The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-13
Former Immigration Commits siOner Talks of Jews
STIRRING APPEAL FOR AID
Speaker Gives a Vivid Picture of Jew ish Prosecutions in the Old World and Says America
 Owes Them Freedom.

Atlantic City. N. J., July 12-John B. Weber of Buffalo N. r., late commis- sioner of immigration at the port of New York and chairman of the special com mission authorized by congress in 1888 to investigate in Europe the causes melt ing immigration to this country, was speaker today before the Jewish chantau- qua on the subject of the Status of the Jew in Russia"
 In his address Mir. Weber charged the Russian restrictive laws as being respon- slble for the misery and persecution of which people read and hear. He stated that there would be no peace. DO substan- tial relief for the sufferers. nntn the to- tai disappearance from Russia of either the Jew or the special laws directed against him.
 Summing up the status of the Jew In Russia, Mir. Weber said:
 To-day he Is an alien in the land of his birth subject who bears undue bur- dens of good government without the privileges of It's meanest citizen. Fettered In his movements handicapped In his voc cation, restricted in his educational op- portunities, he Is unable to protect him- self and powarless to successfully invoke the protection of the authorities. A slave without the self interest of master to shield him from abuse he stands help less, friendless and defenseless against brute force, married not only by religious intolerance but by oontending forces that strive to strengthen tho government the one hand and to destroy < yun other.
 The Suort of the Rabble.
 'The Jew is, tnerefoes. the spert of the rabble. the spoil of the official. the foot ball of fanatical people, the buffer against which strikes the wrath of bigot- ry, intolerance and aavasevy." After asserting the moral obligations and the legal right of the United States to protest to the Russian government against its treatment of Jews, MT. Weber said:
 We cannot look with unconoern upon | the arrival of thousands of the hunted, terror-stricken human beings who come to crushed in spirit and impoverished in substance to enter Into competition with our respect and self-respecting labor. Neither is 1t an answer to say that we have tho remedy in our own hands by closing our ports against these people. This would violate our every instinct of humanity and would wage war against the policy which has made tnis countrs great and prosperous. The abnormal im- migration from Russia is due to ths is.ws and methods of that country, and this gives us a legal and moral right 10 ob- ject. Self interest and humanity unite In a loud call to invoke such rights.''
 In America Lies Hope.
 Referring to the fact that a consider able part of this stream from Russia may be diverted to other lands, Mir. Weber quoted the statement an emigrant at Kovno:
 'T am going to America, for In that !, direction lies hope. Here l have only 1 fears to confront me- The hope may prove deluslve but the fears are a cer- tainity. My great ambition Is to breathe at least once the free air with which God has blessed the American people,"
 These" said the speaker, "are tue l words of an uncultured Jew and these are the sentiments In the heart of every Jew in Russia"
 MT. Weber closed by calling attention l to those of the Jewish faith of the grave responsibilities falling upon them. due to the persecution of their co-religionists in receiving the thousands who ned from 1 their oppressors and in aiding to establish them in work and business. so that they will become self sustaining.