Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-14

about the size of Boston, Warsaw is as big
as st. Louis and Odessa is a little bigger
than Cleveland. In addition to these there
are few cities of 100, 900 each and then
about 300 cities ranging from 10000 up to
30, 900 and about Is cities of from 30, 900 to
100000 in size. There are, however. more
than SOC, 900 peasant villages, and these
villages contain the vast peasant population
of the globe This immense number of peo-
pie impresses me more and more every dav,
and begin to realize what these numbers
may mean to u.s.
A Russian Village Is Typical,
If all the men, women and children on
gether, one in every ten of them would be
Russian peasant, and of all the land upon
the earth, they own and are scattered over
one-seventh of it. Only small proportion
of these many millions live outside of
Russia, and the village system and customs
are very much the same the whole Empire
over. Every Russian village is little
Russia in itself, and by the study of these
people and by look at one of their villages
you get fair idea of the whole Empire and
of this great Russian people. Of course
there are Asiatic tribes, and some of the
new Territories, as Finland and Poland, are
to a certain extent different from the pure
Russians, but the great Russia is a village,
Russia and the Russians as nation are the
peasants.
I was surprised during call which I
made on e1-Minister to Russia Lothrop at
his home in Detroit to hear him say that
Russia was the most republican country in
the world and that its people, to large e1-
tent, governed themselves find this to
be true. Each of the 800, 900 villages is
little Republic. Its Inhabitants elect their
own officers by vote, and its courts, for all
ordinary offenses, are managed by judges
elected by it. Every village has little
assembly of its own made up of one men,
Der to every five houses, and these men
manage the affairs of the village. The vii
lage, you know, owns the land, and this as
sembly divides this from time to time
among the people, giving each family GER
tain number of acres, according to the num-
Der in 1t and according to its working
power. After such division the lands are
left with the families to which they are
allotted until the next division, when they
revert to the village to be given out to the
same persons or to others as the assembly
may see fit. This assembly fixes the dates
of harvesting, the time for sowing crops and
it makes all arrangements as to the collec-
tion Of taxes.
The Government of the Gar taxes the
village lump sum, and this assembly ap-
portions this tax among those who should
pay it No one can leave the village with
out the permission of the assembly or with
out leaving behind him guarantee In
some shape or other that his share of the
imperial taxes will be paid, and a7drunken
good for nothing is often voted out of the
village entirely and his share of the village
lands goes back to the village. Each vii
lage elects two petty Judges, who settle all
small suits relating to sums of less than 50
and petty quarrels, and larger suits are set
tied up to q certain amount by q higher
court elected by a fixed number of villages
and formed into an assembly called ''the
yolost." Every thousand people among the
peasants have one of these assemblies and
the different villages making up the thous-
and elect delegates to them, and all dis
putes among the people of the village are
brought before this assembly and tried.
The power of the volost, however, is limited.
1t cannot try cases of more than $50, nor
can 1t imprison for more than seven days
In addition to these two petty courts
there are trials by jury, and these are courts
made up partly by judges appointed by the
people, and an appeal can be taken from
this to the higher courts at ST. Petersburg
and Moscow. The village assembly is
called the mir, the assembly made up of
enough villages to comprise 1000 popula-
tion is 'the volost," and above this there
il in each district third assembly of dele
gates elected by the nobility, the towns and
the villages of the district, and this as
sembly is called the zemstoo. and its busi-
ness is to take care of the roads of the dis
trict, to see that proper provisions are made
fo min IN off ~ aIv. Al
matters and to look after matters in which
all the people of the district are interested.
These Russian districts are good deal like
our counties and there are number of them
in each Province, which last is presided
over by Governor and his Council, ap-
pointed by the Gear.
Consider Once q Sort Of Curse.
1t will be thus seen that the people of
Russia have Q home rule system of their
own like ours, only more 50, in that the
most mino. matters are managed by it. A
Russian peasant can buy land if he has the
money, but the most of them have no prop
erty, outside of that they own in common
with their village, and the only estate the
average peasant has, is the little thatched
hut which covers an area of about 20 feet
square. They stick, however, very closely
to the common property, and will do any
tnins fasnet .nah ioSe suSH inSefrst III Tue
village to which they belong. Strange to
say, they are by no means anxious to hold
Office, and they consider an election as vii
lage policeman or elder rather a curse than
q blessing. Their village assemblies and
elections take place in the open air in one
long street Of the village, and they discuss
matters relating to their crops and their
government among themselves. They do
not realize, however, that they might 20
any further than they have now gotten in
the way of government, and they look upon
the DEGREES OF the Gear something as they
do on the laws of nature or those of
God, which could not possibly be changed.
The Russians resent the insinuation that
their serfs we're slaves, but the truth is
they were little more than that, and it is
not long since they were bought and sold.
FRANK G. CARPENrER.