Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-20
MASSACRES OF JEWS
Noted Hebrew Editor Traces
the Primary Causes.
PREJUDICES OF RUSSIANS
Brutalities That Shocked the World
Since Kishineff.
CHARGE AGAINST Won PLEHVE
Evidence Indicating That the Author
tiles Instigated Big Outbreaks
Against the Jews.


Written for The Star.
Abraham Cahan, the well-known Jewish
author and editor, was seated in his office
overlooking William H. Seward Park, a
breathing spot In the very heart of New
Yorks east side
Look at the boys and girls exercising
in the park" he said II venture to say
that nine-tenths of them are children of
Russian parents. The East Side has hun
dreds of thousands of Russian Jews today
and yet, when 1 came here from Russia
twenty-four years ago Russian was such a
strange tongue on the East Side that peo-
pie turned around and gazed at me in curl
osity when 1 spoke it. Indeed the Russian
Jew has built up the East Side, as it is
known the country over today; and until
the Russian Jew began coming to this
country the entire Jewish populat ton was
not over 100000 Now it is close on to one
million and half.
In view of the important part the Jew
or RUSSIAN birth is already playing in Amer
lea, especially in municipal affairs II strikes
me that it would be well for the average
American 10 understand clearly the cause
OF the great migration hither of the Rus
sian Jew. l am the more forcibly CON
strained to take this view when | consider
that all the time l am hearing and reading
erroneous statements on this head
The story really goes back to the DAYS
Immediately following the assassination of
Alexander II, when his son Alexander III
succeeded to the throne. Nihilism re-
moved the llberator; its success was evil
dence OF a strong revolutionary feeling ram
pant throughout the empire. The problem
of the minister of the interior Gen Iena
tien and his subordinate in office. Won
Plehve, then director of the police DEPART
ment Tor the empire, was how to cope sue
cessfully with the movement
Have Lived Within the Pale.
TO the everlasting disgrace of Gen. Igna-
tiefr, be it said that he conceived the idea
that the best way to cope with the turbu
lent elements was to let them vent their
pent-up feelings in outrages on the Jews.
TO all practical intents and purposes
the Jews in Russia have been comneIla5
ny law 10 Ive within the pale since time
lmmemoriai. They have ever been refarrad
TO by the Russian people as Christ killers.'
there has never been any love for them In
the breasts of the Russians but nevertbe
less, they had been allowed to live in com
parative peace and were reasonably sure of
protection of life and property under tba
law. "ei the
But when Ignatieff conceived bis
scnene Ior overcoming the revolutionary
all this was changed ms
IN those mysterious ways best known
TO the Russian police word wac sneadiI,,
passed along to the turbulent elements and
to the generally law-abidine neaSsn 80
that it might be to their afivantags
to see what harm short of murder thev
couid wreak on the Jews and what Of
their property they could confiscate.
1 am not making this charge witbo,,+
being supported by evidence of the most
damning character. In Elizabethgrad
Odessa, kieff, wherever outbreaks against
the Jews speedily occurred. the police were
VIGOROUSLY inactive on the side OF law
Several days before the outrages began
peasants drove in from the country
equipped to carry away plumber. On their
inquiring when the fun would begin they
were told to ask the policemen. and this
dialogue was frequently overheard:
When will the circus >begin?'
This afternoon
"Or. possibly. the reply was tomorrow
Whatever the time named, then the attack
on the Jews began-and the fun ragged
fast and furious until the jewellers were
satiated Those peasants who did not
drink themselves to death on Jewish vodka
went back to their villages laden with booty.
Whole streets of houses were wrecked be-
yond repair, and when there was a ten
dency on the part Of the mobs to overlook
certain houses the police would point
them out. and they, too, would be wrecked
with crowbars and ransacked from cellar
to garnet.
Some Of the Prejudicial Laws.
Immediately following the outrages
many of the stringent laws now in force
against the Jews were passed. One OF
these laws prohibits Jews from prac-
ticing law. Another gives the Jew op-
portunity to fill only 3 per cent of the
vacancies occurring in educational instl-
tutions, even in those towns where Jews
make up the largest portion of the popula-
ton. AS result of this latter law the
Jew has not been kept in the ignorance
devoutiy desired by the Russian autoc-
racy. The authorities have been circum-
vented by those Jews DESTROYS OF education