PROGRESSIVE WORLD STRUGGLE OF THE JEWS 



France, England, and Germany in- 

 sisted that the new governments to be 

 constituted should embody in their con- 

 stitutions a declaration in favor of re- 

 ligious and civil equality for all domiciled 

 within their jurisdiction. 



This was not favored by Russia and 

 was very bitterly opposed by Rumanians. 

 Nevertheless, on the approval of Prince 

 Bismarck, who presided in the congress, 

 the treaty required that, as a condition 

 of recognition by European governments, 

 the constitution of Rumania should con- 

 tain declarations and guaranties of civil 

 and religious liberty and equality for the 

 Jews, and Russia signed the treaty. 



.The Rumanian authorities deliberately 

 framed a plan by which to evade the re- 

 quirement of the treaty. They provided 

 in their constitution, Article VII : 



"The difference of religious creeds and 

 conditions does not constitute in Ru- 

 mania an obstacle to the acquirement of 

 civil and political rights and their exer- 

 cise." 



EVADING THE TREATY IN RUMANIA 



They then provided for naturalization 

 and enacted that naturalization could 

 only be granted by a law and individu- 

 ally. It was held by their government 

 that Jews were aliens, although they had 

 been living in Rumania for hundreds of 

 years and had been subject to draft into 

 the Rumanian army and had served as 

 soldiers. In this way they avoided the 

 effect of the constitution upon Jews, and 

 their statesmen openly prided themselves 

 on their acuteness. 



By adopting the constitution to which 

 I have referred, the Rumanians procured 

 the recognition of European countries. 

 Since then they have heckled and harried 

 the Jews by restrictions upon their liveli- 

 hoods, by refusing admission to the ele- 

 mentary public schools of more than 5^/2 

 per cent of their number, and in second- 

 ary schools of more than 7^4 per cent, 

 and in many other ways. 



Although this is in direct violation of 

 the Treaty of Berlin, the signatories to 

 the treaty have not thought it best to 

 intervene. 



Bulgaria and Serbia complied with 

 their obligations. 



the pale: op the settlement 



The law which required the Jews in 

 Russia to live in the cities of the Pale of 

 Settlement produced a great congestion. 

 They were forbidden to engage in so 

 many trades and callings that their means 

 of livelihood was most limited. They 

 had no political rights and were thus 

 kept excluded from government employ. 



They were denied secondary and uni- 

 versity education except to the extent of 

 a very small per cent of their number, 

 and they were so hemmed about with 

 police restrictions as to subject them to 

 oppressive blackmail. The result has 

 been that the great majority of them are 

 ignorant, and even before the war at 

 least a third of them were in direst 

 misery and destitution. 



There are in the world over fifteen 

 million Jews. Of these, six millions are 

 to be found in the ten provinces of 

 Russian Poland and the fifteen prov- 

 inces called "the Pale of Settlement." 

 There are upward of 2,250,000 Jews in 

 Austria and Hungary. There are 615,- 

 000 in Germany. There are 270,000 

 Jews in Great Britain, 100,000 in France, 

 45,000 in Italy, half a million in Asia. 

 250,000 in Rumania, and there are 3,- 

 300,000 in the United States, of whom a 

 million or more live in the city of Xew 

 York. 



The Jews in the United States, down 

 to 1880, did not exceed a quarter of a 

 million, but since the oppression, po- 

 groms, and massacres in Rumania and 

 in Russia immigration has increased to 

 the figures given (see also page 20"). 



THE GREAT JEWISH PROBLEM ()E TODAY 



As I have said, in all parts of Europe 

 and America, except Russia and Ru- 

 mania, legal discrimination against the 

 Jews has largely ceased and civil equality 

 is accorded them. The present great 

 problem, therefore, is to secure civil 

 equality for them in Russia and Ru- 

 mania. How is the present condition in 

 those countries explained ? 



Prince Gortchakoff in the Berlin Con- 

 gress described the Russian and Ru- 

 manian Jews as a great scourge upon 



