434 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The first great exodus to England and America began soon after the 

 enactment of the May Laws, and, owing to the reign of terror existing 

 in the towns, resembled an indiscriminate flight. After a time the 

 traffic became organized through the activity of steamship agents, and, 

 the economic causes still existing, the stream of emigrants has since 

 been almost constant. In addition to the oppressive enactments, an 

 absurd story of ritual murder has been circulated among the ignorant 

 Slavic peasantry for the purpose of inciting anti-Semitic feeling. 

 Michael Davitt, the Irish patriot and writer, after a recent visit to 

 Eussia, thus sums up the situation in his book ' Within the Pale ' : 



The murderous competition for employment, the deadly rivalry for existence, 

 the bad blood between opposing races, the poverty and social wretchedness which 

 such a condition of things would create — apart from the operation of coercive 

 laws — can readily be imagined by the American reader. But this is no over- 

 drawn picture of the economic anarchy prevailing within the Russian pale of 

 Jewish settlement. 



The towns are crowded with artisans and traders, and as these are out of 

 all proportion to the producers and consumers of an agricultural country, they 

 necessarily become 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 domain by destroying the legend of the blood atonement. He avers : 



M. de Plehwe and the Czar can accomplish 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 he 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 in- 

 frequently as a part of political propaganda There ought to be a truly christian 

 crusade waged against this infamous product of ancient, insensate, sectarian 

 hate. 



In Eoumania the intolerant attitude of the government and a 

 series of oppressive enactments against Jews constitute the chief cause 

 of emigration. These measures of persecution employed in Roumania 

 were in violation of the Berlin Treaty of 1878, which guaranteed re- 

 ligious liberty and equal rights to all. The Eoumanian government 

 maintains that the Jews are aliens, and to give them equal rights would 

 mean that they would control the country in a few years. 



Galicia under Austrian rule has no legislation against Jews in force, 

 but a strong anti-Semitic sentiment exists, and no doubt this prejudice 

 aggravates the economic problem which is the chief cause of emigration 

 from Galicia. 



Much is heard of assisted immigration, and no doubt the majority 

 of Eussian and Eoumanian Jewish immigrants are assisted at some 



