The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-07-13
CONDITION OF
JEWS IN RUSSIA
It Is That Of Misery and Persist
ent Persecution.
C0UNTRYS LAWS AT FAULT
RUSH TO AMERICA TO BREATHE
FRESH AIR OF FREEDOM.
cOUNTRYS LAWS AT FAULT

Atlantic City, y. J.. July 12.-JOhn 3.
Weber OF Buffalo n. Y, late commits
sioner of immigration at the port of
New York and chairman Of the spe-
cial commission authorized by con
gress in 1883 to investigate in Europe
the causes melting immigration TO this
country, was a speaker today before
the Jewish Chautauqua on the subject
of The Status of the Jew in Russia"
IN his address Mr.. Weber charged the
Russian restrictive laws as being re-
sponsible for the misery and persecu-
ton OF which people read and hear. He
stated that there would be no peace, no
substantial relief for the sufferers. un-
I'll 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
characterized as especially hard and
oppressive, he briefly sketched the his
tory Of the official DEGREES regulating
the area within which the Jews were
permitted to live during the past forty
years.
Status of Jews in Russia.
Summing up the status Of the Jew in
Russia. Mr.. Weber said:
Today he is an alien in the land of
his birth, a subject who bears an un-
eminent without the privileges of its
meanest citizens. Fettered in his
movements. handicapped in his voca-
ton. restricted in his educational OPP
portunities he is unable to protect him
self and pOwerless to successfully IN
woke the protection of the authoriti IS.
a slave without the self-interest Of Il
master to shield him from abuse-ne
stands helpless. friendless and Defense
a 10
sibie conflict - che age being govern
ment by autocrccy and government by
the pepOle. The Jew is therefore the
sport of the rabble. the spoil of the OF
ficial, the foot ball Of fanaticism, the
buffer against which strikes the wrath
Of bigotry, intolerance and savage ="
After asserting the moral obligation
and the legal right of the United Sta-ss
10 protest 70 the Russian government
against its treatment Of Jews, Mr..
Weber said:
I'VE cannot look with unconce n
upon the arrival of the thousands o.
hunted, terror-stricken human beings.
Who come to us crushed in spirit and
impoverished in substance, to enter into
competition with our respected ana
lelf-respecting labor. Neither is il ar.
nswer to say that we have the remedy
Il our own hads by closing our ports
against these people. This would " -
ate our every instinct Of humanity.
md would war against the policy whien
las made this country great and pros
porous, and which will continue to add
10 our progress and prosperity. if i'm
migration is confined to normal cases
llone. The abnormal immigration from
Russia l. due to the laws and methods
" that country-and this gives rs a
egal and moral right to object. Sell
interest and humanity unite in a loud
.all to invoke such rights"
Look For Hope in America.
Referring to the hope that a con-
siderable part of this stream from
Russia may be diverted to other lands,
Mr.. Weber quoted the statement of an
immigrant at KOvnO in the Pale:
Il am going to America, for in that
direction lies hope. Here I have only
Tears to confront me. The hope may
prove deiusive, but the fears are u
certainty. Ny great ambition is to
breathe at least once the free air with
which God has blessed the American
people"
These" said the speaker. ARE the
words Of an uncultured Jew and these
are the sentiments in the heart of
every Jew i'm Russia
Mr.. Weber closed by calling atten-
ton to those of the Jewish faith of the
grave responsibilities falling upon
them. due to the prosecutions Of their
co-religiOnists. in receiving the thou
sands who flee from their Oppressors
in aiding TO establish them in work
and business. so that they viii become
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 free
dom. which so generally accompanies
the lifting OF the pressure, and so gen
orally interDrets liberty to mean IL
cense. and to instill into their minds
correct principles Of our citizenship,
and ito solve the problems would tax
their best energies. their most pro-
found thought and their most enlight-
ened liberality."
Continuing he said: 'Be patient
with these unfortunate people and do
not Judge them by the ordinary stand
ards Their lives from the cradle up
have been passed under extraordinary
conditions. The grOwn-up generation
can never forget their mistreatment.
they cannot Danish fear and suspicion
on command. but their children can
be fitted to enter upon our citizenship
and made to glorify your race and re-
Election upon our American institu-
tons"