They
herded like cattle. They had been so herded by Christian rulers, a
despised and persecuted race, through the centuries. Their very coming
was to escape from their last inhuman captivity in a Christian state.
They lied, they were greedy, they were charged with bad faith. They
brought nothing, neither money nor artisan skill,--nothing but their
consuming energy, to our land, and their one gift was their greatest
offence. One might have pointed out that they had been trained to lie,
for their safety; had been forbidden to work at trades, to own land; had
been taught for a thousand years, with the scourge and the stake, that
only gold could buy them freedom from torture. But what was the use? The
charges were true. The Jew was--he still is--a problem of our slum.

[Footnote 28: According to the register of the United Hebrew
Charities, between October 1, 1884, and June 1, 1902, the number was
539,067, and it is again on the increase. The year 1902 will
probably show an increase in this class of immigration over 1901 of
quite 15,000.]

And yet, if ever there was material for citizenship, this Jew is such
material. Alone of all our immigrants he comes to us without a past. He
has no country to renounce, no ties to forget. Within him there burns a
passionate longing for a home to call his, a country which will own him,
that waits only for the spark of such another love to spring into flame
which nothing can quench. Waiting for it, all his energies are turned
into his business. He is not always choice in method; he often offends.
He crowds to the front in everything, no matter whom he crowds out. The
land is filled with his clamor. "If the East Side would shut its mouth
and the West Side get off the saloon corner, we could get somewhere,"
said a weary philanthropist to me the other day, and made me laugh, for
I knew what he meant. But the Jew heeds it not. He knows what he wants
and he gets it. He succeeds. He is the yeast of any slum, if given time.
If it will not let him go, it must rise with him. The charity managers
in London said it, when we looked through their slums some years ago,
"The Jews have renovated Whitechapel." I, for one, am a firm believer in
this Jew, and in his boy. Ignorant they are, but with a thirst for
knowledge that surmounts any barrier. The boy takes all the prizes in
the school. His comrades sneer that he will not fight. Neither will he
when there is nothing to be gained by