The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-08-08
ANTI -sEMITIsM IN ROMANIA.


 ostracism. They shed their blood att Plevna for their country, and in return have been assaulted in the streets of the capital by riotous bands of students and workmen. They have been elected from all honorable professions, denied the rights of education in the puplc schools. Born in the land, they are aliens before the law Natural1za- tion is practically impossible. They are excluded from industries refused the privilege of residing in the rural districts, and are thus cut off from agricultural pursuits-the only real source of livelihood in Rumania. They suffer from the untrammelled violence of the press, they are menaced by ac- cusations of ritual murder, they are daily subjected to the insults and in- juries of an anti-Semitic league which has it's branches throughout the length and breadth of the land, and has or ganized the country for an anti-JeW- ish campaign. The Jews of Rumania serve in the national army, but still are treated as foreigners. The legal fiction by which a distinction is drawn between nationality" and citizenship" ., is one of the curiosities of the Ru- manian constitution. This fiction, as monstrous as it is ingenious, is in truth at the root of the whole evil. The famine and the financial difficulties are contributing causes to the present crisis, but the real cause lies in the legislature persecution of the Jews. It is now scarcely a question of staying the emigration; the only practical con- sideration is how to regulate it and mitigate it's evils. Even at the last hour, however, the government could at least moderate the danger and the misery by an act of justice to the Jews. It is necessary to go back to the Ber- lin congress of 1878, Rumania then re- ceived its independence on specific con- ditions. Article 43 of the treaty clear ly stated that "the high contracting parties recognize the independence of Runania, attaching thereto the condi- tions set forth in the following arti- cles' Article A, which immediately succeeds this declaration, demands that 'in Rumania the difference of religious creeds and confessions shall not he alleged against any person as a ground l for exclusion or incapacity in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil and political rights, admission to public empoyments. functions and honors, or the exercise of various professions and industries in any locality whatsoever In no single particular has the Ru- manian government honored these pro- visions Of the powers. It made pre- tence of obedience by modifying article VII, of the constitution, which made naturalization inaccessible to the Jews But the new naturalization law, now in force, attaches such onerous conditions as to make it still impossible for Ru- manian Jews to become citizens of their native land
 It is unnecessary to explain the de- tails of the law: suffice it to point out that an identical note was presented | by England France and Germany dated February 20, 1890, in which oc- cured the criticism that Her Majes- tvs government cannot consider the new constitutional provisions which have been brought to their cognizance and particularly those by which per- 1 sons belonging to on-Christian
 
 belonging to any foreign nationality, are required to submit to the formali- ties of individual naturaliation-as be- ing complete fulfillment of the views of the powers signatories of the treaty of Berlin This note produced abso- lutely no effect. The Rumanian legis- lature maintained it's opposition to the general enfranchisement of the Jews, decided that an individual application was necessary for every Jew, raised every possible formality in the way of such individual applications, and then almost invariably rejected them when all the formalities and costs had been satisfied. By a single act rather more | than 800 Jewish soldiers were natural l ized in 1879, but during the past twenty years less than 100 other Rumanian Jews members oe some twenty or thirty wealthy families, have succeed ed in winning the right Of the 260, ,000 Jews now resident in Rumania, the great majority of them descendants of those who have been settled in the country for generations, there are in all 900 recognized as Rumanian citizens. Even in the case of these few privileged | persons naLufdllZdtlO1l IS only person. all Their children must in their turn apply for naturalization when they at- tain the qualifying age On the other hand no obstacles have been placed In the way of the naturalization of for 1 eign Christians.
 | Thus neither birth in the country, nor military scervice, nor the treaty rights of 1878 have won for the Jews the right | to be regarded in law as Rumanians. 1 This is the root of all the other evils. There are no laws in Rumania specifi- cally directed against the Jews. But the Rumanian constitution inticts nu- merous disabilities on "aliens. As nearly all the Jews are so termed, these restrictions are in full force against them. Foremost among these disa biities must be placed the denial of free education There are now Tn Ru- mania 30,000 Jewish children who, by right, are eligible for the schools. Less than 5000 are admitted even on pay ment of fees from which all Rumanians are exempt. Jewish voluntary schools have been founded in many parts of Rumania, but by every possible device the Jewish schools have been hamper ed-London Times Correspondence. 
 A