Of the total number of immigrants to the United States from Russia, somewhat less than one tenth are Russians. The balance are Poles, Lithuanians, Finns, Germans, and Jews. Agricultural, social, and political conditions in Russia are sufficiently well understood to make it no cause for wonder that almost any of its common citizens should be glad to leave. The Russian peasant is said to be the most oppressed in Europe, but he is also probably the most ignorant and degraded, and as yet is only beginning to learn to emigrate. There is a great reservoir there which will be ready to furnish us untold millions when the current gets well started. But so far the great stream from Russia is made up principally of other races. Of these, we are particularly interested in the Jews, partly because they are the most numerous, partly because they are a unique and striking people, partly because the reasons for their coming are more definite and easily comprehended. We have seen that during the Middle Ages the Jews were expelled from almost every country of Europe. Almost the only region where they were allowed a settlement was in Poland, and hence they gathered there in large numbers. Under Russian domination this has been made the “Pale of Settlement” for the Jews, and now contains about one third of the 11,000,000 people of that race in the world. Life in any other part of the Empire is made practically impossible for them, and it is far from easy there. Among the other restrictions put upon the Jews during the Middle Ages was a prohibition of engaging in agriculture. But they were allowed to take usury, which was forbidden to Christians. The natural result was that they were driven almost entirely into trade, and particularly into money lending, so that those pursuits which seem to be so well adapted to the natural proclivities of the Jews were in a sense thrust upon them. As a result the Jews in Russia are engaged primarily in the two businesses of lending money and selling liquor. When the Russian serfs were liberated in 1861, and left in a most helpless state without either capital or land, the Jews became their merchants, middlemen, and usurers. It was perfectly natural that the ignorant peasant should come to blame the money lender and the saloon keeper for evils which were really due to the wretched political, social, and economic organization, but of which they seemed to be the immediate agents. There is reason to believe that the government encouraged this popular antipathy toward an unpopular race for the sake of diverting the indignation of the masses from itself. Certain it is that the attitude of the government has been most hostile to the Jews. In 1881 this antagonism culminated in a series of terrible anti-Semitic riots, and then began the exodus to America.