News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-04-07

cite the disgust OF all fair minded
men of all parts.
The Real Cause of the Russian
Famine.
The Russian famine, perhaps the
most terrible scOurge that the eau
cassian race has known in modern
times, is apparently, the slow but
sure outgrowth of the social condi-
tiou of that country. John McFeth-
ries, who for IA years lived in the
very provinces where peasants are
now starving by thousands, is of the
opinion that the trouble which has
been so long in coming, can only be
remedied and real prosperity brought
to the country after the lapse of
! years. Of slow growth, it will be
slowly wiped out, Mr.. McFethrie's
statement that the famine is not due
to failure of the crops will surprise
many, but the trouble is that no
seed was planted To understand
! the real pOrtent of the situation that
confronts the car one must 90 back
2l years to the day his father eman-
cipated 2S,00G,OO0 serfs amid the
plaudits of the Christian world.
America with her 100000 of eman-
, cipated blacks can understand some
thing of the problem which Russia
had before her TO solve, with five
times as many peasants, helpless,
sluggish and dOcile, to educate and
uplift. In the early years of the Rus
sian scheme, the government allot-
ted to each head of a family among
those e, 900, 900 serfs. eight acres of
land, and honestly tried to start the
peasant on a career of independence
and industrial freedom. But the
land thatWas given the peasants had
to be taken from the landed DrOnrie-
tors INl4ea- h+aa-haa4.- ++.44-t.,.......----
the emancipated class. Thus an an
tagonism arose at the start. The
freed serts were not fitted to battle in
such contest. Even in our country
the Southern blacks have had a dis
couraging experience, although SUD-
ported by the moral sentiment of the
nations strongest part. In Russia,
how much more unfavorable have
been the conditions Primitive meth
DDS of agriculture involving enor-
nous waste; a social system barbar-
lc and utterly obsolete in the civil
lied world of to-day; and a prodi-
glous standing army that is nothing
but cancer perpetually gnawing at
the vitals of the common people.
OF course the landed proprietors
were the best fitted of all to cultivate
the land, and before many years they
had practically regained possession
or control of all acres the car had
taken from them. Then came the
rent system. The peasants hired
land but even then they were not able
to cultivate it. As an instance: A /
few years ago early in the spring, a
certain landed proprietor of Tom
boff induced 100 peasants who rent
ed his land, to sign contracts to
work out their arrears of rent on his
private estate. The ignorant labor
ers readily signed and with what re-
suit? All that spring and summer
and fall until the winters snow had |
come those 100 peasants were forced !
to work on their landlords private
estate. They got no time to cult
vate their own land or to plant the |
seed in the autumn for the next years
wheat They were paying the rent !
for the land they were unable to cul- |
tlvate. Their wives, meanwhile, were
hired as agricultural labOrers also, |
and with what little they and the |
children could earn the families were I
kept alive. In the winter men left
their homes and sought the town to |
beg, and whole villages became de-
serted and dead. For 20 years the
Russian peasants have faced famine
IN a form more or less severe, but
ever growing in intensity. Not only
here and there were the peasants too
poor to plant seed, but last year fl
lally the time to quicken the earth
tor the coming harvest was passed
by in quiet by hundreds of thousands
whole provinces. Ofslow
growth, the matter has now reached
Crisis and no one can predict what
may be the outcome. Were the mas
SEES OF Russian people as intelligent
and quick-witted as those of other
nations are, q revolution would be-
ore this have swept the country.
innihilating the present form and
substance of society, and preparing
jhe cars dominiOns for a higher or
Ter of living; but blind obedience to
jhe mere outward show of authority
s too deeply implanted in their nat
Tres to make such a thing probable. /
Only the charity of a world, there
ore is able to cope with the present
rlsls. The landed proprietors are
ngulfed in the general wreck and
uln, and the ears government is
extremely inefficient in everything
'ut war, which is itself destruction
Ill that America can do, as she
Watches the movement of the grand
ragedy, is to contribute of it's boun-
y, and prevent what of suffering she
nay thus be able to.-Phpnix.