The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-18
R0UMANIA IS THE CULPRlT

R0UMANlA IS THE CULPRlT Paper Has Double Purpose of Helping
 Those Suffering In the Balkan
 States and Preventing Im-
 migration of Paupers.
 Washington, September II. = With the double purpose of protecting the long suffering Jews of the Balkan states and of averting the very present peril of the immigration into the United States of a horde of paupers, Secretary Hay has adopted the unusual course of appearing to the powers of Europe to force one eL their children to observe the obligations of humanity in case of the Jews.
 The appeal takes the form of a state paper, remarkable in several respects, which has been dispatched in identical form to every ambassador and minister of the United States residing in one of the countries of Europe which were par ties to the famous treaty at Berlin In 1878, namely, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia. Italy, Austria and Turkey, marking the termination of the Turko- Russian war and the creation by the direct act of the powers of indepen- dent Balkan states. Because the powers are thus responsible for the existence of Roumania the culprit in this case, the secretary of state has directed the note to them in the hope that they will bring this government to a sense of its duty towards civilization at large as well as to cause it to ameliorate the frightful con- dition of the Roumanian Jews
 Numerous Petitions.
 In measure this action by the depart ment of ztate may be traced to numerous petitions from Jewish societies and hu- manitarians generally, as well as to the warnings of pubiicists respecting the growing dangers of the immigration of degenerates. The text of the document is as follows
 Department of State,
 "Washihgton. August Il, 1902.
 "Sir-In the course of an instruction recently sent to the minister accredited to the government of Roumania in regard to the basis of a negotiation begun with that government looking to convention of naturalization between the United States and Roumania, certain considera- tions were set forth for the minister's guidance concerning the character of the emigration from that country, the causes which constrain it and the consequences so far as they adversely affect the United States.
 Tt has seemed to the President appro- priate that these considerations relating as they do to the obligations entered into by the signatories of the treaty of Ber- lin of July IS, 1878, should be brought to their consideration in the hope that if they are so fortunate as to meet the ap- proval of the several powers, such meas l ures as to them may seem wise may be taken to persuade the government of Roumania to reconsider the subject of the grievances in question.
 Immigration Welcomed.
 "The United States welcomes now as it has welcomed from the foundation of its government, the voluntary immigration of all aliens coming hither under condi- | tlons fitting them to become merged in | the body polite of this land. Our lands l provide the means for them to become incorporated indistinguishably in the mass of citizens and prescribe their ab- solute equality with the native born, guaranteeing to them equal civil rights at home, equal protection abroad.
 "The conditions are few, looking to their coming as free agents, so cireum- l stanced physically and morally as to sup ply the healthful and intelligent material | of free citizenship. The pauper. the | criminal and contagiously incurably dis eased are excluded from the benefits of immigration only when they are likely to | become a source of danger or burden upon the community. The voluntary 1 character of their coming is essential. hence we shut out all immigration, as- sisted or constrained by foreign agencies. The purpose of our generous treatment of the alien immigrant is to benefit us and him alike-not to afford to another state a field upon which to cast it's own objectionable elements. The alien, com ing hither voluntarily has prepared to take upon himself the property and in due course, the definitive obligations of citizenship retains thereafter in domestic and international relations, the initial character of free agency, in the full en- joyment of which it is incumbent upon his adaptive state to protect him.
 Must Scrutinize Jealousy.
 Tt behooves the state to scrutinize most jealously the character of immigra- l tion from a foreign land, If 1t be obnoX- ! ious, to examine the cause which render i it so Should those causes originate in the act of another sovereign state to the detriment of its neighbors 1t Is 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. l The condition of a large class of the in- habitants of Roumania has for many 1 years been source of grave concern to i the United States. I refer to the Rou- manian Jews. numbering some 100000 Long ago, while the Danubian prineipali- l ties labored under oppressive conditions which only war and a general action of the European powers sufficed to end the persecution of the indigenous Jews under Turkish rule, called forth in 1872 the strong remonstranee of the United i States. The treaty of Berlin was hailed ] as a cure for the wrong in view of the l express provisions of it's forty-forth ar ticle, prescribing that in Roumania the 1 difference of religious creeds and con- | fessions shall not be allowed against any l persons as ground for exclusion or in- l capacity in matters religious to the en- l ioyment of civil and political rights, ad- mission to public employments, functions | and honors or the exercise of the various provisions and industries in any locality what so ever.' And stipulating freedom in the exercise of all forms of worship to Roumanian dependents and foreigners
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