Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-13
JEWISH GHAUTAUQUA
NO PEACE IN RUSSIA WHILE RE-
STRICTIVE LAWS EXIST.
Orators at Atlantic City Discuss the
Questions No& Agitating the
Entire World.

IA
John B. Weber of Buffalo. N. Y. late
commissioner of anamigration at the port
of New York and chairman of the spe-
ciaI commission authorized by Congress
In 1888 to investigate in Europe the causes
melting emigration to this country. was
speaker today before the Jewish chau-
tauQua the subject of the status Oh
the Jew in Russia.
In his address MIR. Weber charged the
Russian restrictive laws as being respon-
sible for the misery and prosecutions of
which people read and hear. He stated
that there would be no peace. no substan-
tial relief for the sufferers. Until the total
disappearance from Russia of either the
Jew or the special laws directed against
him.
Taking up the laws regarding the right
OF residence, which the speaker character
ICED as especially harsh and oppressive
he briefly sketched the history Of the Of
fetal DEGREES regulating the area within
which the Jews are permitted to live dur
Ing the past forty years.
Summing up the status of the Jew in
Russia, Mr.. Weber said: To-day he Is an
alien in the land of his birth, a subject
who bears an undue share of burdens or
good government without the privileges
of its meaneSt citizens.
Sport Of the Rabble.
"Fettered in his movements. handicap
ped in his vocation. restricted in his edu-
catiOnal opportunities, he Is unable 10
protect himself and powerless to success
fully invoke the protection of the authorf-
ties, a slave without the self-interest or
master to shield him from abuse-he
stands helpless friendess and defense
less against brute force. eSged on not
only by religious intolerance but by con-
the government on the one hand. and TO
destroy it on the other. the irrepressible
conflict of the age between government
by autocracy and government by the peo-
pie. The Jew Is therefore, the sport or
the rabble, the spoil of the official. the
foot ball of fanatcism the buffer against
which strikes the wrath of bgotry. intol-
erance and savagery."
After asserting the moral obligation and
the legal right of the United States to
protest to the Russian government against
it's treatment of Jews. Mr.. Weber said:
Americas Open Door.
eve cannot look with unconcern upon
the arrival of the thousands of hunted.
terror-stricken human beings. who come
to US crushed in spirit and impoverished
in substance. to enter into competition
with our respected and respecting Ia
lor.
Neither is 1t an answer to say that we
have the remedy in our own hands by clos
ing our ports against these people. This
would violate our every instinct OF human
ity and would war against the policy which
has made this country great and prosper
GUS and which will continue to add to our
progress and prosperity II immigration is
confined to normal causes alone. The ao-
normal immigration from Russia Is due to
the laws and methods of that country. and
this gives us a legal and moral right to
object. Self-interest and humanity unite
in a loud call to invoke such rights
Referring to the hope that a consider
able part of this stream from Russia may
be diverted to other lands, Mr.. Weber
quoted the statement of an emigrant at
lea. for in that direction lies hope. Here
I have only fears to confront me. The
hope may prove delusve but the fears are
certainty. My great ambition is to
breathe at least once, the free air with
which God has blessed the American peo-
pie.
These" said the speaker. ARE the words
of an uncultured Jew, and these are the
sentiments in the heart Of every Jew in Rus
STA
Duty for Them Here.
Mr. Weber closed by calling attention to
those of the Jewish faith of the grave re-
sponsibilities falling upon them due to the
prosecutions of their coreligionists in re-
ceiving the thousands who flee from their
oppressors in aiding to establish them in
work and business SO that they will be
come self-Sustaining, in distributing them
SO they will not by congestion become a
menace to guard against the dangers Of a
rebound from oppression to freedom. which
so generally accompanies the lifting Of the
pressure and so generally lnterpretS lib
erty to mean license. and to instill into
their minds correct principles of our cit-
zenship. and to solve these problems would
tax their best energies. their most profound
thought and their most enlightened liber-
atty"
Continuing. he said BE patient with
these unfortunates and do not judge them
by the ordinary standards. Their lives
from the cradle up have been passed under
extraordinary conditions. The grown-up
generation can never forget their mistreat-
ment. they cannot Danish fear and suspi-
cion on command: but their children can
be fitted to enter upon our citizenship and
made to glorify your race and reflect credit
upon our American Institutions