Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-04-14
RDSS|IS Holy Fund.
GLARS EMPIRE HAS THE GREAT
EST TREASURE on EARTH.
Held For a Crisis-State and Church
Combine Ina Swelling the Hoard
1t is Believed to Reach Now Not
Less Than Four Thousand Million
Dollars.

LAY = e4A III - -
| al politics. 1t Is an almost universally
| accepted fallacy that the whole fabric
! of Russian imperial finance is in a
condition of chronic f1utter on the very
verge of bankruptcy. Accordingly the
comforting doctrine is preached, by
| way OF logical education. that the Gar
war, even if he were impelled to take
up a position hostile to any other of
the powers. This theory is Just n of
| those decisions which are apt to pre-
cipitate disaster. 1t is true enough
that the Slav Colossus has sufficient
incubi for all the energies even of SO
vast an organization as that magnif-
cent empire. But it cannot too soon
come to be comprehended that IL Rus
STA were provoked to fight, poverty
would not prevent her from yielding to
the provocation. Her hindrances are
many. Her interests in peace are sol
id. But for certain reasons, which the
imperial bureaucracy naturally does
not proclaim on the housetops, she
could far better afford to incur the
than Germany, Austria. or France.
Greates war Chest on Earth.
The Gar is the master of a vast gold
reserve. The Russian government has
at its potential disposal the largest Sc
cret gold deposit on earth. The Car
himself may not know how great is
this fund. 1t has been piling up for
many years, and it is quietly being in
creased every day. One of the cruel
causes of periodical famines in the east
central provinces of European Russia
is to be found in the rigid policy con-
nected with this steady and inexorable
boarding of immense sums collected
yearly, which are scarcely put aside
into the grand war Golfer. Each of
the great powers of the continent has
I its wal Golfer. At Spandau, in a vast
collection of iron cases, lies every n
of the millions of gold coins paid by
the French republic as a war indem-
nifty after the overthrow of the second
empire. 1t is by most people imagined
that this German war fund is the larg-'
est in the world. But Russia has long
been determined to provide n far in
| excess even of that colossal hoard. She
pursues her aim with answering de-
termination. Consequently, when bad
seasons come, and want oyertakes the
unfortunate peasants in certain dis
tricts, it is found that nothing has
been done which should have been ae-
complished by a paternal government
to prepare for the local exigency. The
money has been locked away. And
not a single kopeck of it is ever touch
ed. 1t will presently be shown why.
Frantic efforts have been made t., as
siSt the starving maujik. Various
agencies, private and public, are set go
ing, but the expedients are too late.
Roads ought to have been kept in or
der and supplies should have been ac-
cumulated. But such arrangements
would trench on the holy gold fund!
The lives of men are naught compared
with the preciousness of those sacred
rubles.
Astutest Masters of Finance.
The Russian exohequer system is the
most extraordinary ever heard of in
the worlds history. Some day, and a
day all too late. the rest of the world
will learn what a potent implement
has been prepared by the most astute
race of financiers on earth. To under
stand in an elementary way what Rus
sian finance means, as totally distin-
guished from that of am other nation
ality, we must grasp the peculiar Sig
nificance of the relation in Russia be-
tween church and state. The Erast.an
bond subsists in its various forms in
this country, in Germany and in mauy
another land. But the tie between the
secular and spiritual powers is ins.g-
nificant indeed outside of Russia.
There we have the c~hurch-stata theory
constantly carried out in full-blown
practice. The Car is Caesar and Pom
tiff at once, as were the Roman In
peratores. He is supreme head of the
Council of State and also head of the
Orthodox Eastern church. And this in
dissoluble bond is made the actual ba-
sis of the whole fabric Of national
finance. The real government of the
vast empire is a compound Unit. Il
consists of two conclaves, whica work
in absolute harmony and control the
whole of the greatest the whole of the
greatest of the worlds homogeneous na-
tionalities. Russia insists on homoge-
neity. Her territory must be all con-
terminous. Therefore she sold Alaska
10 America for a paltry consideration.
She nus have a unified bureaucracy.
But the unit Is dual. The church
comes into everything. And the
church comes into everything. And
the church find a very large portion of
0aorcr- uss,irh .c hair- c+aolfl- b1o-5