Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-18
APPEAL TO POWERS
Document Sent Out by State
Department.
COURSE OF ROUMANIA
DISREGARD OF THE TREATY OF
BERLIN.
Hardships Suffered by the Jews
Aliens Fitted to Become Good
Citizens Welcomed

peril OF the immigration into the United
States of horde of paupers Secretary
Hay has adopted the unusual course Of APP
pealing to the powers of Europe to force
one of their children to observe the obliga-
lions Of humanity in case of the Jews. The
appeal takes the form of state paper, re-
markable 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 parties to the famous
treaty at Berlin Of 1878, namely, Great Brit
ain, France, Germany. Russia, Italy. Aus
tria and Turkey, marking the termination
of the Turko- Russian war and the creation
by the direct act of the powers of the in
dependent Balkan states. Because the pow
ers 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 duties toward
civilization at large well as to cause it
to ameliorate the frightful condition of the
Roumanian Jews In a measure this action
by the Department of State may be traced
to numerous petitions from Jewish societies
and humanitarians generally, as well as to
the warnings of publicsts respecting the
growing dangers of the immigration of de-
generates.
The text Of the document is as follows:
Department Of State,
washington, August II, 1902.
Sir: In the course Of an instruction re-
Gently sent to the minister accredited to
the government of Roumania in regard to
the bases of a negotiation begun with that
government looking to convention of nat
uralization between the United States and
Roumania, certain considerations were set
forth for the minister's guidance concern
Ing the character of the emigrati ton from
that country, the causes which constrain 1t,
and the consequences SO far as they adj
yersely affect the United States.
ut has seemed to the President appr1pr1-
ate that these considerations, relating as
they do to the obligations entered into by
the signatories of the treaty Of Berlin OF
July 13, 1878. should be brought to the at
tenton of the governments concerned and
commended to their consideration in the
hope that, if they are so fortunate as to
meet the approval of the several powers.
such measures as to them seem wise may
be taken to persuade the government OF
Roumania to reconsider the subject OF the
grievances in question.
Aliens Welcomed.
1.-THE United States welcomes now, as it
has welcomed from the foundation OF Its
government, the voluntary immigration of
all aliens coming hither under conditions
fitting them to become merged in the body
polite Of this land Our laws provide the
means for them to become incorporated in
distinguishably in the mass of citizens, and
prescribe their absolute equality with the
native born, guaranteeing to them equal
civil rights at home and equal protection
abroad The conditions are few, looking to
their coming as free agents, so circum-
stanced physically and morally as to sup
ply the healthful and intelligent material
of free citizenhood. The pauper, the Grim
inal, the contagiously or incurably diseased
are excluded from the benefits of immigra-
ton only when they are likely to become
source of danger or burden upon the com
munty. The voluntary character of their
coming is essential; hence We shut out all
immigration assisted or constrained by for
eign agencies. The purpose Of our gener-
Gus treatment of the alien immigrant is to
benefit us and him alike-not to afford to
another state a field upon which to cast its
own Objectionable elements. The alien
coming hither voluntarily and prepared to
take upon himself the preparatory and in
due course the definitive obligation of citi-
Zenship, retains thereafter, in domestic and
international relations, the initial character
of free agency, in the full enjoyment of
which it is incumbent upon his adaptive
state to protect him.
Exclusion of the Undesirable.
1.-The foregoing considerations, while per-
tinent to the examination of the purpose
and scope of a naturalization treaty, have
larger aim 1t behooves the state to scru-
tinize most jealousy the character Of the
immigration from foreign land, and, If It
be obnoxious to objection, to examine the
causes which render 1t so. Should those
causes originate in the act Of another SOW
ereign state, to the detriment Of its neigh
bors it is the prerogative of an injured
state to point out the evil and to make re-
monstrance; for, with nations as with ind1-
viduals the social law holds good that the
right of each is bounded by the right Of
the neighbor.
1.-The condition of a large class Of the
inhabitants Of Roumania has for many
- ~ t1a
United States. I refer to the Roumanian
Jews, numbering some 10000. Long ago,
while the Danubian principalities 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 remonstrance
of the United States. The treaty of Berlin
was hailed as cure for the wrong, in view
Of the express provisions Of its fortyfourth
article, prescribing that in Roumania the
difference of religious creeds and confess
sions shall not be alleged against any per-
son as ground for exclusion or incapacfty
in matters relating to the enjoyment Of civil
and political right, admission to public en-
Payments, functions and honors, or the
exercise of the various professions and In
dustries in any locality Whatsoever, and
stipulating freedom in the exercise Of all
forms of worship to Roumanian dependent
and foreigners alike, as we'll as guaran-
teeing that all foreigners in Roumania
creed, on a footing Of perfect equality.
Treaty stipulations Ignored.
with the lapse Of time these just pre-
scriptions have been rendered nugatory in
great part, as regards the native Jews, by
the legislation and municipal regulations of
Roumania. Starting from the arbitrary and
controvertible premise that the native Jews
Of <Roumania domiciled there for centuries
are aliens not subject to foreign protec-
tion, the ability of the Jew to earn even
the scanty means of existence that suffice
for a frugal race has been CONSTRUCTED by
degrees until nearly every opportunity to
win livelihood is denied and until the
helpless poverty Of the Jew has constrained
an exodus of such proportions as to cause
general concern.
Hardships Of the Jews.
.'The political disabilities of the Jews in
Roumania, their exclusion from the public
service and the learned professions, the
limitations of their civil rights and the i'm
position upon them Of exceptional taxes, in
volving, as they do, wrongs repugnant to
the moral sense of liberal modern peoples,
are not SO directly in point for my present
purpose as the public acts which attack the
inherent right Of man as a breadwinner
in the ways of agriculture and trade. The
Jews are prohibited from owning land, or