The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-09-22

/ NIUE VI CeCIeldIy may w ti'
Il powers respecting Rouman
las persecution Of the Jew!
| Is slowly gaining recognition in thi.
country. 1t is characteristic Of tn,
reader public understanding of inter
national matters on the other side tha
the British press was the earliest tc
sense this.
First as to the facts. On July 13. 1878
treaty was signed at Berlin by Grea
Britain, France, Germany, Russia
Italy, Austria and Turkey establishing
a balance Of power in the Balkans. Its
44th article prescribing that Sin Rou-
mania, the difference of religious creeds
and confessions shall not be alleged
against any person as ground for ex-
clusiOn or incapacity in matters relat-
ing to the enjoyment Of civil and poll
tical right, admission to public employ
ments, functions and honors, or the ex-
ercise of the various professions and
industries in any locality whatsoever"
and guaranteeing that all foreigners in
Roumania shall be treated without dis
tinction of creed on footing of perfect
equality. AS a matter of fact, in Rou-
mania today the Jews are denied every
one of these rights. They are excluded
from the public service and the learned
professions; they are singled out for
special and outrageous taxation; they
are prohibited from owning land or
even cultivating it as common laborers; !;
they are debarred from residing in the
rural districts; and in the cities such
restrictions are placed upon their ability
to win bread that they must either
submit to beggary or seek relief in
exile.
The United States was not party to
the treaty of Berlin, the Monroe doc
trne forbidding. But Secretary Hay
claims the right, on ground Of general
equity and also because the existence
of such unauthorized determinations in
States by forcing into it a stream of
immigration not fitted for American
citizenship, to protest against Rouman-
ian conditions. The essence of the
secretary's argument is comprised in
the following excerpts:
The United States welcomes now. as it
has welcomed from the foundation of it's
government the voluntary immigration
of all aliens coming hither under condi-
tons fitting them to become merged in
the body polite of this land. The con-
ditions are few. looking to their coming
as free agents, so circumstanced phySi-
cally and morally as to supply the health
fu! and Intelligent material of free citi-
zenship. The pauper, the criminal. the
contagiously or incurably diseased are ex-
cluded from the benefits of immigration
only when they are likely to become
source of danger or a burden upon the
community. The voluntary character of
their coming is essential; hence we shut
out all immigration assisted or con-
strained by foreign agencies. The pur-
pose of our generous treatment of the
alien immigrant is to benefit us and him
Alike--not to afford to another state
field upon which to cast it's own objec-
tionable elements. 1t behoOves the
state to scrutinize most jealousy the
character of the immigration from for
eign land, and, if 1t be obnoxious, to ex
anime the causes which render it so.
Should those causes originate in the act
of another sovereign state. to the detr-
ment of its neighbors. 1t is the preroga-
tive of an injured state to point out the
evil and to make remonstrance; for with
nations. as with individuals the social
law holds good that the right of each Is
bounded by the right of the neighbor.
The teachings of history and the eXper-
ience of our own nation show that the
Jews possess in high degree the men,
tai and moral qualifications of conscien-
tious citizenhood. No class of immigrants
is more welcome to our shores when COM
L., ,t,,1 n,,I bod f.,,
trance upon the struggle for bread and
inspired with the high purpose to give
the best service of heart and brain to the
land they adopt of their own free will.
But when they come as outcasts, made
doubly paupers by physical and moral
oppression In their native land and
thrown upon the long-suffering generos-
ity of more favored community their
migration lacks the essential conditions
which make alien immigration either ac-
ceptable or beneficial. So well is this
appreciated on the continent that even
in the countries where anti-Semtism has
no foothold it is difficult for these fleeing
Jews to obtain any lodsment America Is
their only goal. The United States offers
asylum to the oppressed of all lands.
But it's sympathy with them In no wise
weigh the acts of the oppressor in the
light of their effects upon this country
and to judge accordingly.
Putting together the facts. now pain
fully brought home to this government
during the past few years, that many of
the inhabitants of Roumania are being
forced, by artifcially adverse discrlmina-
tons to quit their native country; that
the hospitabe asylum offered by this
country Is almost the only refuge left to
them; that they come hither unified, by
the conditions of their exile, to take part
in the new life of this land under cir
cumstances either profitable to them
selves or beneficial to the community;
and that they are objects of charity from
the outset and for a long tlme-the right
of remonstrance against the acts of the
Roumanan government is clearly estab-
lshed i'm favor OF this government.
Whether consciously and of purpose or
not. these helpless people burdened and
spurned -by their native land, are forced
by the sovereign power of Roumania
upon the charity of the United States.
This government cannot be "A tacit party
to such an international wrong.
1t so happens that the number. of
Roumanian Jews in the United States
as recorded by the recent census is only
about 10000 number sufficient to sus-
tain the secretary's plea Of selfish in
terest, but hardly sufiicientSto cause it
to be looked upon as paramount. In
reality his note of protest is an appeal
to the conscience of Christendom made
under form of self-interest, his OBJ
iectiye being to let other nations know