Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-22

,N& EXN%M the primitive system
NJ II MIN" of communal land
IN III Wk\ tenure which pre-
AA ~ walls in Russia, and
NJ that the first thing to
be done is to abolish
| that system end transform the peasants
into Independent farmers owning their lands
In severalty. Another party asserts that
the form of land tenure has nothing to do
with the PEASANTS impoverishment, that
the root of the evil is to be found in a
primitive method of cultivating the land,
rather than in a primitive method of hold
ing or distributing it, and that the best way
TO improve the moujik's economic condition
Is to furnish him with modern agricultural
implements and better seed and show him
now TO increase the product of his land by
means OF fertilization and greater intensity
OF culture. A third party contends that
neither individual ownership nor better
methods of cultivation will give prosperity
10 10 the peasant unless he can be freed from
the oppression of local usurers and specu
lators C'hsts"- and Commune eaters,1 who
nave reduced him to state of economic
slavery ana who now squeeze" him in his
iar ,e VI ua ~ need ana unjustly appropriate a
large part OF his earnings
Fundamental Defects.
Each OF these explanations is sunnortsd
Dy 1acts, and each Of them, doubtless con-
taihs an element Of truth, but 1t does not
seem TO be worth while to subject them
10 CRITICAL examination, for the reason that
from my point of view. they are not fun
u ~, Under them and back Of them
lie causes of much greater efficiency and
explanations that are far more reason.hIo
ana convincing. If the peasant were free
70 plan and regulate his own life. he would
thrive ana prosper, even under a com nunal
form OF land tenure. If he were properly
educated and informed he would see for
himself the defects In his present system
OF agriculture, and take suitable stems
70 remedy them Finally. If he were both
free and educated, he would not be long
In emancipatng himself from the control
or usurers and SPECTATORS
Every one. therefore, of the reasons
above assigned for popular impovershment
presupposes either lack OF freedom or a
lack OF knowledge, and IL is to these de-
nciencies, rather IMAM to their proximate
results. that desire to call attention The
unsatisfactory economic condition of the
Russian people is mainly attributable II
seems TO me. to two causes namely ~
oVer-regulation, restraint and interference
on the part of the government, ard CD ig-
norahce, encouragement and a sort of apa-
thetic hopelessness on the part of the gov
erned. - us
Too Many Bosses.
The Russian people in general, and the
peasants in particular, have always been
treated by the government as If they were
ignorant irresponsible and rather feeble
minded children, who were incapable of
independent action and rational self-control,
and who must. therefore. be subjected to
rigid system of administrative protection
and guardianship The theory upon which
the government proceeds, or seems to pro-
coed, Is that the citizen not only is in
competent to take part in the management
of the affairs of his country, his province
or his district but is incompetent even 10
manage 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. instructed, restrained,
regulated. repressed. fenced in. fenced out,
braced up, kept down and made to do gen.
orally what somebody else thinks is best for
him.
The natural outcome of this paternal
theory of government is, of course. stag
nation, apathy and the complete paralysis
of individual enterprise. 1t is well set
tied principle of intellectual growth and
development that faculties improve in pro-
the more and more successful adaptation
of means to ends which is the very essence
OF progress. depends largely. II not wholly,
upon the power of making a free and in
telligent choice between alternative courses
Of action. If you control and regulate
every act of a mans life and repress every
attempt that he makes to adapt means
to ends in accordance with his own obser-
the growth of his Intellectual faculties,
but you virtually kill the spirit of enter
prise upon which his progress depends and
turn him into a mere working machine.
You may by your system of rigid control,
prevent him from making mistakes that
he would perhaps make ii let alone but, on
the other hand, you compel him to bear
the burden OF all the blunders that you
yourself make in this field, owing to your
unfa miliarity with 1t, and you deprive him
of the advantages that he might derive
from successful experiments of his own.
The case of the Russian peasant is even
harder than that here assumed, for the
reason that he has twenty or thirty guar
dams instead Of one. The directions of a
single guardian may be consistent, one
with another, and may have a certain
definite unity of plan; but orders issued by
twenty or thirty different authorities are
likely to be so heteroger eous and conflicting
as to make obedience to them all disastrous,
If not absolutely impossible.
That obedience to the orders of his multi
farious bosses has been disastrous to
the Russian peasant appears with sufficient
clear css from the fact that ever since
ne ceased to be serf and became NOM
inally a citizen his history has been
recorc. Of increasing subJection to admin
istrative authority on the one hand and or
constar thy decreasing self-reliance, enter
prise ard prosperity on the other. until, at
last he has become a living illustration of
his own proverb that "a child with seven
nurses always grow up crooked
BurdensOme Restrictions.
There are at the present time no fewer
than twenty-five different local officials who
have something to say in regard to the
manner in which the Russian peasant shall
live, conduct himself and manage his bust
ness, and without permission from one or
more of them he can hardly take any I'M
portant step to improve his own condition
or promote the welfare of his neighbors.
If, for example, he wishes to go to the near
est provincial town in search of modern ag-
ricuitural implements,,or of a better market
for his products, he must apply to the po-
lice authorities for permission and must
wait patiently until they are ready to grant
It. If he goes more than twenty miles from
his home without the permission of the po
lice duly Endorsed upon his passport, he Is
liable to be arrested and sent back like an
escaped criminal by etape If he wishes to
migrate to another part of the empire he
must get the permission of the commune to
which he belongs, of the local police, of the
governor of the province and of the minis
try Of finance. II he desires to erect a bath
house on his premises he must have per-
mission. If his house happens to burn
down he must camp out in the streets until
he a rppllil1 he