The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-09-19

Every Ambassador and Minister of
the Emitted states Residing in Ger
tain of the Foreign COuntries-Its
Double Object fs th., l'vctcction of
the Long SUFFERING jews of the
Balkan states and of Avcrtin2 the
Ever Present Peril of ImmiGra-
tIon Into This Inuntry-wants
Roumania Brought to a Sen" Of
Its Duty Toward Thi.. Race.
Washington, Sept 17-With the dOu-
BILE purpose of protecting the long
suffering Jews OF the Balkan states
and of averting the ever present peril
of the immigration into the United
States of a horde OF paupers, Secre-
tary Hay adopted the unusual course
of appealing to the powers of Europe
to force one of their children TO OBJ
serve the obligations OF humanity in
the case of the Jews. The appeal takes
the form of a state paper. remarka
BILE in several respects. which has been
dispatched in identical form to every
ambassador and minister of the United
States. residing in one Of the cOutries
of Europe, which were parties to the
famous Berlin treaty G. 1878, namely,
Great Britain, France Germany, Rus
sia, italy, Austria and Turkey. max
ing the termination Of the Turko
Russian war and the creation by thu
direct act of the powers of the indie
pendent Balkan states. Because the
powers are thus responsible for the ex-
istence of Roumania. the culprit in
this case. secretary of state has di-
rected the note to them. in the hope
that they will bring this government
to sense of it's duties towards civ
iliZation at large, as we'll as to cause
it to ameliorate the frightful condi-
tiOn of the Roumanian Jews. In q
measure, this department of state, may
be traced to numerous petitions from
Jewish societies and humanitarians
generally, as we'll as to the warnings
of publicists respecting the growing
dangers of the immigration of degener-
ates.
The document. which is dated Augusl
11th, says in part:
The United States welcomes now. as
it has welcomed from the foundation Hr
it's government, the voluntary immlgra-
ton of all aliens coming hither under
conditions fitting them to become
merged in the body polite of this land.
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 its own
Objectionable elements. 1t behOoyes
the state to scrutinize most jealousy
the character of the immigrat ton from
a foreign land. and if it be obnoxious
to object, 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 preroEative of an
aged state to point out the evil and
make the remonStrance; Tor with the
nations as with individuals. the social
law holds good that the right of each
is bounded by the right OF the neigh
bor.
The condition of large class of the
inhabitants of Roumania has for many
years been a source of grave concern
to the United States. / refer to the
Roumanian Jews, numbering some 4O0,-
90. Long ago, while the Danubian
principalities labored under oppressive
conditions which only war and a gen
eral action of the European powers
sufticed to end. the persecution Of the
Indigenous Jews under Turkish rule
called forth in 1872 the strong remon-
VI lnS Onll0O STATES Inc
treaty of Berlin was hailed as a cure
for the wrong, in view of the express
provisions of it's forty-fourth article,
Prescribing that in Roumania, the diff
ferences of religious creeds and confes-
SionS shall not be alleged against any
person, as a ground for exclusion or
incapaeity in matters relating to the
enjoyment of civil and political right.
admission to public employments. func-
tons and hOnorS, or the exercise Of the
various professions and industries in
any locality whatsoever
With the lapse of time these just
prescriptions have been rendered nuga-
tory in great part, as regards the ma
tive Jews. by the legislation and mu
nicipal regulations of Roumania.
Starting from the arbitrary and con-
trovertible premise that the native Jews
OF Roumania domiciled there for CEN
turieS are aliens not subject to foreign
protection. the ability of the Jew to
earn even the scanty means OF exis-
tence that suffice for frugal fare has
been constructed by degrees until near
~ every opportunity to win a liveli-
hood is denied and until the helpless
poverty of the Jew has constrained ali
general concern.
t"The political disabilities OF the Jews
in Roumania, their exclusion from the
public service and the learned profess
SionS, 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
directly in point for my present purpose
as the public acts which attack the in
herent right Of a man as a bread-wtn-
ner In the ways of agriculture and
trade. The Jews are prohibited from
owning land, or even from cultivating
it as common laborers. They are de-
barred from residing in the rural dis
tricts. 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 orders. in the desperate
struggle for existence. In short, by the
cumulative effect OF successive re-
strictions the Jews Of Roumania have
become reduced to a state Of wretched
misery. Human beings so circum-
stanced have virtually no alternatives