The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-05-31
THE RUSSIAN POLICE.
me Almost Unlimited Field Occupied by
Its REPRESENTATIVES.

me Almost Unlimited Field Occupied by
Its Representatives.
There is probably no country in the
world where the public power occupies
wider field. plays more important
part, Or touches the private personal
lie OF the citizen at more points than
1t does in Russia. In country like
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,
Tor the most part, to the prevention or
the detection of crime, and the main
tenance of order in public places In
Russia, however, where the people 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 impor-
tant position.
The theory upon which the Govern
ment 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 dis
trict, but is Incompetent to manage
even the affairs of his own household.
and that, from the time when 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, instruct
ed, restrained, repressed, regulated,
fenced in, fenced out, braced up, kept
down, and made to do generally what
somebody else thinks is best for him.
The natural outcome of this paternal
theory OF government is the cOncentra.
ton OF all administrative authority in
the hands OF few high officials,
and an enormous extension of the DO
lice power. Matters that in other
countries are left to the discretion of
the individual citizen, or to the judg-
ment of a small group of citizens, are
regulated in Russia by the Minister of
the Interior through the imperial DO
lice. If you are Russian, and wish
to establish newspaper, 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. Petersburg or in a native village in
Aamchatka. you must ask the permits
sion of the Minister of Public Instruc-
ton. If you wish to give concert or
to get up tableaux for the benefit of an
orphan asylum, you must ask permits
sion of the nearest represent
alive of the Minister of the
Interior, then submit your pro-
gramme of exercises to censor for
approval or revision, and finally hand
over the proceeds of the entertainment
to the police. to be embezzled or given
to the orphan asylum, as it may hap
pen. If you wish to sell newspapers
on the street. you must get permission.
be registered III the books of the police,
and wear a numbered brass plate as
big as saucer around your neck. If
you wish to open drugstore, print
ing-office, a photograph-gallery or a
bookstore, you must get permission.
Ii you are photographer and de-
sire to change the location of your
place of business, you must get per-
mission. If you are student and go
to public library to consult Lyell's
principles of Geology" or Spencers
Social Statics," you will find that
you can not even look at such danger
Gus and incendiary volumes without
special permission. If you are ply
sician, you must get permission before
you can practice. and then, if you do
not wish to respond to calls in the
night, you mast have permission to re-
fuse to go; furthermore if you wish
to prescribe what are known in Rus
STA as 'pOwerfully-acting" medicines.
you must have special permission, or
the druggist will not dare to fill your
prescriptions. If you are a peasant
and wish to build a bathhouse on your
premises. you must get permits
sion. If you wish to thresh out
your grain in the evening by
candle-light, YOU must get permission
or bride the police. If you wish to go
more than fifteen miles away from
your home, you must get permission.
If you are foreign traveller you must
get permission to come into the En-
| pire, permission to go out of it, per-
mission to stay in it longer than six
months, and must notify the police
every time you change your boarding
place. In short, you can not live.
move or have your being in the Russian
Empire without permission. George
KEENAN,, in Century.