stances under which such experiments are made. As a rule, he has found these immigrants hard workers and anxious to do all in their power to help themselves. The fact that several of the colonies, such as those near Vineland, N. J., have been pronounced successes, is proof that there is hope in that direction.

At a meeting held in Paris, on October 9, 1890, at the instance of l'Alliance Israélite, at which, besides the well-known resident members of that organization, there were present the Reverend Doctors Adler, of London, Frank, of Cologne, Kahn, of Paris, and many other influential rabbis, together with a number of well-known laymen, including Sir Julian Goldsmid and Mr. Frederick Mocatta, representing London, Mr. Charles Hallgarten, representing Frankfort, Dr. Cohn, representing Berlin, and Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, representing New York, the question came up as to how Russian emigration should be controlled. The possible danger that renewed persecution might drive to this country Jewish refugees in such numbers that they would be a menace and a discomfort to the large towns in which they should settle, especially to New York, was set forth by Mr. Schiff. The possibility of directing emigration to other parts of the world, such as Brazil, South Africa, Palestine, and Canada, was discussed, and an address was sent to the rabbis of Russia, asking them, if pos sible, to prevent people unfit for immigration from rushing to this country or elsewhere. One of the letters sent by a rabbi in answer to this address gives so curious an account of the situa tion in Russia that I cannot do better than to translate it. It is dated November 10, 1890, and is not signed; but it is vouched for as from a rabbi of high repute.

"We are asked, in the name of our American brethren, to stop, if possible, the emigration toward New York, and to advise the emigrants to go to Canada or to South America. This request shows us that, notwithstanding your desire to help us, you do not yet understand-you who live in free countries and are free-the depth of the pit in which we live and the heaviness of the clouds which surround us. You may hear sometimes complaints from Roumania, from Morocco, or from Persia; but in those countries the persecuted Jews can move heaven and earth to make their hardships known; their hands are not tied, their lips are not sealed; they can appeal to the newspapers, they can send deputations and addresses to other countries imploring the help of their co-religionists there; they can consult together, make known the names of the persecuted ones, organize

committees. Here nothing of the kind can be done, for our government is a cruel and oppressive one as compared to the governments of those countries. It is a European government, using modern devices, but in reality it is European only in appearance; its machinery, perfected by modern science, is all the more effective and cruel toward us because it is used as an Asiatic would use it. We can say nothing; we cannot move; we cannot even tell our outside brethren of the rank misery in which we live. The law forbids an association or a meeting of more than ten persons, no matter for what object, without express permission of the government. To obtain this it is necessary to make petition after petition, and to go to trouble and expense; and, after a delay which may last two years or more, the permission may be granted only upon condition that not a word shall be said, and that not a line shall be written, of which the authorities shall not be advised. For these reasons all associations or clubs organized among us have failed. We know, it is true, that other citizens have to obey the law, but they are not called upon to discuss questions of which the government should know nothing. We have here no recognized chief who has the power, moral or official, to talk to the Jews or in their favor. Our 5,000,000 Jews are like scattered sheep, and nothing is allowed which might gather them together. In the last ten years our persecutors have trumped up another charge, regarding the famous Kahal, a mysterious power supposed to constitute a state within a state, suspected of designs upon public prosperity and of a desire to overturn the government. This stupid charge is to be blamed for many of our troubles. The government pretends to believe in it; in everything that we do and say it sees the hand or influence of this Kahal, and it surrounds us with spies even while we pray at home. Unhappy as we are, miserably poor as we are, how can the rabbis, or any one else, do what you ask? We have no right to call a meeting for consultation, or in order to help our foreign brethren; it would be considered a crime. In Roumania, for instance, one is allowed to give advice to the persecuted Jew as to how he can best get away from persecution; committees are organized, money is collected, much is done. Here we are forbidden to meet, to make ourselves heard, or to express any opinion in public. Emigration is a misdemeanor and is punished with a fine; that is one of the curious aspects of our situation. This government, as in the time of another Pharaoh, does not wish the Jews to multiply, and shuts its eyes to the poor wretches who steal over the frontier; but if it should find a rabbi openly advising emigration, he would be held to be a traitor and treated as a criminal. If, therefore, I should give advice to refugees, telling them where to go, there would be a triple charge made against me: first, it would be said that the Kahal was assuming the authority of the state; secondly, I should be asked who gave me authority to speak; thirdly, I should be accused of encouraging emigration contrary to law. The real cause of the emigration to America, and in particular to New York, is due to the reports sent home to Russia by Jews already established in that city. Those who have escaped from Russia, from our life of somber misery, have found in their new country bread to eat and

free air to breathe; and they draw to them friends and relations who still remain here. This is a stream which cannot be stopped. It must not be imagined that the emigrants leave the country deliberately, and with permission, after having weighed the advantages of other countries in which they might settle. They are often pressed for time, and they are really fugitives. They are escaping from Russia, from suffering, and from darkness. You may believe that their farewell is a painful one; but the thought of friends already settled in America, earning their living, and no longer ground down by corruption, gives them wings. Thus, even though the rabbis should have the right and the power to say to these poor people, 'Take such and such a direction, and not this other one,' they would scarcely find listeners. When a man is fighting for his life, he does not care for advice. These fugitives will listen only when you can help them. If Moses and Samuel should come forth from the grave to say to these poor people, 'Do not go to New York; go to Canada or to South America,' it would have no effect. Remember, moreover, that the country in which we live is three times as large as France, that our people are scattered in small villages, without means of communication, and that many of the Jews are too far in the interior of Russia to be reached. It is doubtless unfortunate that all the emigrants go to New York, and we understand that this congestion of people without means, without help, without trades, offers many inconveniences, and may seriously embarrass our American brethren. But we cannot turn the stream of emigration to other countries. Our American brethren, however, can do this. Let them organize committees to send the surplus and overflow of the Russian Jews of New York to Canada and South America, and then the emigration will follow these families; for as soon as it is known in Russia that there is room in those countries, emigration will turn that way instead of to New York. Upon our part, we shall do our best to help, and shall not shirk any legitimate responsibility, or even danger, to which this work may expose us.”

I have no room here for the citation of particular instances of persecution. They fill the daily papers, for that matter, and will probably continue to fill them so long as these unfortunate people are made the legal prey of the petty Russian official. There may be another side to this picture; but, if so, I have failed to find any trustworthy indications of it. The facts remain that these obnoxious, cruel laws exist, and that they are so carried out as to make hundreds of thousands of poor wretches look upon the hardest kind of poverty elsewhere as a blessed relief from the hopeless misery of their native land.

P. G. HUBERT, JR.

The Forum.

APRIL, 1891.

WHAT CAN WE DO FOR THE POOR?

A GENERATION or two ago, many people thought it not visionary to suppose that this new western world of ours might escape some of the painful evils which have so sorely afflicted the old. The youngest and fairest of the peoples could surely be spared the discipline of poverty and inherited misery. This seemed reasonable and probable to our forefathers; we know now that it could not be. While, under the freer conditions of our continental life, self-dependence and individual energy were to be nourished and developed in our people to a high degree, these could not by any means do away with or overcome the evils of unavoidable destitution. Gradually the rich became richer and the poor poorer. As in the older civilizations, wealth The laws of human existence were rolled up in a few hands. found to be the same in both hemispheres; the struggle for existence was the same old struggle.

We have, then, outlived any misconception that our forefathers had on this point; and all men with eyes and ears know well to-day that, in the making or marring of our national future, poverty must play its part. The questions that it forces on us must somehow be answered, and answered now; they can no longer be laid aside. We may be far from realizing all that is meant in the declaration that God "hath made of one blood all nations of Copyright, 1890, by the Forum Publishing Company.

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men, for in him we live, and move, and have our being "; but we are far nearer its realization than men have ever been before. We may not love our brother as ourselves; we may not be quite prepared-if I may illustrate from the old story-to put him on our own beast, to bind up his wounds with our hands, and to take him to our own inn; but we are prepared to pay something for his keep and doctoring. We cannot nerve ourselves to leave him wounded and bleeding by the wayside, even though we may argue that he has fallen among the thieves largely by his own fault.

And so it comes about that, often in a blundering, unwise, and even improvident way, a large and increasing number of people are prepared to do something to serve the poor. Here I may be permitted to beg indulgence for what may appear to many a very inadequate method of dealing with the great question. I can speak of this problem only as it has engaged, in a measure, my own life. The city clergyman is like a line officer in battle; he stands pretty well in the smoke, or at least he ought to stand there. His circumstances seldom afford opportunities of gaining the larger, clearer views that only those on the higher ground can command; he can see things in his immediate front, and that is about all. Immediately in front, then, what does he see? As in every battle, an immense amount of wasted energy, a great deal of misdirected and positively hurtful enthusiasm, and much good ammunition thrown away. Helping the poor is both overdone and not done at all. Gifts are bestowed on those who are least worthy, but who, through long practice, can make the best showing of their needs. Those in whose lives independence is almost dead do not shrink from parading their wants; and a luxurious pity, anxious to rid its conscience of the burden of another's pain, is too often ready to give its hurtful dole, and to add to its list of luxuries the luxury of giving. This may seem an extreme way of describing the prevalent evil of indiscriminate charity; but that evil is so pernicious and so common, it renders the real and necessary work so hard to do, and, worst of all, it is so often adopted as an excuse by the very people that owe to their poor fellow men something far more than a dole, that it is hard to be patient with it. Lately it has laid hold of our news