464 



JEWS. 



felt by the Japanese on the question of treaty 

 revision, led to fears of a general reaction against 

 Christianity and foreign civilization, for which 

 opinion there was no sufficient ground. Many 

 inundations were caused by the heavy rains of 

 May. Owing to the scanty rice crop of 1889, the 

 price of food increased and in some quarters suf- 

 fering among the poor resulted, and" foreign rice 

 had to be imported. To ease the financial situa- 

 tion, the Government, in May, permitted the in- 

 crease of convertible bank notes from 70,000,000 

 yen to 85,000,000 yen. A few rice riots occurred 

 in May, about which time the cholera appeared 

 at Nagasaki, soon spreading northward, and rag- 

 ing until November, causing more than 40,000 

 deaths. Despite the inundating rains and heavy 

 storms of August, the promise of the crops 

 caused the import of foreign rice to cease. On 

 Sept. 16, the Turkish frigate " Ertogroul." which 

 arrived on June 7, with the Sultan's decoration 

 for the Mikado, was driven ashore on Oshima, 

 and of her crew, 500 were drowned, and but 65 

 saved. In this typhoon of Sept. 16, the Japan- 

 ese steamer " Musashi Maru " foundered with a 

 loss of 50 men, and a sailing vessel having on 

 board 25 men was lost. On Oct. 27, the celebra- 

 tion at Yokohama of the golden wedding of the 

 American medical missionaries. James C. Hep- 

 burn, M. D., and his wife, who arrived at Yoko- 

 hama in 1859. was an event of almost national 

 importance. On Nov. 29 the Imperial Diet was 

 formally opened by the Emperor, under the presi- 

 dencies of Count Ito, of the House of Peers, and 

 Mr. Nakashima. of the House of Representatives. 

 In December the newly appointed minister to 

 the United States, Mr. Gozo Tateno, sailed, and 

 arrived in Washington in January, 1891. 



JEWS. The Russian question, always smol- 

 dering since the excesses of 1882 aroused the 

 civilized world to indignant protest, received 

 fresh agitation in the summer of 1890, owing to 

 the intelligence that the " May Laws " of Igna- 

 tieff were to be strictly carried out. These laws 

 are briefly as follow : 1. No Jews in Russia and 

 Russian Poland must henceforth reside in the 

 country, but only in towns. No Jew will be per- 

 mitted" to own land, or even to farm land. 2. 

 Jews have hitherto been allowed by law to reside 

 in only 16 of the counties of Russia. But the 

 law had not been enforced against Jewish mer-. 

 chants in important commercial centers outside 

 those provinces, a ministerial circular of 1880 

 permitting Jews long established in these towns 

 to remain there unmolested. The law of expul- 

 sion is now to be executed. 3. Jewish artisans, 

 who, under the law of 1865, were permitted to 

 reside outside the 16 counties, are to be banished 

 from those places. 4. Jews are no longer allowed 

 to be in any way connected with mines or mining 

 industries, nor even to hold shares in any mine. 

 5. Hitherto Jews have been admitted to schools, 

 gymnasia, and universities, subject to the limita- 

 tion that their number should not exceed 5 per 

 cent, of the total number of students. The re- 

 duction to a smaller percentage has followed, and 

 from many of the higher educational institutes 

 Jews have been expelled. 6. The legal profession 

 is to be closed to Jews. Special sanction of the 

 Minister of the Interior is required before a Jew, 

 qualified by examination, may practice. Since 

 the promulgation of the law, not a single sanction 



has been given, and it is Understood that none 

 will be. 7. Jews are prohibited from following 

 the professions of engineer, or army doctor, or 

 from filling any Government post, however subor- 

 dinate. The publication of these laws and their 

 prompt execution have intensified the unhappy 

 condition of the Russian Jews. Driven from the 

 rural districts into the overcrowded towns, with 

 their village homes broken up and their employ- 

 ments interrupted and proscribed, the alternative 

 of starvation or emigration is before them ; but 

 as anything like an en masse emigration is im- 

 possible, owing to the poverty of the people and 

 the restrictions of the Government, their wretch- 

 edness it would be difficult to exaggerate. A dec- 

 ade ago the excesses were begun by the peasantry 

 against the Jews, and the Government, however 

 tardily, took measures to repress the outbi-eaks. 

 To-day the Government itself enforces meas- 

 ures that equal the most severe persecutions of 

 the middle ages. The protest of public opinion 

 throughout civilized lands can not be said to have 

 produced any practical effect, Russia naturally re- 

 senting any interference with her domestic affairs. 

 The English and American press were especially 

 rigorous in their criticism. A mass meeting was 

 held in London on Dec. 10, at which speeches were 

 delivered against the spirit of persecution. The 

 discussion is bringing to light many interesting 

 facts. Count Tolstoi's protest, signed by the best- 

 known literary men of Russia, against the per- 

 secution of the Jews, the speech of the Arch- 

 bishop of Odessa contrasting the morality of 

 Russian Jews with the immorality of their Rus- 

 sian oppressors, and some similar utterances on 

 the part of priests and jurists in Russia, are rifts 

 in the clouds betokening sunrise. The total ig- 

 norance of the peasantry has to be remedied by 

 a thorough and comprehensive system of national 

 education which shall teach thrift among the 

 working classes and develop a higher state of 

 morality among the peasantry. The problem is 

 as much economic as religious. 



Naturally the condition of Jewish emigrants 

 from Russia has evoked much interest, and the 

 measures taken to improve their condition are 

 part of the history of the year. Prominent among 

 these was the creation in New York of the Baron 

 de Hirsch Trust. The $5,000,000 that Russia re- 

 fused to receive for Jewish education from Baron 

 Maurice de Hirsch has been set apart for similar 

 purposes, and $12,000 monthly is transmitted to 

 a committee in New York, which consists of Myer 

 S.Isaacs, president; Jesse Seligman, treasurer; 

 Julius Goldman, secretary : Jacob H. Schiff, 

 Henry Rice, Oscar S. Straus. James H. Hoffman, 

 all of New York, and William B. Hackenburg 

 and Mayer Sulzberger, of Philadelphia ; Adol- 

 phus S. Solomons, general agent. The benefits of 

 the fund inure exclusively to such Russian and 

 Roumanian immigrants as have been in America 

 not longer than two years, except for educational 

 purposes. Its work includes: Furnishing me- 

 chanics with tools, teaching them easily acquired 

 trades, paying their entrance fees into trades 

 unions, loaning them small sums to help them 

 become self-supporting; establishing day and 

 night schools for children and adults where none 

 exist, and teaching elements of English, sanitary 

 habits, and the Constitution of the United States ; 

 transportation to farms and manufacturing cen- 



