The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-05
SIGNS OF THE TIMES IN RUSSIA
The Revolt Against Socialism and the
 Development of the Middle Class.

New York Tribune.
 European Russia is just now the scene of various social and industrial move nents which must be regarded as highly significant. It IS true that for many years people have frequently been saying, Lo' here!' and 10, there!' in Russia, an ticipating the dawn of vast revoln:l ,il, and the evolution has not come But even upon the seemingly endless plans of Russia there is no road so long but that it has turning The longer the in the future it must be. It may not let us hope it will not-be violent one. But 1t will come. It must come Hu, manity forbids that vast people snai, remain forever in the saualid degradation l which is the state of the Moujik millions. Turgenieh was fond of likening the M on- 1ik to the Sphinx. For every Sphinx the'e | sooner or later is an Oedipus,
 One of the marked signs Of the times Is the revolt against socialism. At pres | ent there is what is regarded as com- munty of ownership in land. Ine so- called Mir system makes every vliage a commune. Each peasant has his allot- Ment, but he is unable to consider IL ms own. It belongs to some great lana own er or to the Mir. or to the Little Father, or to some one else than the occuple.: % the latter takes no interest in it. save to get his living from it in hand-to-modth fashion. He will not make permanent im- provements upon it, for he thinks that as soon as he has done so he may pc eVlc.oo ,,,o one else. Critics of socialism have long maintained that such would be the re suit of communistic ownership or iano. Russia proves 1t to be so It is hope ful sign that agitation has begun for the abolition of the village commune ana the Reorganization of society on an lndlVid- ualist instead of a socialist basis. If sucn see the Moujik acquire habits of energy and thrift such as have hitherto been Sd conspicuously and so disastrously lack ing. ., |.
 Another important sign of the times , IS the development of @ land-owning mldoie class-the bourgeoise so hated by social ists This is being done at the expense of the hereditary nobility. which has hitherto largely monopolized real eSta.s Nis.s In fact, a large proportion of the Mrs or village communes. are settled as ten, ants upon the great landed estates ol nobles. Profigacy and extravagance as well as other causes have compelled many of the nobles to sell their estates fol what they will fetch under the hammer of the auetioneer In seven of the Nolgs provinces, six of them among the mos dsnsely pSpulated h, m the tp eR,re ore ere thar 2242 square miles of land an area hearl. half as large as the State Of Connectlcul In such sales Jews and foreigners ar' lneligible as purchasers. The lana tnere lore goes, usually in lots of moderat size. to what we may term the m1ddl class. which is thus gaining substantia fcotine and much influence. Beyon' doubt. if such class shall become dom inant in Russia peaceful ana pehencIa revolution will be effected.
 Perhaps the most interesting feature the case. at least to the disinterested an, philosophic observer, is the fact that botI These significant movements are distinct ly anti-socialistic It has been suppose that socialist principles are strongly root ed in Russia, and that the natural chang of system in that country would be l tbe direction of the commune. Such nov seems not to be the case. The MouJlk are turning against even such measure z sCcialism as they have. for they war low nership of land by indiViduals ana nc bv the Mir any more than the heredlta| noble or by the CZar; and the decline C the nobility is met by a correspondll rise of bourgeoise an element Whlch ahove all antagonistic to socialism. sue zrnovements are suspicious above any OUT ore of recent years. They do not thre al an a violent revolution, which Tn RusSl Uould he an indescribably terrible thlhs pather do they promise the estabhshme1 of a state of things which will enaol
 ,nd encourage some liberal-minded Cza tn break away at last from the trai
 tionel Russian system" which since th dave of Peter has made successive auto
 crste it's slave as it has made the Ru'
 sian neople its victims. When such lndt
 nendence of the system" Is attaine'
 throngh the development of such move
 ments as these, there will not be lackln
 s,atesnen to act upon It.