The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-07-13
PERSECUTION OF
THE JEW IN RUSSIA
WILL HAVE NO END
Former Commissioners of I'm
migration Tells Hebrews That
There VIII Be No Relief Till
Last of Race Has Left.

John B. Weber, of Buffalo, n. Y, late
commissioner of immigration at the
port of New York and chairman of the
special 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 SUD
ject of THE Status of the Jew in Rus
Sia"
In his address Mr.. Weber charged
the Russian restrictive laws as being
responsible for the misery and pers9-
cution of which people read and hear.
He stated that there would be no
peace, no substantial relief for the SUI
Terers, until the total disappearance
from Russia of either the Jevr or the
special laws directed against him.
Laws Oppressive.
Taking up the laws regarding the
right of residence which the speaker
characterized as specially hard and op-
pressive, he briefly sketehed the MS
tory of the official DEGREES regulating
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 ar UNI
due share of the burdens of good gay-
eminent without the privileges of it's
meanest citizens. Fettered IL his
movements, handicapped in his voca-
tien, restricted in educational. oppor-
tunities he is unable to protect himself
and powerless to successfully invoke
the protection of the authorities. a
slave without the self-interest Of a
master to shield him from abuse. he
stands helpless, friendless and defense
less against brute force, egged on not
only by religious intolerance, but by
contending forces that strive TO
strengthen the government on the one
hand, and to destroy it on the other.
the irrepressible conflict of the age be-
tween governmeSt by autocracy and
government by the people. The Jew is
therefore the sport of the rabble. the
spoil of the official. the football of
fanaticism, the buffer against which
strikes the wrath of bigotry, iHtoler-
ance and Savagery."
After asserting the moral obligation
and the legal right of the United
States to protest to the Russian goY-
eminent against it's treatments of the
Jews, Mr.. Weber said
1--WE cannot look with unconcern
upon the arrival of the thousands of
hunted, terror-stricken human beings.
who come to us crushed in spirit and
impoverished in substance to enter
into competition with our respected
and self respecting labor. Neither is
RI WE
remedy in our own hands by closing
our ports against these people. This
! would violate our every instinct of
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 confined
to normal causes alone. The abnormal
immigration from Russia is due to the
laws and methods of that country and
this gives us legal and moral right
to object Self interest and humanity
unite in loud call to invoke such
rights"
In America Hope.
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 l have only
fears to confront me. The hope may
prove delusive, but the fears are a
certainty. 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 the
words of an uncultured Jew, and these
are the sentiments in the heart of ev-
cry Jew in Russia"
Mr.. Weber closed by calling atten-
ton to those of the Jewish faith to 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 will become
self-sustaining, in distributing them SO
they will not by congestion become a
charge 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 interprets liberty to mean Ii
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 liberty"
Continuing, he said:
BE patient with these unfortunate
people and do not judge them by the
ordinary standards. Their lives from
their cradle up has been passed under
extraordinary conditions. The grown
up generation can never forget their
mistreatmert; they can never banisn
fear and suspicion on command, but
their children can be fitted to enter
upon our citizenship and made to glor-
ify your race and reflect credit upon
our American institutions"