In many places the local authorities have even taken advantage of the new decree to deprive the Jews of rights possessed by them under older statutes. In Saratov, for example, a small number of Jewish merchants, professional men and artisans have been permitted to live and engage in gainful occupations since 1893, under the terms of a special Ukase issued in that year, although the city, being outside the Pale, is closed to Jews in general. The regulations, however, required that the Jews obtain special passports from the police department certifying to their right of residence in Saratov, and special permits from the local license boards, based upon the police certificates, authorizing them to engage in their several occupations. But now that the Pale has been “abolished” the police officials have discontinued the issuing of special certificates, claiming that since all Jews have been granted the right of residence throughout the Empire the need for issuing such certificates to individual Jews no longer exists. Yet the license boards persist in their demand for such certificates from the Jews and have, to date, absolutely refused to grant them the necessary licenses without which they cannot continue in their occupations. In other words, the Jews of Saratov now have the legal =right to live= in that city, but are denied the legal =right to secure the wherewithal to live.=[10] =5. The promulgation of the abolition act, designed to mislead the public opinion, and thereby to win the sympathy, of the civilized world, has not misled the people of Russia.= This is clearly indicated by the typical expressions of editorial opinion which follow; and at this point it may be well to remind the American reader again that in Russia, more than in any other country, the press must weigh its words carefully, since editorial missteps have serious consequences. The “Russkoe Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, condemns the measure as a half-way measure, as a substitution of one Pale for another, “even though it be granted that the new Pale is larger than the old.” It demands =the full abolition of the Pale—“that greatest misfortune of Russian life.”= “Unfortunately,” it continues, “we tend to repeat our mistakes only too often. When we do ‘submit’ to the demands of life we do so either too late or with such indecision and so grudgingly that in the end, instead of evoking real satisfaction, we not infrequently evoke a feeling of misunderstanding or produce an effect which is the very opposite of the one intended. Yet an act can be valid and precious and achieve its highest aim only when it is done in good time, cheerfully, frankly, straightforwardly and with decision—as befits a government that is strong and sure of itself.”