the most shameful manner. The 
 Thora rolls were then torn out of the Ark, the parchment 
 was cut into little bits (Christian children afterward sold 
 such bits in the streets for a few kopeks as "Souvenirs 
 of Kishinef"), or else soiled in the most disgusting 
 manner. Not till that had been done were the fittings 
 of the synagog destroyed. 
 
 The scenes of barbarity were so shocking that no less 
 than thirteen Jews became insane. The son of N. TJs- 
 chemirsky, who was obliged to witness the martyrdom 
 of his father, was seized with insanity, and began to run 
 around the city, crying out that he must telephone to 
 the Emperor William. 
 
 Two young men, seized by insanity at the same time, 
 ran away. One said he must go to Vienna to enter his 
 complaint there. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 23 
 
 One woman fled to a roof with her child. The child 
 began to scream, and the woman stufi'ed a cloth into its 
 mouth, so that it should not betray its presence to the 
 murderers in the house. The child was suffocated, and 
 the mother became crazy from grief. She believed that 
 she was still holding the child in her arms. 
 
 The Jews in Asiatskaja Street hid themselves in the 
 cellars and on the roofs while the bandits were rob- 
 bing and plundering. In one house the robbers heard a 
 noise on the roof. They hastened to go up, and found 
 there three brothers and a thirteen-year-old girl. All 
 were thrown from the roof upon a bridge adjoining 
 the house. A crowd stood below, which at once began 
 to strike at the four Jews. The next day the fearfully 
 mutilated bodies of two of them were found under a heap 
 of rubbish and feathers. 
 
 The policemen and soldiers played a terrible part on 
 that day. Not only did they point out Jewish houses to 
 the murderers and robbers, not only did they themselves 
 plunder and steal, but they also took part in the butchery. 
 
 One woman tried to keep the marauders away from 
 her house by pouring boiling water upon them. A 
 policeman fell upon her and killed her. 
 
 A constable also has the murder of the above-men- 
 tioned temple servant upon his conscience. Many Jews 
 were beaten by the police, robbed of their arms or sticks, 
 and, if they tried to collect anywhere, were driven back 
 into the houses. 
 
 The policemen tooJc part in the robbing and pillaging where- 
 ever they could. In the house of the rich Jew Eudi the 
 
24 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 bandits worked for ten hours, trying to break into an iron 
 coffer. Eudi telephoned for assistance, since be did not 
 wish to bribe the police, and drove around from magis- 
 trate to magistrate. It was of no avail. The constables 
 stood by the bandits, without restraining them in the 
 least. The coffer was broken open; 60,000 rubles were 
 taken out and divided among the plunderers and the 
 ' ' guardians of the peace. ' ' 
 
 A large amount of stolen nmterial was afterward found in 
 policemen's homes. 
 
 In the house of one police commissioner a mass of stolen 
 goods was discovered. He was arrested. The next 
 day, however, he was set free. He had explained that 
 some one had brought the things to him, and that now 
 the man had disappeared. This explanation was held to 
 be sufficient. 
 
 The conduct of the soldiers is almost incredible. At 
 first they stood at their posts, which they had been 
 ordered not to leave. The robbers accordingly handed 
 them eatables, drinks, and valuables. The soldiers who 
 could not uncork the wine bottles broke the necks of 
 them off, and then emptied bottle after bottle until they 
 became drunk. 
 
 Later it became much worse. The military, who saw 
 how their friends were pillaging and robbing, were 
 seized by the general frenzy and joined the marauding 
 bands, plundering, beating, and outraging women. 
 
 The attitude of the officers was even more infamous. 
 One officer, who was taking part in the plundering, 
 was knocked down by an enraged Eussian (one of the 
 few humane exceptions). In one street the police fell 
 upon defenseless Jews. An officer stood near by and 
 
THE AMBEIOAN PEOPLE 25 
 
 urged them on, saying: "All Jews are socialists. They 
 must be hanged." 
 
 It is certain that officers, sometimes in disguise, took 
 part in the robbery, and especially in the deeds of 
 violence. 
 
 In Gostinnaja Street an officer at the head of a patrol 
 met several robbers loaded down with Jewish booty. 
 He commanded them to throw away their stolen goods 
 and plunder the nearest Jewish house, and the robbers 
 did both. 
 
 In Charalampijewskaja Street two subofficers did vio- 
 lence to a Jewish girl, who was then abused and after- 
 ward murdered by bandits. An officer was found steal- 
 ing by an officer of higher rank. He was arrested, but 
 set free the following day. An army physician had 
 testified that at the time when he was stealing he was in 
 a state of momentary mental derangement. 
 
 The lawlessness of the soldiers — ^to say nothing of the 
 police — gradually reached such a height that they openly 
 resisted their officers, when the latter attempted to re- 
 strain them. For example, an officer gave an unruly 
 soldier a box on the ear. In the next instant the latter 
 gave him two in return. 
 
 VIII. — Resistance of the Jews — Jewish Heroism 
 
 Every impartial observer must admit that in view of 
 the attitude of the governor, police, and soldiers, there 
 were no great possibilities for a successful resistance on 
 the part of the Jews. And yet the Jews of Kishinef can 
 not be accused of succumbing to the marauders and to 
 the police without any attempt at resistance. It is true 
 
26 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 that in many narrow streets, where constables drove the 
 Jews back into the houses, any united defense was abso- 
 lutely impossible, and the few Jewish inmates of the 
 houses were literally given up to bands of from twenty 
 to one hundred men. Being wholly unprepared, in con- 
 sequence of their regrettable optimism, they did what the 
 terror of the moment suggested — ^hid in the cellars, on 
 the roofs, sought refuge with Christians, on the street, 
 in the railway station (if they were not driven back or 
 driven somewhere else by the marauders on the way), 
 or else they succumbed to their fate in their homes. In 
 other streets, however, there were some combined at- 
 tempts at resistance. 
 
 A company of about one hundred and fifty men, who, 
 as has already been said, had armed themselves before 
 the outbreak, came together on a market-place with 
 great courage and attacked the marauders. It came to 
 blows. But scarcely had the first Jew fired a shot when 
 the soldiery went against the Jews, charged upon them, 
 and took them all prisoners. 
 
 A number of older Jews, with wives and children, 
 left their homes, abandoning all their property to the 
 robbers, and fortified themselves in a malt factory to 
 defend themselves and their families. The marauders, 
 however, came in such numbers that the attempts at 
 defense were hopeless. While the children screamed 
 pitifully and the women fainted, the marauding bands 
 broke in. The robbers fell first upon the women and 
 children. Some of the outrages already described were 
 committed there. Of the men, six were killed and many 
 severely wounded. One boy escaped in a remarkable 
 manner. He ran to the lake near by, and stood in the 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 27 
 
 water all night until morning. In the meanwhile his 
 father was killed. The house has since then been called 
 " The House of Murder." 
 
 In Kogolske Lane the Jews succeeded in defending 
 themselves during the whole outbreak. They had col- 
 lected there in good season before the police could hinder 
 them, and resisted the attacks of the marauders. But 
 they could not make sorties and help the others, because 
 the police kept the adjoining streets barred. They did, 
 however, take in many fleeing Jews, especially such as 
 were wounded, immediately caring for their needs. 
 
 Some instances of especial Jewish heroism deserve to 
 be remembered. The heroic deaths of the Jewish gym- 
 nasium student who saved the honor of his mother, of 
 the temple servant who died for the honor of the Law 
 rolls entrusted to his care, and of the valiant Benzion 
 Galanter, who kept his stand against the bandits a full 
 half hour with a revolver loaded with blank cartridges, 
 have already been mentioned. [The fact should be em- 
 phasized that when the Jews did use revolvers they 
 almost always loaded them with blank cartridges, either 
 for fear of committing murder or for religious scruples. 
 Hence not one Christian was killed. Some Eussian 
 anti-Semitic newspapers tried at first, in view of the hor- 
 rible atrocities, to speak of an ''outbreak of the wild 
 passions of the masses," which was directed against 
 Jews and Christians alike, and in consequence they 
 spoke of a number of Christian victims. In all there 
 were two non-Jews who died: one, a gypsy, who died a 
 natural death, and the other, a lad, who was stabbed in 
 a scuffle at the end of the outbreak.] 
 
 The heroism and moral grandeur of an old Jew remain 
 
28 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 to be narrated. For a quarter of an liour lie held four 
 bandits at bay, who intended to do violence to his 
 daughter. He rescued his daughter and her honor at the 
 cost of his life. She was able to hide herself, while the 
 old man was murdered. 
 
 The following act of a Jewish mother is also grandly 
 heroic. In the Mkolajew Lane about twenty-five Jews 
 had taken refuge in an attic. In the house beneath 
 a Jew, Hirsch Bolgar, who could no longer escape, had 
 been killed. Those in the attic held their breath so as 
 not to be heard. Among them was a Jewess with a little 
 child. All at once the child began to cry. As soon as 
 the mother saw that she and the child were endangering 
 the lives of the others she resolved to sacrifice herself. 
 She tore a board out of the corner of the attic and jumped 
 through the opening with her child into the neighboring 
 yard, which belonged to a Christian. The bandits did 
 not notice her. The woman and child were saved as if 
 by a miracle. The mother received a few wounds, the 
 child was unhurt. 
 
 IX. — Christian Protectors of the Jews 
 
 It would be unjust not to speak of the Christians who 
 in those terrible days formed a shining exception to their 
 insanely brutalized environment. They should be espe- 
 cially mentioned and remembered with respect for the 
 reason that they were so few. 
 
 First of all, a priest should be spoken of, who took 
 Jewish families under his protection, while his son was 
 one of the bandits. Then Mr. Nasaeow, a collaborator 
 to the daily paper Nowosti, who desired to protect an old 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 29 
 
 Jew who had been fallen upon on the street by the ban- 
 dits. Mr. Nasarow would himself have been killed in 
 his attempt had not some one suddenly called out : 
 "What are you doing there? That is a Christian you 
 are beating." 
 
 Engineer Ktjsoh, the chief of a fire brigade, using the 
 fire hose, succeeded in clearing out a few streets. 
 
 The physician, Doroschewskt, took the families of 
 many Jewish physicians and dentists into his house and 
 rescued them. 
 
 The police commissioner of the Third "Ward protected 
 all the Jewish houses in his district from the bandits. 
 
 Captain Micha jlow, who hastened to Kishinef with 
 his company from Bendery, at once called a halt before a 
 house out of which issued heartrending calls for help, 
 and some of his soldiers pushed their way into the 
 dwelling to offer protection. Unfortunately they found 
 little more to do than to protect the bodies of two women 
 who had just been killed. Michajlow later received a 
 rebuke from his superior commander for infringement 
 of discipline, altho two weeks afterward he received a 
 decoration from St. Petersburg for his humanity, through 
 the intervention in his behalf of the commander-in-chief 
 of the Odessa military district. General Mussin-Pushkin. 
 
 We must mention, further, the act of certain students 
 who rescued an old Jew from the pursuing bandits by 
 taking him into a tram-car, in spite of the opposition of 
 the other passengers. 
 
 In conclusion, especial honor must be given to the 
 Mayor of Kishinef, Alexander Schmidt, and to the lord 
 marshal of the province, Ketjpenskt, who did all in their 
 power for the protection of the Jews. The mayor went 
 
30 . EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 to the governor and vice-governor in the first hour of 
 the outbreak, and requested — unfortunately, in vain — the 
 immediate intervention of the soldiery. It was through 
 the intervention of the lord-marshal, Krupensky, that 
 the Jewish doctor, Mutschnik, could telegraph what had 
 happened from Bendery to St. Petersburg early Monday 
 morning. Krupensky not only spent a considerable 
 sum at once for the Jews who had suffered, but he turned 
 his whole house into a hospital for the wounded, and 
 himself assisted in caring for them. 
 
 X.— End of the Outbreak 
 
 On Monday, at five in the afternoon, a telegraphic de- 
 spatch arrived from St. Petersbui-g with the command to 
 put an end to the excesses. Toward 6 o'clock, accord- 
 ingly, several companies marched out in full warlike 
 equipment. The report was everywhere circulated that 
 authority had passed into the hands of the military com- 
 mander, and that now every excess would be suppressed 
 by force of arms. 
 
 As soon as Kishinef was placed under martial law the 
 excesses ceased without its having been necessary to fire 
 a shot. Only in the more remote quarters of the city, 
 which the soldiers had not yet reached, did the robbery 
 continue until late into the night. 
 
 The news of the pillaging of Kishinef had spread into 
 the surrounding districts with the rapidity of lightning. 
 On Monday evening, and on the following days, the 
 peasants arrived in crowds, coming by train or in small 
 carts. Tliey were no longer permitted to enter the city. 
 Most of them begged to be admitted for only a few 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 31 
 
 hours, or at least for one hour. Many wanted to force 
 their way in, and the soldiers had hard work to with- 
 stand the crowds. 
 
 The city lay desolate, as if the worst vandals had 
 housed in it. A city conquered by an enemy could hardly 
 have shown such terrible traces of devastation. A fright- 
 ful heap of stones, wood, glass, stuffs, and feathers filled 
 the Jewish quarters throughout the length of whole 
 streets. Darkness settled upon the looted houses with their 
 paneless windows. The stillness of death extended far and 
 wide. Many houses were empty of human inhabitants. 
 In others the Jews sat in the homes which had been trans- 
 formed into heaps of rubbish, staring in front of them in 
 speechless despair and grief Not one made a step into 
 the street. They were still afraid lest the horrors might 
 begin again at any moment. 
 
 Death, desolation, and unspeakable sadness filled the 
 streets where a few days before a peaceful, patient, and 
 diligent people had circulated, content to earn a scanty 
 living. The victims were, for the most part, poor people, 
 who did not have mumbesides their wives and children 
 and the room with Its ^ttle household furniture, which 
 constituted their home and whole fortune. 
 
 This is the simple, truthful tale of the Eussian massa- 
 cre of St. Bartholomew of the year of grace 1903. 
 
II 
 
 FOUR GREAT INDIGNATION MEETINGS 
 
 I. — Mass-Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland 
 
 (Eeld May 17, 1903, at the Academy q/ Music) 
 
 Introductory Address of Mayor THOMAS G. HAYES 
 
 To Maetlandees, whose very atmospliere is impreg- 
 nated with religious liberty, to those whose ancestors in 
 1634 brought with them to these shores religious liberty, 
 it is difiicult to believe that these Jews have been mur- 
 dered in their homes, and their women slain after having 
 been robbed of the dearest treasures of womanhood in 
 life. I say that it is difficult to conceive that, in 1903, in 
 a so-called civilized country, such unspeakable atrocities 
 could have been inflicted on law-abiding people, and 
 with the practical connivance of the local police. 
 Thint of it: in this twentieth century, and in a part of 
 the world that claims to the rank of a civilized nation, 
 women and children have been butchered while the Eus- 
 sian police stood idly by. It is an indelible disgrace to 
 the government that did not prevent it, and it will surely 
 raise a protest that will be loudly heard in the imperial 
 halls of St. Petersburg. 
 
 Speech of CongressmB.n JOHN L. V. FINDLEY 
 
 "We have assembled here this afternoon, without regard 
 to creed, race, conditions, or nationality, for the purpose 
 of discharging the highest duty that man can perform — 
 the duty that he owes to humanity itself. It was the 
 
 32 
 
THE AMEBICAN PEOPLE 33 
 
 Easter season, at tlie high tide of the Christian festival, 
 Avhen this unspeakable outrage against every principle 
 for which the name of Christ stands, and which the relig- 
 ion that he taught is supposed to embody, was inflicted 
 upon a peaceable and unoffending class of our feUow 
 beings in a distant province of Eussia. The pretense 
 for the murderous assault is too silly for discussion, and 
 could only have been imposed upon a fanatical mob 
 already inflamed with ugliest passions of racial and 
 religious animosity. 
 
 Swayed by these passions, armed with all the weapons 
 of deviltry, this mob was let loose to work its cursed will, 
 unrestrained by law or mercy, for three days against 
 helpless, unarmed men, women, and children — yes, even 
 babies at the breast, who were snatched from the arms 
 of pleading mothers, and hurled through windows into 
 the streets along vith the household furniture and the 
 very cradles in which they were rocked. Old men, who 
 in the course of nature must soon have quietly paid its 
 debt; mothers in the midst of shrieking children ; wives 
 alongside of their husbands, were indiscriminately shot 
 down, hacked to pieces, torn and mutilated by those 
 frenzied fanatics, much worse than wild beasts as man, 
 in his power for mischief and the multiplied instruments 
 of death and destruction, is superior to the lion or the 
 tiger at his best. Prom April 20th to the close of the 22d 
 these scenes of bloody murder and outrages worse than 
 death were repeated in the streets of the capital of Bes- 
 sarabia, to the accompaniment of horrors that the Indian 
 savage or the red-handed Septembrists of the French 
 Bevolution never surpassed. The number who were 
 butchered suggests war rather than assassination ; the 
 
34 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 wounded and injured, in more or less stages of helpless 
 mutilation, amount into tlie hundreds ; and in addition 
 to this appalling loss of life and limb, there must be taken 
 into account a wanton and wholesale destruction of 
 property, which has left the survivors penniless in aland 
 already cursed with poverty. 
 
 And all this hideous work was carried on to the cry, 
 " Kill the Jews ! " There can be no question as to the 
 motive that impelled these wretches, and there would 
 also seem to be none as to the indifference, if not the 
 positive sympathy, of the local authorities who, with 
 armed forces near at hand, allowed the riot to run on 
 for three days before any forcible action was taken to put 
 an end to the outrage. 
 
 The first question is. Who is responsible ? and the 
 second. How can that responsibility be enforced, if at 
 all 1 A ship goes down at sea with all on board, and is 
 never heard of again ; Mont PeMe explodes in a ruinous 
 eruption, and 30, 000 people lose their lives at one fell 
 stroke. We are paralyzed by the immensity of such 
 disasters, but on recovering from the shock can only say 
 they were from God. Here, too, we stand impotent in 
 the presence of disaster. But is this one of the calami- 
 ties that must pass, like the storm or the earthquake, un- 
 questioned and unavenged ? Is there nothing more to 
 be done than to recognize the calamity as one of those 
 unavoidable freaks of fate for which the only possible re- 
 lief is the repair of the damage so far as possible, just as 
 we rebuild after a fire or a hurricane ? Dr. Felix Adler 
 is reported as saying that he would take no part in a 
 public protest against this outrage unless the Czar was 
 excused from all responsibility for it, and in one sense 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 35 
 
 he is clearly right, for the Czar personally had no more 
 to do with it than any one of you before me now. He 
 is usually represented as a kind-hearted and broad- 
 minded man, with humane instincts that have carried 
 him to the length of proposing to get rid of war and 
 bloodshed altogether ; and it would be very wide of the 
 mark and unjust to claim that he had any part in 
 actually provoking the outrage, or any sympathy with 
 the fanatics who were guilty of its perpetration. 
 
 But is there no sense in which the American people 
 may lift up their voice in protest against a crime of this 
 magnitude, with the right to believe that it will be heard 
 and heeded even by the governing class of Bussial 
 Public opinion is omnipotent here, and, sooner or later 
 is reflected in the written law and the public policy of 
 the country. 
 
 No foreign power can long maintain the good will and 
 respect of the government of the United States that does 
 not enjoy the confidence and respect of the people of the 
 United States, because the people here are in fact the 
 government. Ifow, when I was in Berlin last summer, 
 I was amazed to learn that if I desired to make a visit 
 to Eussia, which I was then contemplating, it would be 
 necessary for me to make an affidavit before the Ameri- 
 can consul declaring my religious belief before my pass- 
 port would be visaed by the Eussian consul. I could not 
 understand what my views or beliefs in religious matters 
 had to do with the privilege of travel in a foreign land, 
 or why my passport, under the great seal of the United 
 States, should be converted into a sort of profession of 
 faith. I was determined to find out the cause of this 
 extraordinary procedure, and finally learned that it was 
 
36 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 all aimed against the Jews, and that no Jew was allowed 
 to go to Eussia except temporarily on business, and that 
 this device of making a traveler swear whether he was 
 a Protestant, Catholic, Mohammedan, or what not, was 
 simply an invention to prevent a Jew from entering the 
 domain of the Czar. 
 
 Whoever is responsible for that regulation is respon- 
 sible in part for the official recognition of the ignorant 
 prejudice that prevails among the peasants and lower 
 classes against the Jews, and to the extent of the encour- 
 agement given by that official recognition to this igno- 
 rant prejudice, Eussia is and ought to be held responsible 
 for some share in this outrage by the enlightened public 
 opinion of the United States and of the world. 
 
 If the whole seventy-five millions of people in the United 
 States could be assembled in one vast mass-meeting, 
 with the President of the United States as chairman, 
 and should adopt unanimously a resolution protesting 
 against such barbarities as we are here to denounce, and 
 the resolution should be published in every newspaper 
 in the United States, the fact even that such a meeting 
 was held would never become an operative idea in the 
 consciousness of the masses of Eussia as they now are. 
 If, on the other hand, the governing powers in Eussia (I 
 do not by this mean the Czar alone, by any means) 
 should make it known through the Church and other- 
 wise that the Czar was friendly to the Jews, and that 
 these riots and murders were displeasing to him, and 
 the policy of the government toward the Jew should be 
 one of encouragement instead of repression, there would 
 be a marked change for the better in the condition of 
 the Jew. The point I am trying to make is that the 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 37 
 
 public opinion of the United States must be brought to 
 beai', so far as possible, upon the governing power in 
 Eussia, and can expect but little help, in the first in- 
 stance, from the masses of the people themselves. 
 
 The first thing, then, is to create this opinion, and this 
 can be done only by an appeal to the sympathies, and at 
 the same time to the interests, of the people. The next 
 thing is to get the concentrated expression of both em- 
 bodied in the public policy of the country. It is a com- 
 paratively easy matter to arouse sympathy with the 
 downtrodden and oppressed, but it is not so easy to make 
 the people understand that great questions of national 
 policy are involved in these anti-Semitic demonstrations 
 that periodically break out in the Old "World. 
 
 A man has a right to live and die where he is born. 
 His transplantation to a foreign soil is always accom- 
 plished with a tremendous wrench to his own feelings 
 and expectations in life, as well as to the feelings and 
 expectations of those who are dependent upon him for 
 their stay and support. But the transfer, when it is 
 done by force, involves serious consequences also to those 
 peoples upon whom the man has been thrust. Other- 
 wise it might reasonably be asked, What concern have we 
 with a riotous outbreak in Eussia which has resulted in 
 the loss of a few dozens of lives and the destruction of a 
 few hundred thousand dollars' worth of property ? Why 
 not let the Eussians manage their own affairs and our- 
 selves attend to our own business 1 Have we not sins of 
 our own of the same kind, altho, thank God, not to the 
 same extent, to answer for? Tes; but we, and we alone, 
 do answer for these. We have a clear right to protest 
 against evils that are not of our creation, but from the 
 
38 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 effects of which we nevertheless suffer. We now do as 
 we have always done. 
 
 When Greece was under the heel of the Turk, the Con- 
 gress of the United States thrilled with the eloquence of 
 Clay and Webster in her behalf. When the South 
 American republics broke the fetters of the Spanish 
 thraldom, again the great heart of the United States 
 leaped up in sympathetic response. The Cubans cried 
 for help, and the Stars and Stripes streamed at the head 
 of our advancing columns up San Juan hill on one side 
 of the globe, and the guns of Dewey thundered at 
 Manila on the other. Armenia sent us a despairing 
 cry, and the answer, quick as lightning, flashed under 
 the sea, and only last summer the State Department sent 
 a timely remonstrance to Eumania in behalf of the perse- 
 cuted and distressed Jews in that country. 
 
 This is the historical reason, and if you require any 
 other, I reply that the United States is its brother's 
 keeper in a sense that no other country can claim. Into 
 this great ocean of humanity of ours all the tributary 
 streams of the globe have poured. Man, as distinguished 
 from man, is represented here as he never was before. 
 We are Americans above all else, it is true, but Jew and 
 Gentile meet here on a common plane, made up of the 
 representatives of every civilized nationality under the 
 sun, and all constitut« the body of American citizenship. 
 We are our brother's keeper because all the world is 
 brother to us, and so it will ever be so long as the Capi- 
 tol stands or the flag flies from its summit. 
 
 One other thing ought not to be forgotten. Fine 
 words butter no bread, and all the protests that we may 
 make will not bring present relief to the injured and 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 39 
 
 starving victims of this mob. Americans are the most 
 generous people in the world, and now is the time for 
 them to make a deep dive- into their pockets aad bring 
 up rich stores out of the abundance with which the Al- 
 mighty has blessed them. New York has responded 
 with characteristic liberality. Let not Baltimore, in 
 proportion to her means, fall behind. 
 
 Speech of ROGER W. CULL 
 
 The time has come, in view of the recent events at 
 Kishinef, when civilized nations must pronounce upon 
 the position of Eussia as an aspirant to the considera- 
 tion and treatment due in international intercourse to 
 all civilized powers. That pronouncement must be that 
 by her continued resort at the end of the nineteenth and 
 beginning of the twentieth centuries to the principles 
 and practises of the Dark Ages, the Russian empire has 
 forfeited its place among the civilized governments of 
 the earth. Beginning with the legal proscription of the 
 Jews in the early eighties of the century just closed, 
 Eussia has brought the persecution and murder of great 
 numbers of the race since the promulgation of the May- 
 laws to a culmination in the massacre of Kishinef, in 
 the presence of whose horrors the civilized world to-day 
 stands aghast. 
 
 Eussia, in Christian Finland, by breach of national 
 faith, without example in modern times, not forgetting 
 even the partition of Poland, is crushing out the consti- 
 tutional liberties of a peaceful, industrious, and loyal 
 people. She has even prohibited the use of the native 
 tongue, not only in the public offices, but in the schools, 
 
40 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 ultimately aiming at the suppression of the Protestant 
 religion, to which most of the Pinns are devoted. Only 
 to-day a despatch from Berlin informs the world that the 
 Eussian government is taking all possible steps to op- 
 press Eoman Catholics in the province of Volhynia, on 
 the Polish border. Catholics are not allowed to buy or 
 inherit real estate. Schools using the Polish language 
 are being closed, and the Napoleonic code, which had 
 prevailed in the province, has been abolished, and op- 
 pressive laws substituted for it. Ifevertheless, while 
 these measures have characterized Eussian domestic 
 policy, that nation has constituted itself, with incredible 
 impudence and hypocrisy, the guardian of the lives and 
 property of the Christians of Turkey, and the Czar sends 
 from his soldier-protected seclusion messages of peace 
 and good will to all the world, along with mysterious 
 hints and suggestions of religious tolerance, while his 
 government is crushing out by its ethics all religions 
 within the borders of the empire which are not in accord 
 with the faith of the Greek Church. 
 
 What, then, must be the consideration given by civil- 
 ized nations to a nation pursuing such policies as these, 
 and yet seeking, as Eussia does, admission into the so- 
 ciety of civilized peoples and claiming a position of 
 equality among them ? The answer to this question is 
 plain. If the civilized peoples of the earth regard either 
 conscience or self-respect as factors in their policies, they 
 must demonstrate to Eussian statesmanship that it is in- 
 terposing against the interests of the Eussian people 
 obstacles which can not be overcome until the Eussian 
 government furnishes uniformity of protection and treat- 
 ment under her laws to all of her people regardless of 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 41 
 
 race or religion, and that from tliese laws racial and re- 
 ligious hatred and discrimination must be eliminated, 
 and, above all, that the cruel clutch of the head of 
 the Holy Synod shall be released from the throats of Eus- 
 sian subjects whose conscience can not subscribe to the 
 creed of the Greek Church. I do not know whether 
 Eussia can be taught anything, but if she can she must 
 be taught such a sense of her responsibility to the opinion 
 of the civilized world that her statesmanship and policies 
 shall be alive and responsive to that opinion. 
 
 The American people are an acknowledged world 
 power, fortunately situated not only to share, but to take 
 the leading part in the discharge of the duties imposed 
 upon civilized nations by the conditions in Eussia to 
 which I have referred. The United States can not, from 
 the geographical position of its territory on this side and 
 beyond the seas, be justly or reasonably suspected by 
 Eussia of ulterior and selfish designs, if she protests 
 against the failure of that empire to perform the obliga- 
 tions incumbent upon every civilized power. The pro- 
 test, therefore, of this government would go to Eussia 
 unimpaired by any suspicion of selfish purpose, and such 
 a protest would not, in my judgment, fail to have effect 
 upon the Eussian government as a striking evidence of 
 the profound impression wrought upon the people of 
 this country by the events which have taken place in 
 Eussia during the last quarter of a century. 
 
 Indeed, the opinion of the whole world has become so 
 inimical to Eussia as to constitute a serious and growing 
 question of her title to the position and rights of a civil- 
 ized power, and an impairment of her national prestige 
 certain to affect ultimately her national interests. Ens- 
 
42 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 sia, emerging from the barbarous interior of Asia, in 
 contact with whose peoples she has formed her policies, 
 has on all sides come in contact with the civilization of 
 the world. She must, therefore, hereafter reckon with 
 peoples who possess and respect law and order ; who are 
 brought up to a love of justice and right ; among whom 
 public opinion makes laws and treaties and national 
 policies ; and who will not tolerate in their governments 
 policies toward foreign nations based upon the prevail- 
 ing diplomatic assumption that in the game of interna- 
 tional politics all nations are alike, all equally without 
 conscience, and all equally a law unto themselves. 
 
 Speech of ex-Governor W. P. WHYTE 
 
 In the last few days we have been inexpressibly shocked 
 through private letters, individual communications, and 
 stray reports from the press, which have percolated 
 through the barrier of international diplomacy, at the 
 recital of the horrible outrages committed at Kishinef 
 upon the Jewish people. Such brutalities, whether com- 
 mitted under the guise of doing God's service and in the 
 perverted name of religion, or through the savage in- 
 stincts which are the fruits of unrestrained license, rouse 
 the abhorrence and condemnation of the guilty, and in- 
 vite the warmest sympathy with the victims. These 
 conflicting emotions of righteous indignation and sym- 
 pathetic sorrow belong to no race or nation, no sect or 
 division of the Church of God. It is the divine instinct 
 that lies at the root of the brotherhood of man. Perse- 
 cution can never be used in a righteous cause. 
 
 The Christian owes the Jew a debt of love and com- 
 
THE AMEEICAlSr PEOPLE 43 
 
 passion. We of the Christian household of faith must 
 never forget that the first Christmas has been reared 
 among the noblest traditions of the Hebrews. They had 
 been educated to render, with strictest scrupulosity, un- 
 questioning obedience to the law and a ritual. They had 
 been taught amid the lax morals of their times the abso- 
 lute duty of leading a holy and religious life. Whatever 
 superstructure they built thereafter, it was upon the solid 
 foundation of the moral character of their early life. We 
 are here to express, with the Jewish residents of this city, 
 our horror of the massacre in Bessarabia, and to imite, as 
 best we can, in the relief of the sufferers in that awful 
 tragedy. 
 
 Life has been a battle with the Jewish people since 
 the time of Nehemiah, when the Jews returned to build 
 Jerusalem, for while they worked upon the walls every 
 one with one of his hands wrought upon the work and 
 with the other hand held a weapon. 
 
 It was the pursuit of the arts of peace under the pan- 
 oply of war. In the seventieth year of the first century 
 the capture and destruction of Jerusalem by the Eomans, 
 under Titus, exceeded in horror all other records of hu- 
 man sorrow. It was at the great annual feast of the Pass- 
 over, and a million of souls had gathered in the city. The 
 slaughter that raged among this multitude was enormous. 
 In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries armed assaults 
 had been made against the Jews, in which thousands had 
 perished. In the sixteenth century innocent persons, 
 almost without number, were butchered by a furious 
 mob, and a vast territory fell under the contagion of 
 fanatical slaughter, and was steeped in human blood. 
 The air was made hideous with the wailingsof the dying 
 
U EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 and the mourniugs for the dead. We had supposed that 
 the pei"secutions and plunder which had marred the 
 record of the Middle Ages M-ere a thing of the dead past, 
 altho we have not forgotten the iU-treatnient which 
 the Jews of Eussia received in 1881, and the three years 
 that followed, for the reason that the fugitives in great 
 measure looked to America as a harbor of refuge and 
 of peace, and turned their faces thitherwai-d. Since then 
 our cities have been increased by the arrival of new re- 
 cruits, constituting a busy element in our thriving mu- 
 nicipalities. 
 
 LETTERS TO THE CHAIRMAN 
 Letter of JOHN WALTER SMITH. Governor of Maryland 
 Dear Snt : I have received your in^-itation to be 
 present at the meeting to be held in Baltimore on May 
 17th, which has been called to express our horror at the 
 massacres which have recently occurred at Kishinef, 
 and our sympathy for those who have suffered and are 
 suffering on account of the outrages, of which accounts 
 have been reported in the daily papers. 
 
 I regret, owing to prior engagements, that it will be 
 impossible for me to be in Baltimore on the day named; 
 but notwithstanding that I can not be present, I am un- 
 able to refrain from expressing to you my sorrow and 
 amazement that such an outrage could ha^e occurred in 
 any country on the earth, and that it should have been 
 caused by religious prejudice; and also my sincere sym- 
 pathy for those who have been robbed of their property 
 and bereaved of their friends and natural protectors by 
 this outbreak of barbarism, which has shocked the civil- 
 ized world. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 45 
 
 Letter of Hu Eminence CARDINAL GIBBONS 
 
 My deab. Sir : I regret that my enforced absence 
 from the city on May 17th will prevent my presence at 
 the meeting you have called to voice your horror at the 
 events that have recently taken place at Kishinef. I 
 have no hesitation, however, to express my deep abhor- 
 rence at the massacres that have carried to their graves 
 gray hair and innocent childhood. Our sense of justice 
 revolts at the thought of persecution for religion's sake, 
 but when persecution is attended with murder and pil- 
 lage, the brain reels and the heart sickens and righteous 
 indignation is aroused at the enormity of the crime. 
 
 What a blot upon civilization is this slaughter of in- 
 offensive men, women, and children ! Please convey to 
 the meeting my grief for the dead, my sympathy for 
 those made helpless by the murder of their natural pro- 
 tectors, and my sincere hope that this twentieth century 
 will see the end of all such occurrences, and that peace, 
 good will, and brotherly love may prevail on earth. 
 
 Letter of the Hon. ISIDOR RAYNER 
 
 Dear Doctor : I have explained to you and the gen- 
 tlemen who called on me with you the reasons that pre- 
 vent me from attending and taking part in the meeting 
 to-day. 'No one can feel a deeper interest than I do in 
 the cause that this meeting represents. I feel so pro- 
 foundly upon the subject that it would be almost impos- 
 sible to express not only my sympathy for these victims 
 of persecution, but my resentment and indignation at 
 the atrocities that are being inflicted upon them. 
 
 I have tried upon other occasions in vain to bring 
 
46 RUSSIA AT THE BAB OP 
 
 about some of&cial action upon the part of the govern- 
 ment which would tend to ameliorate the condition of 
 these unfortunate suiferers. Despoiled of their homes, 
 driven from their places of worship, deprived of human 
 rights, robbed of their birthright, and utterly unpro- 
 tected by law, they appeal to us not only for relief, but 
 to take some concerted steps which will bring to a ter- 
 mination this horrible chapter of affliction. 
 
 The time has come when temporary expedients should 
 give way to permanent and united effort. I am confident 
 that the free and intelligent people of this country do 
 not fully grasp the situation that confronts millions of 
 innocent beings in a land against whose laws or institu- 
 tions they have committed no crime, unless it be a crime 
 to worship God according to the traditions of our faith 
 and the dictates of our conscience. 
 
 The policy of the Eussian government is at war with 
 the providence of God, and if there is any justice in this 
 world some way must be found which wiU cause its rulers 
 to abandon their creed of intolerance and oppression, 
 and in place of it establish the principles of justice and 
 humanity. An earnest appeal from this government 
 emanating from its legislative branches through the in- 
 tervention of friendly offices, in my judgment, could 
 bring about the desired result, and every effort ought to 
 be made to obtain this action. It has been done at other 
 times in our history, and it will be done now if a com- 
 bined pressure is brought upon Congress to take action 
 in the matter. I can only say to you that a thrill of hor- 
 ror fills every pulse of my being as I realize that in this 
 age of progress and enlightenment the liberal govern- 
 ments of this world should stand by with supreme in- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 47 
 
 difference as this procession of human beings marches 
 on to the gates of martyrdom and despair. 
 
 I am willing ia any way I can to unite with you in 
 agitating this subject until the day shall come when this 
 torture of the innocent shall cease, and when they shall 
 receive the human rights and human recognition that 
 they are entitled to by every law of justice and hu- 
 manity. This is aU they claim. God has given them 
 this inheritance, and it ought not in this day of religious 
 freedom to be in the power of any government upon the 
 face of this earth to deprive them of it. 
 
 Letter of the Hon. MAYER SULZBERGER 
 
 Dear Dr. Fribdenwald : Words are too weak to 
 characterize the atrocities perpetrated in Eussia. We 
 can only hope that the dread details may at last arouse 
 the conscience of the civilized world respecting the treat- 
 ment of Jews and other minorities. Then will it be seen 
 that "the Jewish question" is a mere misnomer for the 
 great problem whether powerful nations are capable of 
 rising to the moral height of doing justice to the numer- 
 ically weak. 
 
 Should so salutary a result foUow, the blood that 
 flowed will not have been shed in vain. In the mean- 
 time, let each do what he can to relieve the actual 
 suffering. 
 
 Letter of the Rev. J. S. B. HODGES 
 
 Dear Sir: Unable to be present with you this even- 
 ing, may I be permitted to add my voice to the hundreds 
 and thousands — yes, millions — of voices which shoidd be 
 raised in indignant protest, in every land, against the 
 
48 KUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 savage and inhuman treatment of the Jewish people in 
 Kishinef on Easter Sunday last. Words fail to give 
 expression to my feelings of horror and indignation as 
 I read the details of robbery, cruelty, and bloodshed 
 rarely, if ever, surpassed in barbarity. And it is with a 
 feeling of shame that I read of aU this being done by 
 those who caU themselves Christians. 
 
 On this account, it seems to me that the strongest and 
 loudest protest should come from Christian people and 
 Christian governments, that the shame and the dishonor 
 thus brought upon the Christian name may be wiped 
 away. With feelings of deepest sympathy for those who 
 have been subjected to these atrocious crimes against 
 humanity, permit me to express the hope that the protest 
 of all men in every country and of every creed may be 
 so loud, so strong, and so prolonged that never again 
 such crimes shall be possible, much less permitted. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 Whereas, The cumulative reports of barbarous murders 
 and atrocities committed upon the Jewish inhabitants of 
 Kishinef and its vicinity no longer leave room for doubt 
 that a state of things prevails there which is without a 
 pai'allel in the history of our times, and which has 
 driven many thousands of persons from their homes in 
 terror of their lives; and 
 
 Whereas, These outrages are but the natural outcome of 
 the oppressive and cruel laws which for almost a quarter 
 of a century have weighed upon the Jews of Eussia, acting 
 as a constant incitement to the evil passions of the popu- 
 lace; and 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 49 
 
 Whereas, The Eussian government, in spite of ample 
 warning of the impending trouble at Kishinef, failed to 
 take measures to prevent it, allowed the massacres to go 
 practically unchecked for three days, and, so far as 
 known, has taken no steps for such adequate punishment 
 of delinquent of&cials as is essential for the prevention 
 of similar outrages in the future; and 
 
 Whereas, The suffering of the victims of these barbarities, 
 and the perilous situation of those threatened with similar 
 visitations, urgently demand on the part of those living 
 in more fortunate countries the exertion of all possible 
 influence to bring about a remedy; therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That we express our profound sympathy 
 with the victims of blind and cruel religious hatred and 
 intolerance, and our abhorrence of a condition of law and 
 government which makes such excesses possible. 
 
 Besolved, That failure to take the most prompt and 
 effective measures to stop the spread of these barbarous 
 outbreaks, and to give effective protection to the inno- 
 cent Jews who are objects of them, would constitute an 
 indehble disgrace to Eussia in the eyes of the whole 
 civilized world, the more so in view of the identification 
 of the Czar of Eussia with beneficent projects of peace, 
 tolerance, and reform. 
 
 Besolved, That, in accordance with the traditions of 
 humanity with which our own country has ever been 
 associated, it is the duty of the United States government 
 in all available ways to bring such influence to bear on 
 the Eussiau government as may tend to bring about a 
 cessation of these inhumanities. 
 
 Besolved, That we appeal to the people of the United 
 States to call upon their representatives in Congress to 
 
50 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 give vigor and effect to the well-established traditions of 
 this country in a proper protest against the violation of 
 the principles of humanity and civilization involved in 
 the outrages to which the Jews of Bussia have been sub- 
 jected. 
 
 II. — The Mass-Meeting in New York City 
 
 {Held May S7, 1903, at Carnegie Hall) 
 Introductory Address of Mayor SETH LOW 
 
 About 250 years ago — indeed, the year after New Am- 
 sterdam became a city — some Spanish and Portuguese 
 Jews found their way here and were made welcome. 
 From that day to this the Jews have been made to feel at 
 home in New York, until to-day this city contains three 
 times as many Jews as any other city in the world. 
 This circumstance gives us warrant to say two things out 
 of our own experience : First, that the Jew is a quiet, 
 orderly, and industrious citizen ; and, second, that if 
 treated with kindness instead of with cruelty, he be- 
 comes a source of strength to a nation and not a weak- 
 ness. It also entitles the citizens of New York to pro- 
 test vigorously against such horrors as those of Kish- 
 inef. 
 
 It is a noteworthy thing that this movement of protest 
 in New York began upon the East Side. Before even 
 the press had taken- great notice of the long-continued 
 Kishinef rioting, our fellow-citizens of Jewish birth, 
 many of whom know by experience what a Eussian riot 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 51 
 
 is, had begun to raise a fund for the relief of the suffer- 
 ers, and to protest against the outrages. Nearly three 
 weeks ago I addressed an audience on the Bowery gath- 
 ered for that purpose, and I told them, what I gladly 
 repeat here, that their fellow citizens of every name 
 and creed are as one with them in detestation of this 
 horror, and that we honor them for the prompt and 
 effective steps they have taken to send relief to their 
 friends. 
 
 But here I can say what I did not say there — for this 
 is a meeting held under Christian auspices — that in the 
 name of our religion we grieve that such a stain should 
 be cast upon it. Eussia is a friendly Power to the United 
 States, and there are especial reasons why Americans 
 think kindly of her ; but not for this cause should we be 
 silent now. Nay, rather, because we desire that the two 
 nations may continue to be true friends, we beg her so to 
 deal with those who are to blame for this shameful out- 
 rage as to make it impossible for such a thing to happen 
 again within her borders. We beg of her to give more 
 liberty to her Jewish subjects ; for we may properly say 
 that in freedom of opportunity, and not in restriction of 
 privilege, for Christian and Jew alike, has been found, 
 here in New York, a cure for such disturbances as those 
 that in Eussia have recently shocked the world. What 
 New York has done for 250 years Eussia can do, if she 
 will. May God put it into her heart to do so. 
 
 Thereupon William H. Baldwin, Jr., member of the Com- 
 mittee of Arrangements, read a number of letters from per- 
 sons who were prevented from attending the meeting, among 
 which those of Cabl Schubz and Rev. Dr. N. Dwight 
 
 HiLLIS. 
 
52 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 Letter of CARL SCHURZ 
 
 Former United States Senator and Secretary of the Interior 
 
 Bolton LAiTDiNG, 
 Lake George, May 25, 190S. 
 His Honor Mayor Low. 
 
 My dear Sie: I am sincerely sorry I can not attend 
 tlie meeting called to express the indignation of Ameri- 
 can citizens at the horrible atrocities recently committed 
 at Kishinef. I hardly need assure you that I am heartily 
 ■with you in your purpose. 
 
 While those outrages in Eussia stand preeminent in 
 their savage cruelty, it should not be forgotten that they 
 only present one of the natural upshots of a widespread 
 movement which in our days has put a peculiarly repul- 
 sive blot upon our vaunted civilization. 
 
 The persecution and maltreatment of human beings 
 on account of their race or their religious belief is always 
 an offense not only unjust to the victim, but also degrad- 
 ing to the offender. But the persecution and maltreat- 
 ment of the Jews, as mankind has witnessed it, and is 
 now witnessing it in several countries, has been not only 
 especially barbarous in the ferocity of its excesses, but 
 in a singular degree self- debasing and cowardly in the in- 
 vention of the reasons adduced for its justification. 
 
 The Jews are accused of various offensive qualities and 
 dangerous propensities. If we mean to do them anything 
 like justice, are we not in duty bound to inquire how 
 these qualities and propensities, so far as they may really 
 exist, appear in the light of history I 
 
 For centuries the Jews were penned up in their ghettos 
 and otherwise forcibly shut off from the rest of human- 
 ity, and then they were gravely accused of being clannish. 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 53 
 
 For centuries they were in most countries arbitrarily 
 restricted in the right to hold land and to follow various 
 civil callings, and then they were .gravely accused of not 
 taking to agriculture and of preferring to trade. 
 
 For centuries they had to defend themselves against 
 the lawless rapacity of the powerful and against the 
 wanton hostility of the multitude, being robbed and 
 kicked and cuffed and spit upon like outcasts having no 
 rights and no feelings entitled to respect ; and then they 
 were accused of having become crafty and unscrupulous 
 in taking advantage of the opportunities left open to 
 them. 
 
 For centuries — ^and even down to our day — ^whenever 
 a Jew did anything conspicuously offensive, be it in the 
 way of business unscrupulousness or of social ostenta- 
 tion, the cry has been — and is : " Lo, behold the Jew ! " 
 While, when a Christian did the same thing, or even ten 
 times worse, nobody would cry : " Lo, behold the Chris- 
 tian!" 
 
 And now, to cap the climax, even in this age of light 
 and progress, and in countries boasting of their mental 
 and moral culture, we hear apostles of anti-Semitism, 
 even persons belonging to the so-called upper classes, 
 insist with accents of profound alarm that if the Jews 
 be permitted the same rights and privileges as other 
 people, that despised race, forming so infinitesimal a 
 part of the world's population, wiU surely outwit us 
 aU, and rob us of our property, and possess themselves 
 of all the controlling forces of society ; and that, there- 
 fore, the Jews must be shackled hand and foot with all 
 sorts of legal disabilities, if not exterminated, in order 
 to save Christendom from ignominious enslavement. 
 
54 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 Nothing could be more absurd and at the same time 
 more cowardly than such reasoning and such appeals. 
 But it is to agitations inflamed by just this spirit that 
 we owe horrors like those of Kishinef, in beholding 
 which humanity stands aghast. These horrors are only 
 one more revelation of the idterior tendency of a move- 
 ment which here and there even assumes the mask of 
 superior respectability. Here is the whole question 
 again brought before the tribunal of the conscience of 
 mankind. May this event serve to put in clearer light 
 the fact that the history of the world exhibits no more 
 monumental record of monstrous injustice than the per- 
 secutions inflicted upon the Jews during so many centu- 
 ries. We may then also hope to see the other fact uni- 
 versally recognized, that wherever the Jewish race, with 
 its wonderful vitality and its remarkable productiveness 
 of talent and energy, enjoys the equal protection of 
 just laws and a due appreciation of its self-respect, it 
 will, far from remaining a race of aliens, furnish its 
 fall contingent of law-abiding, peaceable, industrious, 
 public-spirited and patriotic citizens, vieing with the 
 best. 
 
 Letter of the Rev. Dr. N. DWIGHT HILLIS 
 
 Pastor of Plymouth Church, BrooMyn 
 
 The whole world is indebted to the noble Jewish 
 race for the teachings of its prophets and sages and 
 apostles and martyrs, and every man who loves his fel- 
 lows must sympathize with the meeting called to pro- 
 test against the outrages visited upon the helpless He- 
 brews in Kishinef. "With you, I cherish the hope that 
 this event, that has shocked the whole civilized world. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 55 
 
 will bring about a reaction, and end with, a decree pro- 
 claiming religious liberty, toleration, and charity to aU 
 the people of Eussia. Mr. Beecher's old people last 
 week passed resolutions of sympathy with the objects of 
 your meeting. 
 
 Mayor Low then introduced as the first speaker, Hon. 
 Grovbb Cleveland, ex-President of the United States. 
 
 Speech of the Hon. GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 I have only a word to say, but I wish to be counted 
 among those who are in hearty sympathy with the pur- 
 poses of this meeting. The influences which have called 
 us together to-night grow out of our recognition of the 
 promptings of Christian civilization and our dutiful 
 devotion to the best and deepest of our national charac- 
 teristics. This demonstration furnishes cheering and re- 
 assuring evidence that our American sympathy for the 
 oppressed and abused, wherever they may be, our Ameri- 
 can love of humanity, and our attachment to justice and 
 right, are still active and unimpaired. There is another 
 American trait inwoven with the warp and woof of our 
 national character, which is here exhibited in most grati- 
 fying freshness and strength. Our people, when their 
 sympathies are touched, when their humane instincts 
 are challenged, and when their hatred of oppression is 
 aroused, are not afraid to speak; and in such circum- 
 stances it is not their habit to smother or cautiously 
 soften their words. 
 
 Every American humane sentiment has been shocked 
 by a late attack on the Jews in Russia — an attack mur- 
 
56 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 deroTis, atrocious, and in every way revolting. As mem- 
 bers of a family of mankind, and as citizens of a free 
 nation, we are here to give voice to the feeling that 
 should stir every true man, and every American worthy 
 of the name. There is something intensely horrible in 
 the wholesale murder of unoffending, defenseless men, 
 women, and children, who have been tacitly, if not ex- 
 pressly, assured of safety under the protection of a pro- 
 fessedly civilized government. Such things give rise to 
 a distressing fear that even the enlightenment of the 
 twentieth century has neither destroyed nor subdued the 
 barbarity of human nature, nor wholly redeemed the 
 civilized world from "man's inhumanity to man." 
 
 We, and all our countrymen, protest in the strongest 
 language at our command, and with all the moral force 
 which ouj American citizenship gives to us, against 
 these murders and outrages, and we insist that swift and 
 condign punishment ought to be visited upon their bar- 
 barous perpetrators. Nor is this all. We will, in a 
 fashion quite American, and with an open-handedness 
 always displayed when human distress appeals to us, 
 assist the families made headless and robbed of support 
 by murder, and those who, wounded and terrorized, 
 and in hunger and want, have been driven from their 
 homes. 
 
 I know how easily our indignation piompts us to the 
 use of strong language, and T know how naturally we 
 are tempted to indulge in overdrawn statements and 
 extravagant demands on such occasions as this; but I 
 am sure that in our characterization of the crimes we 
 here contemplate, and in expressing our detestation of 
 the criminals, we can not go too far. I desire to avoid 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 57 
 
 sounding a discordant note, but yet I can not refrain 
 from the suggestion that the moral effect of our protest, 
 and the usefulness of this demonstration, will not be 
 lessened if we require indubitable proof before we accuse 
 the government of Eussia of guilty complicity in the 
 crimes committed within her borders; and it seems to me 
 we may well consider the proper relationship between 
 nations before we unreasonably demand too pronounced 
 interference on the part of our government. I do not 
 say that the Eussian government may not, by sins of 
 commission or omission, be justly deserving of our con- 
 demnation; but we should not be swift to assume this 
 when we remember that we ourselves have found it im- 
 possible to prevent mob violence and murderous assaults 
 upon the Chinese in "Wyoming and Italians in Louisiana. 
 I am distinctly and unequivocally in favor of informing 
 our government in unmistakable terms of our indignant 
 and deep condemnation of the late outrages upon the 
 Jews in Eussia; but I hope that in obedience to the dic- 
 tates of American conservatism and moderation, which 
 are never long obscured, we may be even now just and 
 fair, and that we will be content to forego perplexing 
 and extreme demands upon our government for violent 
 action. Our public servants should hear us speak; but 
 we certainly ought to be justified in entrusting the care 
 of our national honor and duty and the enforcement of 
 the humane instincts of our people, so far as this may 
 be within governmental action, to those charged with 
 the responsibility of managing our public affairs. 
 
 In the meantime, let the people of the United States, 
 gathered together in such assemblages as this, in every 
 part of the land, fearlessly speak to the civilized world, 
 
58 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 protesting against every pretense of civilization that per- 
 mits mediaeval persecution, against every bigoted creed 
 that forbids religious toleration and freedom of con- 
 science, against all false enlightenment that excuses 
 hatred and cruelty toward any race of men, and against 
 all spurious forms of government protection that with- 
 hold from any human being the right to live in safety 
 and toil in peace. 
 
 Address of Dr. JACOB G. SCHURMAN 
 
 President of Cornell University 
 
 If you seek to stir up the pity and indignation of the 
 American people, and to move them to censure and pro- 
 test, you need nothing but the plain facts of the Kishinef 
 atrocities. In the presence of those scenes of incred- 
 ible horror, appeal is superfluous and oratory tawdry 
 and impertinent. The events themselves will shake 
 the stoutest heart. Listen to the bald figures: Forty- 
 five persons killed outright; 84 severely injured, maimed, 
 and mutilated; 500 other persons somewhat injured, but 
 less dangerously; 600 shops sacked, 700 houses demol- 
 ished, 10,000 men, women, and children homeless and 
 destitute, and altogether 20,000 suffering directly and 
 indirectly from the consequences of this murderous at- 
 tack. 
 
 I mention the effects only, and pass over in silence the 
 inhuman deeds by which they were accomplished — 
 tongues torn out, ears and noses cut off, the cruel sever- 
 ing of limbs, nails driven to the brain, and other bar- 
 barous forms of killing; the desecration of womanhood 
 by vile murderers, and the unpitied agonies of little 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 59 
 
 children. Let us draw the veil over this ghastly and 
 ghoulish carnival of robbery, butchery, and hellish pas- 
 sion. 
 
 And who were the unhappy victims? The Jews of 
 Kishinef. What offense had they committed? None. 
 What provocation, then, had they given ? None what- 
 ever. This is passing strange. Here is a piece of dia- 
 bolical work which outvies the savagery of Dakotahs or 
 Apaches, and it was wrought in Eussia — civilized and 
 Christian Eussia ! And is there no — I will not say justi- 
 fication — ^but no excuse, no mitigating circumstance? 
 The historian must declare that it was an unprovoked 
 assault and butchery of inoffensive and unprotected Jews 
 by the Christian mob of Kishinef. 
 
 O Christ, what crimes have been committed in Thy 
 name against the race which gave Thee to the world ! 
 Thy gospel of peace and good will to man has brought 
 the Jews at the hands of Thy unworthy followers too 
 often only hatred, pillage, and massacre. It was no ac- 
 cident that these Kishinef horrors fell at the Easter 
 season. That blessed occasion was used only to accentu- 
 ate religious differences, to foster outrageous misrepre- 
 sentations regarding the religious rites of the Jews, and 
 to intensify the spirit of bigotry, superstition, and intol- 
 erance, which easily produce, not only hatred, but strife 
 and murder. Thus religion, or rather the perversion of 
 religion, undoubtedly played its part in bringing about 
 the massacre at Kishinef. 
 
 But difference of religion had always existed. And 
 in Kishinef Jews and Christians had long dwelt to- 
 gether in peace, most of the Jews, indeed, being natives 
 of the soil. But of recent years anti-Semitic agitation, 
 
60 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 ■which, unhappily, has spread over much of Europe, 
 reached Kishinef also. An anti-Semitic newspaper 
 ■was established in the city, and, ■while the censor author- 
 ized this, he disallo-wed any other journal which might 
 refute its libelous misrepresentations or antagonize its 
 policies. The burden of this paper ■was that the Je^ws 
 must be got rid of. And ■when the mob finally foUo^wed 
 the thinly veiled editorial advice of sack and murder, 
 they ■were, from the moral point of vie'w, not more blame- 
 ■worthy than the editor. And the Eussian administra- 
 tion -which of&cially authorized and conferred a monopoly 
 upon this anti-Semitic journal will find difficulty in ex- 
 culpating itself from responsibility for the terrible, but 
 natural and indeed inevitable, results of its teachings. 
 
 I see it stated in high quarters that the Jews of Eussia 
 are idlers and exploit the Eussian peasantry. If this 
 be true, I have yet to learn that it is a justification of 
 pillage and massacre. Our neighbor is lazy and given to 
 usury: shall we, therefore, kill him — ^him and his family? 
 This diabolical reasoning adds insult to injury. But the 
 premises themselves are false. Je^wish exploitation of 
 Eussia, forsooth! Why, under the laws of Eussia, Jews 
 are not permitted to buy, lease, or rent real estate, 
 whether rural or urban; they dare not do business ■with 
 the peasants or lend them money; they are disabled from 
 engaging in agriculture or (except under onerous restric- 
 tions) in mechanical pursuits; and the education of Jew- 
 ish youth is rendered extremely difficult and often im- 
 possible. And a population thus legally cribbed, cabin' d, 
 and confined is accused of idleness and usmy! Murder 
 is hard enough, but what shall we say of this palliation 
 of murder by lying and hypocrisy ? 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 61 
 
 The trouble is in tlie Eussian official attitude toward 
 the Jew. He is not treated as a fellow man; he is de- 
 nied the rights of a citizen. Official Eussia giving the 
 tone, individual Eussians — undoubtedly of the baser 
 sort — carry it to the extreme of insult, cruelty, piUage, 
 and murder. Would Eussia protect the Jew? Then 
 emancipate him from galling restrictions and unjust dis- 
 abilities, and enfranchise him as he is enfranchised in 
 the United States. I see no adequate and permanent 
 security for the Eussian Jew except the opportunity, 
 now denied him, of being a man and a citizen. And 
 even in the midst of the present gloom and horror I am 
 not without hope that the Czar, who, T believe, is ani- 
 mated by a noble idealism, may yet confer the full rights 
 and privileges of Eussians on his now oppressed and 
 suffering Jewish subjects. If not, America is still another 
 name for opportunity, and a race of such capacity and 
 endurance as the Jews is not only assured of trium- 
 phant survival, but, by virtue of its contributions to our 
 highest civilization, is entitled to universal welcome. 
 
 Address of the Rev. Dr. ROBERT S. McARTHUR 
 
 Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, New York City 
 
 To the words which have just been spoken I give a 
 long and loud Amen! 
 
 "We meet under the shadows of atrocities committed 
 at Kishinef, shadows which darken the sky of the civi- 
 lized world. The agonizing cries of Jewish men, women, 
 and children ring in our ears and almost rend our hearts. 
 The cruelties inflicted by brutal Eussians on helpless 
 
62 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 Jews have shocked civilized humanity. These cruelties 
 are caused by racial hatred and religious bigotry. They 
 carry us back to the Middle Ages, while we thought we 
 were in the twentieth century. We were flattering our- 
 selves that the days of such hatreds and bigotries had 
 passed away forever. The report of these atrocities, 
 therefore, fell upon us like a thunderbolt out of a clear 
 sky. Every Christian pulpit, every humanitarian plat- 
 form, and the entire newspaper press should ring with 
 denunciation of these indescribable and inconceivable 
 cruelties. These barbarians who call themselves Chris- 
 tians are utterly unworthy of the Christian name. They 
 are a dishonor to Christianity and a reproach to human- 
 ity. They have brought the persecutions of the dark 
 ages into the clear light of the twentieth century. Na- 
 poleon said, "Scratch a Eussian and you find a Tar- 
 tar. ' ' We may say truthfully of each Eussian engaged in 
 these recent massapres, ' ' Scratch a Eussian and you find 
 a demon. ' ' 
 
 Eussia is the Great Bear among the nations. Eussia, 
 so far as the murders at Kishinef represent her, is the 
 medieval barbarian in modern civilization. Eussia 
 slaughtered so many Chinese, and then threw their 
 bodies into the Eiver Amur, that the wheels of steam- 
 ers were impeded in their progress by the bodies float- 
 ing in the stream. Eussia, with her " peace rescript " 
 at The Hague and her atrocities toward the Jews, is the 
 gigantic contradiction among the nations. Ever since 
 the coronation of Ivan the Great, in 1462, the Czar of 
 Eussia has posed as God' s viceregent. Since that time 
 Eussia has claimed a Divine right to be the world's mas- 
 ter. Eussia is now aiming to rule the world. Her 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 63 
 
 deepest thought is that one day the world's mastership 
 will be hers. She wanted Siberia, and she took it. She 
 wanted Central Asia, and she took it. She wanted 
 Manchuria, and she is taking it. She wants India; 
 she wants the universe, and she hopes to get both; 
 but she may have to listen to the voice of Britain 
 and America and Japan before she can claim posses- 
 sion. 
 
 The foolish story which perhaps was the immediate 
 cause of the outbreaks at Kishinef, the story of the mur- 
 der of a Christian child for the sacrifice of the Feast of 
 the Passover, is a story that was told against the early 
 Christians by Pagan Eoman persecutors. Similar charges 
 were often brought by the superstitious and bigoted 
 Christians of the dark ages against the Jews. The possi- 
 bility that such a story could now be believed in Eussia 
 shows that some of the people are as illiterate and super- 
 stitious as if they lived in darkest Africa or in most 
 heathen China. 
 
 Jews have been the victims of persecutions by so- 
 caUed Christians in different lands and ages. The Chris- 
 tians guilty of these persecutions, in the name of the 
 God of the Jew and the Christian, were demons rather 
 than Christians. In the name of the God of Love, they 
 manifested the most murderous hate. They brought un- 
 speakable reproach upon Christianity. They were dis- 
 ciples of Sataninity rather than of Christianity. Chris- 
 tians of this character make atheism respectable and 
 even commendable. If such conduct were consistently 
 Christian, many of us would repudiate the Christian 
 name. God would be better pleased with us did we 
 doubt or even deny His existence rather than that we 
 
64 ETJSSIA AT THE BAB OP 
 
 should invoke His name and then murder His children. 
 In Spain the Jews have had numerous colonies since the 
 time of Hadrian, but even eight centuries before the 
 establishment of the Spanish Inquisition their fortunes 
 were confiscated and their bodies were tortured. They 
 afterward endured all the horrors of the Inquisition in 
 many parts of Spain. Violent conversion, the tortures 
 of the Inquisition and thousands burned at the stake — 
 these are the awful records of the fifteenth century in 
 Spain. The incidents of their departure from that land 
 are heartrending. Autos da fe happened in Portugal as 
 late as 1776, and in South America as late as 1812. The 
 story of these terrible persecutions is written in the 
 blood of God's ancient children in many lands and centu- 
 ries. In Poland similar persecutions have been endured. 
 Eeligious bigotry and superstition are the prolific 
 progenitors of agnosticism and atheism. Such atrocities 
 are Satan's most effective agent. Eacial hatred and 
 religious bigotry are twin relics of barbarism. They 
 transform earth, so far as their influence goes, into 
 Hades. The Jews, to-day, in their patient endurance 
 of unspeakable wrongs, more nearly incarnate and illus- 
 trate the ideal character set forth by Christ than do the 
 persecutors who falsely bear the Christian name. It is 
 not remarkable that many Jews almost hate the name of 
 Christianity, because all through the centuries many 
 who bore its name were their Satanic persecutors. It is 
 marvelous that men calling themselves Christians should 
 be so false to the spirit of the Christ and of the apostles. 
 Such false Christians forget that the Christ was a He- 
 brew of the Hebrews, and that the greatest of the 
 apostles rejoiced in his Hebrew blood and training. I 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 65 
 
 would rather be, at the bar of God and man, the perse- 
 cuted Jew at Kishiuef than the persecuting Christian at 
 Kishinef. 
 
 America lifted up her voice in remonstrance against 
 the persecution of the Jews in Eomnania. There is no 
 mightier voice issuing from any palace in Europe or 
 Asia than the voice that issues from the White House. 
 There is no throne of czar, kaiser, or king higher than 
 the presidential chair at Washington. The foremost 
 man in all the world to-night is the President of the 
 United States, and the foremost private citizen in all the 
 world is the ex- President of the United States. Eussia 
 listened when we protested against her trade policy in 
 Manchuria. We stood with Britain for the ' ' open door ' ' 
 for trade. 
 
 Is not religious liberty more important than any com- 
 mercial opportunity? Shall we remain silent while 
 Eussia is attempting to murder a race ? Shall not our 
 national contempt for her cowardice and brutality find 
 national expression! We protested against Spanish 
 barbarism in Cuba, and we finally drove the Spanish 
 bigots and barbarians out of the Western Hemisphere. 
 E'o diplomatist in the world is more capable of dealing 
 with the delicate and difficult question involved than is 
 our accomplished Col. John Hay. He has already de- 
 clared that the Golden Eule is the fundamental principle 
 in American diplomacy. He will assuredly find the 
 means of voicing the righteous indignation of the 
 American people and of enunciating the higher law of 
 the righteous God. America publishes to Eussia to- 
 night this ukase: The zone of barbarism must decrease, 
 and the zone of civilization must increase. All the gov- 
 
66 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 ernnients with whicli Russia desires to maintain rela- 
 tions ought to utter their protest. ISo nation can long 
 endure if its acts are condemned by the conscience of 
 mankind. If Russia is to avoid the contempt of the 
 civilized world, she must discover and punish the savage 
 perpetrators of these foul crimes. If our government will 
 emphatically inform Russia on what conditions she can 
 enjoy the respect, or even the recognition, of the Ameri- 
 can government, such action by the administration will 
 be endorsed by the American people, irrespective of 
 political creeds or religious faiths. America, if true to 
 herself, must rise above the barbarism of racial hatred. 
 She must grant equal justice to all men of all creeds 
 and all colors. Then, and only then, shall her voice be 
 resistlessly potent in rebuking the atrocities of Russia, 
 and then shall our beautiful America be fair as the 
 moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with 
 banners against all forms of evil wherever committed 
 against men of whatever color or creed on this broad 
 earth. 
 
 Standing beside the blackened homes of slaughtered 
 Jews in Kishinef, sympathizing with widows and orphans, 
 and weeping over new-made graves, I denounce, in the 
 name of civilization, and in the name of Christianity, 
 and in the name of humanity, this atrocious crime. It 
 is blasphemy to associate the name of Christ, the key- 
 note of whose birth song, as chanted by a celestial choir, 
 was, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
 good will toward men" — the Christ who arose from 
 Olivet to return to His vacant throne. His lips speaking 
 benedictions and His outstretched hands dropping bless- 
 ings — with cruelties toward the people He loved, and 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 67 
 
 whose blood filled His veins. Notwithstanding aU these 
 racial hatreds in Russia, and to some degree in America 
 still, as I believe in America, in liberty, in humanity, in 
 brotherhood, in a true Christianity, and in Almighty 
 Grod, I know a day of millennial blessing to rich and 
 poor, black and white, Jew and Gentile, is surely coming. 
 So I sing with Burns: 
 
 " For a' that, and a' that, 
 It's comin' yet, for a' that. 
 That man to man, the warld o'er. 
 Shall brithers be, for a' that." 
 
 Address of the Hon. EDWARD M. SHEPARD 
 
 If I had my way, this meeting would end with the 
 noble and thriUing words which you have just heard. 
 For me, indeed, it is utterly impossible to reach the 
 mountain height of that eloquence, to stir or reach your 
 hearts or your imaginations, after all that you have 
 heard from those who have gone before me. What can 
 I do except, perhaps, to say another Amen, or, perhaps, 
 to put before you the reason and the use of any expres- 
 sion on the part of American citizens I 
 
 It was a Jew and a Christian who told us that God 
 had made of one^blood all the nations of men, to dwell 
 on all the face of the earth. And when this dreadful 
 record of an Easter day came to us under the ocean, 
 perhaps nothing struck one who thought more than 
 this: how nearly one is this civilization of the world ! 
 Whether we call it Christian or Jewish, or by any name 
 whatsoever else, we see and we hear and we know that 
 ' ' one touch of nature makes the whole world kin. ' ' The 
 
68 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OP 
 
 misery, the murder, tlie hardship, and the ostracism of 
 the Jew in Kishinef or the Jew anywhere else, or of any 
 other race, or of men of any other religion, is your care 
 and my care, is the care of every nation, or ought to be, 
 and the care of every creed, or ought to be. 
 
 Here in the Eussia of Tolstoi, here in the Eussia of 
 the Czar, who, as the noble sentimentalist that I have 
 loved to believe him to be, could establish that court of 
 arbitration at The Hague — here in that dominion comes 
 a crime, almost the worst of civilization. And yet the 
 crime, as has been so well said here to-night, the crime 
 is not merely indicative of the recrudescence of bar- 
 barism the world over, the hate that I am to have for 
 the man of another or an alien land, the hate that you 
 will have for the man of another religion, the hate some 
 one else is to have for the man of another color or an- 
 other race — I tell you that it is all of a piece; I tell you 
 that the true note of civilization is that note, whether 
 we shall sound it in defense of the Jews in Eussia or 
 in defense of any other oppressed race the world over. 
 
 But what, friends, can we do here 1 Over in Bessa- 
 rabia, over against Moldavia, that part of the world 
 whose policies are dark, blood-stained, and dubious, 
 there is a small city, a city like New Haven, or like 
 Syracuse in our own State; there you have a popula- 
 tion peaceful, industrious, law-abiding — and they are 
 trampled and murdered as if they had been guilty, as 
 they never were, of crimes such as those of their op- 
 pressors. What can you and I do ? These Eussians in 
 Bessarabia, if they ever hear of any who are here to- 
 night, or ever hear of New York, will they listen to 
 what we say? Yes, they will listen. They may be 
 
THE AMEEICAK" PEOPLE 69 
 
 made to listen by those whom we can help to make 
 listen. There sits upon no throne a man so powerful 
 that he himself is not largely a creature of this public 
 sentiment of the world. Therefore it is that you and I 
 may utter a voice which shall be heard in St. Peters- 
 burg, a voice which shall say there: ''We are prepared 
 to believe you, O Czar, and you, Eussian Ministers, to be 
 innocent. We are prepared to believe, if the feet of 
 justice shall be swift and unerring. Let us see your 
 administration of justice. Let us know that, not only 
 will the Governor of Bessarabia be sent to some other 
 post, that this official or that official may be removed 
 or censured, that this ukase or that ukase may go 
 down in chancery at St. Petersburg; but let us know 
 and see a condign punishment visited upon the malefac- 
 tors. Give us that. Czar, and you, his Ministers, help 
 him; and when you do that, then shall we believe that 
 your sympathies are our sympathies, and that the Chris- 
 tians in America and in Eussia are at one in all that is 
 essential to Christianity. But until then — we say it with 
 pain — we are in doubt, and you will leave us in doubt so 
 long as you leave these outrages unpunished. Your skirts 
 can be cleared only in one way." 
 
 And that thing, fellow citizens, Americans, that thing 
 we can say. And believe me, friends, no power on 
 earth, with its military and naval forces, can override 
 for one moment the sentiment of humanity to which we 
 here to-night give voice. When this same anti-Jewish 
 mania was illustrated in the republic of France in the 
 Dreyfus case, every wise man knew that France for the 
 moment was weakened to its center. Every time we 
 know of a persecution in Eussia directed against Jews, 
 
70 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 because they are Jews, we see beneath the veneer of that 
 rapidly extending but imperfect civilization. 
 
 Mayor Low said a true thing, and it seems to be very 
 largely to my mind the immediate lesson of this dreadful 
 calamity and crime. You find the Jews over in Bessa- 
 rabia under legal disabilities. Of course, they do not 
 vote, for the Eussians themselves do not vote. Of course, 
 where there is no liberty and equality of privilege, inevit- 
 ably there is the darkness of medievalism. They tell us 
 that the Eussian peasants, those who are the most de- 
 graded, believe these absurd and horrid stories of Jewish 
 wrong-doing. Of course, they do this. As we were told 
 a moment ago, the Eomans believed the stories of the 
 early Christians. Here in New York, and here in this 
 republic of ours, the fact that we have this universal 
 suffrage, the fact that every man, of whatever race, the 
 moment he becomes an American, has the right to assert 
 his manhood and take his full share in political power, 
 that it is that gives the Jew, or gives any other race or 
 sect or creed in our land, access to public sentiment, its 
 share of public power, its assurance that public officers 
 will be more or less in awe of the public power which 
 that element may exercise. 
 
 Therefore, my wish is to see no harm to Eussia. Of 
 the five millions of Jews who are in Eussia, you know, 
 and I know, that most of them must remain there. 
 Their roots are in the ground. There are their wives 
 and their children, and their occupations; and their 
 bread and their butter there is earned by them, be it 
 with tears and sometimes in sight of blood. There they 
 must be. I wish well to Eussia, and my best wish to 
 Eussia is that she shall give to every portion of her 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 71 
 
 populace the right to be heard, that there shall be no 
 iQisery and no darkness and no oppression. I would 
 love to see Eussia basking in the sun of freedom, such 
 as Dr. MacArthur has so eloquently described as being 
 our privilege here in America. That is my best wish. 
 
 The hour is late, but one word more. How shall we 
 best test a government, or a civilization ? Believe me, 
 the crucial test is always to be found in its treatment of 
 the minorities. Where the majority in faith, in power, 
 in fashion; where the majority respects the minority — 
 those who look differently, those who live differently, 
 those who believe differently from them — there is the 
 highest civilization. Where you have a government to 
 protect the minority, to protect the unpopular, to pro- 
 tect, if you please, those who without crime or wrong 
 are odious, that government is the best government. 
 And I say that, not by way of farther rebuke to the 
 tyranny of Eussia, which we declare to-night, but I say 
 it of any land. May we here to-night take our lesson. 
 In our land is there no form of persecution of Jews? Is 
 there none ? In the western nations of Europe is there 
 none? There is. Is there no persecution here of mi- 
 norities, or of creeds, or of races that are in minorities, 
 that for one reason or another are impopular? Yes. 
 Have we Americans never ourselves shared, or seen 
 other Americans share, in like persecution? How 
 many weeks ago is it that when, south of Grand Street, 
 in this very borough, on the occasion of the funeral of a 
 revered rabbi, followed with grief by thousands and ten 
 thousands of our most useful citizens, you had an out- 
 burst, not bloody, but as infamous in its lesser way as the 
 crime which we condemn to-night ? 
 
72 RUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 Let us all remember, those who are in fashion, those 
 who are in places of social prestige or power, all who 
 share directly or indirectly in this persecution or depre- 
 ciation of any race, or of any creed, because it is not 
 their race or creed, they take upon themselves some 
 measure of the responsibility, even if it be a bloody 
 one, for their hate presents occasions of this kind the 
 world over. 
 
 We are here to respect one another; whatever be the 
 creed, whatever the race, whatever the belief, we are of 
 one blood, one before God and humanity. And when 
 that law, whether in greater things or in lesser things, 
 is violated, there is crime and there is wrong-doing. 
 Friends, may this voice of New York go to Eussia and 
 to St. Petersburg, and to every corner of civilization, 
 and may it, of all things, penetrate to the heart and the 
 mind of every American citizen, that the more we read 
 of wrong-doing in other lands, we shall make it certain 
 that nothing in any way resembling it shall disgrace the 
 Stars and Stripes, nor disgrace American sovereignty 
 the world over. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Shbpard's address, the resolu- 
 tions which had been presented by Mr. Baldwin were put by 
 the Mayor and carried unanimously, the Mayor saying that 
 if all the citizens of New York had an opportunity of voting 
 they would have expressed themselves with like unanimity: 
 
 Whereas, The citizens of New York have heard with 
 intense sorrow and indignation the news of the recent 
 outbreak against the Jews of KisMnef, Eussia, and the 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 73 
 
 shocking atrocities committed by the ignorant^ brutal, 
 and misguided populace, resulting in the massacre of 
 many men, women, and children, and the wounding and 
 maltreatment of hundreds of victims ; be it 
 
 Besolved, That as citizens of a republic friendly to 
 Eussia, we earnestly urge the claim of the Jews resident 
 in the empire to just and impartial treatment, and to 
 protection against such outrages as the Kishinef mas- 
 sacre. We protest against the spirit of medieval perse- 
 cution which has been revived in parts of Eussia. In 
 this country the recognition of the equality of all men 
 before the law — whatever their race or creed — is a prin- 
 ciple which, in practise, assures their loyal devotion to 
 the land of their birth or adoption. This is eminently 
 true of the Jewish immigrants from Russia who have settled 
 in the United States in large numbers, and who as a body 
 liave become industrious, thrifty, faithful, and law-abiding 
 citizens. 
 
 Resolved, That we sympathize with our fellow citizens 
 of the Hebrew faith in their grief and anxiety because 
 of this afOiction of their coreligionists in Eussia, and in 
 their energetic efforts for the relief of the people of 
 Kishinef. 
 
 Resolved, That the people of the United States should 
 exercise such influence with the government of Eussia 
 as the ancient and unbroken friendship between the two 
 nations may justify — to stay the spirit of persecution — to 
 redress the injuries inflicted upon the Jews of Kishinef, 
 and to prevent the recurrence of outbreaks such as have 
 amazed the civilized world. 
 
74 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 in. — The Mass-Meeting in Philadelphia 
 
 (Held at the Academy of Music, June 3, 1903) 
 
 William B. Haokbnbubg called the meeting to order, 
 and introduced ex-Mayor Charles F. Warwick as the chair- 
 man of the meeting. 
 
 Introductory Address of ex-Mayor CHARLES F. WARWICK 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : It has been a long time 
 since I served as even a substitute for a mayor (laughter), 
 but my choice was probably due to the adage that 
 "once a mayor always a mayor." I consider it one of 
 the greatest privileges and honors of my life to preside 
 at this meeting, because I know the heart of Philadelphia 
 speaks in this hall to-night to protest against barbarities 
 and inhumanities perpetrated against a people whose only 
 crime is a heroic resolve to live and worship the God of 
 their fathers. 
 
 Speech of FREDERICK J. SHOYER, Director of Supplies 
 
 Because of a previous engagement which renders his 
 attendance here to-night impossible, I am here to repre- 
 sent as best I can his Honor, the Mayor of the City of 
 Philadelphia, and no one more fully appreciates your dis- 
 appointment at his inability to be present than I do. The 
 right of the people peaceably to assemble to petition the 
 government for redress of grievances is vouched to the peo- 
 ple of the United States even as against their own rulers. 
 The law of nations and that of nature, with reference 
 to certain inalienable rights, make one family of all the 
 peoples of the earth. These rights are that life and lib- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 75 
 
 erty shall be and remain inviolate, and that property 
 shaU not be forfeited except by due process of law. The 
 recognition of these principles makes possible the freedom 
 of intercourse between nations in time of peace, and in 
 time of war prevents armies from harboring malice or 
 committing barbarities, and no breach of these rights is 
 allowed to go unpunished. 
 
 Bearing in mind these rights, and their denial to a free, 
 outraged, and most respectable portion of a community, a 
 people has assembled itself in public meeting in this, the 
 foremost city of the most advanced country in personal, 
 political, and religious freedom. The occasion of this 
 conference is the news that has reached us that in Kishi- 
 nef, Eussia, certain atrocities upon a Jewish portion of 
 the community have been perpetrated which seem incred- 
 ible. Men have been massacred with ferocious cruelty, 
 women outraged with indescribable horrors, and, as if it 
 were necessary to complete this most heinous work, 
 innocent babes have been offered to vengeance. It is to 
 discuss this situation in an intelligent and dispassionate 
 manner, which only the American people can appreciate, 
 that we are gathered together ; and to all of this his 
 Honor, the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, gives his 
 ardent and unqualified indorsement. 
 
 Speech of Ex-Judge JAMES GAY GORDON 
 
 The carnage at Kishinef is Christianity's contribution 
 to the opening history of the twentieth century of the 
 Christian era. The incident itself — ^the fact that un- 
 offending Jews have been mercilessly and cruelly slaugh- 
 tered by Christians, is novel neither in the extent nor 
 
76 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 barbarity of the massacre. "WTiat took place at Kishinef 
 has been taking place with more or less regulai' recur- 
 rence from the time of Calvary. The only unusual fact 
 about the recent slaughter is: that it has taken place to- 
 day, at this stage of civilization, and in a country 
 esteemed orderly aud law abiding. In aU other respects 
 Kishinef is simply a reprodxiction, in the stronger lights 
 of the twentieth ceutm-y. of the treatment of Jews by 
 Christiaus ever since the latter became a religious body 
 of power sufficient to persecute. 
 
 This meeting has been called to protest againsti the 
 bai'baric ti-eatment of the Jews within the domain of the 
 Czar of Eussia. Upon what logical basis can such a pro- 
 test be recorded by us of America ■? To whom shall the 
 protest be sent, and what shall be its natm-e t What is 
 it against which we are called upon to protest ? Surely 
 not merely that a score or more of innocent men have 
 been murdered ! Bloodshed is the occupation of most 
 of the civilized nations of the world to-day, and murder 
 is occurring in all the communities of the earth day by 
 day. Who would not protest against mm-der^ The 
 laws of aU states prescribe penalties for the crime and 
 methods for its detection and punishment. Neither is 
 it the fact that in this Eussian town a mob, setting 
 all authority at defiance, committed a number of miu'- 
 ders with circumstances of unusual ati-ocity. This, too, 
 is a matter of almost daily occiu'rence. Xot many 
 months since in our own State local authority was para- 
 lyzed by riotous assemblages, and blood stained the soil 
 in more counties than one. There must be, therefore, 
 in this Eussian incident something more than the mere 
 loss of life and defiance of law in a distant nation that 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 77 
 
 would cause or justify the assembliug of this public 
 meeting to protest against facts otherwise so common 
 and unnoteworthy. Considered dispassionately and hon- 
 estly, an assemblage of American citizens has only one 
 ground iipon which to stand ia asking that the recent 
 violation of law in Eussia should be made the subject of 
 extraordinary attention — and that ground must be plain 
 to every mind not blinded by prejudice or controlled by 
 hate and passion. 
 
 The Jews who were killed at Kishinef were killed be- 
 cause they were Jews, and were killed by Christians, in 
 the name of Christianity. When the mob set about its 
 work of horror, it made no mistake as to its victims. 
 The object of their cruelty was kept clearly before them 
 even at the very height of their murderous frenzy, and 
 that object was the Jew. None feU but Jews, and the 
 deadly strokes were all delivered by Christian hands. 
 In other words, Kishinef simply demonstrated that relig- 
 ious intolerance upon the part of Christians to-day is 
 made of the same fiber that it was from the beginning, 
 and that where it exists in the heart it needs only a suit- 
 able environment and opportunity for its exhibition in 
 the murderous form it has ever displayed. That is the 
 fact with reference to Kishinef, and to Americans the 
 lesson is obvious and the warning is clear and emphatic. 
 
 An attempt to give a political color to the Jewish 
 slaughter and to cast the responsibility upon the govern- 
 ment of the Czar can not be tolerated by any fair-minded 
 observer of the facts. When we are told that the local 
 authorities at Kishinef did not put down the mob and 
 protect the Jews, this proves nothing but the powerless- 
 ness of the local authorities, and does not assign the 
 
78 EUSSll AT THE bar' of" 
 
 cause of the massacre. How often in the past have mobs 
 taken possession of towns and cities within our own 
 country; how often within the past few years jails have 
 been broken open, stores looted, citizens shot down in 
 the street, or lynched at the lamp -post or even burned at 
 the stake, while jailers, marshalls, and sheriffs trembled 
 and stood still? Would any one think of laying the 
 blame for the atrocities of a mob in Pennsylvania, that a 
 sheriff did not restrain, at the door of the executive 
 authority at Harrisburg or at Washington? What 
 occurred at Kishinef was in substance not different from 
 this. The hounded and despised Jews were brutally 
 dismembered by an uprising of the native population 
 which the local magistrates neglected or were uuable to 
 suppress. To charge the Czar or his government with 
 inspiring these horrors would be as just as to charge his 
 Excellency, the Governor of this commonwealth, with 
 the next outbreak which may occur in any county of 
 this State. Yet the slaughter at Kishinef should be met 
 with a protest from America. That protest, however, 
 should not go to the Czar of Eussia, but to the Holy 
 Synod, the head of the Greek Church, representing 
 organized Christianity in Eussia. 
 
 It is Christianity that is on trial, and not the govern- 
 ment of the Czar. The Jew comes out of this carnage as 
 he has always come out of persecution in the past, with 
 a character more Christian than his Christian persecu- 
 tor. Of all races in the tide of time that have been the 
 victims of religious intolerance, the Jew alone has exem- 
 plified the doctrine of non-resistance taught by the 
 founder of Christianity in the Sermon on the Mount. 
 For nineteen centuries he has been the unresisting vie- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 79 
 
 tim of Christian intolerance. Wlien smitten he has not 
 struck back at his assailant, but has turned the other 
 cheek to the smit«r, as the Master whom Christians pro- 
 fess to follow taught that His disciples should do. The 
 Eussian barbarities concern the future status of the Jew 
 less than the future status of Christianity. Allied with 
 temporal power, the Christian Church has always been 
 intolerant and generally cruel. In this respect the 
 twentieth century is not different from the Middle Ages; 
 St. Bartholomew's Day has its modern counterpart in 
 Kishinef. The Torquemadas and Lauds of the past have 
 their successors in the Patriarch of Constantinople and 
 the Holy Synod of to-day. 
 
 That Christendom, out of its vast wealth, shall send 
 thousands for the relief of the victims of Christian perse- 
 cution will not atone for the murderous deed nor blot out 
 the infamous stigma. Wben we send our dole of relief 
 to the suffering communities of India or China, we do it 
 from an instinct of humanity common to all peoples of 
 whatever creed. But Christianity can not absolve itself 
 or regain its rectitude at the bar of conscience by any 
 mercenary atonement in this case. There is one thing, 
 and one thing only, that the followers of the Nazarene 
 Jew can do that will save themselves from shame and 
 their Church from reproach, and that is to assert in 
 terms of unequivocable emphasis not only the denuncia- 
 tion of the murder of the Jews, but also the absolute and 
 unqualified rights of conscience to all men of every creed 
 and in every land. Upon this subject no equivocal 
 utterance will suffice. Eeligious intolerance and persecu- 
 tion, whether it employ the sword or take the form of 
 social or political ostracism, must be denounced by 
 
80 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 Cliristiaiis as a crime abhorrent to the essence of their 
 religion and to the life and teachings of the Jewish 
 founder of their faith. On this subject of religious toler- 
 ation Americans can hold no equivocal position, neither 
 can Christianity speak with reservation or ambiguity. 
 The quality of tolerance, like the quality of mercy, is not 
 strained. It is either absolute and utter, or else it is 
 intolerance which only waits for the opportunity to burst 
 into persecution. 
 
 Speaking as one born into an inheritance of Christian 
 faith, to which his heart and maturer mind still render 
 assent, I should abjiu'e that faith and renounce all con- 
 nection with that Church did it not hold and avow the 
 absolute right in all men to worship God according to 
 their own personal convictions and conscience without 
 suffering the slightest dinalnution of political, social, or 
 industrial equality. 
 
 I protest in the name of the Master of Christianity 
 against the murder of the Jews at Kishinef. I protest 
 in the name of the doctrine of peace and brotherhood 
 which he taught. I protest, finally, as an American 
 living under a Constitution whose chief corner-stone is 
 a guaranty of civil and religious hberty to all men. 
 
 Kishinef is a warning as well as a lesson. Eeligious 
 hate in Eussia took the form of slaughter because it dis- 
 played itself in a land where human life is held cheap, 
 where militarism prevails, where the Church is allied 
 with a despotic government, and where force and might 
 are the measures of right and law. In other words, re- 
 ligious intolerance in Eussia lifted the sword because the 
 sword was near at hand and the known weapon of power. 
 The point to be emphasized is, however, that the motive 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 81 
 
 -was religiotis hate, and that through the gaps in that 
 struggling, murderous mob can be seen the fluttering 
 skirts of the Christian priest. 
 
 In America the same motive, the same intolerance and 
 hate, would employ a different weapon and adopt sub- 
 tler means to execute its barbarous vengeance. The 
 cruelty of religious intolerance is measured only by its 
 opportunities. Nothing in all its history has shown 
 itself more cruel than the Christian fanatic with a sword 
 in his hand. Kishinef for sheer savagery can not be 
 exceeded by any massacre history records. Intolerance 
 bides its time and waits its opportunity. The ostracism 
 of Jews by Christians in America is only Kishinef with a 
 mask on. The religious hate which in this country 
 taboos the Jew in trades, or at the public hotel, or that 
 assails him with sneers and scornful epithets in the street, 
 would drive nails through his head, would cut off the 
 breasts of mothers, and dash children from housetops to 
 the pavements in Eussia. The demonstration of toler- 
 ance depends upon its environment, but the motive is 
 everywhere and always the same. 
 
 Let American Christians, therefore, use this occasion 
 to rededicate themselves to the foundation principles of 
 their government, and let American Christians protest 
 against all forms of religious intolerance under whatever 
 name or guise, and against whom or whatsoever faith, 
 and declare Christianity as being the religion of tolera- 
 tion, "broad and general as the casing air." Every 
 form of Christian faith should unite in such a declara- 
 tion, and should join in a protest against the outrages of 
 Kishinef, inspired by religious hate at Kishinef. 
 
 That branch of the Christian Church, no matter what 
 
82 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 its name or how miineroTis or few its members, that 
 would halt or equivocate upon such a subject is neither 
 Christian in principle nor worthy of the trust and liber- 
 ties of the American government. Let Eome and Gen- 
 eva, cathedral and meeting-house, unite in common 
 defense of their faith, against the stain put upon it by 
 Christians at Eashinef. If Christianity does not deny 
 intolerance and persecution in every form, it is an out- 
 law at the bar of humanity, and it crucifies afresh the 
 gentle Jew who yielded himself up even unto death that 
 gentleness and love, peace and brotherhood, should pre- 
 vail over all the world even unto the ends thereof. 
 
 Speech of the Rev. Dr. RUSSELL H. CONWELL 
 
 I want to declare that the outrages were not Christian 
 proceedings. It is impossible for a Christian to perse- 
 cute his fellow beings or to be unkind to the Jews, to 
 whom we owe so much. Any cruelty in the guise of 
 Christianity is a sham. I can not feel that in this great 
 city there is a single person who would have partici- 
 pated in the recent massacre. My belief was vindicated 
 when, without a dissenting vote, the golden-tongued 
 Sulzberger was made a Judge of our Philadelphia courts. 
 
 When I look around and before me, and catch a sight 
 of the glorious American flag, the sight inspires me to 
 think that the United States means to interfere and say 
 something by way of protest in this Kishinef matter, and 
 if America does speak, her words will have influence in 
 the remotest quarters of the world. 
 
 This meeting may inspire our feUow citizens in other 
 sections to hold similar meetings. We should, therefore. 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 83 
 
 express our disapproval in conservative terms if we wish 
 to make them effective. If you think that what is said 
 here to-night will not reach beyond the boundaries of 
 the walls of this building, you will find that you are mis- 
 taken. Eussia is a great government, and she knows 
 that to-day the eyes of the entire civilized world are upon 
 her in view of the Kishinef horrors, and you will find 
 that she has ways of learning what we are doing here to- 
 night. 
 
 We have cause to sympathize with all persecuted 
 peoples, for the footsteps of the men who first came to 
 our shores were those of men who had suffered religious 
 persecution in their native lands. 
 
 The men or mob that committed the outrages in Kish- 
 inef were not Christians. Christianity means good char- 
 acter, a loving heart for our fellow men. As Christians 
 we denounce the affair as unchristian. 
 
 A speaker who preceded me said that there were some 
 spirits even here in Philadelphia narrow enough to 
 attempt to persecute Jews in a petty way, and he has 
 intimated that if these persons were in Russia they would 
 be soon as bad as the Kishinef persecutors. I do not 
 share his opinion. I can not believe that there are any 
 such persons in this city. I know that there is a desire 
 on the part of some people in Philadelphia to say harsh 
 things about Jews and indulge in petty persecutions, but 
 I will never believe that this is a spirit representative of 
 this City of Brotherly Love, where the persecuted of all 
 nations and races have ever found a welcome refuge. 
 
 Brother Jews, Philadelphia has heartily welcomed 
 you. We will tell the Czar that we hold him responsi- 
 ble for this matter, not as Christians or Jews, but as 
 
84 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 Americans. Whatever goes out from here, I don't want 
 the Czar to think that we absolve him from responsibility 
 in this affair. "We want to tell the Czar that he should 
 do for Eussia what he has tried to do for all the nations in 
 the world by establishing the peace tribunal to prevent 
 bloodshed and strife. It may be true that the Jew by 
 his thrift has excited the envy of his shiftless neighbors 
 in Eussia as well as elsewhere, but this does not absolve 
 the Czar from blame. 
 
 Speech of Judge WILLIAM N. ASHMAN 
 
 I do not altogether agree with what was said by that 
 distinguished and eloquent judge, whom I have always 
 admired, and whom I admire to-day. I think he was 
 too severe on Christians and not quite severe enough 
 upon Eussia. I am a Christian, but I would not be a 
 Christian at all if I hated a Jew, and we are here to- 
 night to protest against the action of Eussia. 
 
 It is near time, I think, for us to recast the word "civ- 
 ilization." It does not mean rich cities, vast armies, and 
 navies. All these may be possessed by a nation, and 
 yet there may be something behind it aU that may class 
 that nation as uncivilized. 
 
 Christianity means life because it puts men of all ranks 
 side by side, and recognizes in them representatives of 
 aU ages having a common destiny in view. That is true 
 Christianity. That is the civilization of the United 
 States. I am sorry to have to say that in that sense 
 Eussia is not ci%'ilized. 
 
 This protest which we are making means, perhaps, 
 more than any of us think. It may be called, perhaps^ 
 
THE AMEBICAN PEOPLE 85 
 
 the battle of paper bullets, but these are the weapons 
 that are going to revolutionize the world. Decrees from 
 such tribunals as ours will, perhaps, reach Eussia, and 
 will say to that mighty nation : "You are outside of the 
 pale of civilization. We wiU not have anything to do 
 with you. Your commercial and diplomatic relations 
 with the civilized world are sundered." In face of this 
 decree from the tribunal of the people, Eussia could not 
 for a moment stand. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 Upon the invitation of the chairman, George McCubdy, 
 President of the Common Council, read the f oUoTving resolu- 
 tions, which were adopted by the meeting with acclamation : 
 
 Whereas, The citizens of Philadelphia have heard 
 with intense sorrow and indignation the news of the re- 
 cent outbreak against the Jews of Kishinef, Eussia, and 
 the shocking atrocities committed there, resulting in the 
 massacre of many men, women, and children, and the 
 wounding and maltreatment of hundreds of victims j be it 
 
 Besolved, That we earnestly urge the claim of the Jews 
 resident in the empire to just and impartial treatment, 
 and to protection against such outrages as the Kishinef 
 massacre. We protest against the spirit of medieval 
 persecution which has been revived in Eussia. In this 
 country the recognition of the equality of all men before 
 the law — whatever their race or creed — is a principle 
 which, in practise, assures their loyal devotion to the 
 land of their birth or adoption. This is eminently true 
 of the Jewish immigrants from Bussia who have settled in 
 
86 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 the United States in large numbers, and who, as a body, have 
 become industrious, thrifty, faithful, and law-abiding citizens. 
 
 Resolved, That we sympathize with our fellow citizens 
 of the Hebrew faith in their grief and anxiety because 
 of this affliction of their coreligionists in Eussia, and in 
 their energetic efforts for the relief of the people of 
 Kishinef. 
 
 Resolved, That the people of the United States should 
 exercise such influence with the government of Eussia 
 as may be practicable to stay the spirit of persecution — 
 to redress injuries inflicted upon the Jews of Kishinef, 
 and to prevent the recurrence of outbreaks such as have 
 amazed the civilized world. 
 
 Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be sent to 
 the President of the United States and to the Secretary 
 of State. 
 
 LETTERS READ BY THE CHAIRMAN 
 
 Letter of GROVER CLEVELAND, ex-President of the 
 United States 
 
 Princeton, lif. J., May 23, 1903. 
 Ben Zion D. Oliensis, Esq. 
 
 Mt dear Sir: Since my recent conference with you 
 and your associates, in which you urged me to attend a 
 mass-meeting to be held in the City of Philadelphia, to 
 give expression to the feelings aroused by the terrible 
 barbarities to which the Jews have recently been sub- 
 jected in Eussia, I have fully determined that there is 
 no way in which I can arrange my affairs so that I can 
 accept your invitation. The object of the meeting is one 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 87 
 
 which naturally stirs the sensibilities of every right- 
 thinking man, and I do not wonder that our fellow-citi- 
 zens in Philadelphia, as weU as in other American cities, 
 seek to unite in expressing their deep sense of horror at 
 the cruelties which have recently been called to their 
 attention. I hope that this meeting and the expression 
 of American sentiment attendant thereupon may have 
 the effect of terminating such cruel incidents and at the 
 same time affording relief to those who have already 
 suffered. 
 
 You will probably be surprised to learn, after my 
 assurances to you that it would be impossible for me to 
 attend any of the meetings of this character to which I 
 have been invited, that I have, nevertheless, consented to 
 attend such a meeting to be held in New York, Wednes- 
 day, May 27. 
 
 This invitation I have accepted in consequence of a 
 condition of affairs (not understood by me at the time 
 of my conference with your committee), by which I 
 had become so far committed without intending it that it 
 was impossible for me to refuse to answer the expectations 
 which had been aroused. 
 
 Letter of the Ri^t Rev. Archbishop PATRICK JOHN RYAN 
 
 Aechbishop's House, 
 Logan Square, Philadelphia, June 1, 1903. 
 
 Deae Sie: In reply to your request for a copy of my 
 address on the occasion of the Citizens' Protest Meeting, 
 on Wednesday evening, I beg to say that by an engage- 
 ment of some months' standing I am obliged to be present 
 
88 EUSSIA AT THE BAli OF 
 
 at the academic exercises of St. Joseph's College on that 
 oveuing. 
 
 I am, of course, in entire sympathy with the object 
 and spirit of the citizens' meeting. I have a profound 
 horror of the wholesale massacre of women and children 
 at Kishinef, and believe that the public opinion of the 
 world should be united in condemnation of it. 
 
 Speech of Rabbi JOSEPH KRAUSKOPF, D.D. 
 
 Mr. Chairman: I rise to speak to-night, not as a 
 Jew, but as an American citizen ; not as a son of the 
 Hebrew race, but as a member of that larger world-wide 
 family named Humanity. Had the pillaged and out- 
 raged and massacred of Kishinef been Roman or Greek 
 Catholics, or Finnish Protestants, I would have raised 
 my voice in protest and denunciation as loudly as I raised 
 it from this very platform on diverse prior occasions, at 
 the time when the downtrodden Irishman clamored for 
 home rule, or when the oppressed Eussian Christian en- 
 treated for deliverance from the cruelties of Siberian bond- 
 age ; as loudly as on other platforms I denounced the 
 wrongs done the negro, Cuban, or Boer. Past is the day 
 in civilized lands when only those were considered of 
 concern who shared one's creed or blood. The religion 
 that is not broad enough to plead the cause of the 
 wronged of all peoples is in our day regarded unworthy 
 of its name. 
 
 The widespread demonstration of this truth at the 
 present time is the silver lining to the dark cloud that 
 Eussian atrocity has raised across the land of the Musco- 
 vite. Through its rifts we catch glimpses of a beauteous 
 
THE AMEKICAX PEOPLE 89 
 
 beyond, of a time when even sucli sporadic outburst 
 of fanaticism and scoundrelism as recently shocked the 
 ■s^'orld -nill be made impossible by the closely interrelated 
 sympathies of the ■whole human family. 
 
 A ti m e there ■svas when, instead of one Kishinef, Jew- 
 ish history recorded a hundred ; when, instead of one 
 ritual blood accusation, scores of them were, at the 
 advent of every Eastertide, made the occasion of pillage 
 and massacre of Jews. A time was when, instead of one 
 Dreyfus, many thousands of Jews were innocently con- 
 demned and degraded and exiled to a living hell on 
 earth. Xo voice was then raised in the defense of the 
 Jew, no pen then moved in advocacy of his cause. The 
 Jew's suffering then was no man's concern. 
 
 It is far different now. To-day the foremost news- 
 papers of all the world devote column upon column to 
 the branding of the would-be reinaugurators of the cruel 
 Dark Ages. Heads of Chi-istian Churches cry out their 
 indignation. Christian legislators pass their resolutions 
 of protest ; Christian mayors of cities. Christian govern- 
 ors of states — ay, even a Chi-istian ex-President of the 
 United States — express in ringing sounds their condem- 
 nation of outrages against the Jews. 
 
 "What is all this but an eloquent declaration that Jus- 
 tice is not yet dead, that Humanity, far from having sur- 
 rendered its scepter, rules mightier to-day than ever 
 before, that the cause of Eight, which mighty Egypt, 
 powerful Babylon, all-conquering Eome could not over- 
 throw, will never be suppressed by the hand of the 
 ^Russians. 
 
 Yet powerful evidences as these protests are of the 
 growth of Humanity, the cause that gives rise to them is 
 
90 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 no less eloquent proof that the devil likewise is not yet 
 dead. Had the devil been dead, the recent holy Easter 
 could never have been converted into a modern St. Bar- 
 tholomew's Day. Had the devil been dead, the Bessa- 
 rabetz could never have been suffered by the lynx-eyed 
 censor to incite the rabble to bloodshed and outrage, 
 nor could its publication have continued to this day, 
 under the same bloodhound editor, while the Voskhod 
 is suppressed by order of the government for the crime 
 of publishing an account of the massacre of the other 
 paper's instigation. Had the devil been dead, his 
 minions could never have done his work at St. Peters- 
 burg, nor could his wickedness have been extenuated 
 in the capital of our own nation by the mouth of the 
 Russian ambassador. 
 
 Ton have read the reasons assigned by Count Cassini 
 as cause of the recent massacre, and your blood boiled in 
 the reading of it. What would your feelings have been 
 if, like me, you had traversed, for purposes of study and 
 observation, the very region in which the massacres 
 occurred, and you had with your own eyes seen the facts 
 that give the lie to every statement made by the Russian 
 Ambassador? These deliberate falsehoods on the part 
 of an official high in authority would probably have 
 afforded you an insight into the extent of the Jews' suf- 
 fering in Russia. When a Russian Ambassador, in a 
 free land, where the Jews enjoy equal rights, where they 
 are recognized as important factors in the growth and 
 development of the nation; where they have the right to 
 speak, to answer the acciiser, to prove the falsity of his 
 charges, dares to give utterance to such an infamous libel, 
 you may weU imagine the falsehoods that are charged 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 91 
 
 against the Jew in Eussia, where the Jew has not the 
 right to answer his traducers, where the Jew has no re- 
 course to court or free press or public platform to prove 
 his innocence when his accuser is a Eussian government 
 offtcial. 
 
 We blame the mob for its dastardly attack on the help- 
 less and defenseless, when we should rather blame the 
 inciting power back of it. Back of the Kishiuef massa- 
 cre stand years of Eussian tyranny and misrule, years of 
 extortion by Eussian tax-collectors, years of riotous in- 
 dulgence on the part of the Eussian officials at the cost 
 of the Eussian peasantry. Back of the Kishinef massa- 
 cre stands the knowledge at St. Petersburg of the spread- 
 ing disaffection of the Eussian people toward their 
 government, stands the necessity of creating a vent 
 through which the fomenting discontent might expend 
 itself on another than the government. Back of the 
 Kishinef massacre stands the necessity of making the 
 Jew, the traditionally hated of the orthodox Church, to 
 serve as the scapegoat, as the innocent sufferer for the 
 sins of the government. 
 
 It is the sins of the Eussian government and the fanati- 
 cism of the Eussian Church that incited the mob to pil- 
 lage, rapine, and murder, and not the sins of the Eussian 
 Jews, as Count Cassiai informed the Associated Press. 
 No Eussian would ever have dared to lay violent hands 
 on the Jew had not Eussia, by endless cruel enactments 
 against the Jew, by denying him the right of citizenship, 
 by excluding him, for the most part, from the public 
 schools, from the professions, from the other higher call- 
 ings, by denying him the right to choose his own place 
 of habitation, by huddling him within a restricted area, 
 
92 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 made manifest that the Jew is held to be the outcast and 
 pariah of Eussian society, and that the nation's riddance 
 of him is the highest desire of the Eussiau government 
 and Church. 
 
 But these are not the reasons C!ount Cassini assigns 
 for the recent massacre at Kishinef. The Eussian Jew 
 is disliked, he says, "because he will not work in the 
 field or engage in agriculture." Oh, the infamy of this 
 charge ! Oh, the deviltry of first denying to the Jew 
 the right of owning or renting or cultivating land, even 
 of living in villages, and then charging him with not 
 working in the field or engaging in agriculture ! Oh, 
 the cruelty of accusing the Jews of an unwillingness to 
 till the SOU, when during my visit to the Jewish agricul- 
 tural colonies in the governments of Bkaterinoslaw and 
 Cherson, which were founded by Czar Nicholas I., and 
 are the only Jewish agricultural colonies permitted in aU 
 Eussia, I myself lived among Eussian Jewish peasants, 
 saw them at work, and found their farms, despite the fact 
 that the poorest land had been assigned them, in a far 
 thriftier condition than those of their non-Jewish neigh- 
 bors ! Oh, the cruelty of the charge that the Eussian 
 Jew is unwilling to till the soil, when almost in every 
 colony I visited — being taken for a Eussian of&cial on 
 account of my long military cape overcoat I chanced to 
 wear — women on their knees, amid their tear -bedewed 
 kisses on my hands, begged me for more land to culti- 
 vate, that they might save themselves and their children 
 fl?om starvation ! 
 
 Oh, the cruelty of that charge, when in the office of 
 the Baron de Hirsch Committee at St. Petersburg I was 
 shown a pile of letters, counting by the hundreds, in 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 93 
 
 which Jews from all parts of Eussia begged for land to 
 cidtivate to keep starvation from their doors ! 
 
 Oh, the cruelty of the charge that the Eussian Jew 
 will not devote himself to agricultural labors, when I, 
 myself, in the year 1894, at the City of St. Petersburg, 
 after a personal conference with the Eussian Minister, 
 Sergjej Julijewitsch de Witte, petitioned the government 
 of the Czar for permission to settle as farmers upon un- 
 occupied lands of the interior those of the overcrowded 
 Jewish Pale of Settlement, who, for want of room and 
 employment and food, are forced to emigrate to for- 
 eign shores. That petition, even tho it had the hearty 
 indorsement of the foremost Jews of St. Petersburg, even 
 tho it was personally presented by our American Minis- 
 ter, the Hon. Andrew D. White, even tho the government 
 was promised that Jews of other parts of the world 
 would financially aid these colonies, so that their success 
 might obviate the necessity of Eussian Jews either 
 starving in their congested centers at home, or being 
 driven by the thousands to other parts of the world 
 for a livelihood— that petition has remained unanswered 
 to this day. 
 
 "The Jew prefers to be a money-lender," says Count 
 Cassini. "Give a Jew a couple of dollars, and he be- 
 comes a banker and money -broker." This charge is in 
 falsity a worthy companion to the one I have already 
 answered. Count Cassini would have the American peo- 
 ple believe that the Eussian Jew is bristling with wealth, 
 when the truth of the matter is that greater misery and 
 poverty and wretchedness than among the congested 
 Eussian Jews can perhaps not be found upon the face of 
 the earth. I have seen much misery in my life. I have 
 
94 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 been among the reconcentradoes during the Cuban war, 
 but not even their misery can be compared with that 
 which I beheld in that living hell in Eussia known as 
 the Jewish Pale of Settlement. 
 
 Now, are these Eussian cruelties against the Jews to 
 continue forever ? Is there no remedy ? Wholesale emi- 
 gration has been suggested. It is impossible for all of 
 them to emigrate. There is no people and no land that 
 could cope with such a gigantic problem as that of hous- 
 ing and caring for five millions of people imtil able to 
 take care of themselves. 
 
 "There is but one remedy," suggests another, "and 
 that is conversion to the Eussian Orthodox Christian 
 Church." The Eussian Jew has demonstrated during 
 the hundreds of years of his misery that he can suffer, 
 he can die, but that he can not live a Ue, that he can not 
 accept the faith of that people who on a holy Easter 
 morn can enter a church to worship the Prince of Peace, 
 who gave up His life for the sake of peace and good will 
 toward men, and then hasten forth from their sanctuary 
 into the quarters where live the very brethren of Him 
 they have just worshiped, and commit fiendish outrages 
 among them, massacring and biitcheriug men and women, 
 sparing neither the gray-haired nor the infants at their 
 mothers' breasts. 
 
 Our distinguished fellow citizen, the Hon. Andrew D. 
 White, who was Minister to Eussia at the time of my 
 visit to St. Petersburg, told me an interesting story that 
 well bears repetition here. It is the custom for Eussians 
 to assemble in the streets to greet the Easter dawn with 
 the exclamation "Christ is risen !" and to greet and em- 
 brace one another with the same salutation. On one of 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 95 
 
 these mornings the Czar, upon returning to his palace, 
 addressed the sentinel at the entrance with the Easter 
 greeting, " Christ is risen ! " Not receiving an answer, 
 the Czar repeated his salutation, upon which the sentinel 
 repUed, "Your Majesty, the Messiah has not yet risen ! " 
 He was a Jewish soldier. The Czar paused a moment 
 as if about to say something, but held his peace and 
 passed into his palace meditatively. He had recognized 
 the truth of the Jewish soldier's answer — the Messiah 
 had not yet come, the Christ had not yet risen. 
 
 When the Christian shall have learned to practise the 
 religion he professes, when he shall love his neighbor as 
 himself, and do to others as he would have others do 
 unto him; when he will give glory to God in the highest 
 by spreading peace and good will among men, then will 
 the Christ have risen, then will the Messiah have come. 
 
 Speech of the Hon. JOSEPH E. NOWREY, Mayor of Camden, Pa. 
 
 I esteem it one of the greatest privileges that I have 
 ever enjoyed to represent the people of Camden, two hun- 
 dred of whom are present with me, in joining vith this 
 municipality to extend our sympathy to the victims of 
 the horrible massacre at Kishinef, and to utter a protest 
 in order that such a tragedy may never occur again. 
 
 We have been admonished by the speakers to be 
 cautious in what we have to say, to voice our protests in 
 a mild manner. This is not my idea of protest. I be- 
 lieve that such protests should be made with vigor and 
 in no uncertain tone. A feeble protest to the Czar of 
 Eussia will result in but little benefit. A feeble protest 
 is no protest whatever. 
 
96 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OP 
 
 This great crime has been committed in the name of 
 Christianity, and it rests with the Christianity of our 
 own beloved country, even the it would not for an 
 instant encourage such outrages, to exert every honorable 
 means and to use every influence we have at command 
 to induce our government to send such a message to the 
 Czar of all the Eussias that we may never again have a 
 recurrence of the unholy massacres. 
 
 "We desire, as citizens of a municipality numbering 
 about 80,000 souls, to express to the Czar of Eussia the 
 horror we feel at this outrage. 
 
 It is our wish that our sympathy be expressed to the 
 relatives and friends of the victims of Kishinef. 
 
 Speech of Judge MAYER SULZBERGER 
 
 "I appeal for assistance for the thousands of orphans 
 of massacred parents." To these words of Michael 
 Davitt, journalist and statesman, oabled to a great 
 American journal from the scene of carnage, I can add 
 nothing. 
 
 But there is something to be done. The dead are 
 buried, the maimed are suffering, the ruined are broken 
 in spirit, the orphans are orphans. Mischief accom- 
 plished is remediless, but the causes which produced it 
 may be modified or removed so as to prevent further 
 mischief. 
 
 We are met to-night to summon Eussia before the bar 
 of civilization. Colossal in territory and in brute force, 
 she can refuse to appear, and if she so refuses, no direct 
 coercion or punishment is possible. She may choose to 
 stand entrenched in might and wrong. 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 97 
 
 Should that be her attitude, petitions will avail no 
 more than threats, abject servility than boastful hector- 
 ing. 
 
 There are, however, two Eussias — the Eussia of offi- 
 ciaUsm and the Eussia of conscience — the one represent- 
 ed by the assassins of Kishinef and their spokesmen, and 
 the other by Tolstoy and Gorky. The former has power 
 and wealth, the latter right and justice on its side. The 
 former may repress and persecute, the latter can but 
 suffer and protest. This cry of suffering and of protest 
 we, in common with the whole civilized world, may take 
 up and carry further until it shall become one universal 
 shout of civilization, the shout that forebodes doom to 
 darkness and to crime. 
 
 "What more can I say ? Words are needed rather to 
 soothe than to harrow feelings, to counsel calmness 
 rather than increase excitement. 
 
 As regards the Czar of Eussia, if his manifestoes in 
 favor of peace and toleration have but a spark of honor- 
 able intent, if they be not mere devices of barbarian 
 insincerity, he can roll from off his country the burden 
 of shame which oppresses it. The wretched criminals of 
 Kishinef may well plead that they have been trained by 
 the highest example. A governmental policy which 
 drives people from the places where they were born or 
 have been long established, into strange places over- 
 filled with strugglers, where they must first beg and then 
 starve, is as cruel as Kishinef and more wicked, because 
 more deliberate in conception and more colossal in re- 
 sults. Compared to the mortality thus produced, the 
 Kishinef massacre is insignificant. 
 
 And yet this is the policy which the head of the Eus- 
 
98 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 sian State and the head of the Eussian Church have for 
 many years allowed to be carried out. What is it pos- 
 sible to expect from wretched criminals when the teach- 
 ings of such acts are always before them 1 
 
 And not only its own Jewish subjects has Eussia mal- 
 treated, but it has refused to permit the Jewish subjects 
 and citizens of other powers to enjoy the right of travel 
 and sojourn which passports assure among all civilized 
 peoples, and in so doing it has forced its barbarous, 
 medieval notions on the Western world. 
 
 The passport of the United States of America is not 
 good in Eussia unless its owner has, before entering that 
 country, declared his religious faith to a Eussian of&cial, 
 and if that faith happens to be the Jewish, the passport 
 is worthless in whole or in part. To reach the Jew, she 
 puts Catholics, Protestants, and all others to the question. 
 
 That civilized government should retaliate by non- 
 intercourse or by war no one will contend. But we may 
 protest and again protest in favor of human rights as 
 understood by the modern world. 
 
 Moreover, we may show resentment at this interfer- 
 ence by Eussia in our internal affairs, and energetically 
 repudiate her right to interpret or to mutilate the pass- 
 port stamped with the Great Seal of the United States of 
 America. 
 
 Let, then, the message of this meeting go forth in unison 
 with all the voices of civiUzation. It may be met with 
 insult and contumely, as such messages have been met 
 before. On the other hand, it may somehow and some- 
 where in Eussia touch a responsive chord. 
 
 There is a great heart within great Eussians, and let 
 us pray that there may be at least a little heart in 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 99 
 
 powerful rulers. Whatever be the immediate result, 
 the hope for humanity and justice must not falter. 
 Against the blood-curdling cruelty of barbarism we in- 
 voke the enlightened conscience of civilization. Prom 
 the wickedness of earthly rulers we reverently appeal to 
 the justice of God who holdeth nations in the hollow of 
 His hand, who heareth the cry of the lowly and taketh 
 note of the oppressor's deeds, who lifteth up principali- 
 ties and powers and casteth them down. 
 
 IV. — The Mass-Meeting in New Orleans. 
 Louisiana 
 
 (Held June 13, 1903, in the Crescent Theater J 
 
 Introductory Address by Mayor PAUL CAPDEVIELLE 
 
 The people of this city never fail to come forward on 
 the side of right and justice, and upon this occasion they 
 seek the opportunity to express their sympathy with 
 the abused and stricken Jews of Bussia, and to endeavor 
 to find some way in which to put a stop to this barbarity. 
 
 LETTERS READ BY SECRETARY HENRY M. MAYO 
 
 Letter of the Rt. Rev. Archbishop PLACIDE LOUIS CHAPELLE 
 
 Being almost on the eve of my departure to Cuba, 
 many pressing engagements will not permit me, much 
 to my regret, to express viva voce my sorrow and indig- 
 nation at these outrages. I have already done so by 
 the way of the press a few days ago. 
 
100 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 Letter of the Rt. Rev. Bishop DAVIS SGSSUMS 
 
 Surely the terrible savagery and cruelties wMch have 
 been there enacted, if the accounts be correct, must fill 
 the civilized and Christian world with horror, and the 
 profoundest sympathy must be universally felt for the 
 sufferers, and the utmost condemnation must be uni- 
 versally passed upon their oppressors. 
 
 That in this age in any one of the so-called Christian 
 countries any part of the population should be so igno- 
 rant and superstitious and savage as to be guilty of per- 
 secution of any sort, and especially of religious persecu- 
 tion, and for them to think that they deserve the name 
 of Christians when they are engaged in such persecu- 
 tions, is too frightful for contemplation. 
 
 Letter of the Rev. Dr. BEVERLY E. WARNER 
 
 If one doubts the usefulness of these meetings, let him 
 look to the semi -apologies which the Eussian govern- 
 ment is even now issuing to the world. Let him see the 
 tenor of the notes which her Minister and ambassadors 
 are sending to other governments. The government, 
 even of the Eussias, realizes that in this day and age one 
 nation can not do those things which are an abomination 
 in the sight of civilization. The outburst of indignation 
 which has flamed from all lands upon the news of the 
 Kishinef horror, has beaten it even into the conscious- 
 ness of the Eussian that there is danger in flying in the 
 face of all the Christian and enlightened world. 
 
 The story of the massacre is the old, old story. The 
 badge of suffering which the Jew has carried through 
 the ages was in this massacre shown once more to all 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 101 
 
 nations. Througli tlie ages since the hills of Palestine 
 ■were stripped of their old-time owners the Jews have 
 wandered, oppressed and stricken by the brutality and 
 hatred of the world. Time after time, during the pass- 
 ing centuries, they have been visited with the most awful 
 manifestations of concentrated ill will, engendered by 
 ignorance and bigotry. Bloodshed and persecution 
 beyond the power of tongue to depict has been their 
 share of fortune. The lot of the downtrodden and the 
 hated has been theirs. 
 
 At Kishinef the oppression of the ages found expres- 
 sion as fully and as cruel as ever before. Women and 
 children were torn from their homes; men and women 
 were brutally cut down upon their thresholds, 
 slaughtered in the streets. The fury of an ignorant 
 populace vented itself in all the ways that savagery and 
 racial prejudice could dictate. Every detail of barbarity 
 and loathsome ferocity sought expression upon the de- 
 fenseless Jews of Kishinef. 
 
 Therefore, we lift our voices in protest. Good will 
 result. There is no nation uninfluenced either by the con- 
 tempt or by the praise of others. No nation, even as no 
 man, can afford to do those things which bring it to dis- 
 credit and disgrace in the eyes of all equals. 
 
 Eussia desires to be regarded as civilized, but she 
 knows that the truly civilized nations look upon her with 
 contempt. Two things she can do to undo the evil she 
 has wrought to her standing in the congress of the 
 nations : 
 
 First, she can force the ecclesiastics of the empire to 
 deny authoritatively the truth of the awful and shame- 
 less story of the ritual of blood which has been cast 
 
102 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OP 
 
 against the Jews since pagan days. No man believes that 
 story to-day, no man in all the civilized world believes 
 it was ever true of the Jews. It is an old lie, used once 
 against the Christians themselves. "Whenever the story 
 comes of massacres in Eussia, or in the smaller kindred 
 states where they kill kings and queens as we kill flies, 
 where there is no regard for life, and where the brutality 
 and the cruelty of the people find expression in deeds that 
 bring the blush of shame and horror to all the world — 
 then we may know that it is due to this old falsehood, 
 which dates back to the first feast of the Passover. 
 
 Second, the Eussians can make Eussians of the Jews, 
 make them citizens of the land. Here in New Orleans 
 the Jews are citizens, good citizens, and do their part of 
 the work and bear their share of the burdens, thus earn- 
 ing the right to enjoy the blessings and partake of the 
 pleasures. When Eussia repeals the three hundred 
 pages of restrictive law which she has enacted to hedge 
 about the Jews, then she may expect the Jews to become 
 loyal and loving citizens. Then, and only then, can she 
 expect the mass of ignorant peasants, egged on to hate 
 the Jews by the anti-Semitic press, and taught by the 
 ecclesiastics to believe the Jew but a clod, to refrain 
 from breaking the clod when it suits his convenience. 
 
 And now comes the question : By what right do we 
 interfere ? I know not what has impelled the others who 
 have spoken against this disgrace to the age ; but we 
 speak and interfere in behalf of the right of eminent do- 
 main; for that ideal of brotherhood of man for which we 
 stand, for the right of the strong to protect the weak. 
 For this we interfere and raise our voices in protest. 
 
 Were ten thousand Germans dead in a foreign land, 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 103 
 
 the young " War Lord " would have more tlian a note 
 in protest. "Were ten thousand Englishmen beaten and 
 and branded in another land, John Bull would send more 
 than a word of regret. 
 
 Were ten thousand Americans the victims of such an 
 outrage, Brother Jonathan would raise his hand, and it 
 would be the sign for all our people to rally, join together, 
 and wipe out the doers of the crime. 
 
 The Jew has no nation. He assembles his wise men in 
 no great capital. He marches his armies under no flag. 
 Therefore, we will lift for him the standard of the Stars 
 and Stripes. We lift for him our voices, and they must 
 be heard. Because the Jew is without these things, we 
 raise, not the arm of right, but the voice of might, we 
 send it across the ocean and the land, postmarked "Wash- 
 ington, D.C." 
 
 We must remember that the men who rule the desti- 
 nies of Eussia in Church and in State are elevated high 
 above the masses, and are intelligent, educated, and cul- 
 tured. As such, they must respond to intelligent, edu- 
 cated, and cultivated opinion. They do not wish the 
 name of Eussia to be a byword and a hissing among the 
 nations of the earth, nor the slow-moving finger of scorn 
 to be pointed at her. They love their country and her 
 good name as we love ours. 
 
 Upon these men, therefore, must fall the accumulated 
 effect of the indignant protests that roll in upon their 
 ears from every quarter of the globe. The united voice 
 of mankind charges them with blood-guiltiness. They 
 can not conceal the terrible facts. They can not escape 
 the damning accusation. In their hands is lodged auto- 
 cratic power. They have the means to prevent the re- 
 
104 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 currence of those scenes, the meager narration of which 
 has frozen the hearts of untold millions with horror. 
 
 Let them know that the world holds them, and not an 
 ignorant rabble, responsible for such crimes; and that if 
 such a rabble believes the absurd tales of ritual murders 
 which have been told against Jews since pagan times 
 — a pagan, I am glad to say, and not a Christian inven- 
 tion — it is a result of that rabble's religious leaders and 
 teachers who know the lie, and who have never taken 
 the trouble to denounce it as such. 
 
 Let them know that the world is convinced that the 
 Czar, the most powerful ruler on earth, with his army, 
 his police, and his spies, holding in the hollow of his 
 hand the whole organization of the State, and with the 
 power of life and death over his subjects, can, if he will, 
 protect a gentle, an industrious, a peaceful, and a harm- 
 less race from pillage, ravishment, and slaughter. 
 
 Therefore, my fellow citizens, who are assembled here 
 without reference to race or creed, Jew and Gentile, 
 Protestant and Catholic, freemen all, who own no master 
 except God the Father, whom we all worship, speak out 
 the promptings of your hearts and swell with your voices 
 the cry of outraged humanity that is ringing around the 
 earth in protest against a so-called Christian government 
 that persecutes and denies protection to its own children. 
 
 Speech of E. A. ALDERMAN, President of Tulane University 
 
 We are here to-night as men and women, who have 
 inherited the freedom to make the most of ourselves, to 
 protest against such brutality and tyranny, and to say in 
 dignity and earnestness that these wrongs should be 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 105 
 
 righted and that steps should be taken to prevent the 
 recurrence of savagery and murder. We are here to 
 give expression to our opinion and to contribute a vol- 
 ume of public opinion. 
 
 I have been asked two questions since the purpose of 
 this meeting became known. The first question was 
 this : What right have we to make such a protest ? It 
 is none of our business, it is Eussia's business. The su- 
 preme, civic virtue in this world is to mind your own 
 business. Would it not be better for us to extract the 
 beam out of our own eye, and stop our lynchings and 
 burnings before we set up as an international reformer 1 
 The second question was this : What good will it all do 
 anyhow, save as an exhibition of more or less fluent 
 speech and fervid rhetoric? It is well to have these 
 questions asked, for there is nothing so absurd as useless 
 speech, and there is no such pestilential nuisance as 
 your chronic reformer, especially one whose tendency is 
 to reform the distant thing. My belief, upon reflection, 
 is that both of these questions have no good, enduring 
 basis, however sensible they may sound. We have a 
 right to protest because civilization is a greater thing 
 than national lines, because humanity is a greater thing 
 than dynasties. If civilization means anything, it means 
 brotherhood and interest. Everything that has hap- 
 pened in the last one hundred years has made the struc- 
 ture of society more and more sympathetic — the newspa- 
 pers, the telegraph wires, the transportation lines, the 
 inventions have brought men closer together, and made 
 other people's business the business of the world. Dis- 
 tance can not longer dull the imagination, for there is no 
 distance. Time can not longer ameliorate cruelties, for 
 
106 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 there is no time. The world is before us each morning, 
 and the essential idea and the deepest meaning of civili- 
 zation is sympathy and brotherhood. We have actually 
 seen these horrors in Kishinef, "we have actually suffered 
 with these pale-faced Jews, and to deny us this right of 
 protest is to deny the progress of civilization. If it be 
 said that, if Eussia protested against our lynchings and 
 internal life, we would angrily resent it, the answer is, 
 perhaps we would, but Eussia would be right to protest, 
 and we would have to lump it. And if all the world 
 protested whenever injustice occurred anywhere, public 
 opinion would become the majestic force that it was in- 
 tended to become in democracies everywhere. 
 
 The good that we can do, therefore, is simply one lit- 
 tle drop in the river of public sentiment; one little mo- 
 mentum in the great wind of public opinion that ought 
 to sweep about the earth wherever ignorance seeks to 
 rule the wise or tyranny to crush the weak. 
 
 I do not wish to be merely rhetorical or impassionate. 
 I do not pretend to know all of the difficulties and per- 
 plexities of Eussian internal life. I am not here to curry 
 favor with any set of men by denouncing blindly another 
 set of men. What I see at the heart of this matter is 
 this: I see the play of three great evil forces upon a dis- 
 advantaged race, whose tragedies touch the heart of the 
 world. I see race hatred, the scorn of one breed of men 
 for another, an ancient, persistent, savage survival. I 
 see religious fanaticism — the blind feeling that one group 
 of people has possession of all the truth about the infinite 
 hereafter. I see the policy of restriction of privilege to 
 men instead of the policy of opportunity for citizenship 
 and growth. These three impulses I believe to be, and 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 107 
 
 deliberately declare to be, the most damnable, danger- 
 ous, and destructive forces that ever appeared in human 
 society. If the pages of history, which record the cruel- 
 ties and the trouble caused by them, were torn from the 
 book, universal history would be shorn of much of its 
 stupid crime and suffering. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson declared that he "had sworn eternal 
 hatred against every form of tyranny against the mind 
 and soul of man," and he nobly lived up to that oath. 
 That impulse is woven into my soul, too, and I am here 
 to-night to protest against the exercise of these passions, 
 and I would protest, whether they occurred in Eussia or 
 in France or in America, or whether in my own home, or 
 whether ten thousand leagues across the sea, or whether 
 they were directed against the brown man, the yellow 
 man, the black man, the Jew, or the Gentile. 
 
 I have nothing to say against the Czar or the Eussian 
 Ministry ; they are doubtless kind and gentle people — 
 in their families and to their friends. The central fact 
 is this: Eussia has two mighty passions — conscious and 
 unconscious — the Eussification of its 130,000,000 of peo- 
 ple, and the constant extension of its territory, and what- 
 ever stands in the way of those two things must take the 
 consequences. In order to develop the moujik, the Eus- 
 sian feels it necessary to oppress the Jew. To me it is 
 stupid policy. The Jew has ten times the gifts of the 
 moujik, and with freedom and opportunity he would become 
 a great Russian citizen, as he has become a great American 
 citizen. And the public opinion of America ought to 
 say to Eussia that under its policy there is no better class 
 of American citizenship than the loyal, patriotic, productive, 
 pvMic- spirited American Jew. Practically the Eussian wiU 
 
108 RUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 not do this. It is asking liim to change his entire govern- 
 mental policy. It is asking him to change the structure 
 of his mind. It is asking him to be an American and 
 not a Russian. He wants to see the Russian peasant be- 
 come an efficient man. The Jew outwits and dwarfs this 
 man. Therefore, the Russian oppresses the Jew, and 
 debases the peasant by giving him the opportunity to 
 become a tyrant. If he would consent to educate the 
 peasant and give opportunity to all, then the Russian > 
 would grow great indeed. 
 
 The public opinion of the world can only hope, there- 
 fore, to prevent savage cruelty to the Jew within the 
 Pale, and the Jeios of the world, better advantaged, should 
 see to it that their fellow countrymen leave the Pale and come 
 to a land like this, where democracy declares that every man 
 has a right to make the best of himself and to enjoy the fruits 
 of his labor. I do not fear Russian Jews a^ an element in 
 our population. I believe that under the American policy of 
 opportunity they will develop, as I have seen them develop, 
 into useful and forceful citizens. I know no such other 
 tragedy in the world as the tragedy of the Jews. I once 
 stood upon the hill of Zion in Jerusalem and looked out 
 over that mountain city, now invested with the pathos 
 of the centuries and wrapped in the very tears of things. 
 I saw its gray desolation, its great misery, its solemn 
 sadness, and realized that the Jew had been a highlander, 
 a moimtain agriculturist, a fierce lover of his home. I 
 saw him scattered about the world. I saw him preyed 
 upon by all the fierce passions of men. I saw him shut 
 up in ghettos for centuries, and then accused of clannish - 
 ness. I saw him deprived of land, and then blamed be- 
 cause he was not an agriculturist. I saw him robbed of 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 109 
 
 his earnings by tyrants, and, because lie grew unscrupu- 
 lous and developed uncanny power to get more earnings, 
 accused of cupidity and greed. I have seen his vices 
 grow as the result of his oppressions, and yet I have 
 seen him hold on to his ancient faith, to his national 
 pride, to the dignity of his home, to virtues of sobriety 
 and thrift, with a patience and public spirit, an endur- 
 ance and a courage and a steadiness that make the Swiss, 
 or the Dutch, or the Pole look trifling, indeed. I have 
 seen him grow eminent in every field of life, ruling 
 great nations, preeminent in every art, unweakened in 
 vitality, either intellectual or physical or racial — one of 
 the great forces to be reckoned with in the civilization of 
 the world. 
 
 We are Hebraic in our consciences, in the ethical con- 
 tent of our minds, in our notions of heaven and hell, and 
 of right and wrong, and, so far as I am concerned, 
 whenever the Jew is oppressed, I feel that oppression 
 as if it were the oppression of a brother ; and when- 
 ever that great historic race is belittled or disadvan- 
 taged, I would resent it as I would resent an injury to a 
 brother. 
 
 This democracy of ours, so strong and triumphant, 
 must protest, therefore, against such deeds as the deed 
 of Kishinef and the cause for it. It is the protest of the 
 modern against the medieval, of the democratic against 
 the autocratic, of light against darkness, of opportunity 
 against privilege; and democracy has no choice but to 
 take its stand and to speak its word. Sence, I am here 
 as a democrat and a man and an American to protest 
 against this medievalism and to welcome those people to our 
 shores. 
 
110 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 Whereas, We, the people of the City of New Orleans in 
 the State of Louisiana in the United States of America, 
 have, in common with all Americans, read with a sense 
 of indignation the reports of the awful tragedy at Kish- 
 inef, a town in the province of Bessarabia, in the Eus- 
 sian Empire; and 
 
 Whereas, Our sense of justice and of humanity has 
 been inexpressibly shocked by the brutal and bloody per- 
 secution of innocent men, women, and children of the 
 Hebrew race resident in that city; and 
 
 Whereas, We believe that this deliberate murder of 
 Jewish men and this wanton violation of Jewish women 
 is a crime against both human and Divine law; therefore, 
 be it 
 
 Resolved, That we, the people of the City of New Or- 
 leans, in mass-meeting assembled, do hereby record our 
 emphatic protest against this inhuman and barbarous 
 persecution of Jews in the Eussian Empire; and be it 
 further 
 
 Besolved, That recognizing the ties of human kinship 
 that .bind us to all the peoples of the earth, we do hereby 
 express our profound and abiding sympathy with those 
 members of "the scattered nation" who have been the 
 innocent victims of the Kishinef atrocities; and be it 
 finally 
 
 Resolved, That we do hereby solemnly invoke his Im- 
 perial Majesty, Mcholas II., the Czar of all the Eussias, 
 to adopt measures that will safeguard all his people from 
 religious persecution, and will vouchsafe to them, irre- 
 spective of nationality, race, or creed, "the blessings of 
 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 
 
THE AMEEIOAISr PEOPLE 111 
 
 III 
 
 THE INDEPENDENT ORDER OF 
 B'NAI B'RITH 
 
 Detailed History of the Kishinef Petition 
 
 The President of the I. O. B. B., immediately after the 
 news of the Kishinef massacre had reached the United States, 
 made an investigation as to the measures of relief to be de- 
 pended on in Europe, and from the most reliable sources 
 he learned that the Jews of Europe would attend to the 
 immediate emergency, so far as supplies were concerned, and 
 that it was best that the Jews in America should devote 
 themselves to a consideration of the burden that would fall 
 upon them in consequence of increased immigration. 
 
 "Primary importance was then attached to the power of 
 public opinion, and it was deemed highly desirable that this 
 public opinion should find expression in such manner and 
 form and under such agencies as would make it felt in the 
 remotest corner of the earth; but experience having taught 
 that the voice of the Jews, as such, would have but little 
 weight in Russia, and that the words of any speaker at a 
 Jewish public meeting in America would be laid at the doors 
 of the Russian Jews, it was felt that it would be hazardous 
 to hold meetings of a distinctively Jewish character. There- 
 fore, exclusively Jewish meetings were discouraged, and the 
 wiser policy pursued of leaving to Americans who are non- 
 Jews the task and the duty of expressing the views of the 
 American people. 
 
 "In the main, meetings of that character, of which numer- 
 ous were held, have been marked by the conservatism of the 
 speakers and of the resolutions adopted; and if here and there 
 an orator indulged in language at which the Russian people 
 
112 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 and the Russian government might take offense, the resent- 
 ment excited in Russia will not extend to the Jews in Russia 
 or elsewhere, but will be directed, doubtless, to the speaker 
 himself" (Rep. Exec. Com. I. O. B. B., 1902-03, p. 56). 
 
 Governed by the views thus set forth, the President of the 
 I. O. B. B., within a few days after the Kishinef massacre, 
 asked the Hon. Simon Wolf, of Washington, to request the 
 Secretary of State to obtain a reliable account of the calam- 
 ity, and to ascertain what relief was required, and whether 
 the same could be rendered without offense to the Russian 
 government. Thereupon Mr. Wolf wrote the following 
 letter to the Secretary of State: 
 
 Washington, April 29, 1903. 
 Son. John Say, Washington, D. C. 
 
 SiE: You have bo doubt been made aware of the fact 
 that the cable has brought news of terrible outrages and 
 massacres practised upon the Jews of Kishinef in Eussia. 
 These reports by cable have been supplemented by 
 private cablegrams, which not only confirm but augment 
 the terrible outrages and murders perpetrated upon the 
 unhappy citizens of Kishinef of Jewish faith. As many 
 of these people have relatives iu this country who are 
 citizens of the United States, they naturally feel anxious 
 about the condition of things, and also how far they can 
 aid in sending supplies and money to the wounded and 
 unwounded sufferers. To that end, as Chairman of the 
 Board of Delegates of the Union of American Hebrew 
 Congregations, and as a member of the Executive Com- 
 mittee of the Order of B'nai B'rith, I would like the 
 government of the United States to instruct our ambas- 
 sador to Eussia by cable to secure at once prompt and 
 reliable information as to these outrages and the con- 
 dition of the unfortunate victims of cruel persecution, 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 113 
 
 and how far the Eussian government will permit us to 
 send supplies and aid financially those who are in dis- 
 tress. 
 
 I am sure in asking this I am not overstepping the 
 boundaries of the courtesies that should exist between 
 the two countries, and am absolutely sure that the 
 Department of State in this instance, as in many other 
 like instances, will cheerfully and readily cooperate, to 
 the end that facts may be known ofacially and the 
 remedy applied so far as lies within the power of our 
 government, and so far as permission will be given to 
 the citizens of the United States. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 Simon Woup. 
 
 On May 5th Mr, Wolf wrote to the State Department to 
 inquire if any reply had been received to tiie cable which the 
 Secretary of State had sent at his request. In reply the fol- 
 lowing letter was received: 
 
 Dear Mr. Wolf: I am in receipt of your letter of 
 this date in reference to the reported massacre of Jews 
 in Eussia. The department acted immediately con- 
 cerning this matter on your suggestion, and sent a cable 
 to our Ambassador at St. Petersburg, directing him to 
 make an investigation to ascertain whether supplies 
 would be received, and to report as soon as possible. 
 Up to this time we have not heard from him, but pre- 
 sume he is giving this matter his best attention. I will 
 keep you advised on the subject. 
 
 Very respectfiolly yours, 
 
 Francis B. Loomis, 
 Assistant Secretary. 
 
114 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 On May 9th the following letter was received from the 
 State Department: 
 
 Department of State, 
 
 Office of tlie Assistant Secretary, 
 
 "Washington, May 9, 1903. 
 
 Hon. Simon Wolf, Washington, B. C. 
 
 Sir: Eeferring to your letter of April 29th, I have 
 the honor to confirm my conversation with you by tele- 
 phone, in one of which I stated that a cablegram had 
 been sent to our ambassador at St. Petersburg, directing 
 him to ascertain if supplies for the benefit of Jews stated 
 to be suffering in Kishinef would be received, if for- 
 warded from this country, for the relief of the sufferers. 
 
 The department is just in receipt of the following 
 cablegram from Ambassador McCormick at St. Peters- 
 burg: 
 
 "It is authoritatively denied that there is any want 
 or suffering among Jews in southwestern Eussia, and 
 aid of any kind is unnecessary. While the offer and 
 spirit in which it is made are appreciated, it is gratefully 
 declined." 
 
 EespectfuUy yours, 
 
 Francis B. Loomis, 
 Assistant Secretary. 
 
 Three of the American districts of the I. O. B. B. were 
 scheduled to hold conventions on May 17th, and, for the 
 guidance of these conventions, and by way of reply to numer- 
 ous inquiries from all parts of the country, Mr. Leo N. Levi, 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 115 
 
 President of the Executive Committee of the Independent 
 Order of B'nai B'rith, issued the following message : 
 
 To the Members of the Executive Committee and the Presi- 
 dents of the American District Grand Lodges of the 
 Independent Order of B'nai B'rith. 
 
 Bkbtheen: The recent massacre of Jews at Kishinef 
 has aroused great excitement, and, as usual, when excite- 
 ment prevails, errors of lasting influence are likely to be 
 committed. To the end that the B'nai B'rth — the great, 
 world-wide, permanent representative Jewish organiza- 
 tion — may not be hereafter embarrassed or crippled in 
 its usefulness by mistakes in this crisis, I beg through 
 you to lay before the subordinate lodges the following 
 facts and considerations: 
 
 When the massacre was first reported, the Executive 
 Committee, through one of its members, Hon. Simon 
 Wolf, applied to our government for an official report of 
 the reported event, containing a list of victims, a state- 
 ment of the relief required and the manner in which it 
 could be afforded without giving offense to Eussia. The 
 Secretary of State cabled for such a report^ and under 
 date of May 9, 1903, furnished a copy of the cablegram 
 received from Ambassador McCormick at St. Petersburg. 
 It is as follows: 
 
 ''It is authoritatively denied that there is any want 
 or suffering among Jews in southwestern Eussia, and aid 
 of any kind is unnecessary. While the offer and spirit 
 in which it is made are appreciated, it is gratefully 
 declined." 
 
 It will be observed that, contrary to the newspaper 
 reports, the Eussian government does not deny the out- 
 
116 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 rages perpetrated. It is further to be remembered that 
 there has been published an official report of the massa- 
 cre by the Eussian authorities, according to which it was 
 of the most serious nature. Moreover, we must not over- 
 look the orders of the Czar to his officers to suppress and 
 punish any outbreaks against the Jews. 
 
 It may be that the government at St. Petersburg has 
 been misinformed as to the events and situation in Bessa- 
 rabia ; but after making all allowances for the Eussian 
 view of her Jewish subjects, we must not conclude that 
 the government itself is in sympathy with disorder, riot- 
 ing, pillage, and murder simply because the victims are 
 Jews. It is neither fair nor wise to execrate the gov- 
 ernment of Eussia because of the murderous brutality of 
 a frenzied mob. Eussia is powerful enough to treat with 
 disdain any criticisms that are directed against her. 
 She is not likely to treat with consideration any appeal 
 for justice when it is coupled with denunciations. 
 
 The situation demands permanent as well as imme- 
 diate relief. Let us be careful not to render the latter 
 impossible. 
 
 If the Eussian authorities at St. Petersburg are misin- 
 formed, the immediate relief required by the sufferers 
 wiU be supplied from funds already provided and now 
 being raised by other organizations, communities, and 
 individuals. Each member of the Order as an individual 
 will determine for himself whether and how much to 
 contribute in that direction. 
 
 The certain result of the unsettled state of affairs in 
 southwestern Eussia will be increased immigration of 
 Jews to the United States. To aid them to independence 
 along lines now recognized as thoroughly practical will 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 117 
 
 be the task of tlie Order so long as that immigration con- 
 tinues. It will probably be for years. The lodges 
 should gravely consider this aspect of the problem, and 
 in addition to strengthening the hands of the Executive 
 Committee by giving it moral support, they should raise 
 money to be used locally for the relief of refugees who 
 may come or be sent to their respective localities. 
 
 AU of the Jews in Eussia, however, can not or will not 
 emigrate. Their status there will always present a grave 
 problem. Their fate will depend finally upon the ruler 
 of the Eussian Empire. To his sense of justice and to 
 the humane spirit which he has so often manifested the 
 Jews must look for protection, when ignorance, prejudice, 
 and lawlessness assail them. 
 
 In the prevailing excitement let us preserve our calm, 
 keeping in mind the future as well as the present. Let 
 us do nothing and say nothing that will cut us off from 
 the right to make a dignified and manly appeal in the 
 name of humanity to the dignity and manhood of the 
 Czar. When the Executive Committee of the Order 
 convenes this summer such an appeal will be considered 
 together with plans for having it indorsed by the general 
 public and properly presented. 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 
 Leo IS". Levi, President. 
 
 Upon the suggestion of Simon Wolf and through him 
 arrangements were made for a conference between the Exec- 
 utive Committee of the I. O, B. B. and the President of the 
 United States and the Secretary of State on the 15th day of 
 June, 1903. 
 
 The committee called in a body at the State Department, 
 
118 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OP 
 
 and were cordially received by Hon. John Hay, Secretary of 
 State. The President of the committee, Leo N. Levi, acting 
 as its spokesman, addressed the Secretary of State, and as 
 part of his remarks submitted a memorandum of the Execu- 
 tive Committee of the I. O. B. B. to Secretary Hay, and the 
 tentative draft of the petition which had been considered 
 and approved by the Executive Committee on the day pre- 
 vious. 
 
 The Secretary of State made first an ofllcial reply, after 
 which he engaged in an informal but earnest discussion of 
 the subject with the president of the committee. The con- 
 ference lasted for forty minutes, at the end of which time the 
 members of the committee, escorted by the Secretary of 
 State, repaired to the White House, where the President of 
 the United States was awaiting them. 
 
 The President carefully examined the tentative draft of the 
 petition, making comments as he read. When he had fin- 
 ished reading, he thanked the committee for the wisdom and 
 conservatism displayed by it and for the opportunity which 
 had been offered to him to express his views on the Kishinef 
 outrage, without being guilty of any impropriety in doing so. 
 
 Memorandum of the Executive Committee of the I. O. B. B. 
 to Secretary HAY 
 
 Assuming the facts as officially reported by the Eus- 
 sian government, including measures adopted after the 
 massacre, and discarding all accounts in conflict there- 
 with, the incident has appalled and horrified not only 
 the Jews in Eussia and elsewhere, but the whole Ameri- 
 can people. 
 
 Up to the present time the American people have not 
 been satisfied that the Jews in Eussia are safe from new 
 outrages hereafter. 
 
 The Jews, as Jews, in Eussia and elsewhere are like- 
 wise fearful of the future. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 119 
 
 This fear among the Jews of Eussia stimulates emigra- 
 tion to the United States, and hence it is widely claimed 
 that the United States should officially protest to Eussia, 
 as it did recently to Eumania. The precedent is in- 
 voked and the government charged with timidity in this 
 case because Eussia is a great Power, while Eumania is 
 weak. 
 
 The distinction between this and the Eumanian situa- 
 tion is, however, plain. The Jews who come from Kish- 
 inef to the United States flee from mobs operating in 
 contravention of Eussian law, while the Jews who come 
 from Eumania are unable to live there because of the 
 Eumanian laws. 
 
 It is true that the Eussian laws operate to drive the 
 Jews out of Eussia and into the United States, just as 
 do the Eumanian laws, but a protest based on that fact 
 may not be timely in connection with the Kishinef inci- 
 dent. It may be wiser to defer it to a more suitable 
 time. Moreover, there may be diplomatic reasons why 
 the Eumanian precedent should not be followed just now. 
 
 But the American people are irritated, excited, and 
 impatient. They want something done. If nothing is 
 done their hostility to Eussia will be intensified and 
 fixed. Ultimately those feelings will obtain expression 
 in governmental action, and the gap between Eussia and 
 the United States widened. 
 
 Eussian diplomatists, with or without assistance from 
 Americans, can not placate the American public by de- 
 nouncing the Jews. Efforts in that direction have been 
 boomerangs. Moreover, Eussia is constantly adding to 
 the citizenship of this country an element which testifies 
 against her. We have now, scattered throughout this 
 
120 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 country, about half a million Jews who have come from 
 Eussia during the past twenty-three years. They are 
 thrifty, energetic, intelligent, ambitious, and daily grow- 
 ing more influential and popular. Their number is in- 
 creasing by immigration at the rate of not less than 
 twenty-five thousand per annum. 
 
 The French, German, or English Jew who comes to 
 the United States makes for friendly relations between 
 his native and his adopted country because he loves 
 both, but the Eussian Jew makes propaganda here 
 against his native land. The traditional amity between 
 Eussia and the United States is thus being undermined 
 by Eussia' s policy toward her Jewish subjects. The sit- 
 uation makes it highly desirable, without breach of 
 diplomatic etiquette and without embarrassing our own 
 government, to satisfy the demands of the American peo- 
 ple that something effective be done, so far as practi- 
 cable, by or with the concurrence of our government, to 
 allay the fears of the Jews in Eussia and thus stem their 
 rush to this country, to convert the hostility to Eussia 
 on the part of American citizens, Jews and Gentiles, into 
 friendliness, and thus insure the traditional amity. 
 
 One or both of two methods are suggested for consid- 
 eration, viz. : 
 
 1. A petition to the Czar, to which the B'nai B'rith 
 will get the signatures of the leading men in the various 
 states, our government to assist unofficially or semi- 
 ofiicially in securing the delivery of this petition to the 
 Czar and in procuring a favorable reply thereto, either 
 by a direct communication or some other form of public 
 expression. The manner in which the government can 
 render such assistance is not suggested for obvious 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 121 
 
 reasons, but the government's interest in the plan should 
 be made known. 
 
 2. Using the Kishinef and other recent incidents of 
 more or less similar nature as grounds, an official invita- 
 tion by the United States should be addressed to all the 
 Powers to an international conference, to consider per- 
 secutions and oppressions growing out of racial and re- 
 ligious prejudices and hatred, and to protect civilization 
 and international concord from the evil effects of such 
 persecutions and oppressions. 
 
 Leo N. Levi, 
 Julius Bien, 
 Jacob Fuerth, 
 Solomon Sulzbeegee, 
 Joseph D. Coons, 
 Simon Wolf, 
 June 15, 1903. Adolph Moses. 
 
 TEXT OF THE TENTATIVE DRAFT OF THE PETITION 
 
 OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO THE 
 
 CZAR OF RUSSIA 
 
 To Sis Imperial Majesty, the Czar : 
 
 The cruel outrages perpetrated at Kishinef during 
 Easter of 1903 have excited horror and reprobation 
 throughout the world. Until your Majesty gave special 
 and personal directions, the local authorities failed to 
 maintain order or to suppress the rioting. 
 
 The victims were Jews, and the assault was the result 
 of race and religious prejudice. The rioters violated the 
 laws of Eussia. The local officers were derelict in the 
 
122 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 performance of their duty. The Jews were the victims 
 of indefensible lawlessness. 
 
 These facts are made plain by the official reports of 
 and by the official acts following the riot. 
 
 Under ordinary conditions, the awful calamity would 
 be deplored without undue fear of a recurrence. But 
 such is not the case in the present instance. Your peti- 
 tioners are advised that millions of Jews — Eussian sub- 
 jects — dwelling in southwestern Eussia are in constant 
 dread of fresh outbreaks. They feel that ignorance, 
 superstition, and bigotry, as exemplified by the rioters, 
 are ever ready to persecute them; that the local officials, 
 unless thereunto specially admonished, can not be relied 
 on as strenuous protectors of their peace and security; 
 that a public sentiment of hostility has been engendered 
 against them, and hangs over them as a continuing 
 menace. 
 
 Even if it be conceded that these fears are to some 
 extent exaggerated, it is unquestionably true that they 
 exist, that they are not groundless, and that they pro- 
 duce effects of great importance. 
 
 The westward migration of Eussian Jews, which has 
 proceeded for over twenty years, is being stimulated by 
 those fears, and already that movement has become so 
 great as to overshadow in magnitude the expulsion of the 
 Jews from Spain, and to rank with the exodus from 
 Egypt. 
 
 No estimate is possible of the misery suffered by the 
 helpless Jews who feel driven to forsake their native 
 land, to sever the most sacred ties, and to wander forth 
 to strange countries. 
 
 Neither is it possible to estimate the misery suffered 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 123 
 
 by those who are unwilling or unable to leave the land 
 of their birth; who must part from friends and relatives 
 who emigrate; who remain in never-ending terror. 
 
 Eeligious persecution is more sinful and more fatuous 
 even than war. War is sometimes necessary, honorable, 
 and just; religious persecution is never defensible. 
 
 The sinfulaess and folly which give impulse to un- 
 necessary war received their greatest check when your 
 Majesty's initiative resulted in an international court of 
 peace. 
 
 With such an example before it, the civilized world 
 cherishes the hope that upon the same initiative there 
 shall be fixed in the early days of the twentieth century 
 the enduring principle of religious liberty; that by a 
 gracious and convincing expression your Majesty will 
 proclaim, not only for the direction of your own sub- 
 jects, but also for the guidance of all civilized men, that 
 none shall suffer in person, property, liberty, honor, or life 
 because of his religious belief; that the humblest subject 
 or citizen may worship according to the dictates of his 
 own conscience, and that the government, whatever its 
 form or agencies, must safeguard these rights and im- 
 munities by the exercise of all its powers. 
 
 Par removed from your Majesty's dominions, living 
 under different conditions, and owing allegiance to an- 
 other government, your petitioners yet venture in the 
 name of civilization to plead for religious liberty and 
 tolerance; to plead that he who led his own people and 
 all others to the shrine of peace will add new luster to 
 his reign and fame by leading a new movement that shall 
 commit the whole world in opposition to religious perse- 
 cution. 
 
124 RUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 Speech of the Hon. Secretary of State, JOHN HAY 
 
 Gentlemen : Fo person of ordinary humanity can 
 have heard without deep emotion the story of the cruel 
 outrages inflicted upon the Jews of Kishinef. These 
 lamentable events have caused the profoundest impres- 
 sion throughout the world, but most especially in this 
 country, where there are so many of your coreligionists 
 who form such a desirable element of our population in 
 industry, thrift, public spirit, and commercial morality. 
 Kobody can ever make the Americans think iQ of the 
 Jews as a class or as a race — we know them too well. 
 In the painful crisis through which we are now passing 
 the Jews of the United States have given evidence of the 
 highest qualities — generosity, love of justice, and power 
 of self-restraint. 
 
 The government of the United States must exhibit the 
 same qualities. I know you do not doubt the sentiments 
 of the President. No one hates more energetically than 
 he does such acts of cruelty and injustice as those we de- 
 plore. But he must carefully consider aU the circum- 
 stances, and then decide whether any official action can 
 be taken in addition to the impressive and most effective 
 expression of public opinion in this country during the 
 last month. 
 
 You wiU have observed that no civilized government 
 in the world has yet taken official action; this considera- 
 tion alone would bid us to proceed with care. The Em- 
 peror of Russia is entitled to our respect, not merely as 
 the ruler of a great and friendly nation, but as a man 
 whose personal character is even more elevated than his 
 exalted station. 
 
 We should not be justified in assuming that this en- 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 125 
 
 lightened sovereign, who has given so many proofe of 
 his devotion to peace and religions toleration, has not 
 done and is not doing all that lies in his power to put a 
 stop to these atrocities, to punish the guilty, whether 
 they belong to the ignorant populace or to high official 
 circles, and to prevent the recurrence of the outrages 
 which have so shocked humanity. 
 
 In fact, all we know of the state of things in Eussia 
 tends to justify the hope that even out of the present ter- 
 rible situation some good results may come; that He who 
 watches over Israel does not slumber, and the wrath of 
 man now, as so often in the past, shall be made to praise 
 Him. 
 
 Speech of the President of the United States 
 
 Gentlemen : I need not dweU upon the fact so 
 patent as the widespread indignation with which the 
 American people heard of the dreadful outrages upon 
 the Jews in Kishinef. I have never ia my experience in 
 this country known of a more immediate or a deeper ex- 
 pression of sympathy for the victims and of horror over 
 the appalling calamity that has occurred. 
 
 It is natural that, while the whole civUized world 
 should express such a feeling, it should yet be most in- 
 tense and most widespread in the United States; for 
 of all the great Powers I think I may say that the 
 United States is that country in which from the begin- 
 ning of its national career most has been done in the way 
 of acknowledging the debt due to the Jewish race and 
 of endeavoring to do justice to those American citizens 
 who are of Jewish ancestry and faith. 
 
 One of the most touching poems of our own great 
 
126 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 poet, Longfellow, is that on the Jewish cemetery in New- 
 port, and any one who goes through any of the old ceme- 
 teries of the cities which preserve the records of colonial 
 times will see the names of many an American of Jewish 
 race, who, in war or in peace, did his full share in the 
 founding of this nation. 
 
 Prom that day to this, from the day when the Jews of 
 Charleston, of Philadelphia, of New York supported the 
 patriotic cause and helped in every way, not only by 
 money, but by arms, Washington and his colleagues 
 who were founding this republic — from that day to the 
 present we have had no struggle, military or civil, in 
 which there have not been citizens of Jewish faith who 
 played an eminent part for the honor and the credit of 
 the nation. 
 
 I remember once General Howard mentioning to me 
 the fact that two of his brigade commanders upon whom 
 he had placed special reliance were Jews. Among the 
 meetings of the Grand Army which I have attended one 
 stands out with peculiar vividness— a meeting held under 
 the auspices of the men of the Grand Army of Jewish 
 creed, in the Temple in Forty-fourth Street, Temple 
 Emanu-El, to welcome the returned veterans of the 
 Spanish- American "War of Jewish faith. 
 
 When in Santiago, when I was myself in the army, 
 one of the best colonels among the Eegular regiments, 
 who did so well on that day and who fought beside me, 
 was a Jew. One of the commanders of the ships which 
 in the blockade of the Cuban coast did so well was a 
 Jew. In my own regiment I promoted five men from 
 the ranks for valor and good conduct in battle. It hap- 
 pened by pure accident, for I knew nothing of the faith 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 127 
 
 of any one of them, that these included two Protestants, 
 two Catholics, and one Jew; and, while that was a pure 
 accident, it was not without its value as an illustration of 
 the ethnic and religious make-up of our nation, and of the 
 fact that if a man is a good American that is all we ask, 
 without thinking of his creed or his birthplace. 
 
 In the same way, when I was Police Commissioner in 
 New York, I had experience after experience of the excel- 
 lent work done — an excellent work needing nerve and har- 
 dihood, excellent work of what I might call the Maccabee 
 type — in the Police Department under me by police ofB- 
 cers of Jewish extraction. 
 
 Let me give you one little incident with a direct bearing 
 upon this question of persecution for race or religious 
 reasons. Toil may possibly recall, I am sure certain of 
 my l^ew York friends will recall, that during the time I 
 wasPolice Commissioner (1895) a man came from abroad 
 — Eector Hermann Ahlwardt — to start an auti-Jewish 
 agitation in New York, and announced his intention of 
 holding meetings to assail the Jews. 
 
 The matter was brought to my attention. Of course, I 
 had no power to prevent those meetings. After a good 
 deal of thought, I detailed a Jewish sergeant and forty 
 Jewish policemen to protect the agitator while he held 
 his meetings; so he made his speeches denouncing the 
 Jews protected exclusively by Jews, which I always 
 thought was probably the very most effective answer 
 that could possibly be made to him, and probably the 
 best object-lesson we could give of the spirit in which 
 we Americans manage such matters. 
 
 Now let me give you another little example of deal- 
 ing with a Russian Jew, an experience that I had while 
 
128 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 handling the Police Department, and that could have oc- 
 cuxred, I think, nowhere else than in the United States. 
 
 There was a certain man I appointed under the fol- 
 lowing conditions: I was attracted to him by being told, 
 on a visit to the Bowery branch of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, that they had a young feUow 
 there, a Jew, who had performed a feat of great note in 
 saving i^eople from a burning building, and that they 
 thought he was just the type for a policeman. I had 
 him caUed up, and told him to take the examination and 
 see if he could get there. He did, and he passed. He 
 has not only been an excellent policeman, but at once, 
 out of his salary, he proceeded to educate his younger 
 brothers and sisters, and he got either two or three of 
 his old kinsfolk over from Eussia through the money he 
 saved, and provided homes for them. 
 
 I have given you examples of men who have served 
 under me in my administration of the Police Department 
 in I^Tew York and in my regiment. In addition thereto 
 some of my nearest social friends, some of those with 
 whom I have been closest in political life, have been 
 men of Jewish faith and extraction. 
 
 Therefore, inevitably I have felt a degree of personal 
 sympathy and personal horror at this dreadful tragedy, 
 as great as can exist in the minds of any of you gentle- 
 men yourselves. Exactly as I should claim the same 
 sympathy from any one of you for any tragedy that hap- 
 pened to any Christian people, so I should hold myself 
 unworthy of my present position if I failed to feel just 
 as deep sympathy and just as deep sorrow and just as 
 deep horror over an outrage like this done to the Jew- 
 ish people in any part of the earth. I am confident that 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 129 
 
 much good has already been done by the manifestations 
 throughout this country, without any regard to creed 
 whatsoever, of horror and sympathy over what has 
 occurred. 
 
 It is gratifying to know, what we would, of course, 
 assume, that the government of Eussia shares the 
 feelings of horror and indignation with which the 
 American people look upon the outrages at Kishinef, 
 and is moving vigorously not only to prevent their 
 continuance, but to punish the perpetrators. That 
 government takes the same view of those outrages 
 that our own government takes of the riots and 
 lynchings which sometimes occur in our country, but 
 do not characterize either our government or our 
 people. 
 
 I have been visited by the Eussian Ambassador on his 
 own initiative, and in addition to what has been said to 
 Secretary Hay, the Eussian Ambassador has notified me 
 personally, without an inquiry upon my part, that the 
 Governor of Kishinef has been removed; that between 
 three and four hundred of the participants in the out- 
 rages have been arrested; and he voluntarily stated 
 that those men would be punished to the utmost that 
 the law would permit. 
 
 I wiU consider most carefaUy the suggestions that you 
 have submitted to me, and whether the now existing 
 conditions are such that any further official expression 
 would be of advantage to the unfortunate survivors, 
 with whom we sympathize so deeply. Nothing that has 
 occurred recently has had my more constant thought, 
 and nothing will have my more constant thought than 
 this subject. 
 
130 RUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 In any proper way by which beneficial action may be 
 taken, it wiU be taken, to show the sincerity of the his- 
 toric American position of treating each man on his 
 merits without the least reference to his creed, his race, 
 or his birthplace. 
 
 On June 25th Leo N. Levi received from Secretary Hay the 
 following letter: 
 
 Department oe State, 
 
 Washington, Jwne 24, 1903. 
 
 Dear Sir: The President has concluded to trans- 
 mit to the Russian government the petition of which 
 you presented to him a draft on the fifteenth of this 
 month. The matter which he had to consider most seri- 
 ously was whether or not such a proceeding would be to 
 the advantage of your persecuted and outraged corelig- 
 ionists in Russia. On this point he has decided to 
 accept your opinion, and that of the numerous and 
 intelligent groups of American citizens of the Jewish 
 faith whom you represent. He requests that you will 
 send him the petition in due form at your earliest con- 
 venience. 
 
 Of course, you will understand that the President can 
 not tell you what reception your petition will meet with 
 at the hands of the Russian government. I am, sir, 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 John Hat. 
 
 Immediately after receiving the foregoing letter, plans 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 131 
 
 were formulated for having the petition signed. It was 
 printed on heavy bond paper in convenient form for binding, 
 and each leaflet was placed in a mailing tube, along with 
 printed directions for obtaining signatures. 
 
 After the publication of the report of the meeting with 
 the President and Secretary Hay, the committe received 
 many offers of assistance and cooperation. Of especial value 
 was considered that of Hon. OscAB S. Straus, ex-Minister of 
 the United States to Turkey, who was quick to appreciate 
 the great value and importance of the utterances made by 
 President Roosevelt and Secretary Hay, and of the decision 
 of the President to send the petition to Russia. The preti- 
 dent of the committee promptly accepted the offer, and it is 
 proper to say here that throughout the proceedings Mr. 
 Straus's wise counsel and energetic cooperation were of ines- 
 timable value. 
 
 On July 15, 1903, the following despatch was cabled to the 
 American Charge d' Affaires at St. Petersburg: 
 
 Depaetmbnt of State, 
 
 Washington, July 15, 1903. 
 Eiddle, St. Petersburg : 
 
 You are instructed to ask an audience of the min- 
 ister of foreign affairs and to make to him the following 
 communication : 
 
 "Excellency — The Secretary of State instructs me to 
 inform you that the President has received from a large 
 number of citizens of the United States of all religious 
 affiliations, and occupying the highest positions in both 
 public and private life, a respectful petition, addressed to 
 his Majesty the Emperor, relating to the condition of the 
 Jews in Eussia, and running as foUows: 
 
 '' 'To his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Eussia : 
 
 " ' The cruel outrages perpetrated at Kishinef during 
 Easter of 1903 have excited horror and reprobation 
 
132 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 throughout the world. Until your Majesty gave special 
 and personal directions, the local authorities failed to 
 maintain order or suppress the rioting. 
 
 " 'The victims were Jews, and the assault was the 
 result of race and religious prejudice. 
 
 " 'The rioters violated the laws of Eussia. 
 
 " 'The local officials were derelict in the performance 
 of their duty. 
 
 " ' The Jews were the victims of indefensible lawless- 
 ness. These facts are made plain by the official reports 
 of, and by the official acts following the riot. 
 
 "'Under ordinary conditions, the awful calamity 
 would be deplored without undue fear of a recurrence. 
 But such is not the case in the present instance. Tour 
 petitioners are advised that millions of Jews — Eussian 
 subjects — dwelling in southwestern Eussia are in con- 
 stant dread of fresh outbreaks. They feel that ignorance, 
 superstition, and bigotry, as exemplified by the rioters, 
 are ever ready to persecute them; that the local officials, 
 unless thereunto specially admonished, can not be relied 
 on as strenuous protectors of their peace and security; 
 that a public sentiment of hostility has been engendered 
 against them and hangs over them as a continuing 
 menace. 
 
 " ' Even if it be conceded that these fears are to some 
 extent exaggerated, it is unquestionably true that they 
 exist, that they are not groundless, and that they produce 
 effects of great importance. 
 
 " 'The westward migration of Eussian Jews, which 
 has proceeded for over twenty years, is being stimulated 
 by these fears, and already that movement has become so 
 great as to overshadow in magnitude the expulsion of the 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 133 
 
 Jews from Spain and to rank with the exodus from 
 Egypt. 
 
 " 'Kg estimate is possible of the misery suffered by 
 the hapless Jews who feel driven to forsake their native 
 land, to sever the most sacred ties and to wander forth 
 to strange countries. Neither is it possible to estimate 
 the misery suffered by those who are unwilling or unable 
 to leave the land of their birth ; who must part from 
 friends and relatives who emigrate ; who remain in 
 never-ending terror. 
 
 " ' Eeligious persecution is more sinful and more fat- 
 uous even than war. "War is sometimes necessary, 
 honorable, and just ; reUgious persecution is never de- 
 fensible. 
 
 " 'The sinfulness and folly which give impulse to un- 
 necessary war received their greatest check when your 
 Majesty's initiative resulted in an international court of 
 peace. 
 
 " 'With such an example before it, the civilized world 
 cherishes the hope that upon the same initiative there 
 shaU be fixed in the early days of the twentieth century 
 the enduring principle of religous liberty ; that by a 
 gracious and convincing expression your Majesty will 
 proclaim, not only for the government of your own sub- 
 jects, but also for the guidance of all civilized men, that 
 none shall suffer in person, property, liberty, honor, or 
 life because of his religious belief ; that the humblest 
 subject or citizen may worship according to the dictates 
 of his own conscience, and that government, whatever its 
 form or agencies, must safeguard these rights and im- 
 munities by the exercise of all its powers. 
 
 " 'Par removed from your Majesty's dominions, living 
 
134 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 under different conditions and owing allegiance to an- 
 other government, your petitioners yet venture, in the 
 name of civilization, to plead for religious liberty and 
 tolerance; to plead that he who led his own people and 
 all others to the shrine of peace will add new luster to 
 his reign and fame by leading a new movement that shall 
 commit the whole world in opposition to religious perse- 
 cution.' 
 
 " I am instructed to ask whether the petition will be 
 received by your Excellency, to be submitted to the 
 gracious consideration of his Majesty. In that case the 
 petition will be at once forwarded to St. Petersburg. 
 
 "1 avail myself, etc." 
 
 Tou wiU report at the earliest possible moment your 
 
 execution of this instruction. 
 
 Hay. 
 
 The action of the Russian government was set forth in the 
 following letter from Secretary Hay to Mr. Leo N. Levi : 
 
 Department oe State, 
 
 "Washington, July 17, 1903. 
 Sir: I am directed by the President to acquaint you 
 that this department is informed by the American Em- 
 bassy in St. Petersburg that the Imperial Government 
 of Eussia has declined to receive or consider the petition 
 in relation to the condition of the Jews in Eussia, which 
 was addressed to his Majesty, the Emperor, by a large 
 number of citizens of the United States, and which this 
 department, by direction of the President and at your 
 request, undertook to transmit to its high destination. 
 I am, sir, Very respectfully yours, 
 
 John Hat. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 135 
 
 To this the following reply was made : 
 
 July 20, 1903. 
 Hon. John Hay, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Sir : I am just in receipt of your esteemed favor of 
 July 17, 1903, wherein, by direction of the President, 
 you acquaint me with the fact that the Imperial Govern- 
 ment of Eussia has declined to receive or consider the 
 petition in relation to the condition of the Jews in Eus- 
 sia, and which your department, by direction of the 
 President, and at the request of the Executive Committee 
 of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, undertook to 
 transmit to the Emperor of Eussia. 
 
 Acknowledging receipt of your courteous note, I take 
 occasion again, in behalf of my associates and myself, to 
 express our deep sense of obligation to you and the 
 President for the cordial and effective support extended 
 to us. 
 
 It will be our pleasure, as it certainly is our duty, to 
 avail ourselves of every opportunity to place on record 
 our grateful appreciation of the manner in which our 
 government has dealt with the crisis which arose from 
 the Kishinef massacre. Such an opportunity will be 
 afforded when the Annual Eeport of the Executive Com- 
 mittee of the B'nai B'rith will be issued, and another 
 when the petition itself is delivered to your department, 
 to be kept among its archives. I am, sir. 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 Leo N. Levi, 
 
 President I. O. B. B. 
 
 This completed the diplomatic features of the incident. 
 
136 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 Nothing remained except appropriately to lodge the petition 
 in the State Department at Washington. 
 
 After the refusal of the Russian government to receive 
 the petition, the President of the Kxecutive Committee was 
 requested by the Associated Press and many newspapers to 
 make a statement of the resulting situation, in response to 
 which he gave out the following: 
 
 Statement of LEO N. LEVI, President of the I. O. B. B. 
 
 The answer made by Eussia to Secretary Hay's note 
 is no surprise to me. While, of course, it was within 
 the range of possibility that the Czar and his Ministers 
 would be moved by considerations of humanity and ex- 
 pediency courteously to receive a petition from the 
 American people, it was well understood that the 
 probabilities were all the other way. The movement, 
 however, has had all the good effects that were in con- 
 templation, and even more. It has enabled the Ameri- 
 can people and the government to make an enduring 
 record of their views on the Kishinef horror. It has 
 brought the emphatic expression of those views home, 
 not only to the people of Eussia, but to the Eussian 
 Emperor and his Ministers. They have become ac- 
 quainted with the contents of the petition, not only by 
 seeing it in the press, but also because its full text was 
 communicated in the note which asked if the original 
 would be received. 
 
 The petition, being now an official document, will be 
 preserved in the archives of the United States, and will 
 forever testify to the lofty humanity of the people which 
 is so splendidly represented by the signers, and of the 
 President and his official advisers. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 137 
 
 There, too, it will remain as a witness that the friend- 
 ship of Eussia for the United States was not strong 
 enough to permit a respectful appeal for religious liberty, 
 made by citizens of this country. 
 
 I am convinced, too, that the influence in Eussia of 
 the petition, and of the agitation which preceded it, has 
 been powerful and good. 
 
 The number [nearly 13,000] and character of the 
 signatures [twenty-two Governors of States, eight ex- 
 Governors, seven United States Senators, sixteen Chief- 
 Justices, thirty United States Congressmen, three Arch- 
 bishops, seven Bishops, etc.] to the petition stamp it as a 
 convincing expression of the religious tolerance and sym- 
 pathy of the American people. It is doubtful if there 
 has ever been in this country such a representative 
 written expression of opinion. The people, without 
 regard to racial, religious, or political af&liations, have 
 stood behind the President in his manly and humane 
 activity. 
 
 The precise method of conveying the petition was 
 never regarded by us as of conti'olling importance, and 
 when Eussia indicated, semi-of&cially, that it would 
 be unacceptable, we deemed it best for the interests 
 of this country and of the Jews in Eussia to avoid a 
 coarse that would produce unnecessary irritation. It 
 was then, therefore, that we, upon our own initiative, 
 and without any suggestion whatsoever, besought Pres- 
 ident Eoosevelt to alter his decision to send the signed 
 petition, and to transmit its text instead. I can not 
 be too emphatic in declaring that at no time has there 
 been any disposition on the President's part to 
 change the original plan. Every step taken was 
 
138 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OP 
 
 most satisfactory to us, and in accordance with our re- 
 quests. 
 
 It now remains to get in all the petitions which are in 
 circulation, bind them up, and deposit the bound vol- 
 umes in the State Department. I have called for the 
 return of all that are not yet in. 
 
 The petition was delivered October 31st by Simon Wolf to 
 Secretary Hay, with the following letter from the President 
 of thel. O. B. B.: 
 
 October 5, 1903. 
 
 Hon. John Hay, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Sir : On July 14, 1903, by direction of the President, 
 the loose sheets of the so-called "Kishinef Petition" 
 were delivered to him, to be transmitted to St. Peters- 
 burg or placed among the archives of our own State De- 
 partment, as subsequent developments might determine. 
 At the same time, the President entrusted to the Execu- 
 tive Committee of the Independent Order of B'nai 
 B'rith the custody of the loose sheets, with permission 
 to have them bound in a suitable volume. The commit- 
 tee has performed the duty thus imposed, and which 
 it welcomed as an honorable privilege. The volume 
 will be delivered to you, along with this communication, 
 by Hon. Simon "Wolf, a member of the committee. 
 
 For all time to come, it will testify to the love of Jus- 
 tice, Humanity, and Liberty which moved the President 
 to give it countenance and its signers to father it. It 
 stands as the verdict of the whole people condemning the 
 denial of religious liberty, and upholding the President 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 139 
 
 in asserting that condemnation. If it be without prece- 
 dent, it is the more precious for becoming one. Civiliza- 
 tion made a distinct and notable advance when a great 
 nation of eighty millions of people, speaking not only 
 through its official head, but also through its most repre- 
 sentative citizens in their individual capacities, served 
 notice on the world that those who are made to suffer 
 martyrdom for conscience's sake, wherever they may 
 abide, have friends and sympathizers in this country. 
 Such an example will not be lost. The oppressor will 
 hereafter pause before he strikes, and his victim will be 
 saved from utter despair by the consciousness that the 
 voice of humanity will be raised in his behalf. 
 
 In this view, the services rendered by the President, 
 his advisers, and the people generally are not to be 
 measured by the benefits conferred upon the Jews alone. 
 This is one of the oft-recurring cases in which the Jews, 
 by their misfortunes, have led the world to a just appre- 
 ciation of the truths of which they are the devoted mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 In every part of the world where Jews are to be found 
 there is thanksgiving because the President and you and 
 the entire American people have championed the cause 
 of the oppressed. Everywhere admiration has been ex- 
 cited, and in this country the people are proud of the 
 courageous humanity which has been displayed. 
 
 In the gratitude, admiration, and pride which prevail 
 we earnestly participate — ^more earnestly, perhaps, than 
 others, because we so well know that the President from 
 the beginning was governed solely by the desire to bene- 
 fit the suffering Jews, and that every step taken had that 
 object in view. 
 
140 EU8SIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 In delivering the petition into your hands, we avail 
 ourselves of the opportunity to make this record of our 
 profoundly grateful appreciation. I am, sir, 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 Leo. N. Levi. 
 
 Secretary Hat replied to Mr. Levi's letter as follows: 
 
 Department of State, 
 Washington, October 31, 1903. 
 
 Leo N. Levi, Esq., President of the Executive Committee of 
 the Independent Order of E'nai B'rith, New Yorlc, W.T.: 
 
 Deae Sie: I have received, at the hands of the Hon. 
 Simon Wolf, your letter of the 5th of October. He has 
 also delivered to me "the bound copy of the Kishinef peti- 
 tion. It gives me pleasure to accept the charge of this 
 important and significant document, and to assign it a 
 place in the archives of the Department of State. 
 
 Altho this copy of your petition did not reach the high 
 destination for which it was intended, its words have at- 
 tained world-wide publicity, and have found a lodgment 
 in many thousands of minds. This petition will be always 
 memorable, not only for what it contains, but also for the 
 number and weight of the signatures attached to it, em- 
 bracing some of the most prominent names of our gen- 
 eration — men renowned for intelligence, philanthropy, 
 and public spirit. 
 
 In future when the students of history come to peruse 
 this document they will wonder how the petitioners, 
 moved to profound indignation by intolerable wrongs 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 141 
 
 perpetrated on the innocent and helpless, should have 
 expressed themselves in language so earnest and eloquent 
 and yet so dignified, so moderate, and so decorous. It is 
 a valuable addition to public literature, and wiU be 
 sacredly cherished among the treasures of this depart- 
 ment. I am, sir, 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 John Hay. 
 
142 BUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 IV 
 RUSSIA AND ITS JEWISH PROBLEM 
 
 (Three Letters of Arnold White, addressed to the Public 
 Ledger, Philadelphia, issues of July S6, S7, and 28, 1903; 
 Jacob H. Schiff's Answer and Mr. White's Rejoinder) 
 
 I. — Evolution of Russia 
 
 St. Peteksbueg, July 5. 
 
 Eolling over the dusty road-bed that unites Calais with 
 the 'Neva, thoughts come unbidden to the traveler to 
 Eussia in the long hours of his journey. Beading, for 
 more than a few minutes at a time, is out of the ques- 
 tion. Heat and glare, with the alternative of heat and 
 gloom, compel bodily inaction. There is nothing to do 
 but think, and thought means looking backward and 
 forward. 
 
 To any one who knows his Eussia there is plenty to 
 think of. The process of painful evolution through 
 which Eussia is passing to-day is the most fascinating 
 thing in the world. One of the acutest and most expe- 
 rienced of living Englishmen said to me shortly before 
 leaving London: "So you are going to Eussia. "Well, 
 anything may happen there within three months." But 
 for the personality of my prophet I should have despised 
 his warning. Only a day or two afterward another 
 friend said to me: "Anything may happen in Eussia 
 within three months." 
 
 "What do you know about it? " said I. 
 
 "Only this," he rejoined: "So-and-So," naming a 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 143 
 
 high military authority, who is in close touch with 
 the intelligence departments of all European coimtries, 
 "used those words to me only last week." 
 
 It seems, then, that in England, at all events, the word 
 has been passed round that "something" may happen 
 in Eussia before the winter. What is that "some- 
 thing " ? At any time during the past half century 
 "something" has been going to happen, but nothing 
 has happened in the sense in which the prediction was 
 intended. 
 
 It is true that there are signs of imrest. But Minis- 
 ters wiU be assassinated, foreigners expelled, and Jews 
 bludgeoned to death a dozen times more before the 
 ' ' something ' ' happens which changed a dynasty in 
 Servia last June, or converted a monarchy into a repub- 
 lic when Oliver Cromwell gave notice to Charles that 
 England was tired of the Stuarts. 
 
 The late Eussian Minister of the Interior was killed 
 by a disappointed subordinate. 
 
 David Israel Braham, the Times correspondent, was 
 expelled from Eussia, if the foreign correspondents of 
 St. Petersburg are correct in the information which they 
 gave me, because he had shown a want of tact in dealing 
 with the authorities, a want of accuracy in dealing with 
 facts, and a want of caution in the company he kept. 
 Mr. Braham is a very able writer, and he represented a 
 paper which was formerly the most powerful in the 
 world, but, if half that I hear, even from English 
 soui'ces, be true, it is impossible to wonder at the action 
 of the Ministry of the Interior in sending him out of the 
 country. 
 
 StiU, the manner in which Mr. Braham was treated is 
 
144 ETJSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 indefensible, however grave may have been the causes of 
 his sentence. Sudden and needlessly harsh expulsion of 
 a British subject, and that British subject a newspaper 
 correspondent, is, naturally, resented by every free-born 
 Briton. But if I had been M. Plehve, I would have ex- 
 pelled Mr. Braham. We hear a great deal of Mr. Bra- 
 ham's expulsion, but nothing whatever of the expulsion 
 from Tiflis of a colonel in the British army, who had not 
 given to Eussia one tithe of the offense which Mr. Bra- 
 ham is alleged to have given the authorities in St. 
 Petersburg. 
 
 British subjects, I repeat, will be again expelled from 
 Eussia, and the world will go on very much as before. 
 Expulsion of foes is a Eussian custom — primitive, as a 
 means; effectual, as an end. Eussian consuls in India 
 keep a close watch on the Indian army, but no British 
 consuls are allowed to exist in Central Asia. In di- 
 plomacy Eussia is first, easily first, all the time, because 
 Eussia knows what she wants, and Eussian Ministers, 
 who are chosen for their efiSciency, and not for their 
 birth, their eloquence, or their connections, have no con- 
 stituents to think of, and are, therefore, able to devote 
 the whole of their time to the advancement of their 
 country's interests. If they do not know what that 
 interest is, there is fair prima fade evidence that nobody 
 else does. 
 
 Hence the scoldings and screamings of an "enlight- 
 ened" foreign press produce no more effect on Eussian 
 policy than would the scratching of the dome of St. 
 Paul's on the ritual preferred and adopted by the dean 
 and chapter of the metropolitan cathedral. 
 
 I am not saying that this is right, but I do declare 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 145 
 
 that the average newspaper man of England and America, 
 and the average politician, for that matter, as a rule 
 know less of Eussian aims and policy than of the Greek 
 particle or of the ecclesiastical disputes of the fathers. 
 
 If Eussia is not to he forced, there is only one influ- 
 ence by which she can be affected— the influence of self- 
 interest. Show her that Eussian interests require a 
 change in policy, and Eussian policy is changed without 
 ten minutes' delay. Unless you can do this, you waste 
 your breath, your ink, and your time. No appeal to 
 humanity in war, for instance, gets home to Eussia, be- 
 cause Eussians agree with the sensible Macaulay in 
 thinking that there is no such cruelty in the ^dde, wide 
 world as humanity in war. Eussians have a word, 
 ^'rubeet,^^ which means to "cut up," or chop, into little 
 pieces. This is the word the Eussian general used to 
 describe the operations in Manchuria — which Lord Lans- 
 downe affects to believe is still a British interest, to 
 possess which is an open door, thus deluding the British 
 public into thinking that Manchuria to-day is not Eus- 
 sian, but Chinese, and, therefore, accessible to England. 
 
 Eussia has great advantages and great drawbacks. 
 She is self-contained, enormously strong, homogeneous, 
 free from the ecclesiastical strife of Eoman Catholic and 
 Protestant countries. She has enjoyed for two hundred 
 years a continuity of foreign policy, and her climate 
 gives her a hardy, energetic, and prolific race of men 
 and women, who need nothing but temperance and re- 
 solve to conquer the languid southerners as the Goths 
 conquered effete and lascivious Eome. 
 
 On the other hand, the Eussian political system rests 
 on the solid bed-rock of popular faith and popular 
 
146 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 ignorance. If Eussians were educated like the Grermans, 
 the system of delegated autocracy would fall like a serac 
 when the sun had changed its center of gravity. Every 
 school, every factory, every telephone is a nail in the 
 coffin of the political system that holds Eussia together. 
 The spread of liberal education and the autocracy of 
 tcMnovnihs are incompatible. Hence, Eussia is not con- 
 sistent in founding elaborate schools for electric tech- 
 nology and bacteriology. Science is the quest for truth, 
 and the combination of a hungry stomach and a liberal 
 education is, therefore, the raw material of radicalism 
 in England, populism in America, socialism in Ger- 
 many, and nihilism in Eussia. 
 
 Hence, Eussia is seamed with secret societies. The 
 "Bund" is a great fact. As education spreads, secret 
 combination for political purposes continues to grow. 
 For the first time in her history, Eussia is now witness- 
 ing the singular spectacle of students and the peasantry 
 making common cause against the common enemy — 
 autocracy. 
 
 Nevertheless, Eussia succeeds everywhere. Her ter- 
 ritorial growth and diplomatic victories appeal to the 
 pride of every Eussian outside the disaffected student 
 and peasant classes ; but the students, not irreconcilable, 
 each year produce a crop of officials who come into line, 
 marry, and accept the great system that gives them bread 
 and butter to-day and infinite possibilities for the most 
 insatiable ambition to-morrow. 
 
 Eussia, for all her autocracy, is the clever man's 
 country. In Eussia the career opens to talent in a way 
 that even free England can not boast. Pobedonosteff 
 was a priest's son. None of the Ministers are men of 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 147 
 
 family, except the Minister of the Court and Count 
 Lamsdorff. 
 
 The peasants themselves can not rise, even if they 
 wished to do so — which is not the case, because the arms 
 of precision are in the hands of authority. Goverments, 
 when the army is with them, are far stronger against 
 a popular rising than they were a century back. One 
 Maxim will clear a street, and a Q. P. six-inch gun is 
 a successful repartee to the strongest barricade. 
 
 No; if "something" is going to happen within three 
 months, it wiU not be in the shape of a popular rising ; 
 firstly, because the people in the mass are desperately 
 loyal to their Czar — they are his sheep — and, secondly, if 
 they did rise, a second Blagovestchensk would sterilize 
 contagion. The danger, if danger there be, is with the 
 secret societies, the Jews, and the irreconcilable students. 
 
 Of the secret societies, I know, on the highest author- 
 ity, that they are more active, daring, and nimierous than 
 they have been for many years. This much is certain : 
 the government spares neither pains nor money in learn- 
 ing all about them. It has them well in hand, and, until 
 the people, in exhausted patience, are AviUing to rise un- 
 armed, and die protesting dumbly against the misery of 
 their lives by accepting martyrdom by the million, there 
 can be and will be no revolution. 
 
 But there are no millions of miserable peasants so sick 
 of life as to renounce black bread, vodka, ikons, and the 
 plow, or to prefer the slaughter-field or the place of a 
 skull. The existence of these millions of insurgents out- 
 side the Jewish Pale is a fiction. 
 
 True, there are hungry peasants on the Volga, and the 
 crops fail somewhere in Eussia every year. But the 
 
148 BUSSIA AT THE BAR OP 
 
 gravity of the bread problem in Eussia is not yet equal 
 to that of our Indian Empire ; and the Bengali in the 
 Ganges Valley is more likely to rise against'the British 
 raja than the patient, cheery, plucky moujik against his 
 beloved Czar. As unfriendly Eussians see in South 
 Africa and in Ireland many evils that exist only ia their 
 imagination, so Eussophobe English discover in the 
 Czar' s dominions all sorts of perils that exist only in the 
 minds of those who, wishing ill to Eussia, aver that rev- 
 olution is imminent, or that "something" is bound to 
 happen in order to bring to an end a system which, ac- 
 cording to them, is like that of Bomba — "the negation 
 of God." 
 
 Eussia is Eussia still, and Central Asia, Manchuria, 
 and North China are her safety-valves. 
 
 II. — The Jew in Russia 
 
 St. Petersburg, July 8. 
 
 If Eussia be strong among the nations, she has a vul- 
 nerable spot. Her heel can be wounded: and she knows 
 it. The Jews are despised and rejected of men in Eus- 
 sia, but they are clever and industrious, and also the 
 most virtuous and prolific race in the empire. The 
 mills of the gods grind slowly, but fate is not to be 
 averted by imperial manifesto or ministerial ukase. 
 When Russia partitioned Poland, in a deal with Austria 
 and Prussia, she received into her veins a poison germ. 
 She would give much to be rid of that strain of infection 
 from her life-blood. 
 
 The Jews inside Eussia multiply and wax mighty in 
 ever-increasing misery, while the Jews outside Eussia 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 149 
 
 multiply in ever-increasing prosperity and power. The 
 press of Europe may be said to be Jewish. Finance is 
 in Jewish hands. The South African "War was not 
 fought for the Jews, but to them was garnered most of 
 the harvest that came from the blood shed by Boer and 
 Briton. The British taxpayer is poorer, the Boer is 
 certainly poorer for the war. Only the great Jewish 
 houses are enriched. The wealth that comes to them is 
 by no means squandered in idle display. Technical 
 education in England and research in constimption are 
 endowed, not by Anglo-Saxons, but the Jews. 
 
 Egypt is enriched by the financial genius of a Jew. 
 The cable and news distributing agencies are Jewish. 
 One man in six living in New York is a Jew. The 
 President of the United States has seriously considered 
 the policy of interfering in what most people regard as 
 the internal affairs of Eussia. The Prime Minister and 
 the Cabinet of England alter their policy and abandon 
 an important bill in Parliament at the frown of the 
 Eothschilds. At court and in society Jews in Britain 
 are predominant. 
 
 Offend the Jewish aristocracy of England and you 
 offend her courtiers and her court; such is the power of 
 the ''Chosen People" outside the limits of Eussia — a 
 power gained when they lost their taste for pastoral 
 theocracy in their monotonous progress toward the mas- 
 tery of the world. 
 
 But in Eussia there is another story to tell — a story of 
 famine — constant, grinding, but remediable want. 
 
 At Wilna recently, a laundry was started by a chari- 
 table Jew. He told me that such was the destitution of 
 the town that whole families of Jews had not a single 
 
150 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 article of linen between them. Other families possessed 
 one shirt. This misery is not exceptional, but typical. 
 The Jew is not dirt loving. Misery is more acute to-day 
 than in 1893. Eusso-Jewish misery will be more acute 
 in December than in July, because every baby born is 
 another mouth to fill from a store that even to-day will 
 not go round. 
 
 Nobody hitherto has suggested more than a palliative 
 for the Pale. There are six hundred thousand artisans, 
 and only work for half the number. The limits of the 
 Ghetto do not stretch; but the endurance of the sufferers 
 is nearly at cracking point, and there are more sufferers 
 every day. 
 
 Twelve years ago Baron de Hirsch conceived the plan 
 of relieving the pressure in the Pale by creating a new 
 Judea in the Argentine Eepublic. A few thousands 
 have emigrated there, but the plan is a failure. No 
 private enterprise can deal with the Jewish question, 
 and the Argentine is too far away to entice a fraction of 
 the population. The average Eussian Jew loves Eussia, 
 reveres the Czar, and dreads the high seas. Hirsch' s 
 plan has not even absorbed the natural increase. 
 
 If the Jewish question is to be tackled, Eussia must 
 tackle it, but the Jewish question is not exclusively 
 Eussian. On the contrary, the high rents and key 
 money of East London and of Manchester, and the polit- 
 ical protests of the American Jews, are as much part of 
 the Jewish question as Kishinef itself. 
 
 Nor is the Kishinef massacre a mere question of Eus- 
 sian internal politics. It comes straight home to myri- 
 ads of poor English and American families, whose rents 
 rise automatically and whose wages are docked by the 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 151 
 
 competition of an immigration stimulated by the bludg- 
 eons of Eussian rioters. 
 
 The nations are members one of another. Kishinef 
 echoes in Whitechapel. 
 
 The Jewish question is a world question, and will 
 never be settled by girding at Eussia from the arm-chairs 
 of English or American newspaper leader writers. Those 
 who wish to help the poor Jews of Eussia must, there- 
 fore, ask themselves how much they are sorry. If they 
 only sorry enough to swear at the Czar and abuse his 
 ministers, they, not the poor Jews, wiU get relief. If 
 they are sorry at all, they must begin by understanding 
 not only Jewish sufferings, but their real — not the osten- 
 sible — cause. 
 
 "Is it possible," I hear the kind-hearted reader say- 
 ing, ''that there is a Eussian defense for the butchery 
 of men, the violation of women, and the torture of little 
 children?" 'No, there is no defense for these things; 
 but there are reasons for the conditions that have led to 
 a long series of massacres in the past and will lead to 
 many more. 
 
 In the first place, let it be clearly understood that, 
 however gladly the Eussian Pharaoh would hear of the de- 
 parture or death from pestilence or sword of the whole 
 Jewish community, the murder of sixteen or sixty Jews 
 is not only of no use to the Minister of the Interior and 
 the Minister of Finance, but it is a humiliation and a 
 danger. 
 
 Jew massacres on a small scale injures Eussian credit, 
 (Bxcites the press of the civilized world, creates a public 
 opinion in Europe hampering to Eussian diplomacy, 
 occupies the time of overworked ministers, and grieves 
 
152 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OP 
 
 profoundly one of tlie kindest and tenderest hearts among 
 the world's rulers. The Czar's grief at the Kishinef 
 massacre was as sincere as the grief and indignation of 
 the saintliest soul in London or Philadelphia. Jew mas- 
 sacre, on any scale, is not liked or connived at by the 
 Russian government. 
 
 No ! The Russian government has nothing to gain and 
 much to lose from petty massacres or from civil commo- 
 tions of any kind. Great massacres are out of date. 
 "When, therefore, the London Times printed a bogus de- 
 spatch, purporting to be from M. de Plehve, the Russian 
 Home Secretary, and published other statements devoid 
 of foundation, reflecting on Russian inaction, the world's 
 ignorance of the real facts exposed its credulity to im- 
 position. 
 
 Any stick is good enough for the beating of a monster, 
 but truth will prevail. The ominous importance of the 
 Kishinef affair arises from the fact that the Russian 
 masses would like to exterminate the Jews, not from the 
 fiction that a Russian Minister had conceived, instigated, 
 or connived at the tragedy in Kishinef. This is the first 
 point to be grasped by those who want to help the Rus- 
 sian Jews. 
 
 Between the Russians and the Jews is a great racial 
 gulf. The Jew is Oriental, subtle, temperate, cynical, 
 prudent, proud, industrious, and exclusive. The Russian 
 is an impulsive, affectionate, superstitious, carousing, 
 fighting spendthrift. 
 
 Individual Russians are friendly with individual Jews, 
 but, taken in the mass, contact between Jews and mou- 
 jiks has much the same effect as contact between the 
 fighting races of Northern India and the sleek babus. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 153 
 
 No Eussian minister created tlie feeling of racial 
 antagonism, and none of them is responsible for the 
 qualities of the Eussian peasant which render him the 
 easy prey of an astuter and higher order of intelligence 
 than his own. The Eussian peasant is like the Sikh or 
 the Eajput. Leave him alone, and the Bengali money- 
 lender's blood will soon redden the Ganges. Paa; Britan- 
 nica alone prevents a hundred Indian Kishinefs. Only 
 the sword of the Czar stands between destruction and 
 his Hebrew subjects. It is his Majesty's will that no 
 massacre shall occur, and, since Eussian Ministers are 
 chosen for their efficiency, no general massacres will 
 occur. 
 
 But little ones will come again and again; and more 
 and more as time rolls on will Kishinef repeat itself, un- 
 less good men and women all over the world will recog- 
 nize their own personal responsibility for ending this 
 horrible tragedy. 
 
 I have already ascertained that Eussian Ministers are 
 by no means insensible to the march of events. They 
 perceive that before long facts will compel Eussia to 
 take some step for the relief of Jewish misery in the Pale. 
 It is a libel to describe Eussians as uncivilized or in- 
 human. They are practical people, and, like the rest of 
 us, obey the first law of nature — self-preservation. If 
 Eussia were to obey Anglo-Saxon philanthropists, and 
 to fling down the barriers to Jewish emancipation, not 
 five years would pass before Eussia would be Jewish. 
 In ten years every place of importance in the empire 
 would be fiUed by a Jew. 
 
 This might be an excellent thing for Eussia. That is 
 not the question. The Eussians are solid to a man 
 
154 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 against national suicide, and the only alternative to 
 national suicide lias hitherto been Jewish repression, 
 with its hideous accompaniments of perennial want, 
 tempered by occasional massacre and a stimulated emi- 
 gration. 
 
 There is a better way. How much longer will the 
 civilized world brook the scandal of the Jewish Pale? 
 A long time, I think, because the rich Jews themselves 
 would have shut their cash-boxes to Eussia after the 
 massacre of 1880 if they had been really in earnest on 
 behalf of their poorer coreligionists. The Gentile world 
 can not be expected to be more sensitive to Jewish 
 misery than the Hebrew millionaires. 
 
 The solution of the problem depends on the con- 
 sciences of all Christians — Eussian, British, and Amer- 
 ican. Christian nations owe everything to their Jewish 
 founder. There is a cry of little children from the 
 Eussian Pale which is growing sadder every day. The 
 conclusion is certain. If the Jews are to be helped, it 
 must be by Eussia. But before Eussia can stir, she must 
 be helped by Christendom. 
 
 III. — An International Conference to Relieve the Jews 
 
 St. Peteesbueg, July 16. 
 Since my arrival here I have seen and conversed at 
 length with Ministers, high officials; also with leaders 
 of the Jewish community. I have no authority to pub- 
 lish the details of any conversation, but the following 
 is the result of the examination I have made into the 
 Jewish question. 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 155 
 
 In Eussla you never hear an educated Israelite de- 
 nounce either the Czar or his Ministers. On the con- 
 trary, the Jews of Eussia and their leaders are just as 
 loyal to the Emperor Nicholas as the Jews of England to 
 King Edward, or the Jews " of America to President 
 Eoosevelt. Eussian Jews deplore the system, but never 
 abuse its administration. 
 
 The chief impression left on my mind, after many 
 conferences with leading men in St. Petersburg, is that 
 Eussia herself is in the mood to change for the better 
 the condition of those of her Hebrew subjects who are 
 willing and able to work. It is not too much to say that 
 the psychological moment has come for change, and 
 change for the better is inevitable, if the indiscretions of 
 emotion are exchanged for deliberate and resolute deter- 
 mination of the Anglo-Saxon world to help Eussia in the 
 change. 
 
 My conversations with de Plehve, Count Lamsdorff, 
 and others have been confidential, but I shaU be guilty 
 of no indiscretion in stating that I found surprising 
 readiness to listen to any practical proposal for the solu- 
 tion of the Jewish question. The arguments I have ven- 
 tured to place before Eussian Ministers, on behalf of the 
 Jewish inhabitants of the zonal provinces, are based on 
 the assumption that the Kishinef massacre is not a Eus- 
 sian domestic question, but one of grave international 
 concern, pressing closely on the laboring classes, male 
 and female, of Great Britain and America. 
 
 I am of the opinion that neither the American repub- 
 lic nor the British monarchy desires further Jewish im- 
 migration for its own sake. 
 
 Britain contemplates restrictive measures. Her Eoyal 
 
156 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 Commission has received ample evidence to establish on 
 a firm foundation the case for restrictive legislation. 
 But Great Britain hesitates to legislate against the Jews 
 in the afterglow of the flames of Kishinef. England 
 values her tradition of the right of asylum even more 
 than she values political peace. Still, the duty of goveru- 
 ments is to protect their own people, and I have no hesi- 
 tation in declaring that before many months are over — 
 Kishinef notwithstanding — the force of public opinion 
 will compel Mr. Balfour's government to take some steps 
 to arrest the further colonization of congested cities in 
 Britain by Polish and Eussian immigrants. 
 
 What form should that action take on both sides of 
 the Atlantic ? Is it to be purely selfish ? Shall it be 
 callously indifferent alike to the tragedy of the Pale and 
 the dilemma of Eussia 1 Or is the action of the English- 
 speaking peoples to proceed on the larger lines of wisdom 
 and humanity 1 Surely the latter. 
 
 If the Prime Minister of Britain and the President of 
 the United States were jointly and severally to address 
 to the government of Eussia an invitation to a confer- 
 ence on the whole Jewish question — not with the object 
 of placing pressure upon Eussia, but with the view of 
 consulting with her on the difficulties of a complex prob- 
 lem affecting the three Powers, a problem beyond the 
 capacity even of Eussia to solve for herself — there is 
 reason to believe that Eussia would not sullenly refuse to 
 entertain the idea. 
 
 It is true that the situation is delicate, and requires 
 not only adroit and technical diplomacy, but heart, mind, 
 and knowledge. Nor would such a plan fail to commend 
 itself to the Jewish community. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 157 
 
 The second suggestion made by the Executive Com- 
 mittee of the American B'nai B'rith, in its memorandum 
 to Secretary Hay, ran as follows (see p. 121) : 
 
 Using the Kishinef and other recent incidents of more or 
 less similar nature as grounds, an official invitation by the 
 United States should be addressed to all the Powers to an in- 
 ternational conference, to consider persecutions and oppres- 
 sions growing out of racial and religious prejudices and 
 hatred, and to protect civilization and international concord 
 from the evil effects of such persecutions and oppressions. 
 
 This resolution as it stands is inadmissible, because it 
 reflects on Eussia; but the idea of a conference is formu- 
 lated in such a way as to open the door to agreement, 
 and the fact that international consultation is desirable 
 is, for the time being, the whole point at issue. 
 
 No conference is desirable, or even practicable, from 
 which Eussia is absent. Eussia is the dean of the nations 
 in the Jewish question. Whether or not Eussia consents 
 to confer with the Anglo-Saxon nations — and this de- 
 pends on the tact with which the matter is handled — 
 Eussia herself must soon take action. 
 
 Since 1843 Eussia has not enlarged the area available 
 for her Jewish subjects, altho the Hebrew population in 
 the zone of the Fifteen Provinces has quadrupled. The 
 difficulty, however, with Eussia in dealing with the Jew- 
 ish question is not land but money ; the trouble with 
 England and America is not money, but land. 
 
 If, then, as the result of the proposed conference, Eus- 
 sia and the Anglo-Saxon Powers should agree to pool 
 both their difficulties and their assets, the back of the 
 
158 EU8SIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 problem will be broken, and a settlement is in sight. 
 Eussia contributes land, and tbe two Anglo-Saxon 
 nations are to help with money. Baron de Hirsch has 
 provided for about eight thousand bread-winners in the 
 Argentine. But the normal increase of the Jewish pop- 
 ulation in Eussia is one per cent., or, say, fifty-two thou- 
 sand a year. The Hirsch millions, therefore, have not 
 overtaken even the normal increase, which enlarges year 
 by year. The price of escape from the Jewish trouble 
 increases daily. 
 
 But where is the money to come from? There are 
 three sources. 
 
 First, there are the Hirsch millions. The Baron 
 would turn in his grave if he knew that his noble con- 
 ception of a free Israel was marred by his executors, 
 and that his legacy was employed to bring the impover- 
 ished Hebrews into congested England or congested New 
 York. The Hirsch millions should be used for the pur- 
 pose intended by the Baron — if not in the Argentine, 
 then in Eussia or near Eussia — as may be decided after 
 inquiry by the three Powers concerned. 
 
 Second, there is the vast wealth of the Jewish aristoc- 
 racy on both sides of the Atlantic. The gift by Jewish 
 millionaires of $1,500,000 for an English technical school, 
 on the Charlottenburg plan, is a gracious and generous 
 act. But there are nearer claims on the great Jewish 
 capitalists than the subsidization of rich England. Here 
 again is a Hirsch idea — which I repeat from his grave. 
 If Englishmen want education, they can pay for it. But 
 the cry from the Pale comes from those who can not pay 
 even for existence, and who will writhe in hunger and 
 wo unless their own flesh and blood, and all Christen- 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 159 
 
 dom who mourns for them, come to their relief. Baron 
 de Hirsch and Baron Alphonse de Eothschild have done 
 something, but it is a bagatelle and is no solution of the 
 problem. Social and political pressure should, there- 
 fore, be exerted to induce the Jewish wealthy to unite 
 for the equipment of the territory which Eussia shall 
 provide for the relief of her Jews. 
 
 Third, there is Christendom as the backbone of the 
 scheme for obtaining funds for the ransom of Israel. The 
 crusades of the Middle Ages were undertaken from a 
 sentiment of duty. Chivalry and Christianity in the 
 twentieth century are not dead, as cynics avow. More- 
 over, our national interests and our individual duty for 
 once are identical. To contribute toward the settlement 
 of the Jewish question means Anglo-American partner- 
 ship with Eussia — and partnership with Eussia in one 
 great humanitarian object may lead to a closer under- 
 standing and friendlier relations between the powers on 
 other and more material interests. Christianity has en- 
 riched, softened, and refined millions of those who do 
 not claim the name of Christian, and if ever the Pounder 
 of Christianity called to His followers to follow Him, it 
 is now, when the race to which He belonged is in sore 
 straits. 
 
 We can solve the Jewish question hand in hand with 
 Eussia to-day. To-morrow may be too late. There is a 
 claim on Catholic and Protestant, on the Greek Orthodox 
 Church, on the agnostic and on the l^onconformist and 
 the Episcopalian alike. It is a call on the whole hiunan 
 race, in which Eussia and the Anglo-Saxons must take 
 the lead and bear the white man's burden. It is they 
 who must take counsel together. 
 
160 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 The main principles of tlie scheme may be summarized 
 as follows : 
 
 1. England and America must examine the question anew, 
 so as to understand that the Russian position as regards the 
 Jews is not inspired by futile brutality, but dictated by the 
 first law of nature — self-preservation — and by the duty of rul- 
 ers toward the majority of their subjects. Whether Russia 
 has sinned in thus acting is not in question. 
 
 2. The solution of the Jewish question is insoluble by any 
 single nation. Even Russia is impotent if she acts alone. 
 
 3. The Jewish question is a world problem, and, therefore, 
 international in its essence. 
 
 4. To solve the Jewish problem a conference between Rus- 
 sia and the Anglo-Saxon Powers is essential, in order that 
 the problem as it affects each Power may be understood by 
 all the parties concerned before its solution is attempted. 
 
 5. That the Russia- Anglo-Saxon conference shall adopt the 
 principle of Russia dividing territory and the other Powers 
 finding capital for the establishment of the redundant Jewish 
 population, now miultiplying in the Pale, to their own 
 misery and the certainty of eventual bloodshed and revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 6. That the capital necessary shall consist: 
 
 (a) Of the funds of the Jewish Colonization Association 
 as a nucleus. 
 
 (6) Of the contributions of wealthy Jews, who shall be in- 
 vited to suspend their generosity to rich nations until the 
 congestion of the Jewish Pale is relieved and the Jewish 
 problem solved by the settlement of their coreligionists in 
 territory of adequate size. 
 
 (c) Of contributions from Christians of nations, who be- 
 lieve that the race to which their Founder belongs has a 
 positive and primary claim on their charity and their good 
 will. The release of the Holy Places from the custody of 
 the Moslem is a trifle compared with the release of the Jews 
 from their living sepulchre. 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 161 
 
 Again, I repeat, without revealing any of the admis- 
 sions or promises made to me by the rulers of Eussia, 
 that I have the best reason for saying that the Czar's 
 Ministers wiU not summarily reject proposals for a dis- 
 passionate examination of the Jewish question, if these 
 proposals are made in such a way as to attain the object 
 aimed at — viz., the solution of the Jewish question. 
 
 Eussia will not discuss the question as to whether or 
 not contact between moujik and Jew is good or bad. 
 She has made up her mind on the point, and the ques- 
 tion is not an open one so far as she is concerned. 
 
 All that is asked for to-day is the acceptance of the 
 principle that civilization is dishonored by the present 
 state of the Jewish question, and that before a solution 
 is feasible the three great nations must understand the 
 problem. 
 
 To understand it they must confer. 
 
 "Will not Mr. Eoosevelt and Mr. Hay, Mr. Balfour 
 and Lord Lansdowne seize the golden moment ? 
 
 IV.— Answer of the Hon, JACOB H. SCHIFF to 
 Mr. ARNOLD WHITE 
 
 Bar Haebor, Maine, Augmt 3, 1903. 
 
 To the Editor of PvMic Ledger : 
 
 I have read with interest the letters on Eussia and the 
 Jews, published in the Public Ledger over the signature 
 of Mr. Arnold White. It is stated that when Baron de 
 Hirsch first became interested in the Eussian Jewish 
 problem he arranged with Mr. Arnold White, for a 
 
162 RUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 weighty consideration, to go to Russia and see what 
 coxild be done with the Czar's government in an effort 
 to raise the status of its Jewish subjects through tech- 
 nical and agricultural education, to be provided by 
 means which he, the Baron, would furnish. Mr. White, 
 it is said, reported to the Baron that to carry out his de- 
 signs it would be well if a certain considerable sum were 
 deposited with the Russian government for the purposes 
 of his, the Baron's, educational plans simultaneously 
 with the petitioning of the government for permission 
 to carry these plans into effect. The sought-for permis- 
 sion was refused, but Baron de Hirsch's money was ap- 
 propriated — so it was stated at the time — for the build- 
 ing of churches ! 
 
 "Give money to Russia" is again the advice of Mr. 
 White, so that a new and larger Pale may be erected by 
 it, within its boundaries, for the establishment of its 
 Jewish population, now multiplying in the existing Pale 
 and dragging out a miserable existence there. And this 
 is the only solution Mr. White can see, after the confi- 
 dential conversations he has had, as he states, with M. 
 Plehve, Count Lamsdorf, and others of the rulers of 
 Russia. 
 
 N'o one outside of Russia wiU dispute the fact that 
 civilization is dishonored by the present state of the 
 Jewish question, but few wiU admit that before a solu- 
 tion is feasible the three great nations (England, Amer- 
 ica, and Russia) must understand the problem. 
 
 I am not competent to speak for England, but no such 
 problem as Mr. White assumes exists in the United 
 States. It is true, a very considerable number of natives 
 of Russia of the Jewish faith of recent years have come, 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 163 
 
 and will continue to come, to these shores in search of 
 new and better homes than they have been permitted to 
 enjoy in the land of their birth, in which their ancestors 
 had Lived for centuries; but that these immigrants have 
 created a problem for the people of the United States 
 can not for a moment be admitted. 
 
 To the contrary, hardly any portion of the population 
 of our country is so slight a burden as are the newcom- 
 ers of the Jewish faith; they, as a rule, become promptly 
 self-supporting, and, after a comparatively short lapse 
 of time, become earnestly imbued with the spirit of our 
 institutions. Our country has no better citizens than 
 the bulk of those who, ileeing from Eussian intolerance 
 and persecution, have found an asylum within the boun- 
 daries of this land of liberty. 
 
 But Mr. White is right in this : The Jewish question 
 in Eussia must be solved by and in Eussia. Five mil- 
 lion people can not emigrate, and no matter how many 
 of its Jewish subjects may leave the Czar's dominions, 
 there will always remain five million Jews in Eussia. 
 There wiU also remain there the same Jewish question 
 as it exists to-day, so long as the Czar's government, in- 
 stead of endeavoring to raise the status of its Jewish 
 subjects so that they may become a source of strength to 
 the state, persists in making pariahs of them. Eussia 
 breaks them down morally and physically through the 
 application of exceptional laws, thus creating and inten- 
 sifying the very conditions which have brought about 
 the horrors of Kishinef, and which will make us readily 
 agree that civilization is dishonored by the present state 
 of the Eussian-Jewish question. 
 
 Let Eussia abolish all exceptional laws. Let it per- 
 
164 RUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 mit its Jewisli subjects to dwell witMn its vast boun- 
 daries wherever the opportunity offers itself to honest 
 effort to succeed, instead of compelling them to drag 
 out a miserable existence within a narrow Pale, and 
 there will no longer remain any Jewish question. Wher- 
 ever the Jew has been admitted to equality before the 
 law with his Christian neighbor, he has become as good 
 a citizen and as ardent a lover of his country as his 
 Catholic and Protestant fellow. 
 
 No just man wiU challenge the assertion that in Eng- 
 land, in Germany, in Prance, and certainly in the 
 United States, the citizen of the Jewish faith is not only 
 a warm and sincere supporter of the state, but from a 
 moral and economic point of view, is a source of strength, 
 and not of weakness, to the country to which he owes 
 allegiance. 
 
 Self-preservation — the first law of nature — should, 
 therefore, determine Russia in reversing, and not in con- 
 tinuing, its policy governing the treatment of its Jewish 
 subjects. No additional Pales, as Mr. White suggests, 
 formed with the aid of Anglo-Saxon funds, under the 
 guise of Jewish colonization within Russia, but the 
 strengthening and uplifting of these now so unhappy 
 people through equal protection by the law of their 
 land. No other remedy is needed; no other is practic- 
 able of execution, and while it may yet remain delayed 
 in coming, come it must, because civilization, justice, 
 and righteousness march on, and must in the end tri- 
 umph over barbarity, injustice, and prejudice wherever 
 they prevail and by whomsoever they are practised. 
 
 Jacob H. Schiff. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 165 
 
 v.— Rejoinder of Mr. ARNOLD WHITE 
 
 London, August 18, 1903. 
 To the JEditor : 
 
 I have read in the Public Ledger of August 6, state- 
 ments by Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, to which I beg leave to 
 reply. Mr. Schiff says: 
 
 It is stated that when Baron de Hirsch first became inter- 
 ested in the Russian Jewish problem he arranged with Mr. 
 Arnold White, for a weighty consideration, to go to Russia 
 and see what could be done with the Czar's government in an 
 effort to raise the status of its Jewish subjects through tech- 
 nical and agricultural education, to be provided by means 
 which he, the Baron, would furnish. Mr. White, it is said, 
 reported to the Baron that to carry out his designs it would 
 be well if a certain considerable sum were deposited with the 
 Russian government for the purposes of his, the Baron's, edu- 
 cational plans simultaneously with the petitioning of the 
 government for permission to carry these plans into effect. 
 
 This is a paragraph the meaning of which is not very 
 clear, but it contains three misstatements of fact. 
 
 First. Baron de Hirsch did not arrange with me, for 
 "a weighty consideration," to go to Eussia and see 
 what could be done by the Czar's government. My first 
 visit to Eussia was paid for out of my own pocket. Sub- 
 sequently I made a business arrangement with Baron de 
 Hirsch, who was my paid employer during four other 
 visits. I have also visited Eussia on two subsequent oc- 
 casions at my own expense in the interest of the Jews. 
 
 Second. It is not true that I reported to the Baron 
 that to carry out his designs it would be well if a certain 
 considerable sum were deposited with the Eussian gov- 
 ernment for the purpose of his, the Baron's, plans. 
 
166 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 Previous to my connection with Baron de Hirsch, lie 
 had entrusted a very large sum of money (I believe the 
 amount was $500,000) to the Dowager Empress for the 
 purpose of assisting the hospitals in which her Majesty 
 was interested. This money, I believe, never reached 
 the hospitals, but was retained by M. Pobedonosteflf, and 
 was actually converted into an educational weapon 
 against the Jews. 
 
 When I first discussed the matter with Baron de 
 Hirsch, he was smarting under this injustice, and I 
 strongly advised him, after my first visit to Russia, un- 
 der no circumstances to entrust money to M. Pobedono- 
 steff, whose futile policy is the cause of most of the 
 trouble. 
 
 It is true that after I had negotiated the treaty with 
 the Russian government by which intending Jewish emi- 
 grants were released from military service, from certain 
 passport disabilities, and from certain arrears of taxa- 
 tion, a deposit of $100,000 was required. That was a 
 condition with which Baron de Hirsch complied, but I 
 have had nothing to do with the administration since 
 his death, and I do not know what has become of it. 
 
 Third. Mr. Schiff is entirely wrong in suggesting that 
 my policy is "to give money to Russia." What I have 
 urged and shall continue to urge to the end of my life is 
 that it is the duty of Christendom, and especially of 
 Englishmen and Americans, to relieve the world of this 
 awful scandal of misery that is wrapt up in the Jewish 
 question. This can only be done by the expansion of the 
 boundaries within which Russian Jews are allowed to 
 Uve. Russia alone can give the land for this purpose. 
 What I am proposing is not that money should be given 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 167 
 
 to Russia, but to the Jews. I am not rich, but when- 
 ever the time comes for helping the Jews in this way I 
 shall give all I can afford, because I believe it to be a 
 duty for all Christians to help the race to which the 
 Founder of Christianity belongs. 
 
 Arnold "White. 
 
168 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OP 
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF GENTILE RUSSIA 
 
 The Opinions of Russian State Ministers, Governors, Generals, 
 High Di£[nitaries of the Church, Educators, and Writers, from 
 the Time of Catherine II. to the Present Day, on the Situa- 
 tion of the Jews in Russia 
 
 I. — Count Sachar Grigorjewitsch Tschemyschew (1772) 
 
 From the manifesto to the inhabitants of the annexed 
 Polish provinces, issued in 1772 by the Russian General, Count 
 Sachab Grigobjewitsch Tschebnyschbw, Vice-President 
 of the Imperial War Office, Governor-General of White 
 Russia, etc.: 
 
 ... It follows from tlie solemn guarantee of the free 
 exercise of religion, and the assurance of the inviolabil- 
 ity of property, that the Jewish communities in the cities 
 and on the estates that have been incorporated with the 
 Eussian Empire shall continue, and be protected also in 
 the enjoyment of all those liberties which they possess 
 now in conformity with the laws and with their circum- 
 stances; for her Imperial Majesty's humanity will not 
 permit that they alone shall be excluded from the clem- 
 ency extended to all in common and from future well- 
 being under her blessed rule, so long as they on their 
 ■part live as faithful subjects in due obedience and carry 
 on trade and industry within the bounds of their profes- 
 sions. 
 
 Source : First Complete Code of the Russian Empire, 
 vol. xix., No. 13850, pp. 553-556. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 169 
 
 11.— Report of the State Council (l802) 
 
 Report of seven members of the State Council, submitted 
 in the session of June 9, 1802, on occasion of the examination 
 of the report of the Directing Senate "on the decree forbid- 
 ding the Jews to engage in commerce in the residential cities 
 and in the governments of the interior. " The seven members 
 were : Count Peter Wassiljewitsch Sawadowski, ap- 
 pointed Minister of Popular Education in 1802; Vice-Chancel- 
 lor Prince Alexander Bobissowitsch Kurakin; Attorney- 
 General Alexander Andrejewitsch Bekleschow, Gen- 
 eral of the Infantry, appointed Governor-General of Moscow 
 in 1804 ; Imperial Treasurer Count Alexbj Iwanowitsch 
 Wassiljew, appointed Minister of Finance in 1802; Vice- 
 President of the War Office, Serge J Kosmitsoh Wjasmiti- 
 NOW, General of the Infantry, Minister of War, 1802-1808; 
 Prince Peter Wassiljewitsch Lopuchin, appointed Minis- 
 ter of Justice in 1803, and President of the State Council 
 in 1816; Dimitri Prokopjbwitsch Tboschtschinski, Min- 
 ister of Justice, 1814-1817: 
 
 The Jews can by no means be deprived of the rigM to 
 import goods and to sell at wholesale : (1) by reason of 
 the municipal law which permits merchants from other 
 cities, of the first and second guilds, to engage in whole- 
 sale commerce everywhere without exception, and even 
 encourages them to do so; (2) because the right to en- 
 gage in wholesale commerce is granted even to foreign- 
 ers and can not therefore be denied to Eussian subjects 
 constituting a not inconsiderable part of the population, 
 who, moreover, pay double taxes ; (3) because all the 
 laws forbidding the Jews to engage in trade in the inte- 
 rior originated prior to the time when the Jews became 
 Eussian subjects; but since those governments in which 
 they are living in large numbers were acquired by Eus- 
 sia, and since they were admitted as Eussian subjects, 
 
170 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 and guild rights were granted to tliem in those govern- 
 ments, they can not be deprived of the right to engage 
 in wholesale commerce in the governments of the interior 
 without destroying the foundation of those guild rights ; 
 (4) because, in so far as the Jews import contraband 
 merchandise and forge labels, felonies committed by in- 
 dividuals can not be made a basis of laws for an entire 
 class, especially if these offenses are due also to inade- 
 quate supervision on the part of the police and the cus- 
 toms of&cials, and could easily be obviated by improving 
 the supervision. 
 
 Source : Archives of the State Council, vol. iii, part 2, 
 col. 740. 
 
 III. — Investigation Committee of the Russian Senate (1804) 
 
 Beport of the Committee for Reorganizing Jewish Affairs, 
 instituted by an imperial order to the Senate, November 9, 
 1802 (date of report, October, 1804). Members of the commit- 
 tee: Count Valerian Alexandbowitsch Subow, General 
 of the Infantry; Count, later Prince, Victor Pa wlowitsch 
 KoTSCHTJBBJ, Minister of the Interior, later Imperial Chan- 
 cellor; Gawribl Romano witsch Derschawin, Minister of 
 Justice; Count Sewerin Ossipowitsch Potocki, Senator; 
 Prince Adam Adamowitsch Tschartoryiski, Under-Secre- 
 tary of State of the Foreign Office; Prince Peter Wassil- 
 JEWITSCH LopucHiN, suocessor to Count Subow, who died 
 before the committee completed its work: 
 
 The elevation of the Jewish population must be based 
 chiefly on the following principles: 
 
 1. It must be borne in mind, in the first place, that 
 the Jews must be raised as much as possible out of their 
 present degrading condition by enabling them to gain 
 their living by honest and useful toil. 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 171 
 
 2. The separate administration of their internal affairs 
 must be correspondingly restricted, and their interests 
 must be guarded from the standpoint of the administra- 
 tion applicable to all subjects. 
 
 3. All the means of education and progress must 
 be made accessible to them by affording them in this 
 respect all necessary encouragement and stimulus, and 
 making it incumbent upon them to use the vernacular 
 of the country. 
 
 4. By combatting their hurtful, petty tricks of trade, 
 and encouraging them to undertake works of public 
 utility, they are to be urged, as much as possible, to 
 engage in agriculture, in manufacture, and in trades, 
 and to live in community with the rest of the population. 
 
 The committee wishes to show to the Jews that the 
 government, in solicitously extending its hand to them, 
 does not intend to tear them forcibly out of their present 
 condition, but that in their interest it aims to lead them 
 toward a better, more hopeful life, which will be also of 
 great advantage to themselves ; that, by protecting 
 their liberty of conscience;, leaving their religion unas- 
 sailed, and even sparing their prejudices, it has in all 
 its measures only the one end in view, namely, to put 
 their material status on an assured legal basis, and 
 to enable them to partake of the advantages and re- 
 spect which the other classes enjoy, under the common 
 protection of the laws, of toleration, and of public 
 order." 
 
 Source: Archives of the Directing Senate. Imperial 
 ukases of the year 1804, B. 275, fol. 37-53, see Prince N. N. 
 Golizyn, "History of the Russian Legislation Concerning 
 the Jews." 
 
172 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 IV. — Iwan Semenowitsch Timirjasew (1835) 
 Major-General d la Suite^ formerly Military and Civil Qovem<yr of Astrachan 
 
 It is highly advisible to permit the Jews to settle per- 
 manently at Astrachan, both in order to provide this 
 district with efficient artisans, as tailors, shoemakers, 
 jewelers, etc., and to introduce and develop these neces- 
 sary trades among the native population, as persons of 
 this description are very scarce in this remote region. 
 
 Source: From the report of the Governor of Astrachan to 
 the Minister of the Interior, February, 1835. First Complete 
 Code, vol. X., part 2, No. 8481. 
 
 V. — Count Pawel Dimitriewitsch Kisselew (1854) 
 
 Adjutant'Qeneral to Emperor Nicholas /., President of the Committee for 
 
 Jewish Affairs, Minister of the Domains of the Empire (18S7-1855), 
 
 subsequently Ambassador to France 
 
 A considerable number of Jews — 5,877 persons in all — 
 settled during 1854 on government land. At the present 
 time the number of Jewish landowners in the New Eus- 
 sian colonies and in the western governments has in- 
 creased to 26, 686, exclusive of the Jews settled on private 
 estates. The new colonists, who are not familiar with 
 agriculture, can not be expected to succeed at once in 
 farming; there are, however, Jewish colonies which have 
 flourished within a short time. Many Jews have become 
 enthusiastic farmers. 
 
 The amalgamation of the Jews with the rest of the 
 population, which the Emperor designated in 1840 as a 
 desirable event, is prevented by the manifold restrictions 
 imposed in the course of time, which contain many con- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 173 
 
 tradictions when compared with the general laws, and 
 necessarily lead to misunderstandings. 
 
 Sources: Extract from the report of the Ministry of the 
 Domains of the Empire for 1854. Supplement to No. 12 of 
 the "Journal of the Ministry of Domains of the Empire," 
 1855, p. 10. Report of the Imperial State Council on the per- 
 mission to settle throughout the empire to be granted to the 
 Jewish artisans, conflrmed by the Emperor June 28, 1865. 
 Second Complete Code, No. 42264, p. 693. 
 
 VI.— Count Sergei Stefanowitsch Lanskoi (1858) 
 Minister of the Interior (1S55-1S61) 
 
 Justice compels us to say that one of the chief causes 
 of the poverty of the majority of the Jewish communi- 
 ties is to be sought in the legal restrictions that so far 
 have prevented the Jews from mingling with the rest of 
 the population, and have barred their way to education 
 and the betterment of their material condition. 
 
 Source: From the report of the Minister of the Interior 
 for the year 1858. Journal of the Ministry of the Interior 
 for the Year 1860, part 41, p. 61. 
 
 VII.— Iwan Kondratjewitich Babst (1859) 
 Professor at the University of Moscow 
 
 Much has been said and written regarding the Jews, 
 their conmiercial tact, their industry and ability, their 
 condition in the western part of our empire and in White 
 Eussia, their relations to the native rural population, 
 and their exploitation of the latter. . . . 
 
 But is this the fault of the Jews alone ? Are the real 
 causes not to be found in the adverse legislation of all 
 Christian states concerning the already tragic conditions 
 
174 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 of the Jewish people that are so clearly before our eyes, 
 startling us by their horror, and making every true Chris- 
 tian shudder? "With our mothers' milk we imbibe the no- 
 tion that the Jew is not our equal, in the same way as every 
 young aristocrat is accustomed from childhood up to look 
 upon his servant Mischka or "Wanka as a creature of a 
 lower order whose skin even is constituted differently. 
 And Wanka and Mischka in turn are not reared with the 
 most friendly feelings toward their young masters, Micha- 
 ilo "Wassilitsch and Iwan Petrowitsch. This is the origin 
 of the enmity between the classes, of the servility and 
 thievishness of the one and the disdain of the other. . . . 
 The same may be said of the Jews. So long as the 
 Jew is suppressed, so long as he is conscious of his weak- 
 ness and the impossibility of freeing himself from the 
 yoke imposed upon him, so long as we Christians do not 
 admit that our Jewish brother is a citizen like ourselves, 
 that he must have the same rights as we, so long he will 
 use all possible means of escaping from that yoke. . . . 
 Exclusively herded together in White Eussia and in the 
 western provinces, and deprived of the possibility of ex- 
 tending their commerce, the Jews have here concentrated 
 their entire activity without encountering competition. 
 How can one get on without the Jews 1 Even the peasant, 
 on being questioned, admits that if it were not for the 
 Jew he would have no opportunity of selling the surplus 
 products of his little farm, and thereby obtaining ready 
 money. If the Jews were forbidden to go from farm to 
 farm, from village to village, from market to market, 
 this would be equivalent to a sudden paralysis of the 
 industrial life of the whole country, which they alone 
 support. If the merchants of Great Eussia enter the 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 175 
 
 country under present conditions in White Eussia and 
 the western governments, they would despoil the native 
 rural population if the Jews are deprived of their rights 
 and their commerce is restricted. But are such meas- 
 ures possible, and can any one exercising legally per- 
 mitted trades be restricted in such wise? . . . The 
 Jews can not be made equal to' the other citizens by 
 oppressive measures against the Jewish merchants; such 
 means are possible and comprehensible only in times of 
 barbarity. The legislator must penetrate more deeply 
 into the nature of the social sores that have attacked a 
 whole people or a whole country. Diseases that are 
 rooted deeply in the organism can be cured only with 
 difficulty by external means. . . . 
 
 . . . The example of Prussia is especially instructive 
 for us, because we find the Jewish population there 
 spread over a large area, and, moreover, in different 
 stages of education. It clearly appears from the official 
 reports which the government laid before the Parliament 
 in 1847 how beneficial the free institutions have been 
 for the Jewish population, and that the results have 
 been in proportion to the enlargement of the civic rights 
 of the Jews. The province of Posen, whose Jewish 
 population reminds us in many ways of the Jews of the 
 western districts of our empire, furnishes the most strik- 
 ing example of the progress made by this population, 
 morally as well as socially, not in consequence of forcible 
 and oppressive measures, but, on the contrary, in con- 
 sequence of measures which enlarged the rights of the 
 Jews and awoke in them the feeling of their own dig- 
 nity and the love for their common country. . . . Not 
 a single provincial government advocated their oppres- 
 
176 ETJSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 sion; but all admitted that the enlargement of the civic 
 rights of the Jews, which was decreed in the edict of 
 1812, has had the most happy results. At Breslau and 
 Oppeln the cause of the Jews found friends; Prankfort- 
 on-the-Odor reported that there was no material differ- 
 ence between the lower classes of the Jewish and the 
 Christian population, and that the Jewish children 
 attended school regularly. On all sides the Jews were 
 praised. ... It must always be remembered that 
 bad and reprehensible qualities in a nation as a whole 
 are the result of general causes rooting in its his- 
 tory. . . . But the barriers separating the Jews from 
 the rest of the population and preventing them from en- 
 gaging in honorable business are hardly removed when 
 this clever people, endowed with many valuable moral 
 qualities, devotes itself at once with perseverance and 
 incessant diligence to the most various trades and occu- 
 pations, far outstripping, according to trustworthy wit- 
 nesses, the rest of the population in moral and mental 
 development. . . . 
 
 " If you want to help any sensible and active man in 
 his enterprises," said one of the representatives of the 
 Prussian people, "will you find it more expedient to 
 dole out to him the money a dollar at a time, or will you 
 give him the entire capital at once, so that he may be in 
 a position to put his whole energies into the business? 
 In my opinion, the latter method is better and more 
 sensible, and this method we must pursue in regard to 
 the Jews. It is our duty to give them, in the form of 
 emancipation, the capital of full civic liberty, in order 
 that they may use it for their own interest and the inter- 
 est of the entire country." It is the enviable task of 
 
THE AMEBIOAIT PEOPLE 177 
 
 our time to receive these brothers who have been re- 
 ptilsed for such a long period in consequence of religious 
 and political prejudices^ and this task is the more in- 
 cumbent upon us, since a Jew has already found his 
 way into the English Parliament and has taken his place 
 among the representatives of the free people of Great 
 ; Britain. 
 
 Source: Iwan Kondratjewitch Babst, " From Moscow to 
 Leipsic," Moscow, 1859, pp. 4^11. 
 
 VIII.— Nikolai Iwanowitsch Piro^ow (I8(S0) 
 
 Professor of Surgery at the Universities of Dorpat and St. Petersburg 
 
 . . . iN'ot only every humane but also every true pa- 
 triot, must agree with me that it is our duty, as well as to 
 our interest, to sympathize with the emancipation of the 
 Jews. Can we Eussians, who have remained free from 
 the prejudices of the Middle Ages, look upon the na- 
 tional weaknesses and faults of the Jews as a serious ob- 
 stacle to our common human endeavors ? Are we not in 
 a position to comprehend that the immorality which 
 appears in the purely material strivings of a people 
 is solely the consequence of its desperate circumstances, 
 which again are conditioned by the past, by the preju- 
 dices of bygone centuries ? And instead of clinging ob- 
 stinately to convictions that have become obsolete, is it 
 not more logical to follow the signs of the time and of 
 sound common sense, and to enter upon a new path ? 
 
 Source: From a letter to the editor of the paper Dawn, 
 1860-1861, No. 27, 
 
178 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 IX.— Peter Karlowitsch Schtschebalski (i860) 
 
 Chief of the Warsaw School Board 
 
 ... If the law considers the Jews more than hereto- 
 fore, if they are more humanely treated by the Eussian 
 people — which it is the duty of our writers to advocate 
 — and if the Jews themselves are less crowded together, 
 we are convinced that they will be assimilated before 
 long, especially as the educated Jews themselves are be- 
 ginning to admit the necessity of this assimilation. 
 
 I have been deeply pained to read the editorial in No. 
 19 of the periodical Benj. . . . This article refers 
 to the law permitting the Jews who possess diplomas 
 from the higher institutions of learning to enter all the 
 branches of the public service. 
 
 Almost the entire Eussian press has commented favor- 
 ably upon this lavv, which is merely the natural conse- 
 quence of the measures that we unanimously approved 
 at the beginning of the present government; the Benj 
 only is dissatisfied with this law. ' ' A Christian country, ' ' 
 says this paper, ''that acts in the spirit of its Lord and 
 Master, affords to them (the Jews) a refuge and the pos- 
 sibility of existence, as well as the freedom of internal 
 and civic life. More than this it can not accord. ..." 
 
 What leads the Benj to the conclusion that a Chris- 
 tian country can do nothing more for the Jews if it 
 refrains from setting the dogs on them ? What limita- 
 tions in regard to the civic or political rights of any 
 man, of whatever creed or belief, has the paper found in 
 the teachings of Christ ? It defames the Christian doc- 
 trine which it attempts to defend. . . . What leads 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 179 
 
 this paper to the conclusion that the Jews preach the 
 destruction of Christianity'? "Where has it read such 
 statement? We, on the contrary, have seen the wish 
 expressed in the works of the famous Mendelssohn, the 
 reformer of Judaism, and especially in the works of his 
 successors, that the countries in which the Jews are liv- 
 ing may become their true fatherland, their physical 
 and spiritual home. We iind the same wish expressed 
 in Zion, the organ of the Eussian Jews, and have been 
 moved on reading Eabinowitsch's story, "The In- 
 herited Candlestick," which is filled with the spirit of 
 forgiveness and love. ... I may even say: with the 
 spirit of truly Christian l©ve ! And what do we see 
 now 1 The most Christian of our secular journals ap- 
 pears as advocate of the ideas of intolerance and inequal- 
 ity before the law ! What a sad sight ! What can lead 
 any one to the conclusion that the admission of the Jews 
 to the public service is equivalent to according to them 
 the " place of the Master " inEussia? . . . 
 
 Source : Our Time, edited by N. Pawlow, 1860, No. 25; 
 1862, No. 48. 
 
 X. — Count Alexander Grigorjewitsch Siro^onow II. (l86l) 
 
 General of the Artillery, Governor-General of New Russia and Bessarabia 
 
 (1860-X8SS) 
 
 The continuance of any restrictions of the civic rights 
 of the Jews, whereby they are placed in a more unfavor- 
 able position than the Christian population, corresponds 
 neither to the spirit and the tendencies of the time nor 
 to the endeavors of the government to amalgamate the 
 Jews with the native population of the empire; hence I 
 am strongly of the opinion that the Jews should be 
 permitted to live in all parts of the empire, and to 
 
180 RUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 engage in trade and traf&c without any restriction, 
 equally with all Eussian subjects, as they may elect, 
 according to their customs and abilities. 
 
 Source: Second Complete Code, vol. xl., No. 42264, p. 696. 
 
 XI. — Alexander Alexeje-witsch Selenoi (1862) 
 Lieutenant-Oeneral ,* Minister of the Domains of the Empire 
 
 As the trade and industries of western Eussia are 
 almost exclusively in the hands of the Jews, and as it is 
 nearly impossible to find other persons able to manage 
 mills and fectories, a work that requires certain technical 
 knowledge and practical experience, the decree prohib- 
 iting the Jews from leasing mills, factories, and similar 
 establishments on estates seriously embarrasses the new 
 Eussian landlords, and it even may lead to the shutting 
 down of several of these establishments — a step that 
 would not only be to the detriment of industry and ag- 
 riculture in general, but would also affect the settling of 
 Eussian landlords in the western provinces. 
 
 Source: " Second Complete Code," vol. xlii., part 2, No. 
 45257, p. 381. 
 
 XII. — Alexeoider Stepanowitsch Afanaujew-Tichuschbinski (l863) 
 
 . . . The Jews are unusually industrious; there are 
 no loafers among them, but each one has his occupa- 
 tion, and gains his livelihood by work, even if he acts 
 merely as factor. It might appear strange at first sight 
 that such an industrious people, which can even turn a 
 trifle to account, does not care to engage in agriculture, 
 which is the surest means, not only of supporting a 
 family, but also of acquiring a competence. The ex- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 181 
 
 planation is easy to give. The really poor devils, won by 
 the government's promise of houses, oxen, land, and 
 traveling expenses, went to the district assigned to 
 them. "With a few exceptions, only proletarians went, 
 who lacked all the necessities of life, and had earned a 
 pittance by hard labor. A peasant cabin was built for 
 them, some acres were measured out, and they received 
 cattle, and money for purchasing farming implements. 
 Thus it appeared as if everything had been done for 
 them and all the means placed at their disposal, and all 
 they had to do was to begin farming. But theory and 
 practise do not always agree. On paper the average 
 crops of the new colony, and even the average income of 
 each colonist, could be theoretically determined, the num- 
 ber of the colonists and of the acres being known, and 
 the quality of the soil being taken into consideration. 
 But in spite of the statistics, 'matters turned out different 
 in reality. It requires hardly less time for a man who 
 has hitherto handled only the needle or the awl to learn 
 how to guide the plow, and to sow, mow, harvest, and 
 thrash, than for an adult tiller of the soil to learn how to 
 make a coat or a pair of boots. I can not say, even, 
 which is more difficult to learn. It is easier to handle 
 the needle or some other similar tool than to engage in 
 the complicated agricultural labors that require physical 
 strength in addition to love, knowledge, and experience 
 gathered since childhood. . . . 
 
 Commerce, trade, and industry are the professions pe- 
 culiar to the Israelitic people, which understands how to 
 double a kopek, and awakens life and activity in any 
 country in which it lives. . . . 
 
 The Jews are the only persons who foster commercial 
 
182 BUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 relations in tlie country, and without them there -would 
 be complete stagnation. Now, the peasant has at least an 
 assured market for his products. . . . 
 
 If it were not for the closely crowded Jewish popula- 
 tion, the fishermen would forget how to cast their nets. 
 The Jews want fish on certain days, no matter what the 
 price may be, while our people manage to get along 
 without fish on the frequently recurring fast-days. , . . 
 
 The artisans are, on the whole, steadily employed, and 
 as in Mohilew this class is chiefly composed of Jews, 
 there are no drunkards or disorderly persons among 
 them, such as generally go about our cities on holidays, 
 causing quarrels and fights by their drunkenness and loaf- 
 ing. No blame attaches to the Jews in this respect. . . . 
 
 ... In my opinion, the only way to bring about an 
 approach between both races, and to elevate the Jewish 
 population, is to permit the latter to settle in all parts 
 of the country. If these poor devils, nowadays huddled 
 together in small towns and villages, were permitted to 
 settle wherever they like, many proletarians would 
 willingly go to new homes, where they would awaken the 
 spirit of enterprise and stimulate business ; absorbed by 
 the prepondering new elements, they would gradually 
 acquire new qualities and get rid of various faults, which 
 other races, of course, also possess, but which are gener- 
 ally ascribed only to the Jews. The Jews are extremely 
 active competitors; wherever they appear, commodities at 
 once become cheaper, because they go on the principle 
 that a small profit with frequent sales is more advan- 
 tageous than a higher rate of interest, when the capital 
 lies dormant, awaiting the opportunity of large profits. 
 The latter method is employed by our merchants in the 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 183 
 
 province. ... In regard to retail trade, I find no dif- 
 ference between our people and the Jews, and it would 
 be unjust to tax the latter with cheating and swindling, 
 since the same charge can be brought against a large 
 number of our own retail dealers. And as regards the 
 artisans in the province, I should always give preference 
 to the Jews, who invariably furnish better and cheaper 
 work. One must understand how to deal with them. It 
 is generally known, moreover, that our orthodox people 
 likewise ask high prices, not only in the province, but also 
 in the capital, where they do not hesitate to demand a 
 ruble for an article worth not more than ten kopeks, and 
 only when the buyer persistently refuses to pay that sum 
 will the seller accept the correct price, after having ex- 
 hausted his store of oaths and conjurations. 
 
 Source: Afanassjew, A Journey to Southern Russia, St. 
 Petersburg, 1861, vol. i., pp. 182, 268, 272; vol. ii., 1863, pp. 
 24, 209, 251, 381, et seq. 
 
 XIII.— Pawel Ossipowitsch Bobrowski (1863) 
 Director of the Academy of Military Jurisprudence 
 
 The large majority of Jews belong to the poorer 
 classes. Always in need, the Jews of the poor class have 
 to plot and plan how to gain their daily bread. Blessed 
 with many children, they live in smaU houses in incred- 
 ibly contracted quarters; often as many as twelve fam- 
 ilies are herded in a house of three or four rooms, each 
 of which is divided into several small compartments. 
 . . . The life of this class of Jews is one of continual 
 care, deprivation, and anxiety. . . . The poor Jew is 
 differentiated from his wealthy coreligionist by his pal- 
 lor, languor, lean appearance, and premature age. . . . 
 
184 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 The fare of tlie poor Jewish class is more than slender; 
 whole families sometimes have to be satisfied with a 
 pound of bread, a herring, and a few onions. Their 
 dress is always worn out, frayed, and dirty. 
 
 The Jew needs one hundred and sixty rubles a year to 
 support a family of five persons, or nine silver kopeks a 
 day for each person, exclusive of clothing. Our Jew 
 charges seventy-five silver kopeks for making a caftan ; 
 he earns on an average from one ruble fifty kopeks to 
 three rubles a week; but he does not earn more than one 
 hundred rubles — or, at best, one hundred and twenty silver 
 rubles — a year, after deducting all the days on which he 
 is unable to work, the holidays, or the days he has lost 
 through illness. The deficiency is made up by his wife, 
 who stands all day in the market with her small wares, 
 leaving her three little children under the care of her 
 husband working at home. With all her labor and her 
 little artifices, she generally does not make more than 
 sixty kopeks, and seldom more than one ruble clear profit; 
 that is to say, she earns only one-fourth as much as her 
 husband can earn under favorable circumstances. Hence 
 man and wife together earn only sufficient to cover the 
 expenses of the household. 
 
 Source: Material for the geography and statistics of Russia, 
 collected by Officers of the General Staff, Government of 
 Grodno, vol. i., p. 858; vol. ii., p. 849. St. Petersburg,' 1863. 
 
 XIV.— Alexander Philippowitsch Posteh (1864) 
 Member of the Council of the Ministry of Popular Mditcation 
 
 In closing my report on the state of the Jewish 
 schools, I am forced to the conclusion that, whatever 
 labors and sacrifices the government may undertake in 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 185 
 
 belialf of the improvement of the state schools, the ulti- 
 mate purpose of their foundation will not have been at 
 tained so long as the Jews remain crowded together 
 within the narrow confines of their present Pale of Set- 
 tlement and under the present conditions of life. Aside 
 from the fact that this segregation deprives them of the 
 possibility of enlarging the field of their trade and in- 
 dustry, and reduces them to a state of poverty growing 
 worse every day, it also prevents their assimilation with 
 the Eussian population, which naturally must be pre- 
 ceded by a mutual approach. But this approach can 
 not take place, as in the majority of the Western govern- 
 ments the Polish element predominates, and in many 
 places the Jews far outnumber the Christians, especially 
 the orthodox Christians. All the endeavors of the gov- 
 ernment in behalf of the intellectual advancement of the 
 Jews, their liberation from the fetters of superstition, prej- 
 udice, and national peculiarities, the betterment of their 
 material condition, and finally their amalgamation with 
 the Eussian population, would be accomplished within a 
 short time, without sacrifices on the part of the govern- 
 ment and without employing forcible means, if a larger 
 region for settlement were assigned to them, or, in other 
 words, if they were permitted to settle throughout Eus- 
 sia without let or hindrance. . . . 
 
 Source : Tn 1864 Postels was sent by Alexander II. to 
 various governments to investigate the .Jewish schools. The 
 official report of this investigation was published in 1865 in 
 the Journal of the Ministry of Popular Education, part xxv., 
 supplement, pp. 65-68. 
 
186 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 XV. — Alexander Petrowitsch Beklemischew (l86S) 
 Governor of MoMlew 
 
 Since the introduction of the trade guilds in the cities, 
 towns, and villages of the government of Mohilew, many 
 highly skilled tradesmen were discovered among the 
 Jews, whose work was marked by finish and solidity; but 
 the ability of these craftsmen is of little avail because, 
 in the first place, they do not enjoy the same rights as 
 the craftsmen in the governments of the interior, and, in 
 the second place, their great number is not in proportion 
 to the needs of the poor population here; hence the Jewish 
 artisans not only are not able to display their skill, but 
 they also suffer greatly on account of lack of work, and 
 on receiving a commission they are compelled to have 
 recourse to deceit. In consequence they often become 
 dangerous members of society, while under different cir- 
 cumstances the Jewish artisans would be of benefit to 
 themselves and to society. 
 
 Source: Report of the State Council, confirmed by the 
 Czar June 28, 1865. Second Complete Code, vol. xl., part 1, 
 No. 42264, pp. 694, 695. 
 
 XVI. — Report of the Prince A. P. Schirinski-Schichmatow School 
 Commission (l865) 
 
 Report of the commission appointed in 1865 by Prince A. 
 P. ScHiBiNSKi-ScHiCHMATOW, Curator of the Educational 
 District of Kiew, for the purpose of examining the report of 
 Councillor Postbls, and for examining and deciding the 
 question whether, and in what way, the Jewish schools may 
 be reorganized. 
 
 President of the Commission : M. A. TuLOW, Assistant 
 Curator. Members : Prof. W. A. Nesabitowsky, Dean of 
 the Faculty of Law of St. Wladimir University; G. M. 
 Zeohanowezki, Assistant Professor at the same university; 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 187 
 
 G. D. SiDOBENKO, Assistant Professor at the same university; 
 A. Th. Andbiaschbw, Director of the First Gymnasium of 
 Kief; 1. 1. Slepuschkin, Director of the Second Gymnasium 
 of Kief, and of the Schools of the Government of Kief; W. 
 W. Fedoeovf, former Professor at the Second Gymnasium 
 of Kief. 
 
 On discussing the question whether an approach of the 
 Jews to the Russian population be desirable, as regards either 
 the mass of the population or the educated minority, the 
 members of the commission expressed themselves as follows: 
 
 W. W. Fedorow remarked that an approach by means 
 of the schools could only be effected if these schools were 
 attended by a large number of Jewish children. For 
 this purpose it is advisable to release those children who 
 have passed through the elementary schools from the 
 restrictions imposed upon the Jews, which prevent them 
 from becoming full citizens of the realm. G. M. Zech- 
 AJS^OWEZKI developed this thought by saying : "The first 
 restriction that should be abolished in favor of those that 
 have passed through the elementary schools is that 
 referring to their sojourn within the boundaries of the 
 governments of western and Little Eussia, in case the 
 government should not find it possible to permit all the 
 Jews in general to live in any place throughout Eussia." 
 
 W. A. ISfESABiTOWSKY agreed with all these state- 
 ments, adding that "the right of imrestricted settlement 
 within the empire is the first privilege that must be 
 accorded to the Jews." He was of the opinion, how- 
 ever, that "this privilege should be accorded only to 
 those Jews who have passed through a secondary school. ' ' 
 
 "W. W. Pedoeow strongly opposed this view, on 
 the ground that an approach on the part of the Jews 
 could not be expected, nor could they be expected to 
 
188 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 consider themselves Eussian citizens if a position apart 
 were assigned to them in the state. 
 
 The discussion following brought out two different 
 points of view. According to the one point of view, 
 espoused by Messrs. Andriaschew, Slepuschkin, and 
 Fedorow, the exclusiveness of the Jews and their social 
 backwardness, that materially interfered with their civic 
 usefulness, had nothing to do with religion, but was due 
 chiefly to the exceptional position which they occupied 
 and still occupy in the various states. If the Jews, 
 whose whole history, dating back thousands of years, is 
 a history of oppression, persecution, and restrictions, 
 were at once placed in a position equal to that of the 
 rest of the population, with the same duties and the 
 same rights as those of the other citizens, their exclu- 
 siveness, which makes them a state within the state, 
 would doubtless long since have disappeared. 
 
 The Jew, who occupies a position apart, who encoun- 
 ters at every step restrictions and oppositions that im- 
 pede his free activity, who has to bear heavier burdens 
 than others without enjoying corresponding rights, nat- 
 urally tends to remain indifferent toward his surround- 
 ings, regarding himself as a being apart and not as a 
 member of the civic organism. Hence originate the bad 
 qualities of the Jews, which are merely the heritage of 
 their former and present position. If the causes are re- 
 moved, if the restrictions are abolished that impede the 
 Jews in aU their fields of activity, then the consequences 
 will also disappear. 
 
 If legislation really desires this result, it must cut the 
 knot at once and without hesitation, leaving time to do 
 the rest. Without radical measures no temporary pal- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 189 
 
 natives can remedy the evil, and so locg as we advocate 
 restrictions we continue the old policy without being 
 aware of doing so, and cling to the old traditions that 
 have simply been somewhat modified by modern views. 
 
 Passing from this general discussion to the question of 
 the right of unrestricted settlement, the advocates of this 
 view did not deem it dangerous to grant these rights to 
 the entire Jewish population, or at least to those whtj 
 have attended a Jewish and Christian school. They 
 pointed out that in case the Jews should attempt the 
 methods of exploitation practised in the western and 
 southern districts to the detriment of the rest of the pop- 
 ulation, the population of the governments of Greater 
 Eussia would be better able to withstand this exploita- 
 tion on account of their mercantile and enterprising 
 character. And if this exploitation really is so terrible, 
 why should all the burdens of the same fall only upon a 
 part of the empire 1 
 
 The president then pointed out that even now the 
 condition of the Jews and their relation to the native 
 population on the right banks of the Dniepr are not the 
 same as they are on the left bank. In the govern- 
 ments of Tschernigow and Poltawa, where the Jews are 
 less densely settled, the estrangement and enmity be- 
 tween the native population and the Jews is less notice- 
 able. More humane relations exist between the peasants 
 and the Jews. 
 
 Source : Circular of the administration of the educational 
 district of Kief, 1866, No. 10, pp. 376-382. 
 
190 BUSSIA AT THE BAB OP 
 
 XVII.— Alexander Pawlowitsch Wolkow (1865) 
 Governor of Poltawa 
 
 The Jews in the governments of Little Eussia are 
 wholly different from the Jews of the other governments 
 in language, dress, and customs, and have become almost 
 entirely fused with the native population. In my 
 opinion, therefore, all the existing restrictions relating 
 to the Jews in the governments of Little Eussia should 
 be immediately repealed. . . . 
 
 Source: Second Complete Code, vol. xl., part 1, No. 42264, 
 pp. 694, 695. 
 
 XVIII. — Count Peter Andrejewisch Schuwalow (I86S) 
 
 Lieutenant-General, Deputy-Governor of Livland, Estland, and Courland; 
 later, Chief of Police, 
 
 . . . deems it to the interest of the Baltic proviaces 
 that the right of unrestricted settlement throughout the 
 empire be granted to the Jews. 
 
 Source : Second Complete Code, vol. xl.. No. 42264, pp. 
 696, 697. 
 
 XIX. — Sergej Wassiljewitsch Maximow (1868) 
 
 The exiles lend in general certain peculiar and novel 
 traitB to the Ufe of the colonists. . . . Where Jews 
 have been settled, there is great commercial activity. 
 . . . The Jews have quickly transformed Kainsk into 
 a town similar to many in the western district of the 
 Eussian Empire ; they have transformed a small town 
 without any business whatever, lying quiet and secluded 
 like all the Siberian towns, into a noisy and lively com- 
 mercial center. A market was erected in an open 
 square, and booths sprang up like mushrooms, in which 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 191 
 
 the Jewish women displayed their wares. . . . The Jews 
 have succeeded in making Kainsk one of the chief marts 
 for furs, especially squirrel tails, which are sent beyond 
 the frontier, as far as the fair of Leipzig. Hence there are 
 about seventy merchants among the seven hundred|inhab- 
 itants of this little town ; to every ten Eussians there is 
 one Jew, who is engaged in the fur trade, as commissioner 
 or factor, receiving in return for his labors small wares, 
 jewelry, etc., which he peddles at certain times in the 
 markets, villages, towns, and hamlets of western Siberia. 
 In eastern Siberia the Jews have similarly created an 
 active commerce at Bargusin. . . . Retail business 
 thrives wherever Jews have been settled ; the Jew is an 
 example to the clumsy Siberian, who can learn a good 
 deal from him. The Jew is useful and profitable to 
 Siberia, where he has a large field. . . . 
 
 Source: Maximon, The Unfortunates: Story from the Life 
 of the Exiles, in The European Messenger, 1868, No. 9, pp. 
 132, seq. 
 
 XX.— Demetrius (I871) 
 Archbishop of Kherson and Odessa 
 
 We learned with deep sorrow, in the holy days of 
 Easter, how bands of persons calUng themselves faithful 
 sons of the Church of Jesus Christ, incited to riot in the 
 public places and streets of the city by seeking quarrels 
 with their fellow citizens, breaking the windows in 
 the Jewish houses, plundering the shops, and com- 
 mitting other depredations, pretending to do these things 
 in the name of our Church and our holy faith, but in 
 reality to the eternal shame and dishonor of Christianity. 
 . . . We are bound by our holy office to explain to 
 the misguided ones how grievously they have sinned 
 
192 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 against their true faith and their Church, against our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and against our pious Czar. . . . 
 
 The true glory of the Apostolic Church is not pre- 
 served by malice and enmity against those that are 
 astray in the darkness of disbelief, but its members, 
 mindful of the apostolic teaching, must "walk honestly, 
 not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and 
 'wantonness, not in strife and envying" (Eomans 
 xiii : 13). And now, you who pretend to be zealots in 
 behalf of the honor and glory of Christianity, place 
 yourselves before this mirror of the true children of the 
 Christian Church, by whom the true Church has been 
 glorified in deed on the whole earth — are you not bound 
 to confess, yourselves, that your foolish rage is a disgrace 
 to the Christian faith, a dishonor to the true Church, a 
 grievous insult to the name of Christ, a desecration of 
 the holy day of the Church ? Now all disbelievers and 
 foreigners will be justified in mocking us, and saying : 
 "See what their faith amounts to ! In their words they 
 are Christians, but in their deeds they are worse than 
 the heathen. See what kind of a true Church they have 
 which suffers and allows such mischief and rage ! See 
 how they keep their highest and holiest festivals — by 
 drunkenness, brawls, plunderings, and fights ! This, 
 then, is the holy, orthodox Eussia, where license, unre- 
 straint, and disregard of the authorities are the order of 
 the day to a degree hardly found among savages, so that 
 people there must be held in check by force of arms, like 
 wild animals ! Why do their spiritual shepherds — no 
 doubt they have such — look on idly? Probably they 
 are only blind leaders of the blind, who, without com- 
 prehending the power of the Divine Word and the spirit 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 193 
 
 of Christian faith, themselves advance toward the abyss, 
 leading to perdition the flock entrusted to their keeping. ' ' 
 Thus the foreigners and the disbelievers mU talk about 
 usj and the word of the Apostle will be fulfilled in our 
 case, that we boast of our true faith while we dishonor 
 God by trespassing His commands : "For the name of 
 God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you " 
 (Eomans ii : 23, 24). In the name of the risen Savior' 
 who prayed for his crucifiers, I implore you, beloved 
 brethren, banish from your hearts all malice, anger, and 
 bitterness, against whom and for whatever reason it may 
 be ! Desist from your evil undertakings, and from the 
 lawless deeds of foolish envy, which is condemned by 
 the "Word of God ! Bring your contrition for the law- 
 lessness committed by you into the presence of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, whom you have so deeply offended on His 
 radiant day of resurrection; and humble yourselves in 
 heart in the presence of the Holy Church, which you 
 have so dishonored by your malicious and wild revenge. 
 . . . How can you join in the prayers of the Church 
 with hearts filled with malice, revenge, and anger, with 
 hands soiled by such heinous deeds'? How dare you 
 come into the presence of the immaculate Mother of God, 
 the God of mercy and charity, after you have despised 
 the holy commands of her Divine Son, and have pained 
 her mother's heart by your cruelty and bloodthirstiness I 
 We implore you in the name of Christ, we beg you in 
 the name of the Lord, "Make your peace with God." 
 
 Source : Pastoral letter to the orthodox population of 
 Odessa, on occasion of the pogrom (massacre of the Jews) of 
 March, 1871. Kherson Eparchial Messenger, 1871, No. 8, pp. 
 131-137. 
 
194 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 XXI.— Father Thomas Jelenewski (I88I) 
 Archpriest at the Cathedral of Elisabetgrad 
 
 Wednesday and Thursday of the Easter week of 
 this year were darkened by sad events in our city. 
 People are ashamed even to speak of what occurred in 
 our streets on these days. People are ashamed that per- 
 sons who pretend to be followers of the resurrected 
 Eedeemer Jesus Christ could think of destroying the 
 houses of the Jewish citizens and plundering their 
 possessions. How sad, how regrettable! Peaceable citi- 
 zens are suddenly transformed into a horde of pitiless 
 murderers and robbers. And whom have they attacked? 
 Their own fellow citizens, who, altho they differ in their 
 faith with us, yet live peaceably among us, under the 
 protection of the same civic laws ! Such action can not 
 pass unreproved; then submit, oh ! my brothers, to cen- 
 sure and reproach for this behavior unworthy of a Chris- 
 tian. By this behavior we have, in the first place, 
 assailed the sanctity of our greatest festival, the resur- 
 rection of Christ. The resurrected Savior has not com- 
 manded us to act thus. He has, on the contrary, given 
 us the holy command to love our neighbor, whoever he 
 may be, like ourselves. . . . Yet we have proved sin- 
 ners against the commands of Christ by these wicked 
 deeds unworthy of a virtuous person. In the second 
 place, by our behavior against our Jewish fellow citizens 
 on this sublime festival, we have dishonored the sacred 
 and unforgettable memory of our late Master and Emperor, 
 Alexander II. Mkolajewitsch. This great humanitar- 
 ian was always considering during his reign how to make 
 all his subjects — Christians, Jews, Mohammedans, and 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 195 
 
 even pagans — equal before the law. And we have also 
 grieviously offended our most gracious Master, the most 
 pious Emperor Alexander III. Alexandrowitsch. Is it 
 so long ago that we have sworn fealty to him and have 
 expressed our willingness to aid him in the removal of the 
 sore that is spreading more and more in our country, 
 leading to general chaos? Hardly a few days have 
 passed, and we upset public order, and create disturb- 
 ances and even rebellion in our midst ! What folly, 
 what lack of moral and civic feeling ! All the sons of 
 Russia, of whatever faith they may be, are brothers 
 among one another because they have in God one Father 
 in heaven, and in the most pious Emperor one father 
 on earth. Therefore, if we desire our own happiness, 
 we must live together as children of one large family in 
 peace, love, and unity. 
 
 Do not be offended, my brethren, if I use the word 
 "we" in speaking of the originators of those disturb- 
 ances, altho no one among those present here may have 
 taken active part in them. I speak thus because we all 
 have contributed to this deed, altho we did not take 
 part personally. "We have become implicated because 
 we were indifferent spectators of the crimes committed by 
 the mad plunderers and destroyers. Tell me, who of 
 us has fearlessly raised his voice in order to restrain the 
 mad populace in its excesses and teach it to do better ? 
 For there were more indifferent spectators than destroy- 
 ers. This indifference constitutes our guilt. Let us 
 actively assist the authorities in uprooting this evil, and 
 let us make up for the rest, according to the command 
 of the Lord, by our brotherly love, that knows no differ- 
 ence between Christian, Jew, or pagan, but is lenient 
 
196 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 and patient toward all because it sees the rational soul 
 in all men, and recognizes them as God's creatures. 
 My brethren, be merciful to all as your Father in heaven 
 is merciful, who bestows life upon Christians as well as 
 Jews and pagans. 
 
 Source: From the discourses of the clergy of the Kherson 
 bishopric, on occasion of the anti-Semitic riots. Supplement 
 to the Kherson Eparchial Messenger, 1881, No. 12, pp. 304-307. 
 
 XXII.— Father Simeon Podgonki (l88l) 
 Priest in the Village of Beikusch, Diocese of Kherson 
 
 People sometimes hate one another bitterly because 
 they are not of the same faith. But such are not the 
 doctrines of the "Word of God, which teaches us that all 
 men have been created equal in the image of God. 
 Worse than all, false views regarding the Jews have pro- 
 duced such enmity that Christians have committed deeds 
 unworthy of Christians as well as of citizens. Doubtless 
 you have heard various reports how, in some places of 
 Eussia, the Jews have been attacked, and their property 
 plundered and destroyed. Why did this happen ? Be- 
 cause, say the perpetrators, the Jews have crucified 
 Christ. But is this Christian ? It is not only unchris- 
 tian, but also inhuman. We call ourselves Christians — 
 that is, followers of the Divine teachings of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. But has Christ taught us to commit 
 rapine, murder, and other crimes, such as the Eussians 
 have committed against the Jews ? The rumor that it is 
 permitted to strike down the Jews is a shameless lie, in- 
 vented by the enemies of Eussia. 
 
 The plunderers also justify their crimes by saying that 
 the Jews have seized the land, the commerce, and the 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 197 
 
 capital of the country, so that the Eussians are in the 
 power of non- Christians, from which they can escape 
 only by destroying the latter' s property. But if the 
 Jews have become richer than the Eussians, whose fault 
 is it? Has the mob in its madness considered this? 
 Whoever observes without prejudice the life of the Eus- 
 sians can assert truthfully that it is chiefly the fault of 
 the Eussians if they are poorer than the Jews. Are 
 there as many drunkards and idlers among the Jews 
 as there are among the Eussians? Are there many 
 Jews entirely without employment? Eussian loafers 
 are found in the saloons and on the streets even in 
 harvest time. Whose fault is it that the Eussians 
 are poor in consequence of their laziness and drunken- 
 ness 1 Is it the fault of the Jew ? He works and saves 
 and owns property, while the Eussian is intemperate and 
 lazy, and therefore does not possess anything. 
 
 But he must eat and dress, and has to pay various 
 taxes. Impoverished by his laziness and drunkenness, 
 the Eussian is forced to go to the Jew, begging him to 
 satisfy his most urgent needs; and the Jew does not deny 
 his request, but gives him bread and clothing on credit. 
 The well-to-do Eussian does not help the poor devil im- 
 poverished by drink so readily as the Jew always does. 
 Many Eussians in reduced circumstances know this only 
 too well. . . . 
 
 Who has told to the riotous mob the wicked lie that 
 it is permitted to strike down the Jews ? As the riots 
 broke out simultaneously in many places in Eussia, at a 
 time when the machinations of the enemies of public 
 order were reaching alarming proportions, the thought 
 lies near that these riots were not caused by religious 
 
198 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 hatred or by tlie economic superiority of the Jews, but 
 were instigated by the enemies of the state, of society, 
 and of the Holy Church. The furious mob appears sim- 
 ply as their blind tool. Bat the inciters of the mob hide 
 behind the foolish people, make use of their false notions 
 regarding the Jews, and stimulate the religious hatred of 
 the people while they have entirely different ends in 
 view; they want to accustom the people to disorders, 
 diminish their respect for persons and property, and 
 confuse their minds for the purpose of upsetting the ex- 
 isting order of things. They are the same wicked per- 
 sons who plunged Eussia into shame and disgrace by the 
 bloody crime of the 1st of March (assassination of Alex- 
 ander II.). 
 
 Source: Supplement to the Kherson EparcJiial Messenger, 
 1881, No. 12, pp. 313-317. 
 
 XXIII.— Father Simeon Kutscherewski (I88l) 
 Archpriest of the War Department at Simferopol 
 
 "We are passing through grievous times ! The imex- 
 ampled crime of the 1st of March, which has brought 
 untold sorrow to the entire Eussian people, has deprived 
 all truly honorable souls of peace for many days to come; 
 and now immediately after this a new misfortune breaks 
 in upon us, like a thunderbolt in a clear sky, no one 
 knows whence: bloody violence, and plundering of Jewish 
 property, to which the people has been incited by the 
 same hidden powers that have also had a hand in the 
 murder of the Czar. 
 
 We have read, not without a feeling of sadness, the 
 reports of eye-witnesses relating to the madness and 
 crimes of the deluded populace, that has dishonored the 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 199 
 
 honest Enssian name before the entire civilized world by 
 the lawless deeds that were committed in the govern- 
 ments of Kief, Tschernigow, Poltawa, and Kherson. 
 The massacre of the Jews there was so terrible that 
 nothing like it has happened since the darkest period of 
 the Middle Ages, when the people were still in a state of 
 semi-barbarity. Wild animals are not so inimical to one 
 another as the otherwise kind-hearted, gentle, hospitable 
 Enssian people, incited by wicked atheists, behaved 
 toward their own countrymen. And why ? It does not 
 even know. . . . 
 
 May one covet a stranger's property, to whatever people 
 or belief the owner belongs ? Whose fault is it that many 
 of us who are orthodox can not save the hard-earned 
 kopek, while the Jews are able to do so"? Tell me: 
 Who forces many of us to carry the kopek, earned with 
 the sweat of the brow, to the Jews in the saloons and 
 other improper places 1 . . . Whose fault is it, there- 
 fore'? Eemember the command which God has given 
 from the top of smoke-covered Sinai: "Thoushalt not 
 covet thy neighbor's house, nor his ass, nor his ox, nor 
 anything that is thy neighbor's." What does the Lord 
 enjoin in this command ? He commands that one shall 
 not look enviously upon the prosperity of one's neigh- 
 bor, of whatever belief he may be, but shall rejoice in 
 his welfare; that one shall not covet a stranger's prop- 
 erty, but shall protect it for the public benefit. . . . 
 
 Do not believe these atheists, these mad baiters. They 
 are a nest of vipers. . . . The Lord shall not suffer 
 them ; they shall not escape Grod' s anger. Even now they 
 are cast off by God and by all good, honest men. Altho 
 some of them call themselves Christians, the Holy 
 
200 ETJSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 Chiircli excommimicates tkis kind of Christians; tho they 
 call themselves Russians, entire Eussia turns from them 
 as from the plague. . . . 
 
 Source: From a sermon delivered in the garrison church of 
 the Twenty-first Lithuanian Infantry Regiment, at Sim- 
 feropol, May 17, 1881. See Tawridal, 1881, No. 40. 
 
 p 
 
 XXIV. — Alexander Alexandrowitsch Kawelin (l88l) 
 
 Major-General in the Emperor^s Staff, Governor of Tauria 
 
 The disturbances in some places directed against the 
 Jews, as well as the dissemination of various malicious 
 and unfounded reports, are unfortunate recent occur- 
 rences here in southern Eussia. All faithful subjects of 
 the Emperor should remember that the Eussian, the 
 Jew, the German, or the Tartar are all equally dear to the 
 Czar of all the Eussias; they all are subjects of the one 
 Czar; they all are inhabitants of Eussia, and all are 
 equally under the protection of the law. The various 
 anti-Semitic reports are spread by persons who are in- 
 different to the welfare and peace of their country. 
 
 Source: From a letter of the Governor of Tauria, of March 
 6, 1881 to the Archbishop of Tauria. Taurian Eparchial 
 News, 1881. 
 
 XXV.— Makarius (I88l) 
 
 Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna il879-188g), formerly Archbishop of 
 
 Lithuania anA Wilna 
 
 "Take heed that no man deceive you" (Matthew 
 xxiv:4). As in all times, so especially now, beloved 
 brethren, we must faithfully observe this command of our 
 Savior. So many deceivers now appear among us ! And 
 these deceivers approach especially those persons whom 
 they can most easily lead astray — youths who are not yet 
 settled in their convictions and are easily carried away. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 201 
 
 and the plain people wlio liave little education or are en- 
 tirely ignorant. And to what terrible consequences do 
 these temptations and seductions lead ! We have a liv- 
 ing example before us. You have heard what is taking 
 place, or happened but a little while ago, in some of the 
 cities and villages of southern Eussia; how our unhappy 
 people, led astray and incited, rose up in large numbers 
 against the Jews, demolished their houses, plundered 
 and destroyed their property and possessions, and did 
 not even spare their synagogs. This was the work of 
 people who call themselves faithful Christians, the work 
 of the sons of Eussia ! What a shame and disgrace ! 
 
 Axe these the teachings of the true faith in Jesus 
 Christ 1. Are such deeds worthy of Eussian subjects who 
 are loyal to their Emperor and their country ? . . . 
 
 If we love only our relations and kinsmen, those of 
 our family and our faith, we do not display much Chris- 
 tianity; for such love of one's neighbor is also found 
 among non-Christians. Love, rather, all men without 
 distinction, whether they are near to you or not, of what- 
 ever origin of faith they may be, either Christians of 
 another confession, or Jews, Mohammedans, or pagans. 
 . . . Judge for yourselves, oh ! true believers, how griev- 
 ously those among our brethren sin against our holy 
 faith, who rise up against the Jews, excited by passion 
 or through ignorance, and ruthlessly destroy their 
 property. How deeply these unhappy persons offend 
 even Him, the Alpha and Omega of our faith, Jesus 
 Christ, who is all mercy and all love, and has com- 
 manded us to love all men ! . . . 
 
 But this is not yet aU that our deceived brethren have 
 done. As sons of Eussia they have also offended against 
 
202 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 their sovereign and their country. A short time since 
 we swore by God Almighty and His Holy Gospel faith- 
 fully to serve our true and hereditary Master and Em- 
 peror, to obey him always and in everything, to observe 
 his decrees and commands, to be subject to the magis- 
 trate appointed by him, to perform our civic duties con- 
 scientiously, not to trespass upon the rights of our fellow 
 citizens, and thus to contribute to the best of our ability 
 to the general welfare and prosperity of our beloved 
 country. But what are those Eussians about who for 
 no reasons rise up against the Jews, trespass upon 
 their rights, and plunder or destroy their property? 
 For the Jews, like the Eussians, and all the other peoples 
 within the boundaries of the Eussian Empire, are sub- 
 jects of our Emperor and are our fellow citizens, sons of 
 the same Imperial Father, and our countrymen. How 
 dare we raise our hands against those who are our brothers 
 before the law and the state, of whatever faith or origin 
 they may be? These ignorant and excited persons think 
 they are injuring only the Jews by their foolish attacks 
 on them and their property, while in reality they are 
 also destroying themselves and their families. And they 
 not only injure themselves, but also society and the 
 state. This illegal movement, whether directed against 
 the Jews or any other of our fellow citizens, inevitably 
 destroys public peace and order, paralyzes and injures 
 all commerce and industry, and all the fanctions of pub- 
 lic and civic life; it confuses and disturbes the people, 
 and causes general tribulation and sorrow. 
 
 Source: Sermon delivered May 17, 1881, in the large 
 ITspenski Cathedral. Moskow Church Messenger, 1881, No. 
 21, pp. 291, 292. 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 203 
 
 XXVI.— Boleslaw Petrowitsch Lenski (Ongirski) (I881) 
 
 Malice is, iu general, foreign to the character of the 
 Jew, who, on the contrary, is always gentle and yield- 
 ing, and shows good will rather than outspoken hatred 
 or maUce. . . . The majority of the Jews do not pos- 
 sess much capital; each of them has only enough to cir- 
 culate in a small way, and this circulation must therefore 
 take place quickly and promptly, in order that he 
 may have a small profit just sufficient for his subsist- 
 ence. . . . 
 
 Many persons who have written on the habits and 
 customs of the Jews, from a superficial acquaintance or 
 from hearsay, have asserted that exploitation on the 
 part of the Jews could not be suppressed because they 
 had collected immense sums which they kept, and had 
 formed among themselves a joint association entirely 
 hostile to the Christian population. There is not a shred 
 of truth in this assertion; the Jews neither possess this 
 immense amount of capital, nor are they banded to- 
 gether in an association. . . . Large manufacturers 
 and merchants and purveyors of the first order form 
 only a small percentage among them. ... It is also 
 incorrect to assert that the Jews are associated together 
 in their trade and traffic, and that they act in agreement 
 with a certain secret compact or understanding. It is 
 true enough that the whole mass of the Jews appears as 
 one single person, but this is due to the fact that all the 
 Jews are living under the same conditions. All of them 
 are semi-beggars, have, no political rights, and are con- 
 fined in the same quarter. . . . Mutual helpfulness is 
 also weU developed among them, and philanthropy is 
 
204 ETJSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 widely practised; but it is a far cry from this to solidar- 
 ity of action in trade and traffic. . . . 
 
 While covetousness pervades the dealings of the Eus- 
 sian liidalc (retail dealer), the very poverty of the Jew 
 speaks in favor of his relative honesty. The kulak ac- 
 quires wealth, while the Jewish "exploiter" remains in 
 the same state of semi-starvation. No one can deny that 
 there is a difference between money-making on a full 
 stomach, for the mere sake of gain, and money-making 
 to satisfy the cravings of hunger. . . . And it is an 
 undeniable fact that many of the Jewish "exploiters" 
 vegetate in misery. Any one acquainted with the towns 
 of Lithuania and White Eussia knows what Jewish pov- 
 erty means. The condition of the small traders and 
 artisans who do not own their houses is especially piti- 
 able. Their diminutive, ramshackle huts hardly seem 
 like human habitations. . . . Any peasant family lives 
 more comfortable and cleanly. The food of the Jews is 
 unusually meager. . . . 
 
 Source: Lenski, Jew and Kuluk, an economical parallel in 
 The Deed, 1881, No. 9. 
 
 XXVII.— Nikanor (I884-I886) 
 
 Archbishop of Kherson and Odessa 
 
 It is clear that we Christians are brothers of Israel in 
 spirit. Jesus Christ has bequeathed to His Church the 
 history of the Old Testament as holy history. He has 
 also bequeathed to it the Old Testament dogma as divine 
 truth, by adding only the doctrine of the Trinity, to 
 which there are many references in the Old Testament 
 revelation. He has furthermore bequeathed to His 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 205 
 
 Cliurch the entire Old Testament code of ethics as a holy 
 possession, merely expounding more in detail and em- 
 phasizing the sublimity of the doctrine of love and purity 
 of heart, already found in the Old Testament. Jesus 
 Christ not only observed all the commands of the Old 
 Testament faith, but He also transmitted to the Kew 
 Testament Church many of the Old Testament customs 
 — more than many of you imagine. Thus all the sacred 
 books of the Old Testament are also held sacred and read 
 in the New Testament Church. The holy Psalms, as 
 well as the other holy chants of the Old Covenant, are 
 sung in our churches as they were formerly sung in the 
 Old Testament temple at Jerusalem. The Old Testa- 
 ment psalms and songs, prayers and prophetic utter- 
 ances became the foundation for all the hymns and 
 prayers of our Christian ritual. . . . 
 
 "With the cooperation of the children of Israel, the 
 Eussians of Jewish faith, this sacred house of God has 
 been erected, to the honored memory of the blessed Czar 
 and martyr, the Czar and liberator, the great Emperor 
 Alexander H., for the praise of our only and common 
 God and preserver, for the religious and moral education 
 of Christian children in the Christian spirit, as well as a 
 memorial of the children of Israel to God, to the faith of 
 their holy patriarchs, and to pure morality, which con- 
 tributes to the well-being of every person, to the pros- 
 perity of peoples, and to brotherly love among them. 
 Our mutual approach is also evident from the fact 
 that in view of the sacred history common to both from 
 the foundation of the true Church down to the advent of 
 Christ, the common creed of the fundamental dogmas of 
 faith, the common essential ceremonies, even the com- 
 
206 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 mon moral doctrines, not only in their general principles 
 but also in the details of their revelation, our Jewish 
 fellow worshipers are beginning to accept as basis of 
 their actions the code of ethics as expressed by Jesus 
 Christ in His sublime teachings found in the Sermon on 
 the Mount and generally in His Gospels. The best 
 among the contemporary Israelites, as well as their 
 spiritual leader and their teacher in our city, speak now 
 of the equal rights of Jews and Christians to the inherit- 
 ance of the Kingdom of Heaven, the relationship of aU 
 peoples as children of the one Heavenly Father, and the 
 brotherly love that is a sacred duty for the Jew as well 
 as the Christian. 
 
 Source: From the ediflcatory sermon delivered on Thurs- 
 day of the sixth week of the great fast. Supplement to the 
 Kherson Eparchial Messenger, 1884, No. 8, p. 229, et seq. 
 
 II 
 
 [On occasion of the excesses against the Jews at Odessa, on 
 the second day of Easter, 1886] 
 
 It is entirely contrary to the spirit and the intentions 
 of the doctrine of Christ to indulge in excesses. He who 
 cares only for his own family and for those of his own 
 faith is in a very low stage of Christian perfection, even 
 if he fully performs his duties toward them. A much 
 higher stage of Christian perfection is reached by the 
 person who includes in his love not only his own family 
 and those of his own faith, but also strangers and those 
 of a different faith. The good Samaritan is in this re- 
 spect the Christian ideal. Christ himself has presented to 
 us this Samaritan as an example. He is a true Christian 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 207 
 
 who acts like this Samaritan. But by what name shall 
 wecall the man who does just the opposite thing, who 
 beats and persecutes a person of different faith, and de- 
 stroys his property and possessions ? Such a man evi- 
 dently is no disciple and servant of Christ, but a profes- 
 sor of the unchristian spirit, and a servant and follower 
 and warrior of God's enemy Antichrist. . . . Act like 
 the good Samaritan, have pity with the heterodox, help 
 him in his distress and sorrow, and thy God will help 
 thee also. Thou shalt love not only thy people as thy- 
 self, but also every heterodox person, and even thy 
 enemies. If thou dost fight for God and Christ with 
 knives, hedge-poles, and fists, then remember, that he 
 who uses a knife shall perish by the knife. Eemember 
 — and it is still within your memory — that as long as our 
 faith was firm, we faithful Christian Eussians lived in 
 peace together with the Jews. We lived among the 
 Jews, and the Jews lived among us, and every one lived 
 in peace. But when faith was shaken among the people, 
 when the morals of the people became affected, then these 
 unfortunate acts of violence began. They are not of 
 native, not of Eussian, not of Christian origin. They 
 first began beyond the frontier, in western Europe. 
 There the disseminators of anti- Christian ideas incited 
 the people to attack the Jews. Thence this plague also 
 spread over our frontiers and seized upon the weakest 
 elements of the Eussian people — the weakest in educa- 
 tion, in morality, and, as recent events have unfortunately 
 shown us, also the weakest in faith. Or can a sane per- 
 son believe that the heterodox may be felled, and that 
 the religion of Christ will permit this ? By no means ; 
 but the heterogenous mob in its cruelty, madness, and 
 
208 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 rage is of this opinion — a blind horde that no longer 
 hearkens to the religion of Christ. To such deeds 
 the people are incited by the disseminators of anti- 
 Christianity. Ca.n any sane person believe that the 
 Church of Christ would give its blessing to such an out- 
 break on a subHme Christian festival ? By no means ; 
 but on such a festival we Christians shall send out light 
 and peace and joy to all the corners of the earth. Be- 
 lieve me, my beloved, this rage has arisen at the throne 
 of Satan. . . . 
 
 Source: From an ediflcatory sermon delivered on Wednes- 
 day of Easter week. "Dialogues and Ediflcatory Sermons 
 by Nikanor, Bishop of Cherson and Odessa." Second edition. 
 Odessa, 1887. Vol. iv., p. 266, et seq. 
 
 XXVIII.— Makarius (1884) 
 ArcTibishop of NowotscherTcask and the Don District 
 
 When I received the news of the terrible occurrences 
 of June 7th, on my trip of inspection through the arch- 
 bishopric, I at first would not credit the I'eport, and then 
 I exclaimed, sighing, and with tears in my eyes over 
 this beloved Mshni-Novgorod: Art thou the city that 
 wert so well known and famous above other cities? 
 Art thou the one that may boast of the descendants of 
 the great citizen Minin 1 Art thou the one which is 
 praised in the chronicles because of the deeds of its an- 
 cestors, these splendid patriots ? Art thou the one that 
 has received so many benefits from the Czar of Heaven 
 and the Czar of this earth? Hast thou forgotten all 
 these things, and wilt thou no longer be mindful of any- 
 thing ? Hast thou not sat in judgment on the Mongols 
 and the Ljachs because of their devastaitions and their 
 
THE AMBEICAN^ PEOPLE 209 
 
 massacre! Hast thou not in the last Turkish war re- 
 proved the bashi-bazouks for shedding Christian blood ? 
 Hast thou not sighed for thy brethren who were tortured 
 by our enemies, the Turks 1 And now the time has come 
 when thou hast acted no better — nay, even worse — than 
 the godless Turks. They have shed Christian blood in 
 time of war, but thou hast laid hands upon innocent 
 persons of a different faith in midst of peace. They have 
 shed blood like the godless and heathen, but within thy 
 walls faithful Christians were found who did not spare 
 sex or age in their bloodthirstiness. . . . 
 
 It was in vain, then, that the Lord created all men of 
 the same blood! In vain that our Savior atoned for and 
 redeemed the whole human race ! In vain He suffered for 
 His redemption and died on the cross! And if thou art 
 ignorant of the history of the world and dost not know 
 that all men are descended from a single pair, thou 
 surely dost know of the Christian teaching of love 
 toward all, even toward enemies — a love that admits not 
 only no bloodshed, but not even a simple insult or injury. 
 
 And thou, that hast committed murder and destruc- 
 tion, art not only a Christian, a son of the Church, but 
 thou art also a son of thy faithful country, and a subject 
 of the Eussian Czar! Hast thou forgotten that all 
 heterodox and strangers are permitted by the Czar to 
 dwell in our country and to enjoy certain rights ? Hast 
 thou forgotten that our martyred Czar has bestowed 
 peace and liberty upon all his subjects ? Hast thou for- 
 gotten that he, the greatest among all earthly benefactors, 
 has ordained all to be equal before science and the law, 
 and all to be subject to military duty? Eecall all these 
 benefits, the earthly as well as the heavenly, and weep 
 
210 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 for the fate that has overtaken thee and the crime of thy 
 brethren. . . . Let every faithful one seriously consider 
 this event, and draw therefrom a lesson for the entire 
 life! If there is still a spark of faith within thee, if 
 thou hast not been changed entirely to a beast that tears 
 the innocent, then the blood of these inoffensive ones 
 will cry out to thee, and wring from thee tears for the 
 murdered. . . . 
 
 Wlio has called thee to be a judge of thy neighbor? 
 Wbo gave thee this right and this power ? According to 
 human law, thou hast no right to judge and condemn 
 even those that have offended thee, much less mayest 
 thou judge and kill the innocent. . . . Human law lies 
 in the hand of the legal powers, and Divine law with 
 God, the one Lord. What would happen on earth if all 
 men should begin to judge and to act like the robbers 
 and murderers acted on the 7th of this month? One 
 great cry would arise, and there would be inconsolable 
 weeping. No society and no empire can exist that is at 
 war with itself, and in which men attack and murder one 
 another. Examine thyself, thou loyal subject! Thou 
 sworest to serve the Czar truly and faithfully. Where is 
 thy oath ? Thou hast betrayed God, the Czar, and thy 
 country. Ask all these for forgiveness, thou who art 
 cast off by them for having acted on thine own authority, 
 and take thy deserved punishment. In the persons of the 
 plunderers and murderers, the whole city has been pun- 
 ished by ignominy and shame for its sins. Now the blot 
 must be washed away by repentance and reformation. 
 
 Pastors and teachers, to you especially I turn. Impress 
 it upon all and every one that we are the children of the 
 one Heavenly Pather; that murder and rapine are for- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 211 
 
 bidden for all time, and shall never remain unpunished; 
 that love alone establishes the well-being of men, while 
 hatred destroys it; that arbitrary judgment of others is 
 not permitted to any person, and leads only to the dis- 
 turbance of public peace; that obedience and compliance 
 with the authorities have been at all times, and will 
 always remain, the foundations of our happiness and our 
 well-being. 
 
 Source: From the pastoral letter to the inhabitants of 
 Nishni-Novgorod, on occasion of the massacres of the Jews, 
 June 7 and 8, 1884. Nishni-Novgorod Eparchial Messenger, 
 1884. Supplement to Nos. 12, 13. 
 
 XXIX. — Natalia Petrowna Uwarowa, nee Princess Gortschakow 
 
 (1888) 
 
 Drunkenness, this scourge of the northern peoples, is 
 entirely unknown among the Jews ; they are extremely 
 abstemious in their food, and the custom of early mar- 
 riage preserves them from illegitimate connections and 
 other errors. . . . The evil that we ascribe to them is 
 the work of our own hands ; the good that we must ad- 
 mire in them, they owe to themselves. . . . If the Jews 
 had only one-fourth of our faults, their name would long 
 since have disappeared from the face of the earth. 
 
 Source: Uwarowa, "Jews and Christians." Moscow, 1888. 
 Second edition, pp. 17, 20, 87, 39. 
 
 XXX. — Collective Protest Against the Kishinef Massacres by 
 Russian Writers (1903) 
 
 Leo Tolstoy, Prince A. I. Sumbatov, K. Khristoforov, Pro- 
 fessor Emeritus N. Storozhenko, Professor I. Ozeroy, A. 
 Gaidring, C. T. Trubetzkoi, "V. Vernadski, N. V. Davidov, 
 L. Zabelin, D. Tegorov, and G. Umoy. 
 
 Shocked to the depths of our souls by the terrible 
 
212 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 events which recently took place at KisMnef, with 
 broken hearts we express our sympathy for the innocent 
 victims (who became the spoil of the beast of prey 
 living in the sonl of the mob), our feelings of horror for 
 the brutal deeds committed by Eussians, and our bound- 
 less contempt for all those who prepared and incited the 
 mob to those disorders, and generally for all those who 
 took part in them. 
 Source: Telegram sent to " Odesskiya Novosti." 
 
 XXXI.— Count Kutusov (1903) 
 
 You must confess, you nationalists, full of chauvin- 
 ism and of heathen prejudice, you who work in the 
 name of Christianity, that now you can not look straight 
 into the face of real Christian love and principles. You 
 must agree that you have not entered the state of brother- 
 hood and humanity without regard to race and religion. 
 Why lie, then? Say, plainly: "We exchanged and sold 
 Christ and His teachings." By your barbaric and 
 shameful behavior you have besmirched and bespitted 
 the once pure and noble name of Christian. 
 
 Source: Otechestvo (periodical). 
 
 XXXII.— Maxim Gorky (1903) 
 
 Eussia has been disgraced more and more Jfrequently 
 of recent years by dark deeds, but the most disgraceful 
 of all is the horrible Jewish massacre at Kishinef, which 
 has awakened our horror, shame, and indignation. 
 People who regard themselves as Christians, who claim 
 to believe in God's mercy and sympathy, these people, 
 on the day consecrated to the resurrection of their God 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 213 
 
 from the dead, occupy the time in murdering children 
 and aged people, ravishing the women, and martyring 
 the men of the race which gave them Christ. 
 
 Who bears the blame of this base crime, which will 
 remain on us like a bloody blot for ages ? We shall be 
 unable to wash this blot from the sad history of our dark 
 country. It would be unjust and too simple to condemn 
 the mob. The latter was merely the hand which was 
 guided by a corrupt conscience, driving it to murder 
 and robbery. For it is well known that the mob at 
 Kishinef was led by men of cultivated society. But cul- 
 tivated society in Eussia is really much worse than the 
 people .who are goaded by their sad life, and blinded and 
 enthralled by the artificial darkness created around 
 them. The cultivated classes are a crowd of cowardly 
 slaves, without feeling of personal dignity, ready to 
 accept every lie to save their ease and comfort — a weak 
 and lawless element, almost without conscience and with- 
 out shame, in spite of its elegant exterior. 
 
 Cultivated society is not less guilty of the disgraceful 
 and horrible deeds comLinitted at Kishinef than the actual 
 murderers and ravishers. Its members' guilt consists 
 not merely in that they did not protect the victims, but 
 in that they rejoiced over the murders; it consists chiefly 
 in permitting themselves for long years to be corrupted 
 by human fiends, who have long enjoyed the disgusting 
 glory of being the lackeys of power and glorifiers of lies, 
 like the editor of the Bessarabets, of Kishinef, and other 
 publicists. Those are the real authors of the disgrace- 
 ful and awful crime of Kishinef. To all the shameful 
 names hitherto given to these repulsive men must be 
 added another, and the well- deserved one, of " instigators 
 
214 RUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 of village murder." These hypocrites, with the name of 
 God on their Ups, who preach in Eussian society hatred 
 of the Jews, Armenians, and Finns, to-day heap base and 
 cowardly calumnies upon the corpses of those killed 
 through their influence, and they shamelessly continue 
 their hateful work of poisoning the mind and feelings of 
 the weak-willed Eussian society. 
 
 Shame upon their wicked heads ! May the fire of con- 
 science consume their decayed hearts, covetous only of 
 lackeylike honors, and slavishly obsequious to power. 
 
 It is now the duty of that Eussian society that is not 
 yet wholly ruined by these bandits, to prove that it is 
 not identified with these instigators of pillage and mur- 
 der. Eussian society must clear its conscience of part 
 of the shame and disgrace by helping the orphaned and 
 desolated Jews, and assisting those members of the race 
 which has given to the world many really great men, and 
 which still continues to produce teachers of truth and 
 beauty, in spite of its oppressed condition in the world. 
 
 Come, therefore, all who do not want themselves to be 
 regarded as the lackeys of the lackeys, and who still re- 
 tain their self-respect — come, and help the Jews. 
 
 XXXIII.— Professor A. S. Subotin (1903) 
 
 Member of the Pahlen Commission which was appointed in 1886 by the Russian 
 government for the study of the Jewish Question. 
 
 I. Cause of the Fersecution of the Jews. — Councillor 
 Bloch has, with acute insight, stated the true cause of the 
 persecution of the Jews in modern times to be, not relig- 
 ious prejudice, nor racial hatred, nor the sordid fear of 
 competition, nor, least of all, the alleged vileness of the 
 
THE AMBEICAlsr PEOPLE 215 
 
 Jews, but solely their weakness. Whoever is weak and 
 helpless, tmable to protect himself and dependent on the 
 protection of others, is in danger of the cowardly attacks 
 of those who do not dare to approach the strong. The 
 ringleaders in the great Jewish disturbances in Eussia 
 at the beginning of the ' 80s of the last century were not 
 the " terribly fleeced " peasants of the localities in ques- 
 tion, but foreign laborers from Grreater Eussia, who had 
 never before seen a Jew, and therefore had never been 
 injured by one. The disturbances, moreover, broke out 
 in the larger cities, while the towns and villages where 
 the "fleeced" peasants were living at first remained 
 passive. The riots took place, not because the Jews were 
 accused of having preyed upon the population, but be- 
 cause the people had been excited to murder and plun- 
 der by a number of Jew-baiters, who persuaded the mob 
 that the government would not protect the Jews any 
 longer, and that the Czar had delivered them up to the 
 mercy of his "beloved, faithful Eussians." Order was 
 restored as soon as the government interfered. It is 
 noteworthy, moreover, that there were no disturbances 
 whatever in the military district of Wilna, where Count 
 Totleben announced that any attempts at riot would be 
 forcibly suppressed. 
 
 II. The Jews and the Russian Peasant. — In 1843 Eussia 
 set apart a zone (known as the Pale) for the Jews. The 
 Wovoje Vremja inquired in a recent article: "What more 
 do the Jews want than to live in a territory larger than 
 France ? " The answer is simple: The Jews of the Pale 
 are only permitted to live in towns, bourgades, and villages 
 set apart for the purpose. They are not allowed to buy, 
 own, or cultivate land. The consequence is that the ac- 
 
216 EUS8JA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 tual space occupied by iiw Evissiiiii Jowh, so far IVom being 
 larger than France, is smaller Hum the smallest French 
 Department. Sint'o 1843 not an inch has bocii adih^d to 
 the territory set apart for the dwelling-place of the Jews, 
 in spite of llicir natural increase. Th(^ enl ire Pale, com- 
 prising 914,707 sciuare Idlomelera (i.e., 1-2,'! of the Rus- 
 sian Empire) and numbering (in 1897) l,874,(i;!(> Jews, 
 in a total population of 42, r)2(), 590 inhabitants, is divided 
 into the following iifteen goxeruments: Wilna, Witubsk, 
 Grodno, Kovno, Minsk, Mohilev, Volhynia, Kief, Podo- 
 lia, Poltava, Tcheinigox', Bessarabia, Yekateriuoslav, 
 Crimea, and Kherson. 
 
 The Jews living williin Miis Pale, lusserts State Coun- 
 cilor Bloch, not only do not piey upon the popula- 
 tion in the midst of whom they live, but tliey contribute, 
 on the contrary, to their nialiu'ial and nioi"al well-being. 
 In proof of tills statement, Bloeh quotes stat-lst-ies from 
 the tliirty-live governments closed to the Jews, compar- 
 ing them witli data gatliered from the governnients with- 
 in the Pale. The result of this conij)ari8on is striking. 
 In the thirty-five governments "clear of J(^\vs," Hie 
 peasants pay to the government a yearly ii'demption sum 
 at the rat(^ of 4.7 p(>r cent, for tlieir fields, that Coi'merly 
 belonged to the landlords, while the })easants within the 
 Pale are able to pay at the rate of 5.G pei' cent. The 
 iiicrt^ase in population in fourt(!en governmiMits, with a 
 large Jewish population, amountcMl in the twenty years 
 between 1858 and 1878 to 31.5 |)er cent., while in the 
 eleven governments adjoining the Pale it amounted to 
 only 20 per cent. The population of tlie villages within 
 the Pale has correspondingly increased by one-tliird, and 
 that of the cities has been doubled in comparison with 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 217 
 
 the other govemments of Eussia. The favorable con- 
 dition of the peasants is furthermore confirmed by statis- 
 tics furnished by A. Malschinski, who has studied the 
 same in fifteen governments, including Poland and the 
 Pale, and compared it with that of the peasants in the 
 other parts of Eui-opean Eussia. The description "very 
 prosperous" applies to 9.5 per cent, of the peasants 
 within the Pale, and to per cent, outside; that of 
 "very well off" applies to 23.9 per cent, within the 
 Pale, and only 0.5 per cent, outside; that of "well off" 
 applies to 48.1 per cent, within the Pale, and to 13.8 per 
 cent, outside; the description " not satisfactory " applied 
 to 18.5 per cent, within the Pale, and to 66.2 per cent, 
 outside; and the description "badly off," finally, applies 
 to per cent, within the Pale and to 19.4 per cent, out- 
 side. Within the Pale, therefore, no peasant is really 
 badly off, whereas, while placed in the governments 
 where there are no Jews, there are no peasants who are 
 really prosperous, nearly one-fifth are badly off, and the 
 large majority of 66 per cent, is not well off. In conse- 
 quence of their more favorable material condition, the 
 peasants within the Pale are superior in their manners 
 and morals to the peasants in the interior of Eussia. 
 Bloch has, indeed, gathered together statistics to show 
 that crime, drunkenness, and other consequence of 
 poverty are much less in evidence within the Pale than 
 outside. 
 
 III. The Jew as Merchant. — Altho the Pahlen Com- 
 mission has determined that the Jews within the Pale 
 constitute 55.5 per cent, of all the merchants, their com- 
 merce covers only 47 per cent, of the entire commerce of 
 that region. This is due to the poverty of the Jews, 
 
218 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 which compels the majority of the Jewish merchants to 
 confine themselves exclusively to retail business. While 
 among the non-Jews only 1 person in every 600 is en- 
 gaged in business, 1 in every 120 among the Jews is 
 an independent merchant. Many of these Jewish 
 merchants earn barely one ruble (50 cents) a day, and 
 they are able to subsist only because they buy direct 
 from the manufacturer and sell immediately at a small 
 profit. Hence from the standpoint of the consumer — 
 i.e., the majority of the Eussian people — the Jewish 
 merchant is a benefactor, because through his agency the 
 necessities of life are materially reduced in price. The 
 Jewish merchant is also of great benefit to the producer, 
 for he not only furnishes the peasant with commodities 
 at a reasonable rate, but also purchases his product at a 
 good price to sell elsewhere. The Jewish merchants also 
 carry on the foreign commerce, and the sum of Eussia's 
 exports and imports would be immeasurably increased if 
 the Jews were permitted to live unrestrained throughout 
 the empire. 
 
 Bloch has illustrated by a striking example the bene- 
 fits which the Jew confers upon the small producer. In 
 the government of Nijni-Novgorod there is a village, 
 Pawlowo, numbering several thousand families, who sup- 
 port themselves by home industries. Down to 1889 these 
 people were little better than the unfortunate slaves of 
 some Eussian capita.lists, who exploited the peasants for 
 a mere pittance. Then some Jews appeared upon the 
 scene, and they paid a high price for the handiwork 
 of the villagers. The Eussian capitalists thereupon 
 brought about the expulsion of the Jews from Pawlowo, 
 forcing the peasants again to seU their work at the former 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 219 
 
 starvation rates. But the peasants sent a deputation to 
 the Governor, requesting that the Jews be permitted to 
 settle in Pawlowo. 
 
 IV. The Jew as Manufacturer. — The Russian Jews are 
 not prominent as manufacturers, not having the capital 
 necessary to engage in industrial enterprises. Hence 
 they partake only to the extent of 16 per cent, in in- 
 dustry, altho they constitute more than 42 per cent, of 
 the entire population in the cities within the Pale. That 
 this is due only to the lack of capital is shown by the 
 fact that they engage in industrial enterprises in the 
 inverse ratio of the capital employed therein. The 
 more capital required the fewer Jews are engaged in an 
 enterprise. A Jewish factory in Russia is worth, on the 
 average, 32,000 rubles, while every factory owned by a 
 non-Jew represents a capital of 78,000 rubles. 
 
 V. Ths Jew as Producing WorTcman. — The participation 
 of the Jews in manual labor is an argument against 
 their aUeged "fleecing." In 1898, 139,000 Jews 
 were engaged in all branches of agriculture, 176,000 
 in factories (64,000 of these working by the week 
 and 112,000 working by the day), 450,000 as master 
 craftsmen, journeymen, and apprentices — altogether, 
 765,000 Jews, who lived exclusively by the work of 
 their hands. If the thousands of Jews are added who 
 gain their living as coachmen, laborers, porters, water- 
 carriers, and unskilled workmen in general, we get the 
 enormous number of 800,000 workingmen. While one 
 Jew out of every 120 is engaged in commerce, one Jew 
 out of every six in Russia is a producer. The majority 
 of the Jews of Russia are not exploiters, but exploited. 
 
 VI. The Jew as an Artisan. — The Jews are engaged to 
 
220 ETJSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 the abnormal extent in the crafts. According to the 
 Pahlen Commission, there were 235,000 Jewish master 
 craftsmen and journeymen, and 67,000 apprentices in 
 Eussia, and this number has been materially increased 
 within the last seventeen years, since by the May laws 
 of 1882 many thousands of Jews were impoverished and 
 forced to engage in a trade, having no other choice. In 
 1897 12.4 per cent, of all the Jews in the government of 
 Kovno were artisans, 13. 1 per cent, of the Jews in the 
 government of Wilna, and 18. 1 per cent, of all the Jews 
 in the government of Grodno. In some districts the 
 percentage of Jewish artisans is enormous — for example, 
 at Schawly, in the government of Kovno, they number 
 42 per cent., and in the town of Molodetchna even 76 
 per cent., of all the Jews over 14 years of age. 
 
 VII. The Jew as an Agriculturist. — There are few Jew- 
 ish agriculturists in Eussia, for the Jews within the Pale 
 are not permitted to live outside of the towns or to ac- 
 quire land; yet they have succeeded in farming almost 
 on the very pavement of the cities, as is indicated by 
 the large number of Jewish gardeners, vintners, tobacco 
 planters, and nurserymen. And they have also suc- 
 ceeded in acquiring real estate outside of the cities. In 
 Poland, for instance, where they have been permitted to 
 buy land since 1860, the Jews have acquired 292,000 
 hectares of land down to 1901. In the other fifteen gov- 
 ernments within the Pale they acquired altogether 983, - 
 000 hectares. To this must be added the 1,120,000 
 hectares acquired by the Jewish merchants outside of 
 the Pale. Accordingly, the entire landed property 
 owned at present by the Jews in Eussia amounts to 
 about 2,936,000 hectares. A large part of this land, 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 221 
 
 however, consists of inaccessible forests, whicli are of 
 little value in the hands of Eussian landlords, but could 
 be made very productive in the hands of Jews. This 
 landed property, however, is diminutive in comparison 
 with the large Je-rt^ish population of Eussia. Within 
 the Pale the Jewish ownership of land constitutes only 
 1.4 per cent, in a Jewish population of 11.7 per cent., 
 and in Poland it constitutes 2.4 per cent, in a popula- 
 tion of 14 per cent. The Jewish farmers, moreover, in 
 many cases do not own, but merely lease the land. 
 
 State Councilor Bloch shows in a number of statistical 
 tables that the Jews achieve excellent results both as 
 owners and as tenants. Of the 320 large estates in Jewish 
 hands in Poland, 147 yield "excellent" returns, and 
 103 "good" returns. For these reasons the Pahlen 
 Commission has proposed, with 11 votes against 4, 
 that the Jews should be permitted to acquire and to 
 rent land in "view of the fact that the Jewish ten- 
 ants pay their rent promptly, and are well-to-do and 
 trustworthy, and that if the Jews are forbidden to lease 
 land, (1) the landlords would be ruined; (2) the peo- 
 ple's ability to pay taxes would be reduced; and (3) the 
 economic condition of the Jews would be imperiled." 
 
 VIII. Naiural Consequences. — The anti-Semitic Eus- 
 sian government unfortunately entirely rejected the 
 propositions of the Pahlen Commission, and the distress 
 of the Jews has increased in consequence from year to 
 year in a progressive ratio. I have furnished statistics 
 of the poverty imposed by the Eussian government upon 
 an industrious, peaceable, and thrifty people which seems 
 incredible in a civilized state. The expulsion of the 
 Jews from Moscow and other cities, and their systematic 
 
222 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 expulsion from the villages, have made nearly a million 
 Jews destitute, and about 70,000 more have lost their 
 means of subsistence by the introduction of the whiskey 
 monopoly. Through the many fires during the summer, 
 which damaged property amounting to millions of 
 roubles a year, the Jews have become so impoverished 
 that they are hardly able to keep their houses in repair, 
 and many of them literally live among ruins. 
 
 According to the statistics collected recently by the 
 Jewish Colonization Association, not less than 132,855 
 Jewish families, numbering 709,000 persons, were 
 obliged in 1898 to apply for the relief known under the 
 name "Moes Chittim." According to the statements of 
 Borodowski, 33 per cent, of the 150, 000 Jews of the rich 
 mercantile city of Odessa are absolute proletarians, who 
 do not know to-day whether they shall have bread to- 
 morrow. 
 
 Source: Prof. A. S. Subotin's "The Jewish Question in Its 
 True Light " (St. Petersburg, 1903), based on Bloch's "Strav- 
 nenie Materialnavo i Nravstvennavo Blagosostoyaniya Gu- 
 berni Zapadnykh Veliko Rossiskikh i Privislyanskikh." 
 5 vols. 
 
 XXXIV.— M. Tugan-Bafanowsky (1904) 
 
 Late Professor of Political Economy at the University of St. Petersburg 
 
 The whole European anti-Semitic press points to the 
 fleecing of the Christian population by the Jews as the 
 mainspring of anti-Semitism. But certainly, as regards 
 the anti-Semitic movement in contemporary Eussia, its 
 cause is not to be found in the working-man's hatred of 
 the Jew. I have been living for the last two years in a 
 " Little-Eussian " village of the Poltawa government. 
 The Jews have the right of free residence in the towns of 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 223 
 
 the province, but the settlement of new Jewish immi- 
 grants in the villages is strictly prohibited by law; in 
 spite of which prohibition there is hardly a village 
 throughout the government without a Jewish colony, 
 whose members had no legal right to settle there. There 
 would be no difficulty in getting such Jews turned out of 
 their various abodes by the police; a mere denunciation 
 of the transgressors to the authorities would suffice; and 
 yet we find thousands of Jews who have for years been 
 living in undisturbed enjoyment among the peasants, 
 each of whom, if he chose to take the trouble, would 
 have it in his power to end in a most abrupt way the 
 friendly intercourse of Jew and Christian. Surely such 
 a fact does not point to the existence of anti-Jewish feel- 
 ing among the Russian peasantry. Indeed, I may say, 
 from my personal observations, that the attitude of the 
 peasantry toward the Jew is distinctly of a friendly 
 nature; I have been unable to trace any instance of the 
 alleged fleecing of the Christian population by the Jews. 
 In former days — whether rightly or wrongly is an open 
 question — the Jews were reproached with showing too 
 strong an inclination for the profession of publican, 
 whereby they ruined and corrupted the peasant. M. 
 de Witte, in establishing the state monopoly of spirits, 
 has withdrawn from all private enterprise this source of 
 income, so that the treasury is nowadays the sole and 
 mighty publican. 
 
 The Jewish usurer is another theme dear to the anti- 
 Semitic press. But the usurer must needs be a wealthy 
 person — a poor devil like the Jewish colonist settled 
 amid the " Little-Eussian " peasantry may possibly long 
 for credit; he certainly is not in a position to give it. 
 
224 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 The majority of Jews I have personally come across are 
 honest and well-intentioned folk, who work with pro- 
 ductive and useful industry. In this region the Jewish 
 usurer is unknown; but we often hear of the usury prac- 
 tised by a few wealthy Eussian landowners. Most of 
 the Jewish villagers are either shopkeepers or retail 
 dealers, and there is no doubt but that their modest stalls 
 and trading bestow real benefits upon the indolent peas- 
 ants, to whom the Jewish middleman spares long and 
 costly journeys for the purchase of necessaries. Other 
 Jews are artisans — cobblers, tailors, smiths, etc. In 
 brief, the Jews form the commercial and industrial ele- 
 ment in the rural populatiou of "Little Eussia," and 
 their expulsion from the villages would place the peas- 
 antry in an awkward situation. This the husbandmen 
 well understand, and they regard the Jews accordingly 
 as a useful portion of the village community. They have 
 no sympathy whatever with the restrictions placed upon 
 the settlement rights of the Jew, since they derive valued 
 profit from the common intercourse. The village schools 
 admit Jewish children along with the Christian, and 
 there are no reports of ill-feeling between the children 
 of the respective denominations. Of course, in the eyes 
 of the peasant, if only by reason of his religious differ- 
 ence, the Jew is no fellow countryman, but an alien, tho 
 not an enemy. The " Little-Eussian " peasant considers 
 himself, as compared to the Jew, the latter' s superior 
 both morally and in physique, and looks down upon 
 him with a kind of good-tempored irony. He finds the 
 Jew a "rum 'un," scoffs at his loquacity and gesticula- 
 tions, and indulges in varied and humorous tales of Jew- 
 ish cowardice, but he feels himself anything but fleeced 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 225' 
 
 or oppressed. I have detected no sign of hati'ed among 
 the villagers. And yet, in spite of all I have said, the 
 Jew can never feel quite stire that the Eussian neighbor, 
 with whom he has been living in friendly intercourse for 
 years and years, will not one day set upon him, rob him 
 of his goods, ill-treat him in every conceivable way, and, 
 perhaps, put him to death. This contradictory state of 
 affairs calls for some explanation. 
 
 The Jew may be a ''good sort," but, I repeat, to the 
 Eussian peasant he ever remains a foreigner, or, what is 
 worse, a follower of the abhorred creed. " Have not the 
 Jews crucified our Lord?" And in Eussia more par- 
 ticularly this time-honored and universal source of anti- 
 Semitism can not fail to tell on the popular mind. Still 
 there can be little doubt that religious differences are in 
 themselves quite incapable of rousing the peasantry to 
 such cruel deeds as form the ordinary accompaniment to 
 the sack of the Jewish quarters. I maintain the opinion 
 that despite such differences the customary bearing of 
 the Eussian peasant toward the Jew is distinctly of a 
 friendly kind; the Jew is a poor, hard-working, and use- 
 ful person, and the peasant has no personal reason to 
 hate him. The same can not be said of many Christian 
 landowners, and it is an undisputed fact that the peas- 
 antry display more animosity against the wealthy land- 
 owners as a class than against the Jews as a class. 
 
 Hence, to bring about a sack of the Jewish quarters 
 requires the intervention of some exceptional factor. 
 For instance, the Christian population may acquire the 
 conviction that the Czar is in favor of such a consum- 
 mation, tho it must be very difficult for a Westerner to 
 understand how such an idea can gain a hold over the 
 
226 ETJSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 masses. Yet, in truth, tlie Eussian peasantry see noth- 
 ing unnatural in the idea that the Czar has abandoned 
 this or that social class to the plunderers. Not more 
 than a year ago the peasantry of a certain government were 
 thoroughly convinced that they were acting in full accord 
 with the imperial will in attacking the aristocratic 
 manors. The series of raids on the Jewish population 
 which followed closely upon the assassination of Emperor 
 Alexander II. was directly connected with this event. 
 I was a chance eye-witness of one of these raids, that of 
 Kief. I asked several of the assailants what grievance 
 they had against the Jews, and invariably received the 
 following reply: "The Jews have murdered our Czar." 
 All were unreservedly convinced that, even if the raid 
 had not been formally ordered, it was authorized at any 
 rate; and, truly, what other conviction could they have 
 acquired, considering the conduct of the authorities on 
 this occasion? Of troops there were plenty at hand, 
 stationed in a compact body by the very side of the rag- 
 ing mob; but they looked on in perfect composure and 
 indifference, they made not a single effort to protect 
 the Jews; so the assailants concluded, in all sincerity, 
 that the soldiers had been stationed there, not to shelter 
 the Jews from the fury of the plunderers, but to guard 
 the latter against any resistance on the part of the former. 
 To-day, once again, the belief is ingrained in the pop- 
 ular imagination that the baiting of the Jews is sanc- 
 tioned by the government. Apart from this, the origin 
 of the most recent instances of cruelty is pretty clear. 
 The greatest share of the blame rests — and quite legiti- 
 mately, too ! — with the local anti-Semitic press, which, 
 by enlarging on the pretended ritual murder of a Chris- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 227 
 
 tian boy in the borough of Dubossary, has, with the aid 
 of wild rhetorical outbursts, stirred up popular rage 
 against the Jews. The conspicuous part played by the 
 Kishinef organ, Bessarahetz, in inciting to the subsequent 
 disgraceful scenes, is universally known. The local au- 
 thorities in Kishinef were perfectly aware of the long- 
 prepared raid on the Jewish quarter, and, as it has since 
 leaked out, encouraged it underhand, while the share of 
 responsibility which lay with the central powers in the 
 matter has, up to date, not been fully elucidated. One 
 fact, however, is clear : the Kishinef authorities took no 
 measures whatever to forestall the sack and massacre of 
 the Jews. The subsequent proceedings of the Eussian 
 government — as, for instance, the official reports on the 
 Kishinef and Gomel disturbances — have largely con- 
 tributed to the spread of the anti-Semitic movement 
 throughout Eussia, for these reports strove to throw the 
 initial blame of the disturbances on the Jews themselves, 
 so that the peasants, when they read the papers, natu- 
 rally see in the of&cial communique an imperial indict- 
 ment of the guilty conduct of the Jews toward their 
 Christian brethren. These reports have not failed to 
 arouse feelings of profound resentment throughout the 
 whole Eussian people. In my neighborhood, as already 
 stated, the prevalent bearing of the native population 
 toward the Jews is wholly a friendly one. But no sooner 
 had the peasants inferred from the official communiques 
 that the Jews had attacked the Christians, than they 
 began to talk openly about the necessity of raiding the 
 Jews. On a certain day every Jew in the district was 
 trembling for his life and fearful of leaving his abode; a 
 petty squabble between a Christian and a Jew would 
 
228 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 then have been quite enough to bring about a general 
 attack on the Jews. Fortunately, nothing of the kind 
 occurred, and things soon resumed their normal course. 
 
 I should add, however, that the chief blame for the 
 baiting of Jews does not rest exclusively with the Eus- 
 sian government; far from it. True, the Eussian central 
 authorities can afford far better than their colleagues in 
 states that enjoy political liberty to ignore popular pres- 
 sure — indeed, at this very moment Eussian public opin- 
 ion is sincerely advocating liberal reforms, while the 
 government cling obstinately to their policy of reaction. 
 Yet in one direction at least of Eussian policy the gov- 
 ernment is entirely at one with the exertions of the 
 most influential classes of Eussian society — namely, in 
 the hostile policy pursued with regard to the alien na- 
 tionalities. Eussian Nationalism, whose aggressiveness 
 has led to the destruction of Finnish liberties, is not a 
 mere government invention. Deeply rooted in Eussian 
 society for many years, it has of late been growing 
 apace. The sudden change of policy toward Finland 
 had been prepared by the Nationalist agitation in the 
 press, and in this particular respect the government did 
 but obey the Nationalist drift of a considerable section 
 of Eussian society. 
 
 Now, the main effort of the Eussian Nationalists has 
 ever been, and continues to be, directed against the Jew. 
 They are not exactly mistaken in regarding him as an 
 element foreign to the nation, and as one who, under no 
 circumstances, can be won over to the conception of an 
 all-Eussian supremacy ; an element, moreover, which, 
 from their standpoint, is all the more dangerous since it 
 has taken root in the very heart of the Eussian national 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 229 
 
 organism. Undoubtedly it would be difficult to find a 
 greater contrast than the respective racial features of 
 Jew and Eussian, and, in my own opinion, the Nation- 
 alists are not deceiving themselves when they maintain 
 the impossibility of ever making the Jew into a true Eus- 
 sian of the sound old Muscovite type. But the real back- 
 bone of Eussian anti-Semitism should by no means be 
 sought for among the rural and laboring classes — ^who 
 have no grievances against the Jews — it is supplied by 
 the weU-to-do classes of Eussian society, in particular by 
 the upper and lower middle class, reinforced by a notable 
 proportion of the professional men. A few years ago 
 there was held in St. Petersburg a general congress of 
 Eussian artisans, and this assembly showed clearly to 
 what considerable extent the Eussian mechanic is imbued 
 with the Nationalist bias, by declaring in favor not only 
 of the maintenance, but of the extension of the restric- 
 tions attached to the Jewish rights of settlement — and 
 this for obvious reasons. The Jewish competitor, who 
 works for lower wages, often ruins the Eussian artisan, 
 hence the latter' s prompt adhesion to Nationalism and 
 anti-Semitism. The tradesmen are in a similar position; 
 their press is equally characterized by Nationalism and 
 hatred of the Jew. Likewise, as regards the Eussian 
 contractor, the Semite is his most dangerous and accord- 
 ingly most hateful competitor, and the same would ap- 
 ply to many lawyers, doctors, writers, journalists, and 
 representatives of the liberal professions, wherein the 
 Jewish competition is very strong. Endowed with un- 
 usual industry and perseverance, the Jews gradually 
 supplant their Eussian confreres, thus forcing the latter 
 to join the Nationalist ranks. It is a fact universally 
 
230 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 recognized that tlie most violent ''Jew-haters " are to be 
 found among their unsuccessful rivals. 
 
 Of course, even among the educated classes of Eussia 
 the Jews number some sincere friends. Eussian Liberals 
 can not sympathize with the restrictions placed on the 
 civic rights of the Jew, and it would be well-nigh im- 
 possible to single out an anti-Semite among the highest 
 representatives of Eussian literature, art, and science. 
 But this consideration does not prevent the overwhelm- 
 ing mass of Eussian minds from assuming an attitude 
 anything but friendly toward the Jewish element. As 
 regards the government itself, it is singularly influenced 
 by the Nationalist strata of Eussian society. Anti- 
 Semitism is further strengthened in official circles by the 
 fact that in every revolutionary movement the Jews, on 
 grounds which call for no explanation, have taken a large 
 part. On the other hand, a counter- current in favor of 
 the Jews is equally noticeable in the sphere of govern- 
 ment. M. de Witte is the very reverse of an anti-Sem- 
 ite, and a few years back went so far as to prepare on 
 the quiet a radical reform in the legal status of the Eus- 
 sian Jew. I have had the opportunity of perusing per- 
 sonally the secret memoir by Witte, wherein he advo- 
 cated the removal of all legal restrictions pertaining to 
 the civil rights of the Jew within the Eussian Empire. 
 The call for so radical a reform was founded by M. de 
 Witte on purely economic motives. The late Finance 
 Minister laid stress on the supreme importance for the 
 general commercial life of Eussia, and more especially 
 for Eussian trade and industry, of the proposed libera- 
 tion of the Jew from restrictive measures that seriously 
 hamper his spirit of enterprise. In face of the promi- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 231 
 
 nent part played by Jewish capital in the international 
 finance market, and of the dependence of Eussia's finan- 
 cial situation on foreign capital, no Eussian Minister of 
 Finance can help wishing for a transformation of the 
 present anti-Semitic policy pui'sued by the Eussian gov- 
 ernment. Yet, altho M. de Witte, at the time he com- 
 posed the memoir, was the most influential member of 
 the government, his endeavors to improve the legal 
 status of the Eussian Jew proved utterly fruitless. 
 Nationalism, then as now, was too strong throughout the 
 country to admit of the possibility of carrying through 
 any such reform. 
 
 Source: "Anti-Semitism in Contemporary-Russia," in Tlie 
 Monthly Review, London, January, 1904. 
 
232 ETJSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 VI 
 
 AN AMERICAN EYE-WITNESS: 
 COL. JOHN B. WEBER 
 
 The persecution of the Jews of Eussia, recently so 
 hideously emphasized by the Kishinef massacre, should 
 arouse all civilized nations, but more especially the 
 United States, for upon this country will fall the burden 
 of furnishing an asylum of refuge for the surviving vic- 
 tims of racial hatred and religious bigotry. 
 
 The problem has confronted us for twenty years, but 
 not until now has it reached a stage so acute that it 
 promises seriously to affect our social conditions, because 
 of the masses of hunted human beings who are fleeing 
 from the barbarous wrath turned loose against them. It 
 is now in order for us to determine whether it is the duty 
 of a liberty-professing, civilized nation to ascertain the 
 underlying causes which force an unfortunate people 
 upon us in a helpless, panic-stricken condition, and to 
 attempt, in a friendly way at least, to stop the move- 
 ments which periodically occur, and which now threaten 
 to reach a wave of more than ordinary proportions. 
 
 The recent outrages in the Jewish Pale can not be said 
 to have come altogether as a surprise to our government. 
 Past experience, as well as official investigation and re- 
 ports, have made clear the conditions which exist in 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 233 
 
 Russia, and the effect of such conditions. The recent 
 barbarities in Bessarabia may open the flood-gat«s anew 
 and pour into our harbors a volume which will make 
 previous records small in comparison. The forerunners 
 of the vast army have already come^ — those who felt but 
 the first application of the screws that, gradually tight- 
 ened under official sanction, have culminated in mob 
 outbreaks comparable in ferocity only to those of 
 
 It was claimed by some that we were precluded from 
 protest because the social order of its subjects concerns 
 Eussia alone, and because the lawless punishments of our 
 negroes or the lynching of Italians furnish an effective 
 estoppel to our complaints. Aside from the fact that 
 this wrong does not make that right, it can not be claimed 
 that these acts are directly or indirectly sanctioned by 
 law, or that their inevitable effect forces the survivors 
 in helpless misery upon Eussia and other nations. The 
 cases are not at all parallel, except in their inhumanity, 
 and the question of self- protection has no place or reason 
 in the Eussian answer. 
 
 It is difficult to describe the conditions of government 
 in Eussia, in such a manner as to have them compre- 
 hended by Americans. Grovernment in Eussia and gov- 
 ernment in the United States represent the antipodes, 
 the two extremes, of human freedom. Here we have 
 liberty of speech; there you can not have a public gath- 
 ering without permission of the authorities. Here, free- 
 dom of the press ; there, a governmental censorship. 
 Here, everything not expressly forbidden is allowed ; 
 there, everything not expressly allowed is forbidden. 
 And in the case of the Jew, special laws, applicable only 
 
234 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 to him, restrict his movements, limit his industry, levy 
 taxes from which other subjects are exempt, and inflict 
 punishment for offenses to which others are not liable — 
 at every turn the Jew is made to feel that he is an alien 
 and an outcast in a land which he inhabited before the 
 Muscovite did. 
 
 These laws are the fundamental cause of the troubles. 
 Not only do they contradict one another, but their con- 
 struction varies in the different provinces or gubernia, 
 according to the whim or the caprice of the authorities. 
 In matters of religion, Jews can not hold public worship 
 in their houses without permission of the authorities. 
 Synagogs are allowed only in places where there are no 
 less than eighty houses, and houses of prayer can be 
 started only in places where there are not less than thirty 
 Jewish dwellings. Thus in places with a smaller Jewish 
 population, Jews are prohibited public prayer under pain 
 of criminal prosecution. A Jew or Jewess converted to 
 the Greek Orthodox religion may consider the marriage 
 tie dissolved and may marry a person of the orthodox 
 religion. According to law, every convert to Christian- 
 ity shall receive a monetary payment of from fifteen to 
 thirty rubles — children half that sum. Various other 
 rules on religion, applicable only to Jews, appear in the 
 laws, and these are especially vexatious and oppressive 
 to the Jews, who cling to the faith of their fathers with 
 a tenacity worthy of the martyrs. This will not be won- 
 dered at when their conditions are considered. The only 
 ray of light penetrating that darkness is the hope of a 
 better, happier life in the hereafter. 
 
 The laws relating to their military duties bear more 
 heavily upon the Jew than upon the non-Jew, and dif- 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 235 
 
 ferently. The exemptions from military service are dif- 
 ferent, and for evasion of sucli service the family must 
 pay a fine. 
 
 Taxes applicable only to them are levied for every 
 animal or bird slaughtered— for every pound of meat sold 
 as ' ' kosher " ; a certain percentage is exacted on rents, 
 profits of factories, industrial establishments, and other 
 trade enterprises carried on by Jews ; on capital be- 
 queathed by Jews ; on apparel especially worn by Jews, 
 such as a skull-cap ; on candles (Sabbath lights), which 
 alone amounts to about 230,000 rubles per annum; and 
 on numerous other articles besides, all paying tribute be- 
 cause they belong to Jews. 
 
 Prior to 1880, Jews passing in a public middle-class 
 school were allowed to enter universities, academies, and 
 other higher educational establishments without restric- 
 tion, but in that year the authorities began to limit the 
 number of Jews so entering. In 1882, the number of 
 Jewish students in the Military Academy for Medicine 
 was limited to 5 per cent. ; at present, none are admitted. 
 In 1883, in the Mining Institute the limit was fixed at 5 
 per cent. In 1885, at the Technical Institute at Kharkoff 
 the limit was fixed at 10 per cent. Finally, in 1887, the 
 Minister of Public Education obtained the right of re- 
 stricting the number of Jewish pupils in the educational 
 establishments generally, which he exercised by limit- 
 ing in all schools and universities the attendance of Jews 
 residing in places within the Pale to 10 per cent., in 
 places outside the Pale to 5 per cent., but in St. Peters- 
 burg and Moscow to 3 per cent, of the total number of 
 pupils in each school or university — this without regard 
 to the proportion of Jews to the general population in 
 
236 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 any one place. In some places tlie Jewish population is 
 80 per cent, of the entire population. 
 
 What the higher education means to the Jews may be 
 better appreciated when it is understood that a diploma 
 of doctor or master, or the passing of the higher educa- 
 tional establishments, gives the right of permanent resi- 
 dence outside the Pale, altho the securing of this right 
 has again been narrowed by subsequent amendments. 
 For instance, admission to the bar, which gives such 
 right of residence, is now coupled with the proviso that 
 it be approved by the Minister of Justice, who since the 
 birth of this provision, down to the time when last in- 
 quired about, has not seen his way clear to approve in 
 the case of a Jew. Education has been the Jew's high- 
 way to privilege, the royal road to right of residence. 
 The gates to this highway have been closed and locked 
 with the keys in the custody of religious fanatics. 
 
 There came to my personal knowledge two instances of 
 the refinement of technicalities by the officials on the one 
 hand, and of desperate energy on the other. The first 
 was the case of a Miss Berlin, who was graduated with 
 honors at the Gymnasium of Minsk, in the Pale. Her 
 mother was a midwife, and as such was entitled to live 
 outside of the Pale, and had resided in Moscow for 
 several years. Having procured a divorce from her 
 husband, the mother resumed her maiden name, the 
 daughter retaining that of her father, the only one she 
 was legally authorized to bear. Under the mother's 
 right of residence, the daughter, being a minor, was 
 legally entitled to live with the mother. But, owing to 
 this technical difference in names, residence in Moscow 
 was refused, and, as she earnestly desired to complete her 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 237 
 
 education at the Pedagogical Institute of that city, so as 
 to fit herself for teaching, she determined to take the 
 chances and remain. For nearly two yeara she lived 
 there the life of a hunted animal, compelled to put 
 up at night at the houses of friends and relatives, 
 occasionally with her mother, but no longer than 
 two nights in succession in any one place. Twice, 
 for fear of the police, she was without a place to go 
 to, and wandered about the streets all night, once in 
 midwinter and once in the spring while the weather was 
 still cold. The director of the institute endeavored to 
 obtain for her a permit to stay legally, but without avail, 
 and the bribe money paid by the mother to the police 
 finally proving insufficient, as the pressure increased 
 she gave up the unequal struggle and returned to the 
 Pale. She was a particularly bright, cultivated young 
 lady, who would shine in any circle. 
 
 The second case. A brilliant young man, one of my 
 guides through the Pale, had fitted himself for the bar, and 
 for two years had applied for admission in vain. This 
 gentleman was a graduate of the University of St. Peters- 
 burg, and possessed the finer sensibilities which culture 
 and refinement bring. With his professional career 
 blighted, his ambitions crushed, to him hope was a 
 mockery, and apprehension and fear an ever-present 
 and increasing torture. Unless his children — in spite 
 of these restrictions — could by the higher education 
 win for themselves the right of residence, the over- 
 crowded Pale, daily growing worse, would be their 
 fate when they attained their majority. There they 
 must begin life, separated from their parents, in a land 
 to which they were utter strangers, and in a compe- 
 
238 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 tition where the effort to obtain a livelihood is a 
 fierce struggle — literally, a snatching of bread out of the 
 mouths of each other. As one of the girls in a stocking- 
 knitting factory at Wilna described it, when asked by 
 me what they lived on: "Two meals a day of black 
 bread, watered with tears." This was the prospect for 
 his children, held out to a man who had mastered six 
 languages, and by his scholarly attainments and training 
 was fitted to adorn any society, and contribute to the 
 progress and prosperity of any civilized people. 
 
 In short, the laws relating to residence are piled one 
 on another, without regard to consistency, and enforced 
 without respect to uniformity in construction. The Pale 
 of Settlement to which Jews are restricted, except in the 
 few privileged cases, comprises fifteen provinces, or 
 gubernia, stretching along the western and southern bor- 
 ders of Eussia, and covering an area about equal to that 
 of the State of Texas. Until 1882 the Jew had the right 
 of residence anywhere within this Pale, but in that year 
 he was forbidden to settle outside the towns and villages. 
 This still permitted those Jews who were then living in 
 the rural districts of the Pale to continue such residence, 
 but the harsh construction of the laws nullified this per- 
 mission in many cases. 
 
 For instance, one young man on completing his term 
 of military service could not return to his home, because 
 it was held he had changed his residence when he entered 
 the army. Another who had lived for years in a little 
 place, not designated as a town or village, and who had 
 temporarily removed to another house in the same place 
 to enable his landlord to make repairs, was held to have 
 changed his residence. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 239 
 
 In addition to narrowing the area within the Pale, the 
 movement was begun in 1891 to drive the [Jews back 
 into the Pale from the interior, meaning all the territory 
 outside of the Pale. Most of these were in the interior 
 as a matter of legal right and upon invitation; others 
 were there on tolerance, without having at first legal 
 sanction. In 1865, a decree was issued inviting into the 
 interior, from the Pale, certain classes of Jews who at 
 that time had not the right of residence outside the Pale, 
 among them being hand-workers or artisans. The 
 ground of this decree, as stated therein, was that there 
 was a surplus of artisans in the Pale and a deficiency in 
 the interior, and that it was designed not only to relieve 
 the one, but to foster and develop the industries of the 
 other. In 1880, another circular was issued, which in 
 substance gave the right of residence outside the Pale to 
 all those who were then living outside. Under these 
 two decrees, many of the Jews settled in the interior, 
 established themselves in business, married, and raised 
 children and grandchildren, who never were within the 
 Pale, but who were ordered to leave for the districts 
 where their parents and grandparents were previously 
 registered, to take up the burden of life under conditions 
 with which they were not familiar and among people 
 who were strangers to them. 
 
 The terror of the situation is intensified by the inter- 
 mittent character of the persecutions, the alternating 
 waves of oppression and tolerance. These come and go 
 unexpectedly, breaking out in spots like a pestilence, 
 and like a pestilence they are clearly traceable to a 
 source, and that source is religious bigotry and fanati- 
 cism, before which humanity and self-interest disappear. 
 
240 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 The first exodus dates from 1882, when the May laws 
 were promulgated through General Ignatieff. The pro- 
 mulgation of these barbaric laws created such havoc and 
 distress that it aroused the indignation of the civilized 
 world, and brought about a practical suspension of their 
 enforcement. A lull succeeded until 1891. Then the 
 coils were again tightened, beginning with the now 
 famous raid on the Jewish quarter of Moscow by the 
 police and fire brigade of that city, under the direction 
 of General Yourkoffsky, Chief of the Police. 
 
 Now, Jewish artisans had a perfect legal right of 
 residence in Moscow under the decrees of 1865 and 1880, 
 which formally invited them into the interior for the 
 double purpose of relieving the congestion in the Pale 
 and developing its industries. 
 
 Beginning with individual cases of expulsion, based 
 upon the flimsiest sort of evidence and trickery, such as 
 claiming that an artisan was fraudulently enrolled be- 
 cause at the precise moment of visitation the inspector 
 did not find him actually engaged in the work of his 
 craft, tho he may have been absent delivering work, or 
 at his home ill; such as holding it to be a violation of 
 the rules forbidding the sale of an article not the product 
 of his own hand, when a watchmaker sold a watch-key, 
 or a tailor a suit of clothes attached to which were but- 
 tons not of his manufacture. These pattering drops 
 before the storm, while creating uneasiness in respect of 
 conditions which had been comparatively tolerable there 
 for years, were not sufficient for those who were tighten- 
 ing the screws. 
 
 The infamous midnight raid upon the Jewish quarter 
 of Moscow fell upon these people like a bolt from the 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 241 
 
 sky, and while it can not be said that conditions were 
 undisturbed, nevertheless this phase of the persecution 
 was entirely unexpected. This was not the ebullition of 
 a mob, it was not an exhibition of lawlessness before 
 which the authorities were temporarily paralyzed; but 
 it was a deliberately planned outrage, perpetrated by 
 the police and fire brigade of the city. Surrounding 
 the quarter, in the dead of night, at a given signal, they 
 broke into the houses of these unfortunate people, 
 dragged them from' their rooms — ^men, women, and chil- 
 dren indiscriminately — ^hurried them to the police sta- 
 tions, packed them into small apartments, where many 
 had but standing-room, and held them from thirty-six 
 to forty-eight hours without food or water, going through 
 the forms of examination as to their rights of residence, 
 and expelling them by wholesale on various limits of 
 time, ranging from immediate to twelve months, accord- 
 ing to their vocations or business pursuits, and according 
 to their ability to purchase by bribery a temporary re- 
 prieve. 
 
 Some of these people slipped through the cordon of 
 officials as they were driven to a common center, and 
 escaped for a time. Of these, many wandered about the 
 streets in the cold, insufficiently clad, dodging the police 
 as best they could; some hired droshkies and drove about 
 — ^this being safer — and some took their innocent wives 
 and children to houses of prostitution for shelter for the 
 night — these being safe from police visitation — hotels 
 and boarding-houses, of course, being closed to the Jew. 
 Among those who escaped was a woman, who, in her 
 terror, and in the darkness, became separated from her 
 husband and fled to a Christian cemetery in the neigh- 
 
242 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 borliood, where she was found in the morning uncon- 
 scious, and by her side a child, born during the night, 
 cold in death. 
 
 After this raid, which inspired wholesale terror, the 
 right of residence conferred by the decrees of 1865 and 
 1880 was withdrawn, and expulsions were ordered on a 
 grand scale. Property was sacrificed, owing to forced 
 and hurried sales ; household goods, machinery, and 
 fixtures realized about 10 per cent, of value on the aver- 
 age. Credit to business men was at once refused, 
 whether the applicant had yet been ordered out or not ; 
 accounts could not be collected by those who were com- 
 pelled to leave, and the cup of misery was filled to over- 
 flowing. Where, when, and how to go, and what to do 
 when a stopping-place was reached, were the thoughts 
 that tormented these poor victims of cruel persecution. 
 
 A typical case of one class was that of a bank ofiScial 
 in an institution where there were five employees who 
 had been ordered to go. His statement was this: " I am 
 now sixty-one years of age; I have lived out of the Pale 
 forty years, and in Moscow twenty-three years ; I have 
 two children, a daughter married to an army surgeon, 
 who has been decorated for distinguished services in war, 
 and who has the right to live here because of his position; 
 and a son, who is a graduate of the university, and up to 
 this time had also such right. I have been with this 
 bank since its foundation, and am now its cashier and 
 manager at a salary of 7, 000 rubles per year. I want to 
 live with my children and grandchildren, and die in 
 their midst. I am ordered out, .and presume I must 
 go." 
 
 Soldiers who had served under Mcholas I., and their 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 243 
 
 sons, had the legal right of residence anywhere in the 
 empire; nevertheless, a number had been ordered to leave 
 within twenty-four hours ; one had served his country 
 faithfully for twenty-five years, as his documents proved ; 
 another, with a record of eighteen years, had been deco- 
 rated with a bronze medal and a chevron. Truly a 
 startling contrast in their treatment, and that accorded to 
 the soldiers of our country. 
 
 People of this kind were arrested and forwarded to 
 the Pale, handcuffed, in convoys with criminals, for no 
 crime other than that of being of the Jewish faith. 
 They were refused admission to the hospitals under the 
 jurisdiction of the municipal authorities, notwithstanding 
 they were taxed to support these institutions. The most 
 pitiable case of extreme inhumanity — and incredible but 
 for corroboration — was that of the man who had been 
 bitten by a rabid dog ; carried to the hospital on a 
 stretcher, he was turned away to die like a dog, simply 
 and solely because he was a Jew. This, notwithstanding 
 the superintendent in charge wrote and signed a certifi- 
 cate to the effect that the man had been examined, that 
 he had the symptoms of hydrophobia, and that his only 
 chance for cure was in being treated at that institution, 
 the only one in all Eussia where the Pasteur method had 
 been established. 
 
 It may be asked, Why this persistent pressure, this 
 senseless and stupid, as well as barbarous, procedure ? 
 That it is partly based on religious fanaticism there 
 seems to be no doubt, but that it is also grounded upon 
 a comprehensive national policy is evidenced by the ap- 
 plication of the screws to the sects of Stundists and 
 Mennonites, to Polish Catholics, and, recently, to the 
 
244 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 Finns. The Eussian government is supported by two 
 props — Ohurcli and State — tlie Czar being the nominal 
 if not the real head of both. The zeal of Konstantin 
 Petrovich Pobiedonostseff, Procurator-General of the 
 Holy Synod, has kept alive the burning fagots of 
 religious intolerance. An unrelenting, untiring, pre- 
 sumably honest zealot, his influence over the late Czar, 
 acquired as his tutor, shaped the policy of the 
 former administration and built up a faction whose 
 strength it was hoped would weaken upon the advent of 
 Nicholas, but whose power in the light of recent events is 
 seemingly still intact. The Eussification of all their vari- 
 ous subjects, and the steady, regular advance in terri- 
 torial acquisition, are aU that is revealed to the world by 
 occurrences from time to time. 
 
 The hardships and sufferings of individuals, the ob- 
 literation of races and nations, are but incidents in the 
 great scheme of the domination of the Eussian Empire 
 and the Greek Church. While this may and will con- 
 cern the United States in course of time, as it does Eu- 
 rope and Asia, the problem now looming up is, for us, a 
 present and important one. 
 
 The persecuted Jews are coming here, crushed in spirit, 
 impoverished in substance, weakened in physical powers, 
 and degraded by persecution. Humanity cries a halt, and 
 our self-interest demands our protest against the causes 
 which create conditions so unbearable. The greater the 
 misery from which these people escape, the more impres- 
 sive the tyranny from which they flee, the more clannish 
 and suspicious are they in their new surroundings. The 
 Eussian Jew can not lay aside his fears in a day. For 
 years he has been taught in the sad school of experience 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 245 
 
 to be reviled and beaten without resistance. Whatever 
 spirit he once possessed has been utterly crushed out. 
 But, impoverished as he comes to us in many of the at- 
 tributes desired and required in American citizenship, 
 he is not bankrupt in the virtues which constitute the 
 strength and glory of the American home. In all of my 
 travels, while investigating the Jewish conditions in be- 
 half of our government, I never saw a drunken Jew. So- 
 briety is one of their cardinal excellences. In chastity of 
 women, they stand second to no other race or nationality. 
 In obedience, respect, and veneration for parents, the Jew- 
 ish chUd furnishes a beautiful example which we might well 
 emulate. In mentality keen, in energy and industry tireless, 
 in charity unostentatious and boundless, they seldom become a 
 charge, altho the drafts on the benevolent and prosperous 
 members of their faith are sometimes strained to their 
 fullest capacity. But with all of their faults and weak- 
 nesses, humanity prevents us from pushing these people back 
 into the pit from which they have crawled. We should 
 strike the note of protest here, where liberty is universal, 
 where man is the freest, where no questions are asked as 
 to religion, where there are no passports to royal or other 
 favor except those of merit and obedience to laws made 
 by ourselves. 
 
 To sum up my argument : The Jew in Eussia is 
 an alien in the land of his birth, a subject who bears an 
 undue share of the burdens of government without the 
 privileges of its meanest citizen. Fettered in his move- 
 ments, handicapped in his vocation, restricted in his 
 educational opportunities, he is unable to protect him- 
 self, and powerless to invoke successfully the protection 
 of the authorities; a slave without the self-interest of a 
 
246 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 master to shield him from abuse, he stands helpless, 
 friendless, and defenseless against brute force, egged on, 
 not only by religious intolerance, but by contending 
 forces that strive to strengthen the government on .the 
 one hand and to destroy it on the other — ^the irrepres- 
 sible conflict of the age, between government by au- 
 tocracy and government by the people. The Jew is 
 therefore the sport of the rabble, the spoil of the of&cial, 
 the football of fanaticism, the buffer against which 
 strikes the wrath of bigotry, intolerance, and savagery. 
 
 A poor, uncultured Jew at Kovno, who was about to 
 sail for the United States, asked about the purposes of 
 his weary voyage, textually replied: "I am going to 
 America, for in that direction lies hope. Here I have 
 only fears to confront me. The hope may be delusive, 
 but the fears are a certainty. My great ambition is to 
 breathe, at least once, the free air with which God has 
 blessed the American people." These are the words of 
 an uncultured Jew, and these are the sentiments in the 
 hearts of every Jew in Eussia. 
 
 Upon our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith has fallen 
 a responsibility which they can not evade if they would, 
 and which I am sure they would not if they could. They 
 must receive the thousands who flee from their oppres- 
 sors; aid them in establishing themselves in work and 
 business, so that they wiU become self-sustaining; dis- 
 tribute them so that they will not by congestion be- 
 come a menace; guard them against the dangers of a 
 rebound from oppression to freedom, which so generally 
 accompanies the lifting of a pressure, and which gener- 
 ally interprets liberty to mean license; and instil into 
 their minds correct principles of our citizenship. To 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 247 
 
 solve these problems wiU tax their best energies, their 
 most profouud thought, and their most enlightened 
 liberality. 
 
 We must be patient with these unfortunate people, 
 and not judge them by the ordinary standards. Their 
 lives, from the cradle up, have been passed under 
 extraordinary conditions. The grown-up generation can 
 never forget their mistreatment. They can not banish 
 fear and suspicion on command, but their children can be 
 fitted to enter upon our citizenship and made to glorify their 
 race and reflect credit upon our American institutions. 
 
248 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 VII 
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE KISHINEF RIOTERS 
 
 By DE. AEMAOT) KAMINKA 
 
 Secretary of the " Israelitische Allianz zu Wien"; formerly 
 Chief Rabbi of Essegg 
 
 The institution of legal proceedings against the rioters 
 was a concession to public opinion in Europe and Amer- 
 ica, wliich during the summer following the massacre 
 had loudly demanded the punishment of the guilty ones, 
 holding the Eussian government responsible for the 
 atrocities. The excitement prevailing throughout the 
 entire civilized world impelled the Minister of Justice, 
 Murawjew, on his trip to western Europe, to declare 
 that justice should take its course. But in view of what 
 had occurred, this could only be accomplished by the 
 abolition of the whole anti-Semitic system purposing the 
 destruction of the Jews, together with the wiping out of 
 its powerful support in the highest government circles. 
 Since this was not contemplated, but, on the contrary, 
 the systematic intimidation of the Jewish people was 
 intended, together with the inciting against them of the 
 native Eussians, on patriotic principles {i.e., principles 
 alleged to be beneficial to the Czar's rule), the course of 
 justice was so impeded as to turn its functions into a 
 farce. In the first place, complete secrecy was observed, 
 and no paper in the whole Eussian empire was permitted 
 
THE AMEEICAK PEOPLE 249 
 
 to print an item referring to the trial, in order that the 
 Eussian people might not become cognizant of the fact 
 that atrocities committed against Jews were subject to 
 pimishment, and also that the anti-Semitic papers sub- 
 sidized by the government might continue to represent 
 these excesses as an outbreak of deep-seated hatred against 
 the Jews. In the second place, the presiding judge had 
 strict orders under no circumstances to implicate the 
 backers of the rioters, the agitators, government officials, 
 military persons, and instigators of the massacre, but, 
 for the sake of saving the appearance of justice the pros- 
 ecution was to be confined to the lowest instruments of 
 the crime, who had been schooled in their parts by gov- 
 ernmental agencies, as became evident in the course of 
 the proceedings. And it was further decreed, in order 
 to minimize the importance of the trial, that it should 
 not be conducted as a single case covering all the out- 
 rages of April 19th and 20th (April 6th and 7th, O. S.), 
 1903, but as twenty-two separate cases, called one after 
 another. 
 
 FIRST CASE: MURDER OF THE BOY BARANOWITSCH. 
 AND OF THE HEADS OF FAMILIES BENZION GALAN- 
 TER, DRACHMANN, AND OTHERS 
 
 November 19 
 
 The first case was called on November 19, 1903, being 
 placed in the hands of a court sent from Odessa to 
 Kishinef (Kishinef is a government city with about 
 110,000 inhabitants, one-half of which, are Jews). At 
 the urgent request of the lawyers for the Jews, the pre- 
 siding judge, Dawidow, petitioned the Ministry of Jus- 
 tice to have the case conducted in public, but his request 
 
250 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 was refused. The leading representatives of the Jews 
 were : the famous attorney Karabtschewski, known 
 throughout Eussia, and lawyers Griisenberg, Sarudny, 
 Sokolow (son of a Greek orthodox clerical), Hillerson, 
 all of St. Petersburg; Kupernick, Kusch, and Eattner, 
 of Kief, and Lednitzky, of Odessa. The lawyers for the 
 defense were : Schmakow, Pogorschew, and Perewersow, 
 of Moscow, and the liberal-minded lawyer Schamouin. 
 Schmakow — the notorious anti-Semite, who during the 
 proceedings as well as in a final speech brought forward 
 the most vile accusations against the Jews, which he had 
 collected from the libelous works of Eisenmenger, Sjuto- 
 stanski, Brimanus, and Eohling — stayed at Kishinef as 
 guest in the building of the so-called "Philanthropic 
 Society Bessarabetz," an anti-Semitic club organized 
 by Pawelski Kruschewan, the founder and publisher of 
 the journal Bessarabetz (The Bessarabian), the real in- 
 stigator of the massacre. 
 
 The chief representative of the state was Assistant 
 Public Prosecutor Dschibelli, of Odessa; Chrabro Was- 
 siljewsky was present as Commissioner of the Minister of 
 Justice; while the people of the government were rep- 
 resented by Krupensky, Marshal of the Nobility of the 
 Bessarabian District of Bender; Burgomaster Schelko- 
 witsch, of the city of Ackermann; and other dignitaries. 
 
 Before taking up the case the President informed the 
 assembly that the request of the lawyers, to combine all 
 the accusations referring to the excesses, was refused, as 
 the number of persons involved was too great. For the 
 first partial case alone (which referred to the murder of 
 the schoolboy Baranowitsch, and of the heads of the fam- 
 
THE AMEEICAH PEOPLE 251 
 
 ilies Benzion Galanter, Drachmann, and others, as well as 
 to numerous instances of plundering), thirty-seven de- 
 fendants, fifty-three injured persons, and five hundred 
 and forty-five witnesses were cited. 
 
 In stating the case, the Public Prosecutor admitted 
 that crimes had been perpetrated during the Christian 
 Easter days, and demanded the punishment of the guilty 
 parties ; and he pointed out that the population was 
 fiUed with hatred toward the Jews, which was fanned by 
 the articles in the Bessarabetz. He ignored the story 
 given out by the government at St. Petersburg in a com- 
 munication of Minister de Plehve after the massacre, 
 and published in the official organ, that the Jews them- 
 selves had directly caused the riot, when on Easter 
 Sunday a Jew jostled a Christian woman and her child 
 in a crowd of people assembled around a Icarussell 
 (popular recreation and children's games), thereby ex- 
 citing the anger of the populace against the Jews. It 
 was brought out in the preliminary examination — ^which 
 was conducted by Judge Freynat, who was not at all 
 friendly to the Jews, and even had a secret understand- 
 ing with the police — ^that on the day in question the 
 Icarussell was not running, that there was no crowd on the 
 spot, and that such an occurrence never took place. 
 
 "WTien the witnesses were about to take the oath, 
 Schmakow, the anti-Semitic lawyer for the defense, de- 
 manded that the Jews should take the oath "more 
 judaico" (i.e., in the synagog, with black candles, and 
 robed in the tallith, according to the custom of former 
 centuries), as otherwise a Jew's oath could not be trusted. 
 The prosecutor replied that this was the first time that 
 he heard such an insinuation against the Jews, and that, 
 
252 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 to his knowledge, no one, since the institution of the 
 new Russian court rules under Alexander II. (in 1870), 
 had ever intimated that the oath of a Jew was valid 
 only when taken in the synagog with certain formalities. 
 The Jews, as far as he knew, held no place sacred in 
 itself, but could appeal to God anywhere. Lawyer 
 Karabtschewsky declared, in the name of the plaintiffs, 
 that, in spite of the bitter insult implied in the request 
 of the defense, the Jewish witnesses were willing to take 
 the oath in the synagog with all the required formali- 
 ties and ceremonies, in order to prevent the least doubt 
 as to their testimony. The court, however, ruled the 
 request out. 
 
 The witnesses then took the oath in six groups. 
 Rabbi Abraham Kottlowker addressed the Jewish wit- 
 nesses as prescribed, reminding them of the sanctity of 
 the oath. The Russian priest, on addressing the Chris- 
 tian witnesses, indulged in thinly veiled, offensive allu- 
 sions to the Jews, saying: " The fundamental teaching 
 of the Christian religion is the doctrine of brotherly 
 love, not the Old Testament doctrine, 'Eye for eye, 
 tooth for tooth.' " 
 
 Ex-Burgomaster SCHMIDT on the Stand 
 
 The first witness was Kael Alexandeowitsch 
 Schmidt, ex-burgomaster of Kishinef, a highly respected, 
 liberal-minded man of German descent, who had been at 
 the head of the city government for twenty-seven years, 
 and was in office at the time of the riots. He said in part : 
 " Shortly before Easter reports were spread throughout 
 our city that excesses against the Jews were about to 
 take place. But no one really believed these reports to 
 
THE AMBEIOAN PEOPLE 253 
 
 be true, altho tlie calumnies appearing in Kruscliewan's 
 Bessarabetz were bound to call forth violence against the 
 Jews. 'So one thought that a city with a garrison of 
 about 10,000 men could become the scene of such bloody 
 deeds as occurred in the Easter holidays. On Sunday 
 morning, April 19th, I was visiting an acquaintance, when 
 I heard a tumult and the sound of breaking glass. 
 Fearing that the anticipated disorders had broken out, 
 I hurried home in great excitement. On the way I met 
 groups of young men who were demolishing the houses 
 and shops of the Jews. On entering my own house, my 
 family told me that the rioters had attempted to force 
 their way in there, too, but that an officer had advised 
 them to go to the next house instead, which was occu- 
 pied by Jews. I then remained at home until Tuesday 
 morning, since I was unable to do anything in the mat- 
 ter. From my window I witnessed the destruction of 
 the Jewish property opposite. My two sons, who went 
 out on this and the following day, told me of heart-rend- 
 ing occurrences. My elder son met a gang on the 
 corner of Alexandrowskaja and Michajlowskaja streets, 
 who loudly boasted that they had beaten a Jew so that 
 he lay at the point of death. When my son remon- 
 strated with the roughs, they turned upon him, saying : 
 'He is probably also a Jew, otherwise he would not 
 scold us.' My son, terrified, exclaimed: 'You mean 
 fellows, are you not satisfied with murdering and plun- 
 dering a Jew, that you are now turning upon me, a 
 Christian ? As a good Christian I reproach you for the 
 crimes you have committed against other people, for we 
 should have pity upon all creatures.' The men, taken 
 aback, asked my son : ' Have you not read the Bessara- 
 
254 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 hetz, which says that the Jews of Dubossary have mur- 
 dered a Christian boy and drunk his blood f ' But that 
 has been officially refuted long ago, and stigmatized as a 
 lie,' said my son. 'We don't care for this refutation,' 
 replied the rioters, ' we know very well that the Jews 
 deny everything that is printed in the Bcmmihciz.' " 
 
 The burgomaster furthermore said that his younger 
 son had seen a gang of rioters maltreat Jewish women 
 and girls in Alexandre wskaj a Street, near Kiliski Street. 
 He vainly applied to an officer of the military detach- 
 ment near by to aid the victims, and the gang was only 
 dispersed by the subsequent passing of another detach- 
 ment of troops. The witness noticed in gcncriil that 
 during the riot the police steadily refused to iutervene 
 in behalf of the plundered and maltreated Jews, while 
 most of the officers of tlu^ numerous detachments of 
 troops, stationed in tlie ^aiious streets, replied to the 
 urgent appeals for aid that "tliey had no orders." He 
 said that many Jews came to place, their money and val- 
 uables into his saf'e-kec])iug, but that he could not offer 
 them personal protection. 
 
 Presiding Judge : Were the Jews that came to you 
 armed, or had they any kind of weapon that could serve 
 for an attack 1 
 
 Sf!HMiDT : The Jews were so cowed and despairing 
 that they crept about like shadows, seeming entirely 
 helpless. Arms were entirely out of the question. 
 
 Prosecutor : Have the Jews otherwise lived in har- 
 mony with the Christians 1 
 
 Schmidt : As far as I can remember since early child- 
 hood, the Jews and Ciristiaus in Bessarabia have lived 
 together in perfect harmony. If it has happened occa- 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 255 
 
 sionally that some Moschke (Jew) has taken advantage 
 of an Iwan (Eussian), the Iwan has settled his score 
 with that particular Moschke; there was no such thing 
 as religious or racial hatred. This hatred has appeared 
 only since the founding of the Bessarabetz, not among 
 the native population, but among the fluctuating mass 
 of artisans, who oppose the Jewish competition. The 
 Bessarabetz circulates largely among this class. The 
 Moldavians, the native population of Bessarabia, have 
 been friendly toward the Jews, and have always held 
 them in esteem. The many restrictive decrees issued 
 against the Jews have done much to imperil their posi- 
 tion and to lower them in the eyes of the Christian 
 population, and certain classes among the people began 
 to treat them like Pariahs. But the excesses against 
 them would probably not have occurred had it not been 
 for the systematic instigations on the part of the Bessa- 
 rabetz. The pillaging had evidently been fully planned. 
 "When the mother of Dr. Dubina, who lived near a Jew- 
 ish house, noticed that a gang of rioters was about to 
 enter her house, and reproved them for not distinguish- 
 ing between a Jewish and a Christian abode, one of the 
 fellows took a note-book out of his pocket, and, after con- 
 sulting it, said: "Tour house is No. 7, and is here 
 noted as the property of a Jew. Excuse our mistake. 
 We win not hurt you." 
 
 ScHMAEOW, lawyer for the defense : Do you not know 
 that the Jews have monopolized the entire commerce of 
 Kishinef and vicinity 1 
 
 SciHMiDT : A large number of the more important firms, 
 and most of the smaller concerns, are naturally in Jew- 
 ish hands, since the Jews are deprived of almost all 
 
256 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 opportunities of making their living in any other way 
 than in business. They are not allowed to engage in 
 agriculture, and may not even lease farms. Since they 
 have been expelled from the villages and frontier dis- 
 tricts, they congregate in large numbers in the cities of 
 the interior, and they are obliged to engage in commerce 
 in order to keep from starving. 
 
 Asked for further proofs that the excesses had been 
 planned beforehand and systematically prepared, the 
 witness stated that two women employed in the City 
 Hall told him that before Easter some unknown persons 
 had quizzed them in regard to the people living in the 
 vicinity. The purpose of these questions became plain 
 at Easter, when the carefully noted Christian houses were 
 spared, while the Jewish houses were demolished. 
 Schmidt said, referring to Kruschewan, that this 
 unscrupulous journalist was so sure of being protected 
 by the authorities in his anti-Semitic proceedings that 
 he even printed articles which had failed to pass the pre- 
 ventive censorship (Vice-Governor Ustrugoff was then 
 acting as censor). He was never punished for these 
 trespasses. 
 
 The next witness was General Beckmajstn, commander 
 of the garrison at Kishinef. He admitted that on April 
 19 and 20 at least 5, 000 men were under arms in the city, 
 who could have quelled the riot at once, but that no 
 orders to that effect were given. He admitted that, 
 according to the rules of the service, the troops were 
 enjoined to aid in quelling disturbances where the police 
 force was inadequate to do so. He made no answer to 
 the question why this had not been done during these 
 bloody riots. He said, however, that while the riot was 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 257 
 
 in progress Governor von Eaaben had expressed the fear 
 that the rioters might, in their rapacity, even attack the 
 Christian population. Measures were therefore taken on 
 Monday afternoon to restore order. 
 
 Another -witness, Feigin, correspondent of the Odes- 
 ski Wowosti, stated that, as far as he had observed, the 
 accused were merely the tools of certain unscrupulous 
 agitators belonging to the educated classes. In this con- 
 nection he indicated, among others, the notary Pissarc- 
 zewski (who has since committed suicide in a low resort). 
 The presiding judge here interrupted the witness, order- 
 ing him to refer only to the persons under indictment. 
 
 Lawyer Sabtjdny protested against this curtailment 
 of free speech, saying: ''There are poor devils among 
 the accused who do not realize the immense damage 
 they have done in their fury or the abominable crimes 
 they have committed. The ruined Jewish families can 
 not even sue them in order to cover, at least, a portion 
 of their loss, while the educated and wealthy persons 
 who are the real instigators of the crime are shielded.. 
 The witnesses are not even permitted to publish the 
 name of a single one of them. They should aU be brought 
 into court, and at least be compelled to pay damages." 
 
 The proceedings on this day then became dramatic. 
 Sarudny threatened to resign his ofi&ce if the court did 
 not agree to indict the real offenders. Karabtschewsky 
 seconded this proposition, but Prosecutor Dschibelli 
 vigorously opposed it. Pour lawyers for the defense, 
 especially Schamouin, joined in the demand of the law- 
 yers for the Jews, with the object of incriminating the 
 real instigators of the riot, and thereby representing 
 their clients as misguided tools. They demanded, there- 
 
258 RUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 fore, that the agitators and the originators of the slan- 
 derous reports should also be indicted. 
 
 Lawyer Schmakow held, with the government, that 
 the organization of the riots should in no case be in- 
 quired into, and the court acceded to this demand. 
 The witness Peigin was thereupon enjoined from includ- 
 ing in his testimony any reference to the participation 
 of the agitators in the excesses. 
 
 November 22 — The Testimony of the New Burgomaster, 
 Dr. SIZINSKY 
 
 The new burgomaster of Kishinef, the physician Dr. 
 Sizinsky, was put on the witness-stand, having been 
 primarius at the city hospital during the excesses. He 
 testified that on April 19th twenty -two injured persons, 
 fifteen of whom were in a serious condition, were brought 
 to the hospital; eight had been injured by acids and five 
 had bullet wounds. On the first day of the disorders 
 four dead bodies were brought in — two Christians and 
 two Jews. It could not be determined by whom the 
 Christians had been killed, but the wounded did not 
 designate the Jews as the guilty ones. Dr. Sizinsky 
 also ascribed the origin of the disorders to the Bessara- 
 betz, which had caused such bitterness of feeling between 
 Jews and Christains that even the wounded in the hos- 
 pital lying on neighboring cots quarreled together. The 
 Christians maintained that everything appearing in the 
 Besmrahetz and in the Zyiamja, Kruschewan's other paper 
 published at St. Petersburg, originated in the higher 
 government circles, and was therefore based on truth, 
 especially as the Znamja appeared under the eyes of the 
 government. The Jewish patients asserted, on the other 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 259 
 
 hand, that the papers printed only malicious calumnies 
 by an unscrupulous publicist with which the official 
 circles had nothing to do. The witness was compelled 
 to separate the quarreling patients. 
 
 Questioned by Schmakow in regard to the commercial 
 position of the Jews, Dr. Sizinsky said that he remem- 
 bered two or three Christian merchants dealing in manu- 
 factured goods whose shops disappeared in the course of 
 time. One of these merchants, a wealthy, childless old 
 man, gave up his business, while in another case the 
 children of the Christian merchant squandered his for- 
 tune. During this time, however, several Jewish mer- 
 chants also failed. Commercial conditions were, on the 
 whole, the same for the various groups of the population. 
 The witness considered the leasing of farms by Jews un- 
 desirable because, in consequence of their exceptional 
 position before the law, and the insecurity in regard to 
 their contracts, the Jews were forced to get the most out 
 of the soil in the shortest possible time, regardless of 
 rational methods of farming. He said that the Jews, on 
 the whole, are industrious, often earning their living by 
 hard manual labor; they are skilful workmen and artisans. 
 On being asked to explain why so many Jews at Kishinef 
 had acquired great wealth, the witness said that many 
 Armenians, Greeks, and Bulgarians had likewise ac- 
 quired great wealth in fertile Bessarabia, occasionally by 
 questionable means. 
 
 Other Witnesses 
 
 Military Surgeon Dr. Miller testified that he wit- 
 nessed maltreatment, plundering, and murder in the 
 streets, under the eyes of the troops and police. He 
 vainly appealed to the Governor to intercede. 
 
260 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 Police District Inspector Witkowsky testified that 
 two weeks before Easter the proprietor of the tea-house 
 "Moskwa" had shown him a secret circular, requesting 
 the proprietor to notify the Christian patrons of his estab- 
 lishment that the Jews were about to be attacked during 
 Easter, and to spread false stories regarding the Jews — 
 e.g., that they had desecrated a Christian church and 
 had kiUed the priest. Witkowsky furthermore said that 
 with the few men under his command he was not able to 
 help the Jews ; and when he applied to the Police Com- 
 missioner, Chausenkow, the latter said: "The Jews must 
 look out for themselves ; we can not help them." 
 
 Lawyer Konigschatz said that he noticed various 
 circumstances indicating that the outrages had been 
 planned. The plunderers not only were not interrupted, 
 but were allowed to go on with their work under the 
 eyes of the'soldiers and police. The cruelties they com- 
 mitted called forth the indignation of some of the better 
 class among the non-Jews. On April 20th the witness 
 went with the government physician, Twjordochljeboff, 
 and Colonel Dobrodejeff to the Jewish hospital, whither 
 many of the wounded and dead Jews had been taken ; 
 he testified that the sight of the unfortunate victims 
 moved even his Christian companions to tears. In many 
 streets the police themselves encouraged the excesses. 
 
 Dr. MuTSCHNiE, president of the Jewish community, 
 after the outbreak of the disorders, went with a deputa- 
 tion of Jews to Governor von Eaaben, to induce him to 
 take steps for restoring order. As more reports of mur- 
 der and plundering were coming in, the Governor seemed 
 inclined to proceed to the scenes of the riot, but Dr. 
 Mutschnik waited in vain for him to do so. He seems 
 
THE AMEEIOAN PEOPLE 261 
 
 to have been dissuaded from interfering by Colonel von 
 Levendall, wbo apparently brought him instructions 
 from his superiors. 
 
 Dr. Slutzki, primariusof the Jewish hospital, testified 
 that some of the bodies were horribly mutilated, bearing 
 evidence of barbaric maltreatment. 
 
 Eabbi Ettingee testified that several Jewish women 
 and girls came to the rabbinate with stories of the out- 
 rages committed upon them, and some were, in conse- 
 quence, obliged to place themselves in the hands of Drs. 
 Gispiner and Eeichenberg for treatment. 
 
 November 23 
 
 Lieutenant of Dragoons Soltanowsky was put on the 
 stand. Echoing the anti-Semitic periodicals, he repre- 
 sented the Jews as the source of all Eussian misfortunes, 
 and the excesses as an outbreak of the passionate hatred 
 of the people against them. He testified that a rioter 
 said to a Jew whom he had felled: "Take this for your 
 cheating and extortion ! " 
 
 The captain of the third police precinct, Lutschenskt, 
 learned that the proprietor of a tea-house in Pawlowsky 
 Street, Baldir by name, had received circulars inviting 
 the people to participate in the riots. He informed 
 Police Commissioner Chausenkofi", who had nothing to say 
 to it. "Witness indicated as author of the article, "Who 
 Is the Guilty One ? " published in the Znamja of Novem- 
 ber 18th, the agitator Pronin, who is generally known to 
 have been one of the chief instigators of the disorders, 
 and is still continuing his systematic attacks on the 
 Jews. 
 
262 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 A lawyer for tlie Jews testified that Pronin was per- 
 mitted to distribute Ms pamphlet, justifying the criminals 
 and whitewashing them as good patriots, among the ac- 
 cused in prison, in order to relieve them of the conscious- 
 ness of their guilt. 
 
 Engineer Kitsch, president of the volunteer firemen, 
 confirmed the report of the cruelties and the negligence 
 of the police. He ascribed the origin of the riots to the 
 exceptional position of the Jews before the law and the 
 general restriction of their civic rights, causing the 
 lower classes of the population to look at them as Pariahs 
 who might be harassed with impunity. 
 
 Ex-Police Captain Kozlowsky, when put on the 
 stand, delivered a hot speech against the Jews, desig- 
 nating them as "extortioners." Eeferring to the beha- 
 vior of the police during the disorders, he said that he 
 had been ordered to station himself with his men in the 
 vicinity of the government palace; Levendall, among 
 others, having issued this order. 
 
 November 24 
 
 The brutalities and barbaric mutilations of the bodies 
 came up for discussion. 
 
 Chief State Physician Dr. Peejatatkowitsch tes- 
 tified that he himself had not seen the bodies ; his sub- 
 ordinates had examined twenty-two bodies, and had 
 found no mutilation. Cross-questioned, he admitted 
 that this examination was merely superficial. He had 
 not been ordered to publish his report, but had done so 
 voluntarily. 
 
 Deputy Police Commissioner DoWGAX attempted to 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 263 
 
 justify the authorities by sayiug that the Jews had be- 
 haved aggressively. 
 
 Lawyer Kaeabtschewski thereupon asked : "Then 
 why have sixty Christians been arrested at the instance 
 of the witness, while there was no occasion to arrest a 
 Jew? And why, furthermore, are the Christians per- 
 mitted to carry revolvers, while the Jews are forbidden 
 to do so ? The Jewish physician Charik was not per- 
 mitted to carry weapons, while a Christian physician 
 received such permission. ' ' 
 
 Publicist AscHESCHOi'F testified that the police knew 
 of the impending excesses long before Easter. Some 
 days before Easter, Pronin circulated a pamphlet entitled 
 ''A "Word to My Christian Bi'ethren," in which he 
 called upon the people to plunder the Jews. 
 
 Engineer Tziganko, the director of the monastery do- 
 mains in Bessarabia, and Gxtejbff, testified to the indif- 
 ference of the police. Gurjeff, a fair-minded Christian, 
 made vain attempts to induce the authorities to come to 
 the aid of the Jews. He said, in part : "For fifty years 
 I have been living in Bessarabia, and I can swear that I 
 do not know of any case where the Jews as a race have 
 been guilty of any offense. Lidividual Jews, of course, 
 as well as individual Christians, transgress the law, but 
 so far as I know this happens less often among them 
 than among the other national groups — as, for instance, 
 among the Armenians, Bulgarians, and Greeks. The 
 Jews have gained their wealth by fair dealings ; they 
 are noted for their peaceful domestic life, their industry 
 and thrift ; as farmers they guard the interests of the 
 landlord as well as those of the peasants, and give no 
 cause for complaint." 
 
264 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 November 25 
 
 Two Eussian orthodox priests testified that the reports 
 circulated before Easter to the effect that the Jews had 
 desecrated a church and killed the priest were a mere 
 myth. 
 
 Police Commissioner Solowkin, who played an espe- 
 cially sorry role during the disorders — for instance, offer- 
 ing protection in his office to some Jews on the pay- 
 ment of five rubles per head, and asking ten rubles of a 
 woman with an infant — testified that on the ''Wine 
 Place ' ' large numbers of Jews with sticks were gathered. 
 He said, furthermore, that the karussell on Tschufli 
 Place, where, according to the note from the govern- 
 ment, the disorders began through the fault of a Jew, 
 was not at all running, it being Easter Sunday, and that 
 there were no Jews on the spot. 
 
 The deputy director of the prison testified that 
 Pronin's pamphlets justifying the murderers were cir- 
 culated among the accused in prison. It furthermore 
 came out that the priest John of Keonstadt, who is 
 highly esteemed by the Czar, and who had published an 
 epistle to the Christians, severely censuring the occur- 
 rences, was induced by the false representations of 
 Pronin to recall his epistle, which had created a profound 
 impression throughout Eussia, and to publish a second 
 letter anti-Semitic in tone. 
 
 Peonin, on being subjected to a lengthy cross-exam- 
 ination, admitted the above-mentioned facts. He said 
 that he went to Father John to convince him of the guilt 
 of the Jews, deeming it his duty to second to the best of 
 his ability the endeavors of the Minister of the Interior 
 to combat Judaism ; that a meeting of Jews from all 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 265 
 
 countries was held before Easter in a synagog at Kish- 
 inef, at wMcli it was decided to organize a revolt against 
 the government. The Jews thereupon attacked the 
 Christians, who merely defended themselves. The wit- 
 ness was not able to verify these statements. 
 
 November 27 
 
 One of the chief instigators of the excesses, Stepajstoff, 
 a man without any education, who had, however, some 
 reputation as organizer among workingmen, was ex- 
 amined. Anti-Semitic articles were published under his 
 name in Kruschewan's Znamja. Duriug the examina- 
 tion it became manifest that the reputed author could 
 not even put together a few grammatical sentences in 
 his native Eussian tongue, Kruschewan using him 
 merely as a tool. He caused some laughter by reciting 
 on the witness-stand the articles which had appeared 
 under his name. 
 
 A copy of one of the anti-Semitic pamphlets circu- 
 lated before the disorders, which was produced in court, 
 contains the following passage: " The Jews are not satis- 
 fied that Jesus Christ has given His blood in atonement 
 for them; they still thirst to-day for the blood of Chris- 
 tians, and have even now committed murder at Dubos- 
 sary for ritual purposes. It is the sacred duty of all 
 Christians to avenge this blood; the troops will assist 
 you, and the police will stand by you." 
 
 November 28 
 
 District Inspector Blagoj, who was on duty in the 
 suburb Skuljanskaja Eogatka during the riots, testified 
 that two hundred soldiers looked on at the plundering 
 
266 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 there, and even took part in it. The witness, who was 
 not authorized to intercede, exhorted the rioters to de- 
 sist, but they laughed at him, saying that the holy 
 synod had permitted them to kill the Jews. 
 
 Geigoejeff, the proprietor of the tea-house "Mosk- 
 wa," testified that Jews were among his patrons, and 
 that previous to the riot he had not noticed any ill 
 feeling between them and the Christians. 
 
 A German, Wedbmbyee, testified that some one 
 incited the mob to plunder by showing a telegram and 
 shouting that an order had come from persons high in 
 authority to attack the Jews. 
 
 Jews who were ruined by having their possessions 
 plundered and demolished then took the stand. 
 
 Lazar Lapuschnee, the owner of a fancy-goods store 
 on the New Market, testified that part of his goods were 
 carried off, and part were soaked with kerosene and then 
 burned. This formerly well-to-do merchant was thereby 
 reduced to beggary. 
 
 The Jew Poetugais, whose house was entirely de- 
 molished, sought protection from Police Commissioner 
 Zadoroschny. On asking him whether the Jews were 
 not under the protection of the Eussian law, the Com- 
 missioner replied: "If you don't like the Eussian laws, 
 you can go to America." Several other Jews related 
 how their goods, fixtures, furniture, clothing, and every- 
 thing else of value were destroyed, and how they barely 
 saved their lives. 
 
 November 29 
 
 Dr. DOEOSOHEWSKY, who was physician at the city 
 hospital in April (he was dismissed in May, on account 
 of his pro-Semitic attitude) testified that several bodies 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 267 
 
 bore evidence of the torture that had been inflicted be- 
 fore death. One head had an ear entirely severed from 
 it, and the head of another body was so mutilated as to 
 be unrecognizable. Trustworthy persons reported to 
 the witness that one body was found with its belly slit 
 open and filled with feathers. The shoemaker Andrusjeff 
 drew two iron nails out of the nose of another corpse. 
 
 PiscHMANN, the proprietor of a clothing house at the 
 corner of Nikolajewskaja and Pushkin streets, related 
 how his shop was attacked on Monday, April 20th, at 
 two o'clock in the afternoon, in presence of the troops 
 and the police, while Vice-Governor Ustrugoff was in the 
 vicinity. As the rioters approached, the officers ordered 
 the soldiers to fall back a few steps to give them room. 
 The shop was entirely destroyed, the rioters proceeding 
 undisturbed, as if under orders, while the populace idly 
 looked on. 
 
 November 30 
 
 The relations of the slain were put on the stand. 
 
 Eetjben Katzap described the murder of his aged 
 grandmother, who could not escape in time. From his 
 hiding-place in the garret he witnessed the tortures to 
 which she was subjected. 
 
 Simon Baeanowitsch, the father of the murdered 
 schoolboy, Benjamin Baranowitsch, testified that he and 
 his son, together with Israel Eosenmann and Benzion 
 Galanter (who was likewise killed) attempted to hide 
 in an out-of-the-way closet in a courtyard; but they 
 were discovered, and the rioters Kirika, Iwan Marasjuk, 
 Kolesnitschenko, and Pschernesko (who were among 
 the accused) killed young Baranowitsch brutally before 
 
268 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 the eyes of his father, to whom they said: "Don't move. 
 We will kill you next like a dog !" However, some 
 soldiers just then passed through the yard, and on hear- 
 ing the cries of distress, they said to the murderers: 
 "That will do. 'Sow, boys, move on!" The police 
 captain of the second precinct, Solowkin, came along, 
 and when the survivors appealed to him for protection, 
 he quietly continued smoking his .cigarette, wiped off the 
 blood with which he had been spattered on passing the 
 scene of the murder, and went on. 
 
 Solowkin, on being put on the stand, declared that 
 he did not remember any of these occurrences. 
 
 December I 
 
 A commission from the court inspected the locality 
 where these murders took place, verifying the detailed 
 statements of the witnesses regarding the same. Eosen- 
 mann described how Benzion Galanter was slain by 
 Kirika and his companions. Chaim Gat, antes, a 
 schoolboy of thirteen, described the death of his father, 
 of which he was witness. 
 
 The jeweler Atatsky, whose shop was plundered in 
 the presence of the vice-Governor and several other dig- 
 nitaries, testifies that police officers, among them Dis- 
 trict Inspector Karucs, packed up valuables from his 
 shop in newspapers and carrying them off. 
 
 Judge Freynat, who conducted the preliminary ex- 
 aminations, resorted to intimidation to make the witness 
 refrain from testifying against police officers, and subse- 
 quently tampered with the records. 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 269 
 
 December 2 
 
 Leo Kttlbeug, a Jewish member of the volunteer fire- 
 men, was put on the stand. He testified that, standing 
 in full uniform on a street corner, he was mistaken for 
 an of&cer by the rioters, being thereby enabled to pre- 
 vent cruelties in that vicinity. He cited this as a proof 
 how easily even a small number of soldiers could have 
 prevented the disturbances in the city. Among the 
 leaders of the gangs he recognized the brothers Lwow, 
 the sons of the inspector of the army hospital. At the 
 preliminary examination Judge Preynat refused to enter 
 this statement on the records. 
 
 District Inspector Lopinsky testified that the Jews 
 had nowhere provoked attack; he himself had ordered 
 them to remain indoors. 
 
 The shoe-dealer Feedmann testified that when his 
 shop was plundered, the police pristav, Lutschinsky, and 
 District Inspector Jablonsky were in the vicinity. The 
 troops dispersed the Jews who attempted to oppose the 
 plunderers. 
 
 Jablonsky denied that he had been an idle spectator, 
 insisting that he arrested the accused Weto on that 
 occasion. 
 
 Weto thereupon shouted: "That is a lie! Inspector 
 Jablonsky, on the contrary, urged me to take part in the 
 plundering, as other Christians did." 
 
 December 3 
 
 MakedoN, a superior police official, testified that he 
 had some of the robbers who attacked Fischmann's shop 
 arrested, including the accused Theodor. But the latter, 
 sitting among the accused, exclaimed : ' ' That is not true; 
 
270 EU88IA AT THE BAE OF 
 
 I am innocent! Mr. Makedon himself gave me an iron 
 bar, saying, ' Go and break into Jewish shops ! ' A 
 patrolman showed me the shops to go to. It is true that 
 Makedon later on arrested me, but he said that he did it 
 only for appearance' sake, and that I srould be set free 
 again in two weeks. I may say, as a proof, that my 
 arrest was not meant seriously, that I was not taken on 
 foot, but was put into a tram-car ! ' ' 
 
 Lawyer Schamouin declared that he and his col- 
 leagues knew that a man by the name of Buktschuk was 
 among the accused, who was ready to testify under oath 
 that Police Captain Chausenkoff and several police ofS- 
 cers incited the people to attack the Jews by promising 
 indemnity from punishment. Schamouin furthermore 
 requested the coiirt to cite Schachowsky, Secretary of 
 the Magistracy, who could testify that before Easter he 
 was advised by some policemen to place images of saints 
 in his windows, in order that his house might be spared. 
 The court refused both of these suggestions. 
 
 December 5 
 
 The witness Feubemai^n testified that well-known 
 persons living in the suburb of Eischkanowka had de- 
 molished all the Jewish dwellings. The people there 
 asserted that the Czar had given orders to plunder and 
 strike the Jews, but they differed as to whether this 
 order covered merely three days or the entire week. 
 
 Chawa Zeldin, the wife of a baker, said that the mob 
 had severely wounded her husband in the head, and had 
 attempted to kill him, alleging that he made unleavened 
 bread with Christian blood. Seldin, on being discharged 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 271 
 
 from the hospital, went to America to make a new home 
 for his family. 
 
 The anti-Semitic lawyer for the defense, EOMANENKO, 
 asked: ''Don't you know that excesses are also com- 
 mitted in America ? ' ' 
 
 The presiding judge ruled the question out. 
 
 Kaeabtschewski : Do you know whether Jews are 
 persecuted in America because they are Jews ? 
 
 The "Witness: Certainly not for that reason. 
 
 Feigb Chadsohi, the daughter of the Jew Stiwil, 
 whose house in the suburb of Eischkanowka was entirely 
 demolished, heard neighbors say that the police circu- 
 lated a report to the effect that for a whole week the 
 populace would be permitted to plunder and attack the 
 Jews. The people mocked the Jews who were decorat- 
 ing their houses for the Passover, saying: " Why do you 
 go to such trouble? You wiUbe kiUed before long." 
 
 Documents were produced to show that the accusation 
 of ritual murder contributed largely to the inciting of 
 the people; among them was an illustration, represent- 
 ing Jews, robed in the tallith, murdering a Christian 
 woman, with the legend: ''As the Jews hacked the 
 flesh of this Christian woman, so we will cut up the Jew- 
 ish revolutionaries." This illustration was circulated at 
 Kishinef before Easter. It was brought out during the 
 examination that this illustration was folded in with a 
 copy of the anti-Semitic Deutsche VoTksblatt, of Vienna, 
 only one copy of which is sent to Kishinef to Krusche- 
 wan's representative, Scherban. Scherban, together 
 with Tomaschewsky, the managing editor of the Bessara- 
 betz, made propaganda with this illustration and articles 
 referring to it. The court refused to cite these two men. 
 
272 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 December 7 
 
 As the presiding judge and the representatives of the 
 government emphatically denied the demands of the 
 lawyers for both parties, aside from Schmakoff and 
 Eomanenko, to cite the instigators of the riot and the 
 really guilty ones, nearly all the lawyers retired from 
 the case on December 7th, justifying their action in note- 
 worthy speeches. Two of them may find place here, as 
 illustrating the general situation. 
 
 Speech o£ Attorney-at-Law S. P. SCHAMOUIN, of Moscow 
 
 A new series of facts which were brought out during 
 the proceedings, and which present the late excesses in 
 a new light, compel the defense to request that, in agree- 
 ment with § 549 of the Code of Criminal Proceedings, the 
 whole matter be referred back to the preliminary exam- 
 ination, since otherwise the questions that have come up 
 would, on the one hand, divert the proceedings into en- 
 tirely different channels, and, on the other hand, furnish 
 a new criterion for the actions ascribed to the accused. 
 It has been proved in court that before April 19th the 
 Governor already knew that excesses were about to take 
 place. It has become evident that propaganda in favor 
 of the excesses was made in proclamations, which were 
 distributed in restaurants and other localities, and were 
 read by the ignorant masses. These pamphlets were an 
 invitation to lawlessness, by promising indemnity to the 
 participants and threatening those who kept aloof. 
 
 It has been proved that on the eve of the excesses un- 
 known persons went through the streets of Kishinef, 
 marking the houses of the Jews. Hence the excesses 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 273 
 
 were carefully planned, as became evident also in tlie 
 course of events. The excesses began at the same hour 
 in about two hundred different places; the leaders of 
 the gangs had blank-books, in which the Jewish houses 
 and dwellings were carefully noted ; the gangs were 
 numbered, being designated as the seventh, ninth, tenth, 
 etc., as appeared from the testimony of the witnesses. 
 According to Peigin's testimony, one hundred and twenty 
 young men were ordered to participate in the riots, 
 all armed in the same manner, having sticks encased in 
 iron conduit pipes. The question as to the persons ar- 
 ranging the excesses brought out new details. It has 
 been proved that agents of Chief of Police Levendall 
 accompanied all the gangs, exhorting them to attack the 
 Jews; that the troops stationed at Kishinef were not 
 ordered out to restore peace, since Levendall kept them 
 in reserve for special purposes, and, furthermore, that 
 Levendall terrorized the Governor, compelling him to 
 do his ( Levendall' s) bidding. 
 
 In view of the fact that, according to the testimony of 
 one of the most important witnesses, Levendall is the 
 only one able to give a true account of the origin of the 
 disorders, counsel for the defense asserts that LevendaU 
 himself organized the excesses, not as a private citizen, 
 but as the representative of the authorities, carrying out 
 a wish originating in higher circles, and being rewarded 
 for doing so. It has been proved that the excesses were 
 permitted by the administrative authorities, this fact 
 being confirmed by the behavior of the police of Kishi- 
 nef on the days in question. Early in the morning of 
 April 20th the police disarmed the Jews, confiscating all 
 implements found in their dwellings which might serve 
 
274 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 for purposes of self-defense, and drove every Jew to Ids 
 home, thereby removing all possibility of the slightest 
 resistance to the assailants. Policemen accompanied the 
 rioters, and even preceded them, as if to show them the 
 dwellings of the Jews ; the precinct inspectors and pris- 
 tavs encouraged them. It has been proved, finally, that 
 previous to Easter day agents of the police informed the 
 populace that ''the Jews were to be massacred for three 
 days." 
 
 All these facts prove beyond a doubt that the "pro- 
 gram" was arranged by the local authorities, and that 
 the accused did not proceed on the grounds set down in 
 §269 of the Criminal Code. While the prisoners are 
 accused of disturbing the peace and resisting the 
 authorities, it appears, on the contrary, that they carried 
 out the latter' s orders. We demand, therefore, in the 
 interest of our clients, and for the purpose of showing 
 that the excesses were not the work of the accused, but 
 were carried out in conformity with a preconceived plan 
 of the administrative authorities, that in agreement with 
 § 549 of the Code of Criminal Proceedings the case be 
 referred back to the preliminary examination. 
 
 Speech of Attomey-at-Law KARABTSCHEWSKI 
 
 My colleagues have authorized me to inform the court 
 that in full agreement with the defense, and in view of 
 the new facts brought out in the course of the proceed- 
 ings, we deem it impossible for the trial to proceed now, 
 and we request, in conformity with § 549 of the Code of 
 Criminal Proceedings, that the case be referred back to 
 the preliminary examination, in the interests of truth. I 
 may add that more than once, whenever a new, sensa- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 275 
 
 tional fact came out -vrliicli appeared to shed new light 
 on some point of the case, it seemed to us impossible to 
 conduct the trial within the limits into which the judge 
 conducting the preliminary examination, as well as the 
 prosecutor, tried to confine it. "We frequently were 
 barely able to control our feelings, and to refrain from 
 exclaiming: "This is not in agreement with law, and 
 this court is not the temple of justice." We felt this 
 especially whenever the testimony showed that the prison- 
 ers at the bar were merely used as tools, being ignorant 
 men who do not even understand what the witnesses are 
 talking about, and to whom they are referring in describ- 
 ing the signs indicating the well-planned organization of 
 the massacre. 
 
 We, on our part, have conscientiously considered the 
 new facts offered, welcoming every detail tending to 
 present definite proofs instead of mere conjecture ; a 
 sufacient mmiber of facts are now on hand, but we are 
 debarred from proceeding. We now perceive clearly 
 that the riots were preorganized ; but in order to inves- 
 tigate this organization fully the Public Prosecutor and 
 the Judicial Examiner must endeavor to trace the per- 
 sons participating in the scheme. Speaking from a legal 
 point of view, and strictly within the limits of the legal 
 order of proceedings, I find a most important new ele- 
 ment in the fact which has been brought out in court, 
 that the riots of the Easter days were said to be con- 
 nected, in a certain way, with rebellious political demon- 
 strations alleged to have been premeditated. Closely 
 connected with this is evidently also the very compli- 
 cated preparation for the attack on the Jews, which broke 
 out on April 20th, while troops were kept idly in the 
 
276 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OP 
 
 court of tlie government palace, waiting for some secret 
 order. 
 
 Paragraph 269 of tlie Criminal Code, according to 
 which, transgressions called forth by racial, religious, or 
 class hatred must be submitted to the jury, would not 
 apply fully to the entire proceedings here, if the facts 
 brought out were traced back to their sources. The ex- 
 cesses may be divide 1 into a number of individual acts 
 of violence committed against the Jews ; these acts, each 
 of which should be punished as a separate crime, do not 
 appear to be connected, so far as regards the spirit, the 
 motives, and the ends, as well as all the points enumer- 
 ated in the humane § 269 of the Code. Many witnesses, 
 including the pristav Ossowsky, on the stand yesterday, 
 have testified that the watchword unifying all the atroci- 
 ties was the cry: "The Jews have offended our Little 
 Father, the Czar !" 
 
 Eumors, as well as proclamations inviting to the at- 
 tack upon the Jews, were circulated among the lower 
 classes of the people; some of the witnesses connected 
 this with the statement alleging that in the city of Kish- 
 inef rebellious pamphlets were circulated exclusively by 
 Jews. In the Easter days the people were convinced, 
 by reason of the agitation carried on for a long time by 
 special agents, that the Czar had proclaimed that the 
 Jews, being his enemies, could be killed with impunity. 
 This matter was discussed publicly, at home, and in the 
 streets, and there was merely a difference of opinion 
 whether the permission to kill th«n covered three days 
 or a whole week. Should it be proved that this was the 
 sole cause of the excesses committed against the Jews, 
 the question arises whether §269 of the Code can be 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 277 
 
 applied in this case. I think that this question must "be 
 answered in fftie negative. 
 
 Take the case that the accused were instructed to kill, 
 as a matter of duty, a certain num-ber of Jews they hap- 
 pened to meet, on the assumption that some of these 
 unfortunates had deserved death on account of their par- 
 ticipation in political demonstrations. What would be 
 the legal proceedings imder these circumstances 'f Would 
 it be merely a case of punishing the irresponsible and 
 misguided prisoners at the bar ? Remember that they 
 killed these reputed revolutionary propagandists at the 
 suggestion of other persons, being themselves merely 
 the deluded victims of unscrupulous trickery. Eemem- 
 ber, furthermore, that the excesses, which were really 
 the work of the tricky instigators, became possible only 
 because the administrative authorities and the troops 
 either directly incited the rioters or encouraged them to 
 believe that they were doing a patriotic a«t. What 
 crime enumerated in § 269 of the Criminal Code can, 
 under these circumstances, be asaribed to the accused ? 
 
 I wiU illustrate my words by going back for a moment 
 to an incident happening in ages long past — in Judea, at 
 the time of the Roman rule. The Romans, as is well 
 known, were excellent lawyers, who probably had a 
 § 269 in their Criminal Code, prescribing relatively light 
 punishment in cases where one part of the population 
 attacked another, or in cases of social upheavals occur- 
 ring on that volcanic soil of class contrasts. S'ow 
 take the well-known historical fact : King Herod issued 
 orders that all Jewish male children born in a certain 
 night shaU be slain, in order that the prophecy of the 
 birth of the Savior may not be faMUed. Now the band 
 
278 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OF 
 
 of murderers disperses throughout the city, entering 
 the Jewish houses, snatching infants out of their moth- 
 ers' arms, and murdering the little boys. Many among 
 the murderers have been hired, while others are merely 
 fanatics. Can this incident be regarded as an uprising 
 of the masses, or as an attack of one part of the popula- 
 tion upon another 1 No; it was merely the carrying out 
 of a wicked order given by those in authority. 
 
 Now recall the testimony of the witness Bella Chads- 
 chi and of many others, to the effect that various per- 
 sons mocked the Jews some days before Easter, saying: 
 "Why do you decorate your houses for the coming 
 festival ? Don't you know that an order has been issued 
 to kill all of you ■? ' ' This conviction prevailed gener- 
 ally. It is, therefore, certainly the duty of the court, 
 first of all, to determine the real authors of these rumors, 
 who concocted them, and scattered them like a firebrand 
 among the people — this unprecedented shameless lie of 
 an imperial edict commending to kill the Jews because 
 they are alleged to be enemies of the Czar ! 
 
 In contrast with the hope expressed by some of the 
 lawyers for the defense, I do not look upon this pending 
 case with the eyes of an optimist. I hardly believe that 
 the law will succeed in convicting and punishing all the 
 really guilty ones. There are moments in history when 
 the full truth can not be revealed, and I believe that we 
 are now confronting such a moment; but this must not 
 prevent the judge from faithfully doing his duty. He 
 must employ all the means which the law puts at his 
 command. I will definitely state the facts and circum- 
 stances which indicate to me the organization and plan- 
 ning of the excesses. They are those facts which not 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 279 
 
 only have not been sufficiently brought out, but have 
 even been carefully concealed in the preliminary ex- 
 amination. ■ 
 
 I beg you to note the circiunstances attending the events 
 of April 20th. An unusually large number of troops 
 were in the city, sufficient to suppress the riot; the com- 
 panies were in readiness, in expectation of orders, but 
 were entirely inactive. The Jews had been disarmed, 
 and were not permitted to gather together and defend 
 themselves. Then a terrible thing happened, as if on a 
 given signal. Gangs of men dispersed through the 
 streets, and excesses, similar in nature, broke out simul- 
 taneously in a great many places throughout the city. 
 Is that an outbreak of popular hatred? IsTo! It was 
 stated in the note of the government that some quarrel 
 between the Jewish proprietor of the Jcaroussell and a 
 Christian woman had occasioned the general commotion, 
 but this statement has been shown in the preliminary 
 examination to be false. It appears that a fictitious 
 cause was brought forward, since there was no real 
 one. If there really had been a cause the disorders 
 would have taken a different, normal course within cer- 
 tain defined limits. A spark may cause a conflagration 
 in a certain place. But here the flames broke out in a 
 hundred widely separate places. They were the work of 
 incendiaries, and not the consequence of natural causes. 
 
 And how suddenly did all the rioting cease, how sud- 
 denly did all this storm subside, which has been inter- 
 preted as an outbreak of deep-seated hatred ! In a 
 twinkling, order was restored almost completely. It was 
 not necessary to fire a shot when it became known that 
 the word had been given "by superior command" to 
 
280 RUSSIA AT THE BAR OP 
 
 put an end to the excesses. They ceased at once. Is 
 an excited populace, acting on the irresistible impulse of 
 the moment, so easily quieted 1 The excesses began and 
 ended as if directed by a magic wand. The occurrences 
 were like a strange, new play, of which the beginning 
 and end were announced according to program. 
 
 You must admit, gentlemen of the court, that I do 
 not deviate a particle from the truth, and that even 
 according to the official minutes, so much damage was 
 done within the space of a few hours, that the judicial 
 examiner spent several days in investigating the matter. 
 It may be said, in view of well-authenticated facts, that 
 the entire city of Kisliiuef was transformed into a gigan- 
 tic Eoman circus, presenting before the eyes of the 
 amused troops and the applauding populace the terrible 
 spectacle of enraged beasts set' upon helpless victims; 
 then comes the signal ' ' Enough ! ' ' and the horrible spec- 
 tacle ceases suddenly. I assert that the course of the 
 occurrences furnishes the best proof of the fact that they 
 were connected and planned. . . . 
 
 [Karabtschewski, in continuing his speech, analyzed 
 Kruschewau's agitation in the Bessarabetz, and his con- 
 nection with "patriotic" instigators like Pronin and il- 
 literate men like Stepanoflf. He finally referi'ed to the 
 mysterious mission of Levendall, who was proved to 
 have been acquainted with the agitation and the plans 
 of Kruschewan, who played such a sorry role during Die 
 excesses.] 
 
 It is sufficient to point out that ex-Governor von Eaaben 
 was ready to go out and issue orders to have the exces- 
 
THE AMEEICAN PEOPLE 281 
 
 ses put down, but was prevented by a word from Leven- 
 dall. And what did Levendall say? He himself would 
 have to be examined, but he was not cited; nor was 
 Grovernor von Eaaben cited, who is perhaps less guilty 
 than has been generally assumed. He himself may have 
 been the victim of deceit and of false official reports. 
 So long as all these circumstances are ignored by the 
 court, and are not included in the trial, my colleagues 
 and I deem it impossible to conduct the cases of the 
 private plaintiffe. 
 
 The Last Batch of Mmnesses 
 
 The witnesses who were examined on the following 
 days repeated the same story, under different forms, of 
 the excesses countenanced by the police. Especially 
 noteworthy was the testimony of Htrsch Mendel Eudi, 
 a highly respected and formerly wealthy man, who was 
 entirely ruined on April 20th. He kept his whole for- 
 tune, consisting of cash and valuables to the amount of 
 about 30,000 rubles, at home in two iron safes. As he 
 saw the rioters approaching his house, he hurried to 
 Governor von Eaaben, in whose anteroom he found the 
 directors of the Jewish community who had come to ask 
 protection for their people. The assembly was informed 
 that the Grovemor would not rise before ten o'clock, altho 
 the excesses had commenced at six o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, and the city had been in commotion the day 
 before. At ten o'clock the Govemor sent word to the 
 petitioners to go home quietly, as suitable orders would 
 be issued. Eudi found the rioters at work demolishing 
 his home, altho the commissariat of the fifth police pre- 
 cinct is opposite his house and Police Captain Brzesow- 
 
282 EUSSIA AT THE BAR OP 
 
 sky was standing at the door, surrounded by his men. 
 The rioters spent the whole day, until ten o'clock at 
 night, trying to blow up the safes, the police making no 
 efforts to interfere. The rioters finally succeeded in 
 opening the safes, and seized the contents; then they 
 demolished what they could not carry away from the 
 house. 
 
 After the retirement of the lawyers, the examination 
 of the numerous Jewish witnesses became a mere farce, 
 and they were not permitted to say anything in refer- 
 ence to the general character of the excesses, nor to the 
 way in which it had been planned. On the pretense 
 that it was not a question of a connected series of 
 plunderings, but only of single cases of robbery, they 
 were merely asked to give the names of the perpetrators 
 and the extent of the damage. And as they, in most 
 instances, could not designate any one person, or any 
 specific act of such person, they were immediately dis- 
 charged. But, on the other hand, several anti-Semitic 
 witnesses were permitted to indulge in fantastic calum- 
 nies of the Jews of Kishinef collectively, and lawyer 
 Schmakoflf brought up the most vile accusations against 
 the Jews, on pretense of questioning the witnesses. 
 
 Speech of Public Prosecutor DSCHIBELLI 
 
 Public Prosecutor Dschibelli delivered a final speech, 
 in which he denied the planning of the excesses, ascrib- 
 ing them to the undying hatred against the Jews, which 
 he admitted to have been fanned by Kruschewan's 
 articles. (The presiding judge did not permit any refer- 
 ence to Pronin, Stepanoff, and other real instigators.) 
 He said that punishment should be meted out in order 
 
THE AMBEICAN PEOPLE 283 
 
 to assure the people that life and property must be pro- 
 tected, and that the rioters should not think that murder 
 and robbery were permitted. SchmakofPs speech turned 
 out to be a violent attack on the Jews. He declared that 
 he believed them equal to any infamies, that they com. 
 mited ritual murder, and that they intended to attack 
 the Christians, who had merely defended themselves. 
 
 Sentence 
 
 On December 21st sentence was pronounced on the 
 first group of the accused, in presence of the new 
 Governor-General of Bessarabia, Prince Urussoff, special 
 measures being taken to preserve order. 
 
 The sentence was as follows: Twenty-five out of the 
 thirty-seven accused are found guilty of having attacked 
 Jewish property with intent of robbery, having made a 
 compact to that effect with each other and with other 
 persons whose guilt is not proved. Two out of these 
 twenty-five, who are also accused of murder — namely, 
 Girtschin, the slayer of young Baranowitsch, and Maras- 
 juk, the slayer of Galanter — are sentenced to imprison- 
 ment at hard labor, Girtschin for the period of seven 
 years, and Marasjuk for the period of five years. 
 
 Twenty-two of the accused are sentenced to enroll- 
 ment in the prisoners' company for the period of one to 
 two years, and one of the accused is sentenced to six 
 months' imprisonment. Twelve of the accused are dis- 
 charged. 'No notice will be taken of the forty- eight civil 
 cases brought up. The persons sentenced will bear the 
 costs of the trial. 
 
DANIEL BEGUB ARAYOT 
 
 (Daniel in the Lions' Den) 
 
 BY DATED PEISOHMAN 
 
 Translated from the Hebrew by Alter Abelson 
 
 I flee from men 
 More cruel than beasts 
 
 And I fly to you, 
 Wild beasts of this den. 
 
 Here I may have rest ; 
 
 Here I see a covert 
 
 Where man is not. 
 Blessed be ye, beasts of the forest. 
 
 When the purple of twilight enwraps the 
 thicket 
 The forest slumbers ; 
 
 The lioness gives suck to her whelps, 
 Licking their manes, 
 
 And tells the young lions 
 
 The awful, the terrible things 
 That men do unto men — 
 Such things as men alone can do, 
 Such things as beasts do not. 
 
 The young lions will listen ; 
 
 They will open their jaws in wonder ; 
 
 The breasts of the lioness will slip from their 
 teeth ; 
 
 The milk will stop on their tongues, 
 
 And they will not believe. 
 
286 EUSSIA AT THE BAE OP 
 
 Lo ! I was a child unto my parents. 
 
 Where are now my parents ? 
 
 Where is my father ? 
 
 Where is my mother ? 
 Oh, the scenes I beheld 
 In those dreadful days ! 
 Like lead are they sunken into my soul, 
 
 And fixed they stand before me ; 
 They ever, ever stand fast, 
 
 Altho I called them not ! 
 
 Know you where is my father ? 
 Know you where is my mother ? 
 
 When last I beheld them, I saw 
 The crown alone of a head 
 Mangled, bruised, and crushed : 
 One temple broken and pierced with nails, 
 And cleaving to flakes of flesh 
 That erst were a body — 
 
 That was my father. 
 
 I saw a mass of flesh, clotted, torn, 
 And trodden under foot : 
 A shriveled thigh, an abdomen. 
 
 Rent, shapeless, undistinguishable. 
 
 Quivering in the ruins of a home. 
 
 " See," men said, " thy mother ! " 
 
 I saw my brother ; he saw me not : 
 His eyes were put out. 
 
THE AMEEICAK PEOPLE ■ 287 
 
 I made toward him ; he stirred not toward me : 
 
 His feet were cut off. 
 I clasped him ; he did not embrace me : 
 
 His hands were hewn off. 
 I spoke to him ; he answered me not 
 
 His tongue was cut out. 
 Still, he's alive! 
 
 I had a sister. 
 
 My sister ! Ask not about her. 
 
 Hush 1 not a word — 
 
 Not a word will I say. 
 Oh, might the sun be quenched 
 And darkness reign over the world, 
 That no man see 
 When I grow red in face, when I blush 
 
 For the shame of my father's house. 
 
 At twilight. 
 
 When the lioness gives suck to her 
 whelps. 
 
 And tells the young lions 
 The awful, the terrible things, 
 They will listen, they will wonder, 
 And they will not believe. 
 
 Yea, pregnant women — 
 
 The source of blessing. 
 
 The womb that bears new life 
 
 And weaves in secret 
 
 A tender, a delicate flower. 
 
288 EUSSIA AT THE BAB OF 
 
 Ever reverenced as a shrine — 
 
 Men, born of women, 
 
 Have beaten with rods, 
 
 Have torn, have disemboweled, 
 
 And have shown their dead shame to the 
 world. 
 
 Nay, babes, the type of innocence, 
 Ever deemed by all men 
 The flower of hope of a future unborn- 
 Babes, who knew not what happened, 
 Who knew not the cause. 
 The aim, the reason, the purpose — 
 By hands that faltered not. 
 That trembled not, that shook not. 
 Were cast from the housetops 
 And shattered alive on the pavement. 
 
 Nay, the dead, by which the savage, 
 
 Even the savage in the wilderness. 
 Stands in awe, in trembling, in reverence- 
 Even the dead were abused, were defiled, 
 were polluted 
 
 Shamefully, unspeakably ! 
 
 So man did to man ! 
 
 A weary, persecuted, afflicted refugee. 
 Barely escaped with my soul, 
 
 I come to you, wild beasts ; 
 Here I may rest. 
 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 289 
 
 Were in one scale the pity of men, 
 
 In another the fury of beasts, 
 I would fall into your fury, fierce beasts, 
 
 And not into the pity of men ! 
 Should you leap on me, tear me, 
 
 Content would I die, 
 
 Knowing at least 
 They were beasts of the forest that did it ! 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Adler, Felix 84 
 
 Afanassjeff-Tschuschbenski, 
 
 Alexander Stepanowitsch . 180-182 
 Agriculturist, The Russian Jew 
 
 as an 220, 221 
 
 Ahlwardt, Hermann 127 
 
 Alderman, B. A., President of 
 
 Tulane University 104-109 
 
 Alexander II 252 
 
 Andriascheff, A. Th 187 
 
 Andrusjeff 267 
 
 Artisan, The Russian Jew as an, 
 
 219, 220, 229 
 
 Aschesohoff 263 
 
 Ashmann, William N 84-86 
 
 Atatsky 268 
 
 Baktschuk 270 
 
 Baldir 261 
 
 Baldwin, William H., Jr . . . . .51, 72 
 
 Balfour 161 
 
 Baltimore, Mass-meeting in . . . 32-50 
 Baranowitsch, Benjamin, 249, 250, 
 
 267, 283 
 
 Baranowitsch, Simon 367 
 
 Bast, Iwan Kondratjewitsch ... 173 
 Beckleschofl, Alexander Andre- 
 
 jewitsch '. 169 
 
 Beckmann, General 256 
 
 Beklemiscbeff, Alexander Petro- 
 
 witsch 186 
 
 Bendery 30 
 
 Bendersky 9 
 
 Berlin, Miss 236 
 
 Bessarabetz, edited by Krushewan, 
 
 3, 4, 5, 6, 15, 227, 250, ef seq. 
 Bessarabia, Jews and non- Jews in 1, 3 
 Bessarabia 216, etseg. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Bien, Julius 121 
 
 Blagoj, District Inspector .... 265 
 Bloch, I., State Councilor, 214, 216, 
 
 217,218,221 
 Bobrowski, Pawel Ossipowitsch . 183 
 
 Bolinsky 15 
 
 Borodowsky 222 
 
 Braham, David Israel 143, 144 
 
 Brimanus 250 
 
 Brzesowsky, Police Captain ... 281 
 
 Camden, Pa 95 
 
 Capdevlelle, Paul, Mayor of New 
 
 Orleans 99 
 
 Cassini, Count 90,91,93 
 
 Chadschl, Bella 278 
 
 Chadscbi, Feige 271 
 
 Chapelle, Placide Louis, Arch- 
 bishop of New Orleans 99 
 
 Charik 263 
 
 Chariton, David 20 
 
 ChausenkofE,Police Commissioner, 
 
 260, 261, 270 
 Cleveland, Grover, Speech of, at 
 
 New York Mass-meeting . . . 55-68 
 Cleveland, Grover, Letter to the 
 Chairman of Philadelphia Mass- 
 meeting 86-87 
 
 Conwell, Russell H 82-84 
 
 Coons, Joseph D 121 
 
 Crimea 216 
 
 Cull, Roger W 39-42 
 
 Davidoff, N. V., Presiding Judge, 
 
 211, 249 
 
 Davltt, Michael 96 
 
 Dawidowitsch, Examining Magis- 
 trate 4, 15 
 
 291 
 
292 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Demetrius, Archbishop 191 
 
 Derschawin, Gawriel Romano- 
 witch 170 
 
 Deutsches Volksblatt 271 
 
 Dobrosselski 9 
 
 Dobrodeje£f, Colonel 360 
 
 Doroschewsky, Physician .... 266 
 Dowgal, Deputy Police Commis- 
 sioner 262 
 
 Draehmann 849, 251 
 
 Dschibelli, Public Pro.iecutor . 850, 
 
 2S7, 382 
 
 Dubina 355 
 
 Dubossary 254, 365 
 
 Eisenmenger 250 
 
 Ekaterinoslaw 92 
 
 Ettinger, Rabbi at Kishinef ... 261 
 Excesses, The First Day of . . . 10, 15 
 Excesses, The Second Day of, 
 
 15, et seq. 
 Executive Committee, I. O. B. B., 
 Memorandum of, to Secretary 
 
 John Hay 118-121 
 
 FedorofE.W. W 187 
 
 Feigin 257, 258, 373 
 
 Feuermann 370 
 
 Findlay, John L. V 32, 39 
 
 Fischermann 267, 370 
 
 Freynat, Judge 251.268,269 
 
 Fuerth, Jacob 121 
 
 Gaidring, A 211 
 
 Galanter, Benzion ... 20, 249, 251, 
 
 267, 268, 283 
 
 Galanter, Chajim 2C8 
 
 Gibbons, Cardinal, Letter of . . . 45 
 
 Girtschin 283 
 
 Gispiner, Physician 261 
 
 Gomel 227 
 
 Gordon, James Gay 75-82 
 
 Gorky, Maxim 97, 312, 214 
 
 Gostinaja Street 17, 25 
 
 Grlgorjeff, Proprietor of the 
 
 "Moskwa" 266 
 
 Grodno 216 
 
 Grusenberg, Attorney at Law . . 250 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Gurjefl 263 
 
 Hackenburg, William B 74 
 
 Hay, John . . 112, 118, 129, 130, 131, 134, 
 140, 141, 157, 161 
 Hays, Thomas G., Mayor of Balti- 
 more 33 
 
 Hillerson, Attorney at Law . . . 350 
 
 HiUis, Dwight N 54, 55 
 
 Hirsch, Baron, Maurice de . . 158, 
 
 159, 165, 166 
 Hirsch (Baron de) Committee at 
 
 St, Petersburg 92 
 
 Hirsch, E. G xv-xxx 
 
 Hodges, J. S. B 47-48 
 
 Howard, General 126 
 
 IgnatiefC, General 240 
 
 Independent Order of B'nai 
 B'rith lll,etseq. 
 
 Jablonsky 269 
 
 Jelenewski, Thomas 194 
 
 Jeremonach, Alexander 8 
 
 Jewish Colonization Association . 233 
 
 John of Kronstadt 264 
 
 Kaminka, Armand, . . . Preface, 248 
 Karabtschewski, Attorney at Law, 
 
 250, 253, 257, 263, 371 
 Karucs, District Inspector .... 268 
 
 Karusselaffaire, The T 260 
 
 Katzap, Reuben 267 
 
 Kawelin, Alexander Alexandro- 
 
 witsch 200 
 
 Kempster, Walter Preface 
 
 Kherson 93, 216 
 
 Khristoforov, K 211 
 
 Kief 216 
 
 Kirika 267,268 
 
 Kishinef . . 9, 11, 15, 25, 30, 237, cise^. 
 Kishinef— Account of Massacres. 1-31 
 Kishinef, General economic situa- 
 ation of its Jews before the 
 
 massacres in 1,2 
 
 Kishinef, Number of Jews in . . . I 
 Kishinef Petition, Detailed history 
 of Ill, et seq. 
 
INDEX 
 
 293 
 
 PAQE 
 
 Kisselefl, Pavel Dimitriewitsch, 
 
 Count 17^ 
 
 Kolesnitschenko 2(i7 
 
 Konigschatz, Attorney at Law . 260 
 Kotschubej, Victor Pawlowitsoh, 
 
 Prince 170 
 
 Kottlowker, Abraham, Rabbi . . 252 
 
 Kovno 216,220 
 
 Kozlowsky, Police Captain .... 262 
 Krauskopf, Joseph, Speech of . 88-95 
 Krupensky, Marshal of the No- 
 
 bilityoftheProvinceBessarabia, 29 
 80, 250 
 Kruschewan, Pawelsky, editor of 
 
 Bessarabetz . .3,4,5,6,15,250, 
 
 265, 283, et seq. 
 
 KrussofE .283 
 
 Kulberg, Leo 269 
 
 Kupernick, Attorney at Law . . . 250 
 Kurakin, Alexander Borisso- 
 
 witsch. Prince 169 
 
 Kusch, President of Volunteer 
 
 Firemen of Kishinef 29, 262 
 
 Kusch, Attorney at Law 250 
 
 Kutscherewski, Simeon 198 
 
 Kutusoff, Count 212 
 
 Lansdorf, Count 147, 155, 162 
 
 Lansdowne, Lord 161 
 
 Lanskoi, Sergej Stefanowitsch, 
 
 -Count 173 
 
 Lapuschner, Lazar 266 
 
 Lednitzky, Attorney at Law . . . 250 
 Levendal), Colonel, Chief of Po- 
 lice of Kishinef . . 260, 262, 273, 281 
 Levi, Leo N. . 114, 115, 117, 118, 121, 
 
 135, 186, 138, 140 
 Loomis, Francis B., Letter of, to 
 
 S. Wolf 113 
 
 Lopinsky, District Inspector . . . 269 
 Loupuchin, Peter Wassiljewitsch, 
 
 Prince 169 
 
 Low, Seth, Mayor of New York, 
 
 Speech of 50-61 
 
 Lutschensky, Police Captain . 261, 369 
 
 Lwow 269 
 
 Lys, Hirsch 21 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Makarius, Archbishop of Nowot- 
 schirkask and the Don District, 
 
 208-211 
 Makarius, Metropolitan of Mos- 
 cow 200 
 
 Makedon, Police OfScial . . . 269, 270 
 
 Malschinski, A 217 
 
 Manufacturer and Workman, the 
 
 Russian Jew as 219 
 
 Marasjuk, Iwan 267, 283 
 
 Mass-meeting in Baltimore . . . 32-50 
 Mass meeting in New York City, 
 
 50-74 
 Mass-meeting in Philadelphia . . 74-99 
 Mass-meeting in New Orleans . 99-110 
 Maximow, Sergej, Wassiljewitsch 190 
 
 Mayo, Henry M 99 
 
 McArthur, Robert S , Speech of 
 
 61-67 
 McCormick, United States Am- 
 bassador at St. Petersburg . . . 115 
 Merchant, The Russian Jew as, 317-319 
 Michajlow, Captain, Protector of 
 
 the Jews. 89 
 
 Miller, Military Surgeon 259 
 
 Minsk 216 
 
 Molodetchna, The town of 330 
 
 '■MoesChittim" 322 
 
 Moscow 321, 240 
 
 Moses, Adolpb 121 
 
 " Moskwa " Tavern 9-11 
 
 Murawjeff, Minister of Justice, 
 
 Preface, 248 
 Mussin, Pushkin, General .... 29 
 Mutschnik, President of the Jew- 
 ish Community of Kishinef, 
 
 30,260 
 
 Nasaroff , Protector of the Jews . 28 
 
 Nesabitowsky, W. A 186 
 
 New Orleans, Mass-meeting in. 99-1 10 
 New York, Mass-meeting in . . . 50-74 
 
 Nijni-Novgorod 218 
 
 Nikolajew-Lane 28 
 
 Nikanor, Archbishop of Kherson 
 
 and Odessa 204-208 
 
 Novoje Vremja 315 
 
294 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Nowrey, Joseph E., Mayor of 
 
 Camden, Speech of 95-96 
 
 Nowji Bazar, Square of 11, 14 
 
 Odessa 232 
 
 Odesski NowosH 257 
 
 Ossowusky 276 
 
 Ozeroy, 1 211 
 
 Pahlen Commission, The . 214, 217, 
 
 220, 821 
 Pale of Settlement . 93, 94, 215, 217, 239 
 
 Panasehi, Chaja Sarah 20 
 
 Pawlowo, The Jews of ... . 218, 219 
 Peasant, The Russian— His Atti- 
 tude Toward the Jew . . 215,217, 221 
 Perewersoff , Attorney at Law . . 250 
 Petition, Tentative Draft of . 121-125 
 Philadelphia, Mass-meeting in . .74-99 
 PirogofE, Nilfolaj Iwanowitsch . . 177 
 Pissarczewski, Notary. . . . 15, 16, 257 
 Plehve, de . . . Preface, 155, 162, 251 
 PobiedonostsetE, K.P., Preface, 146, 244 
 
 Podolia 216 
 
 Pogorscheff , Attorney at Law . . 250 
 
 Pogromstschiki 13 
 
 Police, Behavior of 18, c( seq. 
 
 Poltawa 216, 223 
 
 PopofE 15 
 
 Portugais 266 
 
 Postels, Alexander Philipowitsch . I84 
 Poster, Prin(;ed by the Holy 
 
 Synod 8 
 
 Potocki, Severin Ossipowitch, 
 
 Count 170 
 
 Prejatowitsch, Chief State Physi- 
 cian 262 
 
 Pronin .... 261, 262, 263, 264, 380, 383 
 
 Pschernesko 367 
 
 Public Ledger, Philadelphia . 142, 161 
 
 Baaben, Governor-General of Bes- 
 sarabia 18, 257, 260, 280, 281 
 
 Rattner, Attorney at Law .... 350 
 
 Bayner, Isidor, United States Sen- 
 ator, Letter of 45-47 
 
 Eeichenberg, Physician 261 
 
 FAGS 
 
 Resolutions of Baltimore Mass- 
 meeting 48-50 
 
 Resolutions of New York Mass- 
 meeting 72-73 
 
 Resolutions of Philadelphia Mass- 
 meeting 85-86 
 
 Resolutions of New Orleans Mass- 
 meeting 110 
 
 Riddle, Chargfi d' Affaires at St. 
 
 Petersburg 131, 134 
 
 Rischkanowka, suburb of Kishi- 
 
 nef 270, 271 
 
 Ritual murder. Accusation of . . 5-8 
 
 Rohling, August 250 
 
 Romanenko, Attorney at Law, 
 
 271, 272 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, Address of, 
 to the Executive Committee of 
 
 I. O. B. B 125-130, 161 
 
 Rosenmann, Israel 267, 269 
 
 Rossia, Hotel, Gathering place of 
 
 the plunderers 8 
 
 Rothschild, Baron Alphonse de . 159 
 
 Rudi, Hirsch Mendel 33, 281 
 
 Ryan, Patrick John, Archbishop, 87-88 
 
 Sarudny , Attorney at Law, 136, 350, 257 
 Sawadowski, Peter Wassiljew- 
 
 itsch. Count 169 
 
 Schachowsky, Secretary of the 
 
 Magistracy of Kishiuef .... 270 
 Schamouin, Attorney at Law, 
 
 250, 357, 270, 272, et seq. 
 Schawly (Government of Grodno) 330 
 Schelkowitch, Burgomaster of the 
 
 City of Ackermann 350 
 
 Scherban 371 
 
 Schiff, Jacob H . 142, 161, 164, 165, 166 
 Schirinski-Schichmatoflf, A. B., 
 
 Prince 186 
 
 Schmakoff, Attorney at Law, 250, 
 
 351, 255, 258, 259, 272, 283, 283 
 Schmidt, Alexander, Mayor of 
 
 Kishinef 29, 2.52, et seq. 
 
 Schtsehebalski, Peter Karlo- 
 
 witsch 178 
 
 Schurman, Jacob G., Speech of . 58-61 
 
INDEX 
 
 295 
 
 FAQK 
 
 Schurz, Carl, Letter of B3-54 
 
 ScliuwaloS, Peter Andrejewitsch, 
 
 Count 190 
 
 Selenoi, Alexander Alexejewitsch 180 
 
 Selzer, Jechiel 20 
 
 Semigradow IB 
 
 Sennaja Street 17 
 
 Sessums, Davis, Bishop 100 
 
 Shepard, Edward M 67-73 
 
 Shoyer, Frederick 74-75 
 
 Sidorenko, G. D 187 
 
 Sinodino 15, 16 
 
 Siziusky, Burgomaster of Kish- 
 
 inet 258,239 
 
 Sjutostanski 250 
 
 Skuljanskaja-Rogatka, suburb of 
 
 Kisbinef 265 
 
 Slepusobkin, I. 1 187 
 
 Slutzki, Primarius of Jewish Hos- 
 pital of Kishinef 261 
 
 Smith, John Walter, Governor of, 
 
 Maryland, Letter of 44 
 
 SokolofC, Attorney at Law .... 250 
 Solowkin, Police Captain . . 264,268 
 Soltanowsky, Lieutenant of Dra- 
 goons 261 
 
 " Souvenirs of Kishinef " 22 
 
 StepanofE 265,280,282 
 
 Stiwil 271 
 
 Storozhenko, N 211 
 
 St. Petersburg, Congress of Rus- 
 sian artisans at 229 
 
 Straus, Oscar S 131 
 
 Strogonoff, Alexander Qrigorje- 
 
 wjtsch, Count 179 
 
 Subotin, A. S 214,823 
 
 SubofE, Valeriam Alexandro- 
 
 witsch. Count 170 
 
 Sulzberger, Mayer 47, 96-99 
 
 Sulzberger, Solomon 121 
 
 SumbatofE, A. I., Prince 211 
 
 Synagog, Plundering of . . 22, et seq. 
 
 TehemigofE 216 
 
 Theodor 270 
 
 Timirjaseft, Iwan Semenowitsoh . 172 
 
 FAQS 
 
 Tolstoy, Leo, Count 97, 211 
 
 Tomaschewsky, Manager of the 
 
 Bessarabetz 271 
 
 Troschtschinski, Dimitri Prokow- 
 jewitsch. Minister of Justice . . 169 
 
 Trubetzkoi, C. T 211 
 
 Tschartoryiski, Adam Adamo- 
 
 witch, Prince 170 
 
 Tschernyscheflf, Sachar Grigor- 
 
 jewitsch. Count 168 
 
 Tugan-Baranowsky, M 232-231 
 
 TulofI, M. A 186 
 
 Twjordochljebofl, Physician ... 360 
 Tziganko, Director of the Monas- 
 tery Domains in Bessarabia . . 263 
 
 Unoy, G 211 
 
 Ustrugoff, Vice-Governor of Kish- 
 inef 4, 7, 15, 256, 267 
 
 Usurers, Jewish 233, 224 
 
 Uwarowa, Natalia, Princess ... 211 
 
 Ternadski, V 211 
 
 Volhynia 216 
 
 Warner, Beverly E., Speech of, 
 
 100-104 
 Warwick, Charles F., ex-Mayor of 
 
 Philadelphia 74 
 
 WassiljefE, Alexej Iwanowitsch, 
 
 Count 169 
 
 Wassiljewsky, Chrabro, Commis- 
 sioner of the Minister of Justice. 250 
 Weber, John B., Colonel, Preface, 
 
 233, et seq. 
 
 Wedemeyer 266 
 
 Weissmann, Meyer 20 
 
 Weto 269 
 
 White, Andrew D 93, 94 
 
 White, Arnold, 142-161, 162, 163, 164, 165 
 Whyte, W. P., ex-Qovemor of 
 
 Maryland 42-14 
 
 William 11. , Emperor of Germany . 22 
 
 Wilna 216, 220 
 
 Witebsk 210 
 
 Witkowsky, Police District In- 
 spector 260 
 
296 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Witte de, Sergjej Julijewitsch .98, 
 
 323, S30, 231 
 Wjasmitinoff, Sergej Kosmitsch . 169 
 Wolf, Simon , . . 112, 113, 117, 121, 138 
 Wolkoff, Alexander Pawlcwitsch, 
 
 190 
 
 YegoroSE, D. . . 
 Yekaterinoslav . 
 
 211 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Yourki w &ky, General 240 
 
 Zabelm, L 211 
 
 Zadoroschny, Police Commission- 
 er 866 
 
 Zeehanowezki, G. M 186 
 
 Zeldin, Chawa 270 
 
 Znamja (Flag), Kruschewan's 
 paper 258, 261, 265 
 
ssiiai?