LXIV. Illiteracy of peoples from Eastern Europe, 1899 to 1910 194 LXV. Sex of illiterates of peoples from Eastern Europe, 1908 194 LXVI. Destination of Jewish immigrants, 1899 to 1910, by principal divisions 195 LXVII. Destination of Jewish immigrants, 1899 to 1910, by principal states 195 LXVIII. Percentage of Jewish and total immigrants destined for each division, 1899 to 1910 196 LXIX. Participation of Jewish immigrants in destination of total immigrants, 1899 to 1910, by principal divisions 196 APPENDICES A. President Harrison's Message, 1891 199 B. Article VII of the Constitution of Roumania 200 C. Secretary Hay's Note 201 BIBLIOGRAPHY 207 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Thirty years have elapsed since the Jews began to enter the United States in numbers sufficiently large to make their immigration conspicuous in the general movement to this country. A study of Jewish immigration, in itself and in relation to the general movement, reveals an interesting phase of this historic and many-sided social phenomenon and throws light upon a number of important problems incident to it. Especially does it become clear that the Jewish immigration, although in part the result of the same forces as have affected the general immigration and the separate groups composing it, differs, nevertheless, in certain marked respects, from the typical immigration. Some of these differences indeed are fundamental and far-reaching in their effects and practically stamp the Jewish immigration as a movement _sui generis_. Generally speaking, in the forces which are behind the emigration of the Jews from the countries of the Old World, in the character of their immigration--its movement and its distinguishing qualities--the Jewish immigration strikes a distinctly individual note. Three European countries--Russia, Austria-Hungary and Roumania--furnish the vast majority of the Jewish immigrants to the United States.[1] It is to these countries, therefore, that we must turn for light upon the causes of this movement. Geographically, these countries are closely connected; they form practically the whole of the division of Eastern Europe. Here the Slavonic races so largely predominate that the term Slavonic Europe has been applied to this section of Europe.