AMERICA, GERMANY, AND SPAIN- 1897-1903 171 



first moment of my arrival in Berlin as ambassador, I 

 saw evidences of the same evil which had struck me dur 

 ing my previous missions in Berlin and St. Petersburg 

 namely, the constant and ingenious efforts to prostitute 

 American citizenship. Among the manifold duties of an 

 ambassador is the granting of passports. The great ma 

 jority of those who ask for them are entitled to them; 

 but there are always a considerable number of persons 

 who, having left Europe just in time to escape military 

 service, have stayed in America just long enough to ac 

 quire American citizenship, and then, having returned 

 to their native country, seek to enjoy the advantages of 

 both countries while discharging the duties of neither. 

 Even worse were the cases of the descendants of such so- 

 called Americans, most of them born in Europe and not 

 able even to speak the English language ; worst of all were 

 the cases of sundry Russians sometimes stigmatized as 

 &quot;predatory Hebrews&quot; who, having left Russia and gone 

 to America, had stayed just long enough to acquire citizen 

 ship, and then returned and settled in the eastern part 

 of Germany, as near the Russian frontier as possible. 

 These were naturally regarded as fraudulent interlopers 

 by both the German and Russian authorities, and much 

 trouble resulted. Some of them led a life hardly out 

 side the limits of criminality ; but they never hesitated on 

 this account to insist on their claims to American pro 

 tection. When they were reminded that American citi 

 zenship was conferred upon them, not that they might 

 shirk its duties and misuse its advantages in the land of 

 their birth, but that they might enjoy it and discharge 

 its duties in the land of their adoption, they scouted the 

 idea and insisted on their right, as American citizens, to 

 live where they pleased. Their communications to the 

 embassy were, almost without exception, in German, 

 Russian, or Polish ; very few of them wrote or even spoke 

 English, and very many of them could neither read nor 

 write in any language. For the hard-working immigrant, 

 whether Jew or Gentile, who comes to our country and 



