Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-05-09
|PIRIT OF THE PRESS
kCTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
THE CRISIS IN FINLAND.

The dumb revolt of the Finnish people
ainst the complete Russianizing of
cir country and its institutions has
hched its most critical stage. Hitherto
e Finnish army has been recruited of
ms, Differed by Films and held for
twice in Finland. Russia has deter
ned upon absorbing it into the Rus
hn army, offering it with Russians
d detailing 1t for service anywhere at
e direction of the Russian government.
1t is about this recruiting edict that
|e present struggle centers. Finnish
stors refused to read it in their
urches, according to law, ana re-
gned rather than comply with that re-
irement. The Communal government
fused to cooperate by appointing rep
sentatives on the recruiting boards,
bd submitted to heavy fines imposed by
|e Governor General rather than par
tipate in the work. Finally the re-
TUFTS, when officially summond, either
fused to present themselves, or, if
ley did so, refused to take the oath.
he Russian government has turned its
ossacks loose upon the unprotected
Fople of Helsingfors, the old Finnish
hpital, and there has been bloody street
ghting there and at Viborg. Now a
ew imperial rescript has been Issued
Intending the recruiting period and
farming the Finnish people that if they
Ill to obey the military regulations the
buntry will be put under martial law.
eanwhile, all the Films who can get
WAY are emigrating as rapidly as posi-.
lie. The departures are reported to num-
|er from 500 to 1900 week.
1t is impossible to reconcile the de-
|potism which is being forced upon Fin
Ind, the shameless disregard of Old
Hedges and the cruelty shown there and
Elsewhere in the Russian Empire with
THAT is known of the personal charac-
|eristcs of the present Gar, who is a
|bver of peace and a man of kind and
generous impulses. The only solution
|ffered which has any appearance of
is that he is persistently de-
|eived by his advisers, who keep from
b i'm all intelligence of what is done and
(llow no petitions or protests to reach
him. With no rights of popular as
|embly, with no parliament through
which the grievances of the people can
ind hearing, and with a strongly in
|renched bureaucracy wreaking its own
will in the name of the Car, the situa.
Jon in Russia is desperate. - Boston
Journal
MR.. CARNEGIE ON THE PHILIPPINES.
LET 'em 60" is the substance of An
lrew Carnegie's opinion.
He declares, In an article in the North
American Review, that the situation in
he Philippines presents to President
Roosevelt his great opportunity to be-
come, as some predict. the "Man of Des-
tiny" He has only to copy President
words to the Cuban and full
Ill them. Mr.. Carnegie believes, with
Mr.. Schurman and Admiral Dewey, that
he Filipinos are fitted for self govern
nent. lie holds that a great mistake
was made by our government in retain
ng possession of the islands. and says
hat it would have been done had not
President Mckinley suddenly, sin mo
nent of alteration" reversed his policy
in opposition to the views of all his
cabinet.
1t is impossible in the tropics for q
superior race to completely mould OF
adapt an inferior race to its own idea;
and methods. British influence in India
for example, so far as it relates to the
possible modification of the Hindoo civ
ilzation, is only skin-deep, The invad
ers. even after nearly 200 years of occu
patton, do not take root in the soil. Blu
while the Hindoos are fixed in their Gus
toms, they have imbbed to some appAr
ent purpose, with qualification of theil
own, Western notions of political pro
gress. They know about George Wash
ington and about our Declaration o.
Independence, and. when their confidenc,
is gained by the discreet traveller, they
proudly declare that they, too, will b(
free some day, like the Americans.
In the same Oriental and tropical zone
Mr.. Carnegie says, we Americans ART
today holding the Filipinos back from
the autonomy that they desire and tC
gain which they so ardently fought thu
Spaniards. On the 4th of July last w
prohibited the reading of the Declaration
of Independence to them. The worl
that we are engaged in there, says Mr.
Carnegie Indignantly, "requires suppress
sion of American ideas hitherto hell
sacred" He adds that if he were dem
ocrat he would base the opposition cam
paign ''largely upon this order and asl
the people if they wished presiden
capable of suppressing the reading o
the Declaration of independence in an,