Daily Kennebec journal., 1898-02-21
Russian Agricultural Conditions.

ing emphasis in the later consular re-
ports filed at the state department.. 1t
is plain that in a vast and important
agricultural area of the empire recov-
full harvest in 1898 the peasantry will
still rest under an appalling burden
The shortage of 1897 did not differ
materially from the great shortage of
1921. and followed, according to Acting
Consul Smith, at Moscow zone which
still bore lamentable traces of the
dearth in the latter year. In other
words in y provinces the population
was still struggling with the enormous
Indebtedness to the government in
CURED for food supplies in 1912 when
the new disaster of 1897 came to crush
energy and hope. 1t is true that the
government afforded much relief from
the earlier burden by a ukase in June
1873. scaling down the food supply in
debtedness, and by an imperial mani.
festo in November, 1894. cancelng tn,
but the beginning of 1897 found these u
provinces still owing the government
the enormous total of $26. oo0, 600
This is depressing situation for th'
tiller of the soil. And serious pon
in connection With il is that the ad
mnistration in some Of the provinces
which are communal in their land hold
ings-having these figures in mind. ar.
endeaVoring in every possible way t,
decrease the new loans for which it i!
now necessary to apply. Where this i.
done To curtail liabilities. one effer
naturally Will he to curtail at the sam
time the volume of production and con
Sequent power to cancel old obliga
current taxes. Furthermore, province,
which turn from imperial to privat,
loans, as il is said some will do. vii
find the latter burden still more ink
some, while undermining their capa
biity to pay the debt incurred to tn,
government. Both people and govern
ment, therefore, are in dilemma from
which the present year cannot, undei
the most favorable circumstances
Wrest inspiration.
The chief obstacle to a fun develop
ment of Russia's grain -producn2
power lies in the conditions of govern
ment. which make. of the liberated serl
still virtual slave. All land. save tn,
house and kitchen garden. is owned by
the commune, and is periodically re
distributed in proportion to the family
muster of able-hodicd men and women
to work it. That which belongs to ON
belongs IL all. and this compulsory at
tachment to the soil carries with it a
bondage in fact if not in name This
bondage will disappear with another
generation, but its existence now is
not to be sainsaid.
HIS tOHbIt ION. u t!lOlSt, ma ItS II
in the abolition of serfdom. when Alex
ander H. decreed that the - 600 600
serfs owed compensation for freedom
to their former landlords. and con
sented to extend the payment of thc
ransom over a period of - years or
until 1910. To aid the peasants the
government issued to the landlords
bonds representing ur-fifths of the
total payment. leaving to the people
the payment of the remaining one-tifth
and interest to the treasury at five per
cent. on the four-fifths advanced. F0r
these charges, as we'll as all other land
duties and taxes, the commune is re
sponsibe. and levies assessments as
needed in proportion to holdings AdI
to this original burden. carried since
1861. the burdens forced by repeated
crop failure and new loans and the un-
happy state of the Russian farmer may
he readily comprehended
The government is good -nature;l
enough; but with its system of military
dcspotism and official espionage, its
educated class afraid of insurrection-
airy movements in every suggested le-
form. and it's uneducated class-in
which women labor as men and intel
l"ctual progress is ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
With superstitious reverence an au-
tocracy which is responsible for the
non-deVelopment at home of an en-
pire which is making rapid strides
abroad, it is plain that the Russian
peasantry cannot. during the present
generation, at least. reach a social level
or a financial independence that viii
make them successful competitors of
the American farmers of the great
Northwest