The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-09
ZIONISM IS
ONLY REMEDY.
Michael Davitt Writes of the
Jews in Russia.
They Can't Live There and
Can't Get Away.
THEY ARE A MENACE.
THEY ARE A MENACE
Conditions Threaten to Upset
the Czar's Government.
Makes Mention of the COuntry's
Economic Strides.

New York, Oct. 9.-Fresh from a visit
to the great centers of Jewish popula-
Y tion in Russia, Michael Davitt has
wI.ttcn his estimate of the conditions
and future of those people in a volume
entitled Within the Pale which will
be issued tomorrow.
The Jew. as he is ruled and op-
pressed by Russian officials, is a far
greater danger to Russian autocracy
than anti-Semitism is to the Israelites
of the Pale declares MIR. Davitt in the
preface to his work. The danger" he
continues. was candidly avowed by all
representative Russians from whom 1
solicited light and information
Mr.. Davitt sees further catastrophe
ahead because of unnatural economic
and social conditions. THE facts of
the economic and social conditions
within the pale of settlement" he
writes, ARE so objective thatlthe warn
ing they give of a coming catastrophe
can not be ignored. 1t would be like
leaving N epidemic of smallpox to cure
itself by neglect. This condition of
things is fully explained and ex-
pressed by the term unnatural 1t is
analogous to a situation which would
result from a federal law compelling
every European-b born artisan and la
borer within the whole United States
to reside inside of Pennsylvania and to
be forbidden to seek employment out
side the cities and towns of that state
The murderous competition for en-
ployment. the deadly rivalry for exist
ence. the bad blood between opposing
races, the poverty and social wretched-
ness. which such condition of things
would create-apart from the operation
of coercive laws-can readily be imag-
1ned by the american reader. But this
IS no overdrawn picture of the eco
nonic anarchy prevailing within the
Russian pale of Jewish settlement.
7 ne towns are crowded with artisans
ana traders out of all proportion to the
producers and consumers of an agri-
cultural country and they necessarily be-
come more destitute and wretched as
their numbers increase. They are too
poor to emigrate. They are prohibited
from migrating. They can not seek
work on land. They are not permitted
to engage in several occupations
Mr.. Davitt asserts that the czar can
accomplish much for the Jews in his
dominion by destroying the legend of
the blood atonement. m. DePleheve
and the cZar." he AYERS, can accom-
pliSh one good and blessed work, if so
minded, without altering a single anti
Semitic Russian law. The emperor can
destroy IN Russia. the atrocious legend
about the annual killing of Christian
children by Jews as an alleged part of
the blood atonement in Hebrew Paschal
rites. In this humane and Christian
task ne is entitled to the cooperation
of the emperor of Austria, the king of
Roumania and the heads of the other
Balkan states. where this story of ritual
murder is constantly circulated, and
not infrequently as part of political
propaganda. There ought to be a truly
Christian crusade waged against this
Infamous product of ancient, insensate,
Eectarian hatred"
Mr.. Davitt calls attention to the
striking economic growth of Russia in
the following sentences: What Russia
is accused of covering in Manchuria or
devising in Persia and not what she is
strenuously and rapidly achieving in
the sphere of her vast domestic activl-
ties. exercises the critical attention of
west European and American journal
ism.
And yet the wide and sure and ex-
traCrdinary progress that is being
made in the economic DEVELOPMENT of
a great empire. as self-cOntaiced in its
measureless natural resources as the
United States and with an assured do
1nestic market for most of her manu-
factured products in a population of
fully 140, ,000, 900, growing at a rate up
wards of 100000 annually out of
natural increase-ought to be a subject
of infinitely greater concern to the
public thought of commercial rivals
like Great Britain and the United
States than what Russian policy may
or may not mean in its diDlomatic
trend in the far east"
Returning TO the subject of the Jew
and discussing the amelioration of his
condition, Mr.. Davitt says:
Il have come from a Journey through
the Jewish pale a convinced believer in
the remedy of Zionism. 1 failed to see
anv other that can offer an equal hope
of success. 1t is necessity of the
actual situation and faces the growing
perils of the russian Jew with a cour-
ageouS plan of repatriation. Hone for
partial or ultimate emancipation in
Russia there Is none. Other countries
of the unhappy victims of oppression
and poverty. Where. then. are they to
Eo?"