The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-01-24

the police courts and the provincial schools
and colleges. To this class OF taxes must
be added the cost of the revenue stamps
that are attached to every petluon ad-
dressed either to court or executive of1clals
and to passports Then the central govern
ment collects per capita tax from each
peasant of rubles a year, or the equlva-
lent of 81 so These various kinds OF taxes,
Including bribery, extortion and usury, ag-
gregate from 80 to 40 rubles year to the
Individual or $50.
Now let US get at the value of ruble to
Russian peasant. In the central provinces
peasant with horse can earn l ruble
day, or 80 cents, but he must find for him
SELF and animal. But the average peasant
does not earn more than $50 year, so the
Importance of $40 tax to him can be ap-
preclated at glance.
Michailoff. a writer tor a Russian maya
zine, has recently written OF some startling
| examples of this taxing of the peasantry.
He has collected statistics from eleven vii
lagos IN q small area in the province OF
Imalensk, that show that the uncollected,
but overdue, taxes for that territory are
ten times the actual valuation of the prop
| erty. Since no money could be found
among the peasants the officials
REsoRTED TO FLoGGING
IN an effort to squeeze it out of them. Each
| lnhaoltant was subjected 10 30 lashes
year for three years. That, at least. was
the average number of lashes, and If one
man missed his allotment his neighbor was
required to take double dose. AT Narva,
in the province of st. Petersburg, this
same author estimates the total income OF
the peasants to be 250,0 600 rubles year IN
the time Of an average harvest. But the
taxes during the same period amount to
1870 GOO rubles
For the past twenty years there has been
q gradual mpoverishment of the Russian
peasantry, during which time they have
been compelled to sell their horses and cat
tie, and their small farm improvements
have been going to ruin aud decay. There
has been starvation during the best years.
Whatever breadstuff was sent TO the gran
aries was stolen by the officials. 1t is the
emptying of the granaries that has brought
on the famine of 1892.
, The discomfort among the Russian peas
antry began to grow soon after their liberia
ton from serfdom in 1862, because they
were being deprived of sufficient land tc
MAINTAIN their existence and because they
; were compelled to pay 100 times the value
: of such land as was given them. The dis
content was the cause of the NihiilsiC
movement. The government, iii conse
, Quence, resorted to reactionary and oppres
f siye measures, so that before the death o
, Alexander IL. not a shadow of the reform!
5 that made that ruler famous remained
The reaction continues until to-day all hon
est, intelligent and educated men have beer
: driven from the government positions
, Only the vilest and most immoral element
remain in power men whom the Car ha
, to pay we'll for their loyalty. In return TO
this these hirelings are allowed to devast
f ate Russia. The Car is upheld by then
/ and the soldiery alone. The suppressor o
S local discomfort is given carte blanche t
S rob, burn or ravish the disseminated terri
tory. l know of hundreds of such cases.