That was the way the "ignorant and timid" immigrants of other nations were assimilated. So long as the commissary system, good or bad, exists, just so long will the Italian remain a stranger in a strange land. The difficulty is not one, merely, of reforming the padrone system. Compelling honest dealing will not remedy the evil. The action of some railroads has brought about reforms, and there will continue to be at normal prices a big profit to the padrone in the sale of supplies to 4,000 or 5,000 men. The honest, independent labor camp where employment is furnished without cost is just as bad a thing for the purpose of American citizenship as the padrone camp, if the commissary system of segregation is in operation at both camps. ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA. BY I. M. RUBINOW. INTRODUCTION. The present study of the economic condition of the Jews in Russia is offered as a part of a series of studies on immigration and its relation to social and industrial questions in the United States. One of the most important elements in this problem is the distribution, both geographically and industrially, of immigrants arriving in this country. A study of immigration at the present time would not be complete without special attention to the Russian Jews, forming as they do one-eighth of the total number of immigrants now coming to our shores, and being found so frequently living and working under harmful sweat-shop conditions. Some of the well-known characteristics of these immigrants, such as their tendency to crowd into the great cities and to follow certain definite lines of work to the exclusion of the heavier manual trades and agriculture, will be much better understood after a study of the conditions and restrictions under which they have worked and lived before coming to this country. JEWISH POPULATION. As far back as authentic historic records go, Jews are known to have lived within the territory at present included in the limits of the Russian Empire, yet the Russian Empire as it now exists acquired the vast majority of its Jewish citizens at a comparatively recent date. Until 1772 the number of Jews in Russia proper was small, because until then the absolutely prohibitive policy of the Russian Government made any movement across the Polish-Russian frontier practically impossible. The gradual migration of the Jews eastward through Europe resulted in concentrating a large number in the Kingdom of Poland, in which country and in Lithuania Jews are known to have lived as early as the tenth century. The first partition of Poland, in 1792, gave to Russia the section known as White Russia and a part of Lithuania, with a large Jewish population; the second partition, in 1793, and the final partition, in 1795, added the ten Provinces which the constitute the so-called region of the Vistula. Since those events grussian Empire has remained the home of at least one-half of the B the entire Jewish race. While the total number of Jews in the world is not definitely known, the estimate of 11,000,000 is usually accepted as nearly correct. According to the Russian census of January 28 (February 9), 1897, the total number of Jews in the Empire was 5,215,805 (") or about 50 per cent of all the Jews in the world. Since the total population of the Empire has been determined to be 125,640,021, the proportion of the Jewish to the total population is therefore only a little over 4 per cent; but this percentage has little more than a theoretical value, because of the very uneven distribution of the Jews over the entire territory of the Empire. The policy of the Muscovite Government toward the Jews throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries was that of absolute exclusion, and with a few qualifications the same policy has been enforced within the annexed western territories, which contain the large Jewish population. The law of 1769 definitely limited the Jew's right of domicile to certain Provinces, thus establishing the strictly defined Jewish Pale, that law being modified in 1804 by the inclusion of several Provinces and the exclusion of others. Several modifications of minor significance have been made in subsequent years. The Pale as it e..ists to-day was established in 1835 by the "Code of the rights of the Jews." As thus constituted, the Pale consists of twentyfive Provinces (") of the eighty-nine Provinces and Territories consti a The problem of determining the number of Jews in Russia presents some serious statistical difficulties, depending upon the different definitions of the word "Jew." In the census of 1897 both the religion and the nationality were taken account of, the latter being based upon the "mother tongue." In the case of the Jews the "Yiddish language" was taken as the decisive feature. Accordingly, the following conflicting statements may be formed: Number of persons of Jewish religion, 5,215,805; number of persons of Jewish nationality as determined by the mother tongue, 5,063,156. A closer examination of the census figures shows that there were enumerated 161,505 persons of Jewish faith who named other languages than the Yiddish as their mother tongue. On the other hand, there were 8,856 persons speaking the Yiddish tongue whose religious faith was other than the Hebrew. As the special legislation in regard to Jews applies to all persons of Jewish faith, 5,215,805 ought to be accepted as the correct figure. Yet in the census many important tables take the nationality (language) basis. The 12,894 Karaites (people of Jewish nationality and faith, but of a different sect and exempt from all special Jewish legislation) must not be disregarded; of these 383 claimed Yiddish as their mother tongue and are therefore included in the preceding groups. The data therefore may be summarized thus: Persons of Jewish faith claiming Yiddish as their mother tongue... T tal.. 5,054, 300 161, 505 8, 856 12, 511 5, 237, 172 add that often in special tables of the census the total number of ubernia" has often been translated into English as "go tuting the entire Russian Empire. The Pale begins immediately south of the Baltic Provinces, stretches throughout the west, and extends over the south as far east as the Don Army Territory. The combined territory of the Pale is about 362,000 square miles, or less than 20 per cent of European Russia and only a little over 4 per cent of the entire Russian Empire. The Pale includes: 1. In the Kingdom of Poland (or the region of the Vistula), the Provinces of Warsaw, Kalisz, Kielce, Lomza, Lublin, Petrikau, Plock, Radom, Suvalki, and Siedlec. 2. In Lithuania, the Provinces of Vilna, Kovno, and Grodno. 3. In White Russia, the Provinces of Minsk, Vitebsk, and Moheelev. 4. In southwestern Russia, the Provinces of Volhynia, Podolia, Kiev (except the city of Kiev), Chernigov, and Poltava. 5. In southern (new) Russia, the Provinces of Bessarabia, Kherson, Yekaterinoslav, and Taurida (except the city of Yalta). At various times many modifications of the absolute prohibition to enter the interior of Russia were made; but the entire Russian legislation in regard to the Jew's right of domicile is much too complicated to be given in detail, and consequently only the main features will be stated. Its essential principle is that, while the general prohibition remains in force, the following specified classes of Jews are given the privilege of domicile throughout the Empire: 1. Merchants of the first guild-i. e., merchants paying a very high business license-after having paid that license somewhere within the Pale for five consecutive years. This right of living anywhere in Russia, outside of the Pale, lasts only as long as the payment of the license is continued, but after ten annual payments the permanent right of domicile within the city in which the payments have been made is acquired. 2. Professional persons, such as physicians, lawyers, dentists, graduate engineers, army surgeons, midwives, and graduates of universities and higher institutions of learning in general, as well as students in such institutions. 3. Master-artisans working at their trades when admitted to their artisans' guild, or possessing the necessary legal evidence of proficiency in their crafts. In all these cases the acquired right of domicile extends to the members of the immediate family, and in cases of the merchants of the first guild and the professional persons to a limited number of servants and clerks of Jewish faith. In regard to the Jewish artisans, the limitations are much more numerous; and in 1891 their further emigration from the Pale into the interior of the Empire was made exceedingly difficult, and those artisans who were living in the city,. as well as those living in the Province of Moscow, were compelled to withdraw. Another considerable class of Jews that is permitted to live throughout Russia are the discharged soldiers; but this right is granted only to those who served in the army prior to 1874. This class, therefore, can not increase in number. Besides these general provisions, there are minor exceptions that grant to limited groups of Jews (usually determined as persons or descendants of persons who were living in certain localities before certain dates) the right to remain in specified localities, or, in a few cases, anywhere in the Empire. Among these exceptions are to be found the resident Jews of Siberia, Turkestan, Caucasus, the Province of Courland, and a few other localities. The temporary sojourn without the Pale of Jews who have no right of permanent domicile is strictly limited by law to from six weeks to two months, and then only in cases of proved necessity, such as a lawsuit, commercial transactions, or probating a will. Moreover, in these cases important limitations have been introduced. Thus, the important city of Kiev has been excepted from the Pale, and even merchants of the first guild may live only in certain districts of that city. In 1893 the city of Yalta was excepted, and the important cities of Rostov and Taganrog, by being transferred from the Province of Yekaterinoslav to the Don Army Territory, were also excluded from the Pale. (") How well the object of this legislation was accomplished will be seen from the following official data: TOTAL POPULATION OF RUSSIA AND NUMBER AND PER CENT OF JEWS, WITH PER CENT OF DISTRIBUTION OF JEWS, BY LOCALITIES, 1897. [Compiled from Premier Recensement Général de la Population de l'Empire de Russie, 1897.] Of all the Jews residing in the vast Russian Empire, 93.9 per cent live in the Pale (including the 10 Polish Provinces), 4.0 per cent live in the remaining part of European Russia, and 2.1 per cent live in all a See M. J. Mysh, Rukowodstvo k Russkym zakonam o evreakh (Handbook of Russian legislation in regard to Jews). St. Petersburg, 1904. |