RUSSIA AND AMERICAN JEWS. BY EDMUND ARTHUR DODGE, Of the New York Bar.
RUSSIA'S discrimination against Ameri can citizens of the Jewish faith has long been a subject of complaint on the part of our Government; and the Department of State has consequently ceased to grant, or permit the granting by our representatives abroad, of passports as a matter of right, to such citizens, who may desire to visit, or travel in the Russian Empire. The law as to issuing passports is, indeed, permissory, and not obligatory, the decision being left with the Secretary of State, under section 4075 of the Revised Statutes, which provides that "the Secretary of State may grant and issue passports . . . under such rules as the President shall designate and prescribe for and on behalf of the United States." The "General Instructions" pre scribed for our Ministers in foreign countries have been to the same effect. It is in the discretion of the Secretary to grant or not to grant, especially if he has reason to believe, as in the case of Jews, that the passport, though issued, will not be properly respected by the Government of the country in which it is particularly intended to be used. Yet Russia has been, on the whole, un commonly liberal in her treatment of foreign ers. They may be landholders, and as such are eligible to membership in the rural pro vincial assemblies, with the right to vote; though foreigners are not permitted to own real estate—for obvious reasons—in the frontier governments of the west. Other wise foreigners—with the exception always of Jews—can do business in these provinces the same as native Russians; and though they are not allowed to enter the civil service, an exception is made "in favor of professional and scientific men, such as physicians, sur geons, apothecaries, architects, engineers, professors, and teachers of the arts and
sciences, who may acquire in the service of the State the rank attached to their respec tive capacities, and receive decorations. . . . A foreigner may hold a commission in the Russian army, and take the several ranks in it; and, having the rank of Lieutenant-Gen eral, or full General, or of Field-Marshal, may be appointed Senator and member of the Council of the Empire." (Merrill, "Com parative Jurisprudence and the Conflict of Laws," page 81, note citing the Report of the English Naturalization Commission of 1869). Twenty years ago there were, in the sixteen western provinces of Russia—that is, in Lithuania, White and Little Russia, and Bessarabia—2,843,400 Jews, and about 432,ooo in the five Polish provinces: and more than four-fifths of these were concentrated in the towns. In Russian Poland the Jews were in the proportion of one to seven in habitants; and in the adjacent provinces they constituted about ten to sixteen fer cent, of the population; while in certain districts the proportion was about one-third; in one, that of Tchaussy, reaching fifty per cent. The results of the recent Russian census are not yet known; but a rough estimate has been made that at present the Jews consti tute about three per cent, of the whole popu lation of the Empire, or more than four mil lions—though this would seem to be too great a total as compared with twenty years ago—and, according to a partial census taken, there are over 2,800.000 in the west ern and southwestern provinces—of whom more than three-fourths live in towns—or over ii per cent, of the population; 77.275 being in the three townships of Odessa (con taining 73,389), of Kerch, and of Sebasto pol—the proportion of Jews in Odessa being thus 35 per cent.; and 431,800 in five govern ments of Poland out of ten, or n per cent.
