, all that adds to the
happiness, well-being and freedom of each one living in the home, adds
to its strength and beauty.

We build our common home, decorate it and defend it, and we do it with
joy and willingness because in our common home we are neither
hirelings nor guests. In our common home, then, who are we? We must
know and always remember that in our common home we are all masters of
the house. It is not our right, but our duty toward our home, of which
we must take care just as every good master takes care of his house.
The consciousness of the fact that we are the masters of our common
home is clear; for it is seen that every one of us in whom conscience
and reason do not slumber, feels responsible for the disorder of our
life.

Not an outsider, nor a congress of allies, nor some one social class
shall regulate our affairs for the best of Poland, Finland, the Jews
and the rest. Neither our allies, nor any one of our social classes,
nor the wisest and strongest among us,--but all of us Russian
citizens, all of us who joyously and willingly bear the burden of
statehood, are called upon to settle in conscience and reason, the
fundamental problems of our great home-building.

* * * * *

In the face of the common foe we are all united. We have mustered all
our forces for the defence of our native land from the hostile
invasion. We are all brothers, all children of one fatherland, and to
all Russia is a good mother loving all equally well. Many are the
peoples Russia has gathered under her dominion and she is to all
equally benevolent.

How eager is one to say these words, to have the right to utter them!
But we have it not. Not toward all is Russia equally benevolent, and
in the hour of great trials and high deeds she is still unable, still
unwilling, to tear asunder the fatal chain, the terrible "Pale of
Settlement."

Whenever I met Russian Jews abroad, I always marvelled at the
strangely tenacious love for Russia which they preserve. They speak of
Russia with the same longing and the same tenderness as the Russian
emigrants; they are equally eager to return and equally saddened if
the return is impossible. Wherefore should they love Russia, who is so
harsh and inhospitable toward them?

Strange as it may sound, there are children who love their cruel
stepmothers. Of course, they are exceptions; usually such stepmothers
are hated. But in the case of Jews such exceptions bec