The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-19
ISRAELITES JN RUSSIA.
A Most Comprehensive Essay Given by Ex-
 Minister White.

A Most Comprehensive Essay Given Dy hA- Minister White.
 Washington, April 1S-Our late min-
 ister to Russia, Prof Andrew D. White,
 has contributed to the files of the state
 department a comprehensive essay on
 the condition of the Israelites in Russia
 and the effects of their forced emigra-
 tion to ,the United States. Soon after
 the beginning of the present adminis-
 tration Secretary Gresham sent a dis
 patch to our minister at St. Peters, burg stating that representations were
 made here that the Russian govern
 ment was about to enforce an edict
 against the Jews, which would result l in large emigration of destitute peo-
 pie of that class to the United States, and directing the minister to ascertain
 and report as speedily as possible the terms of the edict Mr. White replied that there had been no edict banishing Israelites from Poland, but that old edicts had been recently enforced ill various parts of the empire with in- creased severity
 MT. White in his report says that there are about 5,000,000 Israelites in Russia forming, it is claimed, more than half the entire Jewish race. These are packed together in the cities and villages of what was formerly Poland, and adjacent governments. In explana@ tton of the question raised abroad as to the strangeness of a nations wish to expel a people who in other parts .OP ba NH1O1slH hoxta ot co wealth, the fact is stated that but a very small fraction of them in Russia are wealthy, few even are in comfort able circumstances. The vast majority are in poverty, and a very considerable part In misery-just on the border of starvation.
 Even in the parts of the empire where the Israelites are most free they are not allowed to hold property Tn land or to take a mortgage on land or to farm land, and of late they have even been to g large extent prevented from living on farms and have been thrown back into the cities and villages.
 Jewish manufacturers have at times even under the present reign been crip- pied by laws or regulations forbidding them to employ Christian workmen, but these are understood to be not now in force. A few Israelites are allowed to become engineers and they are al- lowed to hold five per cent. of the posi- tions of army surgeons, but no more. As a rule, also, they are debarred from discharging any public functions. In reference to the claim that the Jewish are restricted because they lend to the peasants at enormous rates Minister White points out that individuals in parts of Russia where no Jews are per mitted have made loans at much higher rates Another charge made against the Jewish treated by MT. White is the allegation that although Emperor Alex ander II. had shown himself more kind ly towards the Israelites than had any of his predecessors the proposition of Israelites implicated in the various movements against him, especially in the Nihilistic movements and in the fin- al plot which led to his assassination was far beyond the numerical propor- tion of their race in Russia to the en- tire population. This feeling, says MT. l White, was at the bottom of the cruel l prosecutions of the Israelites by the | peasants just after the death of the | late emperor and has much to do with | the prejudices of various personages of | high influence as well as of the vast | mass of the people which still exist.
 After viewing other charges against | the prescribed people MT. White sums l up by saying that "the whole present | condition of things is rather the out l come of a great complicated mass of l causes involving racial antiquities, | of financial servitude, | vague inherited prejudices, with myths l and legends like those of the middle l ages"
 The present policy regarding the Is- | raelites is driving them out of the coun- try in great masses principally to the | United States and Argentina. Mir | White predicts that the reaction cannot be long deferred.