have been
constrained to abandon their homes and leave the Empire by reason of
the impossibility of finding subsistence within the Pale to which it
is sought to confine them. The immigration of these people to the
United States--many other countries being closed to them--is largely
increasing, and is likely to assume proportions which may make it
difficult to find homes and employment for them here and to
seriously affect the labor market. It is estimated that over
1,000,000 will be forced from Russia within a few years. The Hebrew
is never a beggar; he has always kept the law--life by toil--often
under severe and oppressive restrictions. It is also true that no
race, sect, or class has more fully cared for its own than the
Hebrew race. But the sudden transfer of such a multitude under
conditions that tend to strip them of their small accumulations and
to depress their energies and courage is neither good for them nor
for us.

The banishment, whether by direct decree or by not less certain
indirect methods, of so large a number of men and women is not a
local question. A decree to leave one country is in the nature of
things an order to enter another--some other. This consideration, as
well as the suggestion of humanity, furnishes ample ground for the
remonstrances which we have presented to Russia; while our historic
friendship for that Government cannot fail to give assurance that
our representations are those of a sincere well-wisher.[1]

[Footnote 1: Third Annual Message to Congress by President Harrison,
December 9, 1891, _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_, Vol. IX,
p. 188.]

The sentiments of the American people were voiced less guardedly in a
resolution which was passed by the House of Representatives on July 21,
1892:

_Resolved_, That the American people, through their Senators and
Representatives in Congress assembled, do hereby express sympathy
for the Russian Hebrews in their present condition, and the hope
that the Government of Russia, a power with which the United States
has always been on terms of amity and good will, will mitigate as
far as possible the severity of the laws and decrees issued
respecting them, and the President is requested to use his good
offices to notify the Government of Russia to mitigate the said laws
and decrees. [1]

[Footnote 1: _Congressional Record_, Vol. 23, p. 6533.]

The highly-placed Jew-bai