The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-09-18
AMERICA Appeals
FORR0UMAN|ANJ JEWS
Secretary Hay Communicates
With European Countries.
AN UNFORTUNATE SITUATION
Unable to Make Living at Home, Are
Emigrating in Great Numbers to
This Country-MasterY State
Paper ofGreat Value.
AN UNFORTUNATE SITUATION
(By Associated Press.)

suffering Jews of the Balkan States and
averting the peril of the immigration
into the United States of an undesirable
class, Secretary Hay has adopted the
unusual course Of appealing to the pow
ers of Europe to force Roumania to OBJ
serve the obligations of huma nifty in the
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 Great
Britain. France, Germany, Russia. Italy.
Austria and Turkey, the. countries of
Europe which were parties to the famous
Berlin treaty of 1878, which marked the
termination Of the Turko-Russian War,
and the creation by the direct act of the
powers of the independent Balkan States.
Because the powers. are thus respon-
sible for the existence of Roumania, the
culprit in this case, the Secretary of
State has decided to send the note to
them in the hope that they will bring
this government to a sense OF its duties
towards civilization at large, as we'll as
to cause it to amelorate the frightful
situation of the Roumanian Jews. In a
measure this action by the Department
of State may be traced to numerous pc
titions from Jewish societies and humani-
tarians generally, as we'll as to the
warnings Of publicists respecting the
growing dangers of undesirable immigra-
ton.
The document says in part:
"The United States welcomes now, as
it has welcomed from the foundation of
it's government the voluntary innigra-
ton Of all aliens coming hitler under
conditions fitting them to become merged
in the body polite of this land. Our laws
provide the means for them to become
Incorporated indistingusf1ahly in the mass
of citizens. and prescribe their absolute
equality with the native born, guaran-
teeing to them equal civil rights at
home and equal protection abroad. The
voluntary character of their coming is
essential; hence We shut out all rnm-
grafton assisted or constrained by foreign
agencies. The purpose OF our generous
trea tment of the alien immigrant is to
benefit us and him alke-not to afford
to another State a field upon which to
cast its own Objectionable elements.
ct behooves the State to scrutinZe
most jealousy the character Of the i'm
migration from foreign land, and, if
it be open to objection, to examine the
causes which render it so. Should those
causes originate in the act of another
sovereign State, to the detriment of its
neighbors, it is the prerogative 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
SOURCE OF GRAVE CONCERN.
The condition of large class OF the
Inhabitants of Roumania has for many
years been a source Of grave concern to
the United States. I refer to the Rou-
manian Jews, numbering some 100000
Long ago, while the Danubian principali-
ties labored under oppressive conditions
which only war and a general action OF
the European powers sufficed to end the
persecution of the Jews, under Turkish
rule, called forth in 1872 the strong re-
lnonstrance of the United States. The
treaty of Berlin was held as a cure for
the wrong, in view OF the express pro-
visions Of its forty-fourth article, pre-
scribing that in Roumania, the differ
ences or religious creeds and confessions
shall not be alleged against any person
as a ground for exclusion or ncapacity
in matters relating to the enjoyment of
civil and political right admission to public
employments, functions and honors, or
the exercise of the various professions
and industries in any locality whatso-
ever
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 regula-
tons OF Roumania- Starting from the
arbitrary and controvertible premise that
tie native Jews Of Roumania, domiciled
tj,r,>.> Gov s,1;o
ject to foreign protection 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 a live
lllcod Is denied. and until the helpless
poverty of the Jew has constrained an
exodus of such proportions as to cause
general concern.
THE present disabilities of the Jews
in Roumania and their exclusion from
the public service and the learned pro-
LESSONS, the limitations Of their civil
rights and the imposition upon them of
exceptional taxes, involving, as they do
wrongs repugnant to the moral sense of
liberal modern peoples, are not so direct
ly IL point for my present purpose as
the public acts which attack the inner
ent right Of a man as a bread winner
in ths ways Of agriculture and trade The
Jews are prohibited from owning land
or even from cultivating it as common
lapcrers. They are debarred from resid-
ing in the rural districts Many branches
OF petty trade and manual production
are closed to them in the overcrowded
cities, where they are forced to dwell
and engage, against fearful odds, in the
desptrate struggle for existence.
RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED.
Even as ordinary artisans or hired la
bcrers they may only find employment
in the proportion Of one unprotected
alien to two 'Rounlanians' under any
ons employer. In short, by the cumula-
tive effect of successive restrictions the
Jews Of Roumania have become reduced
to state Of wretched misery Shut out
from nearly every avenue of self-support
which is open to the poor Of other lands,
and ground down by poverty as the nat
ural result of their discriminatory treat
mert. they are rendered incapable of
lifting themselves from the enforced de-
graduation they endure. Even were the
fields Of education Of civil employment
and Of commerce open to them as to
'Roumanian citizens. their penury would
prevent their rising by individual effort.
Human beings so circumstanced have vir-
hit