nestness, to the Government of the Czar its serious concern
because of the harsh measures now being enforced against the Hebrews in
Russia. By the revival of antisemitic laws, long in abeyance, great
numbers of those unfortunate people 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 civil 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
can not fail to give the assurance that our representations are those of
a sincere wellwisher.

The annual report of the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua shows that
much costly and necessary preparatory work has been done during the year
in the construction of shops, railroad tracks, and harbor piers and
breakwaters, and that the work of canal construction has made some
progress.

I deem it to be a matter of the highest concern to the United States
that this canal, connecting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans and giving to us a short water communication between our ports
upon those two great seas, should be speedily constructed and at the
smallest practicable limit of cost. The gain in freights to the people
and the direct saving to the Government of the United States in the use
of its naval vessels would pay the entire co