The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-07-17
DEFNDs RUSSIAN LAW.
Insurance Man Says Kishenev Affair Is
Similar to Negro Lynchings.

Insurance Man Says kIsheneV Analr is
Similar to Negro Lynchinqs.
Frederick Loeser, representing a
prominent life insurance company at
st. Petersburg, is in Minneapolis, ac-
companied by Mrs. Loeser and their
two daughters. They are returning to
Russia, via the Siberian railway, after
a vacation spent in touring Europe and
the United States.
Interviewed yesterday as to the
proba bility of a recurrence of disorders
directed against the Jews in Southern
Russia, Mr.. Loeser said that, owing
to the disaffection of the population in
certain localities against Jews, it was
impossible TO judge what might hap
pen, but added that it was absurd to
suppose the Russian government de-
deliberately encouraged the perpetra-
ton of outrages against the Jewish
people, as had frequently been suggest
ed, and even deliberately charged, in
many American newspapers.
1T may appear from this distance
that officials who fail to protect the
Jews when disorders begin have been
melted to such lack of action. by gov
ernmental suggestion or order, but when
one is on the ground one realizes the
difficulty of the problem with which
the Russian government is face to face,
and becomes aware that SUCH structures
on the governing authorities are as
unjust as they are unwise.
1T might be quite as readily urged
that officials who fail to protect ne
groes of the South who have committed
a crime or who are alleged to have
done so. have been melted by our gov
eminent to murder and burn black
men. l assure you that the atrocity
in Delaware has caused a horror of
our laws and their ineffectiveness,
70 n hot inh &c fa1f in
this country over the Kishenev affair.
The fact is that Russian officials are
far from Spotless, and we must admit
the same of our own. There are scores
of instances wherein men have been
taken from jails in this country and
lynched without the semblance of a
resistance on the part of Jail officials.
In Russia, where outbreaks of fanati-
cism occur at places remote from the
center of government, the officials have
their personal standing in the COM
munity affected to consider, and they
do not exhibit any very strenuous en-
thusiasm in defense of persons against
whom the mob has aroused itself.
"Of course there is a very general
hatred of the Jews all over Russia, and
this dislike for them is by no means
concealed. 1t is race hatred in it's
worst form, and the government will
have to take very strong measures to
prevent a recurrence of attacks on the
Jews by mobs In the matter of the
KiSheneV outrage a great number Of
arrests has been made, and some of
the mob leaders will no doubt be Sc
verely punished. The government
moves deliberately, but it moves sure
ly, and when the story is told you will
find that Russia has done her best to
punish all who were associated in the
crime against the Jews.
Il cannot forbear pointing out what
the Russian, German and French pa
pers are already suggesting, to-wit:
That there is very little likelihood of
anyones being punished for the gross
crimes lately perpetrated on colored
citizens of this country. While there
is no doubt that the men burned rich
ly deserved execution, so fas as my
own knowledge of American lynch law
is concerned. it must be remembered
that people in Europe regard these
charges against negroes as largely
trumpet UP, to provide the excuse for
exercising mob violence, and the Amer
lean in Europe who points to this
country as the home of Justice and
right runs the risk of having some
one laugh in his face.
1t is all very we'll TO feel Mortified
at the atrocities that occur in Russia
from time to time, but these outbreaks
are the result of ignorant fanaticism.
The terrible crimes that we have to
be ashamed of are the work of organ
lied mobs of educated men-at least
men who have had the advantages of
public school education. That is why
foreigners consider that our Southern.
and even Northern, lynchings consti-
tute a greater menace to our institu-
lions than do the fanatical outbreaks
OF Ignorant peasant populations in re-
mote Russian localities"