New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-26
JEWISH DEPUTY
ARRAIGNS DUMA
Charges Patriotism of His
People Earns Only
Outrage.

The Jewish Daily Warheit" to-day
prints a report of the speech in the
Duma by the only Jewish deputy, h..
NJ. Friedman, and characterized in the
Russian press as the boldest and most
daring arrangement of the government
of the Gar for the wholesale expul-
sions of the Jews from the governments
of Kovno and Courland. The speech
reads in part =.
"Disrcgarding their pitiful condi-
ton and overlooking their woful lack
of civil rights, the Jews have risen to
unparalleled heights Of citizenship
and have played prominent part In
the bloody events of the year Just
passed. They have modified all Of
their kin capable of bearing arms: Inc
newspapers at the beginning. Of the
war recorded vast number OF jewish
volunteers. Many Jews nave
been mentioned for bravery in the dis
patches from the front, others have
earned marks of high distinction.
have before me the letter OF a Jew
who migrated to the United States.
Here is what he writes:
az have risked my life. and when l
cause | loved my fatherland more than
nv life and the freedom | enjoyed in
that great land. enlisted. was sent to
the front, and had my left army shot
away I'D to the shoulder. | was sent
to the government of Courland. Upon
nv arrival there ! found in the depot
my mother and relatives who on the
same day were driven from their
hearthstones into exile. Tell the
gentlemen sitting to the right of you
in the Douma that do not deplore the
loss of my ARM that bemoan and be-
wall the respect and humane treatment
accorded me in q foreign land.
"The wives and children of those
whose blood was shed on battlefields
far away, their fathers and mothers,
have been driven from their homes.
made miserable and ruined forever.
81 cannot refrain from recalling to
you the attitude toward the Jewish
race. Only few days ago came the
order TO silence that press, the Jewish
masses being left in utter ignorance of
the events that come to decide the fate
of their fatherland.
"To Jews was melted out a string of
repressions unheard of, unparalleled
in the annals of history. All these,
bearing the sanction of oficialdom and
enacted before the eyes of the popu-
lace, conveyed TO the people and to the
army the impression that the govern
ment considered the Jews as alien enc
mics, that the Jews stand without the
law. Came wholesale explosions from
Poland and other provinces, followed
misery and shame. One half million
Jews are now wandering over our broad
land in utter misery and despair.
at is said that Jewish soldiers from
Poland, on passing their native towns
and villages, saw their wives and chill
dren driven from their homes. The
Jews were being transported in box
cars like cattle, and in the accompany
ing bills of lading it was written:
'Merchandise-450J Jews
There were pogroms, there was ra-
pine, there was carnage, there were
Jewish women and girls brutally out
ragged. / shall not now dwell upon any
specific instances. | shall do that with
the aid of documentary evidence be-
hind closed doors.
at is true, gentlemen, we are devold
of all human rights; we are oppressed
and prosecuted. But we know the
source of it all. From these quarters
(the speaker points to the loge of the
ministers) springs all evil. 1t is the
Russian government that is depressing
us, not the Russian people. Little won
der, then, that we pin our fate to the
destinies of the Russian people and not
10 those of the government"