Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1903-07-18
STATUS 0F TIE JEWS.
No Relief For the Sufferer to Be
Had in Russia From Misery
and Persecution.
CRUSHED, IRPOVISHED AND KILLED.
Fettercd in His MOyOane anents-iiandt-
capped In His Vocation-He Is un-
able 10 Protect Himse1f-A slave
without "A Masters Protection to
Shield Him from Abuse,

without a masters BFOHtFAioh ~
Shield Him from Abuse.
Atlantic City, n. ], July 13.-John
b. Weber, of Buffalo, n. Y, late com
missioner of immigration at the port
Of New York, and chairman Of the
special commission authorized by the
in 1883 to investigate in
Europe the causes melting immigra-
tion to this country, was speaker
Sunday, before the Jewish Chautau-
qua on the subject Of THE Status OF
the Jews in Russia"
In his address Mr. Weber charged |
the Russian restrictive laws as being |
responsible for the misery and perse-
cution Of which people read and hear,
He stated that there would be no /
peace, no substantial relief for the |
sufferers until the total disappear
ance from Russia Of either the Jew
or the special laws directed against
them.
Taking up the laws regarding the
right of residence which the speaker
characterized as especially hard and
oppressive he briefly sketched the
history Of the Official DEGREES regu.
Iating the area within which the
Jews were permitted to live during
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, subject who bears an
undue share Of the burdens Of good
government without the privileges Of
the meanest citizens Fettered in his
movements, handicapped in his voca-
tion, restricted in his educational op-
portunities, he is unable to protect
himself and is powerless to success
/ fully invoke the protection Of the
authorities, q slave without the self
interest Of a master to shitld him
from abuse-he stands helpless,
friendIess and defenseless, a brute
force, egged on not only by religious
intolerance. but by contending forces
that strive to strengthen the govern
mant on the one hand and to destroy
it on the other. the irrepressible con-
fct Of the age between government
bv autocracv and government by the
Deople. The jew is. therefore, the
spoil of the rabble. the spoil OF the
Official the football Of fanaticism, the
buffer against which strikes the
wrath Of birotrv. intolerance and
savarery."
After asserting the moral obliga-
4ion and the right Of the United
States TO protest 10 the Russian gov
eminent AGAINST its treatment of the
Jews. Mr. Weber said
II can not look with uuconcern up
on +he arrival If thousands Of hunt
/ ed rerror-strfcken human beings.
WHO. come to us. crushed in spirit and
IMPOVERISHED in substance. to enter
into competition with our respected
and self-resDecting labor. Neither is
il an answer to say that we have the
remedy in our own hands by closing
our norts against these people. This
would violate our every instinct ot
humanity and would war against the
policy which has made this country
great and prosperous and which will
continue TO add to our progress and
prosperity If immigration is con
} fined TO normal causes alone. The
abnormal immigration from Russia is
, due to the laws and methods Of that
, countrv-and this gives Ms lega
and moral right to object. Self-in
terest and humanity unite in a lout
call to invoke such rights"
referring to the hope that a con
siderable part of this stream from
Russia may be diverted to otheI
lands. Mr. Weber quoted the state
ment of an immigrant at Koyno il
the Pale: