Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-08-10
THE RUSSIAN POLICE.
Their Black Shadow Falls Athwart the
HearthstoEe of Every One.

Their Black Shadow Falls athwart the
Hearthstore of Every One.
There is probably no country in the world
where the public power occupies a wider
field, plays a more important part, or touches
the private personal life of the citizen at
more points than it does in Russia In a
country Ike England or the United States,
where the people are the governing power,
the functions Of the police are simple and
clearly defined, and are limited, for the most
part, to the prevention or the detection Of
crime and the maintenance Of order in public
places. In Russia, however, where the peo-
pie are not the governing power, but hold to
that power the relation Of an infant ward to
a guardian, the police occupy very different
and much more important position
The theory upon which the government of
Russia proceeds Is that the citizen not only is
incapable of taking part in the management
of the affairs Of his country, his province or
his district, but is incompetent TO manage
even the affairs Of his own household and that,
from the time whep he leaves his cradle and
begins the struggle of life down to the time
when his weary gray head is finally laid
under the sod, he must be guided, directed,
instructed, restrained, repressed regulated,
and made to do generally what somebody
else thinks is best for him The natural out
come of this paternal theory of government
is the concentration of all administrative
authority IN the hands Of q few high officials,
and on enormous extension of the police
power.
Matters that in other countries are left to
the discretion Of the individual citizen, or to
the judgment of small group of citizens,
are regulated in Russia by tho minister of the
interior through the imperial police. If you
are Russian, and wish to establish a news
paper, you must ask the permission of the
minister of the interior If you wish to open
a Sunday school, or any other sort of school,
whether in a neglected slum Of St. Peters
burg or in a native village in Kamchatka,
you must ask the permission of the minister
of public instruction. II you wish TO give a
concert or 10 get up tableaux for the benefit
of an orphan asylum, you must ask permits
sion of the nearest representative of the min
lister of the interior, then submit your pro-
gramme of exercises 10 a censor for approval
or revision. and finally hand over the pro
ceeds Of the entertainment to the police, to
be embezzled or given to the orphan asylum,
as it may happen
you must get permission. be registered In the
books Of the police, and wear a numbered
brass plate as big as n saucer around your
neck. If you wish to open a drug store,
printing Office, a photograph gallery, or
book store, you must get permission. If you
are a photographer and desire to change the
location Of your place OF business you must
get permission If you are a student and go
to public library TO consult Lyells ''Princi-
pies of Geology" or Spencer's Social States,
you will find that you cannot even look ct
such dangerous and incendiary volumes with
out special permission.
If you are physician you must get per-
mission before you can practice, and then, IL
you do not wish TO respond to calls in tho
night you must have permission TO refuse to
go; furthermore, if you wish 70 prescribe
what are known In Russia as powerfully
acting medicines you must have special per-
mission or the druggist viii not dare to fill
your prescriptions
II you are a peasant and wish TO build
bath house on your premises, you must get
permission II you wish TO thresh out your
grain In the evening by candle light, you
must get permission or brihe the police. II
you wish TO go more than fifteen miles away
from your home, you must get permission
II you are foreign traveller you must get
permission to come into the empire, permis-
sion TO 60 out Of it, permission to stay In II
longer than SIX months and must notify the
police every time you change your boarding
place In short, you cannot live, move OF
have your being IN the Russian empire with
out permission KEENAN, in Century.