Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-01-30
NOVEL NIHILISTIC APPEAL
A SUBJECT OF THE CAR APPEALS TIC
OUR SENATORS.

| EAtradltion Ireaty-Ihe Nihilistlc Pro-
pAganda as Worthy the Plan of Cam
paIgn In IreIand-Our National States
men Slow in Getting to Work
| WASHINGTON CITY, Jan 30-A plea for
the rejection OF the proposed extradition
treaty between the Russian and United
States governments has been sent to Senator
Joseph r. Hawley, and Mr.. T. S. Heath, u
newspaper correspondent OF this city, by
Sergius NJ. Stepnak, the Russian exile, Nj
hilist and revoutionist, now located in Lon
don, whom these gentlemen met in Russia
| last summer. Stepniek makes special re-
/ quest that the matter be laid before the son e
ate committee on foreign relations, and it is
/ considered one Of the strongest IL not most
violent arguments that could be made against
an alliance between this and the Russian
| governments.
Stepinak, who is a noted author, lays down
as his text that it is the rule with all civilized
nations that nobody can be condemned with
out being heard in his defense, and that the
projected extradition treaty with the Russian
government if ratified by the American sem
ate, will be u wholesale condemnation to cap
ital punishment, and worse, of any number
of Russian patriotic people, designated as Nj
hilists, who may seek refuge from the despot-
ism of the czar. He compares the Nhilistic
party in Russia with the Irish Nationalist or
home rulers. The Russians want to over
throw the cars despotism, to break the yoke
of the autocratic bureaucracy, and to estab-
lish national representative assembly or
government by the people-an object similar
to that which the Irish are striving for in
their native country under the title of home
rule, and which, Stepniak says, receives the
plaudits of the American people.
Ha ralls attantiOn n the fact that the
work of the Nihilists or revOlutioni5ts, in
Russia is similar to that of the home rulers
in Ireland, and says they are granted much
less latitude than the subjects of Great Brit
ain, and for advocating free speech and free
education, and change in the form OF gov
ernment they are exiled to Siberia or exc
cuted like criminals of the most brutal type
He holds that the United States government
would be a party to these expressions and
crime in the name of the car of Russia If it
formed the alliance contemplated in the ex-
tradition treaty to come before the senate.
To show that the Instincts of American citi- |
zens naturally turn against tho oppression IN
Russia, Stepniak cites the fact that nearly |
all Americans who visit the cars country |
become sympathizars with the revolutionists |
there and not only write and speak against |
Russian despotism, but actually tender out |
side assistance. Should the treaty be ratified, |
therefore, it would be in opposition to all |
Americans who understand its meaning, and |
through ignorance on the part of the senate.
Many citations from history and newspa-
per accounts, and the official reports of Rus
sian officials are made, showing that the po-
litcal offenders which this treaty is intended
to take from the United States to the parent
country are tried before military courts
without having either counsel or witnesses,
and that there are determinations in trials
and punishment Of the most cruel order
against people who take issue with the pres
ent form of government over those who COM
init murder and crimes of the baser sort
that while the murderer is given jury trial,
the man who advocates education, or change
in the form of government is tried before
court martial, and denied all the rights of
counsel, witnesses, etc, and the accused is
even denied the name of the accuser, and is
prevented from even proving an alibL He
holds that the present oppression and form
of government are maintained only by
force of the military, and the exercise OF the
most unreasonable, Obstinate and free use of
crown power.
The benefits to be derived from the treaty,
he says are all on the side of the Russian
inasmuch as criminals from the
United States can not gain admission to Rus
Sia under the present order of things, and
there can be no more effect on the part of the
United States in securing the ratification of
the treaty than indorsing the tyranny of the
car.
Stepniak declares that regicide and political
assassination in general are not the only form
of activity of the Russian rebels or Nhists
They publish and circulate clandestine pa
pers and pamphlets and the effective men and
women do not defend the principle of assassin
alton. Under the present sy stem of censorship
the public press of Russia can not give utter
ance to anything showing the oppressive
acts of thegovernment and while the Euro
pean papers are indignant at the barbarouS
suppression by the Cossacks' whips and the
butt ends of soldiers guns, of the pure, schol-
arly disturbances in the Russian univ ersites,
and the killing of several disarmed students,
the Russian papers are not allowed to say
about it. Girls of II and Is, and
boys of IA years of age are exiled to Siberia
because their brothers were killed by the
zendarmes, and it is expected that the
younger ones of the families are likely to
with them. The faintest suppo-
rtion Of sympathy with revoutionists is
to condemn to death or exile any
one.
In concluding his long and vigorous argu
nent against the ratification, Mr.. Stepinak
ays: "After being first TO proclaim the right
il TeDelllOLt Will Juu Us lllSb " daSoIb dJ .
md of "A century the divine right of kings and
,mperors to trample down all that men hold
most sacredi for this is the only standpoint
rom which rebellion in any form is blama- =.
Die in Russia of to-day Or do you consider
IS, Russians to be lower race, which has no
light to feel like other men do, and to wish
'or what other men have wont There is no I
whatever in this treaty. No 7
American criminals can escape to Russia.
The Russian revolutionists who flee to Amer t
ca come to stay but temporarily; then they
ecretly return to their country and re-
ume their work anew. OF the men who took
my part in the conspiracies during the h
asst ten years there are actually in America n
lot more than five or six scattered all over the a
tates The material harm the extr tradition Il
reaty could intict upon Russian revolution il
s absolutely Insignificant But the moral +
fleet will be very great one. 1t will not ii
stop or in any way diminish the so-caned ,
crimes II Nihilists If the Americans do v
lot wish to take the lead and set an example h
n supporting dying-out, discredited des- i
'otism over young, hopeful nation of 10O,- L
90 900; if they do not wish to assume upon T
themselves the moral responsibility for new n
thousands of wrecked lives, they must reject
his monstrous alliance, and the more unani-
nously, the more emphatically they do it the
etter it will he for the common cause of hui n
nanity." j