Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-03-25
THE CARBON OF MouJ,Ks.

oven incompatible czardoms, that Of
the Gar and that of the Mouiiks.
The former is an extreme type of the
patriarchal, monarchical and despotic
state, and the latter is an extreme type
of democracy. A natural and newt
able collision between the two, par
ticularly after the liberation of the
serfs, is at the bottom of the revolu-
tionary movement in Russia, known
under the name of Nihilism. The
whole world has witnessed how in q
DECADE the Cars autocracy, the most
absolute Government of our time, has
dwindled into shadowy power, such
as formerly was possessed by the Mi
kado of Japan. Indeed, it is acurious
historical fact that while the Mikado
was getting transformed into verit-
| able Gar, the Gar was shrinking into
an invisible and impotent Mikado
When people abroad speak of Russia
they usually mean the czardom of the
Gar, for the czardom of the Moujiks
remains terra G7sc0g7ajta, and yet IN it
| e the strength, wealth and hope of all
the Russias. People say here that the
Gar is going to reform the peasantry.
1t seems to me that you m ght as well
| talk of a skeleton clad with medieval
armor leading robust country youth
of our day. There are many unm4 stalk
able signs that even if the Mill SITS
were petrifed, the czardom of the Gar
would pass away and the czardom of
| the Moujiks expand and flourish.
For over five years an lmper. al Com
mission has been sitting here, charged
with the duty of revising and reforming
the local government; and yet, except
collecting some crude material ON the
| question, it has done nothing. And, in
fact, if it should sit twenty-five years
more it would be no nearer the attain
ment of its object than it is now The
trouble lies in the very nature of the
undertake ne. The Moujiks by them
selves constitute an organized and solid
political body, which existed before the
Cars appeared in h story, and which
VII 1--we after the Cars have, along
with the Pharaohs, become historical
ballast To bring about perfect har-
mony and understanding between
the Moujlks and the Gar would
L
thing as reconcIling the people of
the United States to king. A Russian
village is Republic in miniature Its
administrative, judicial, and economi-
cal affairs are conducted by t1e vii
layers themselves, and on plan in di-
rect opposition to the spirit and letter
OF the Imperial laws. Now, what the
Commission is expected to accomplish
is to place the village under the inmedi-
ate control of the Crown officers. That
would be a job to which even the anti
NIhlhst struggle could not hold can
die. Two years ago four Senators, to-
gether with a number of learned Drofes-
sorS and lawyers and scores of clerks.
were sent to study the Mouths and
their system of government. They
have brought back here tons of written
| papers. The substance of their Weiehty
record is that ''the Mouiik is u1man-
ageble." But it was an urgent question
how to manage the Moujik, and 20 the
Government ventured to call few lit
tie Parliaments in order to solve that
momentous issue. A number of Gov
errors were ordered to come here and
give their views. The Governors an
swered that they needed bigger sala-
/ ries, for it was hard task to marage
the Moujiks. The Governors were dis
missed, and number of former serf-
holders were called in. They limited at
policy which amounted almost 70 the
restoration of the old regime. In their
turn the Moujlks ought to be consulted.
But who does not Know their
mind? LET us alone?' that is
what the Moujiks have repeated for
centuries. With each century. the
number Of middlemen that swarm
around the Mouiiks has increased. A
hundred thousand clergymen stand be-
tween the Moujiks and their God.
Hundreds of thousands of civil and
military officers stand between them
and their hereditary cOnqueror, the
| Gar. Hundreds of Thousands of
merchants stand between them and the
consumers of their products. These
middlemen would have eaten the
Moujiks all up long ago if they lad not
| possessed almost miraculous vitality.
The census of Russia in 1882 showed
that there were q, 203, 907 horses in that
country, and that of this number the
peasantry owned only 2, 437, 555. AS there
are over 100000 peasant families.
therefore out of every five families only
one has horse. But a farmer who
has no horse Of his own cannot con-
duct his farm with profit to himself. If
the Moujiks did not hold land in COM
mon they would certainly have become
a body OF beggars long ago AS the
Imperial tax collectors seize and sell
for taxes horses, oxen, COWS, sheep and
pigs, SO the number of domestic ami
mails is rapidly decreasing among the
peasantry. Nevertheless, the hus-
bandry OF the Moujiks is far better de-
veloped than that of the Car. Nearly
all the arabic land of Russia is now in
the hands of the peasantty, chiefly
owned and partly rented They buy
the land collectively, either as COM
munes OF as associations
In PLACES where the Mouiiks manage
to save something, after paying the i'm
perial tax collectors, they appear at
their best. There they have schools,
hospitals, loan and savings institutions,
granaries, modern agricultural imple-
| montS and Soma Factories Dhuo in