The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-09-06
SOCIALISTS STIR
CARS DOMAIN,
Manufacturing Districts From
kieff to Baku Are Settling
With Active Discomfort.
GOVERNMENTS DUAL POLICY.
Secret Police of st. Petersburg
Fail il Efforts to Educate
Peasants to a Sense
OF Loyalty.


London. Sept. 5.-The obscurantist tradi
tions Of the Russian bureaucracy, which
still .cherishes toward public opinion thai
mingled terror and contempt shared by al
Continental Governments before thu
French Revolution. render 1t difficult II
obtain information which 10 at once full
and authentic concerning the domestic al
fairs of that empire.
But in these days even the most rigor'
eous censorship and the most drastic police
methods canno wholly shroud from tbs
outside world the incidents OF q deep
seated social movement which Is disturb
ing the Internal economy OF a great Eu-
ropean State.
Before the invention of railways and
telegraphs and the organization of finance
and upon International lines, II
might lave been possible to accomplish
what the Russian officials are now yainly
| attempting 10 do, n to hush up for 6
season the proofs that the country is suf'
fering from the most formidable labor
crisis in her history. and that the efforts
of the Government to cope with 1t have
hitherto been marked failures.
Now the news leaks out daily through
a hundred channels. and the only result
OF the desperate attempts which are made
to represS 1t Is to demonstrate the i'm
potence Of the bureaucracy and all theiE
spies and policemen TO stihe what thou
sands are eager to repeat.
To fbo a,-g fg f,,1o,,rota NJ - C0arGf cd
in some particulars the Russian Govern
ment has only itself to thank. In.
formation which is treated as c~optraband
Is not likely to be biased in favor of the
authorities.
Whatever may be the exact truth; as to
the details. there can. be no reasonable
doubt that the actual situation over a
great part of the empire Is grave beyond
all precedent.
All the manufacturing districts of
Southern Russia. from Kieff on the west
to Baku on the shores of the Caspian,
are seething with active discomfort, and
the discomfort Is not confined to this re-
gion, or TO the manufacturing population
alone.
Grusscn by the peasants OF his estate.
in the Province OF T~chernigoff. has its
parallel in the similar crime perpetrated
on the persons OF Prince Gagarin. his wife,
Province OF Riaxan. hundreds OF miles
further north. The Governor of the
OWN OF Ufa has been murdered under
the shadow of the Trials, and the prisons
prisoners. who largely belong to that most
dangerous OF all classes. the Intellectual
proletariate.
MILITARY TRIALS AT MOSCOW.
The very forces of the state are not
themselves untainted.
There were military tsials at Moscow
not many weeks since for revolutionary
agitation in the army and it 10 wen al
legged that several members of the crew
Of the imperial yacht. including some non-
commissioned officers. are at present in
detention in the capital for being In pos
the Stan6art herself
Baku and Kloff. however, sem to have
been the chief centres of the extensive
phase of the agitation, though similar
symptoms have broken out in almost all
the large manufacturing and commercial
towns Of the South, including Batum,
Tifis, E~lizabetgrad, Kharkof, Ekaterfu-
oslaff, Nikolaien and Odessa.
The disturbances at Baku and in the
~neighhoring oilfelds date back at least
as far as July Is, as even the Russian
They began with a strike in the single
factory. which rapidly spread to all the
Industrial undertakings of the town. For
i've or six days the city nj n~eighborhood
WSAe tAtt VI Tic SLlLRtTE. MIC
are said to have exceeded ls.ooe in NUM-
Der, while the authorities had but COO men
at their command
For ten days the railway trains and
tram cars ceased running, and for two
nights the streets were plunged In dark
ness It Is to the credit OF the men that
lootins I'D not extend beyond the first
days 1t was confined to the houses of the
managers. all of whom isft their posrss
when the disturbances began.
Ffring the oil. wells and w~recking trims
and the hoes to the oil industry alone has
been locally estimated at J2,001yO0o ruhleg
Troops have been hurried TO Baku, and
me assistant Minister OF the Interior has
deemed IT. prudent 10 visit the disturbed
district. where over 500 strikers are now IN
prison. In Kien severe street fighting &C.
L lie said that sixty persons were killed
and nearly 1eo. severely wounded. The
crowd on which the Cossacks fired
= stated tc have numbered 2.06: but
Jour wounded. the riofine appears to nave |
resumed with greater determination
ever on the following day.
~ Nikolaien, the Governor is reported |
haye beer hurt. Here. too. the troops
were OBLIGED to have recourse to their fire.
firms. killing. We are told. twelve Of the |
Tioterg and wsunding 200.
hrought to a staudstfI. and a serious con.
1ict has taken Place between several hum |
!red Ccssacks n a body OF Social DEMO- |
Eats, again resulting in the loss of several /
Ives and Injuries to hundreds of the strfk-
II fs impossible TO form a. Trustworthy
ultimate eithersof the number engaged in |
he disturbances or OF the number of the |
who have been shot II
But O Kteff manufacturer computes the
.ctal OF the man who have come ont at
.sId that some 100 have been killed and
'rily 1900 seriously wounded.
CONSCIOUS OF STRENGTH
The Government appears TO have been
attempting to practice a double policy to-
ward the labor movement. which now for
he frst time ID growing conscious o. its
strength.
Pm the one hand NJ. Tifte seems to have
attempted mors than two years ago to
solye tae problem by discovering the real
tosy hards.
ils the result of a conference Instituted
70 eject spokesmen who might confer
the manufacturers and the GovsSn-
inspectors.
hut the new scheme has not been fairly /
spple9. while & childish attempt has seea
msfee DT the r~eaetionarfes to convince the |
werksrsnaen that their best friends are
.nit enlightened middle classes.
AZ several cases the men have elected
ln!nr representatives. only TO see them
suitlected TO summary arrest while any
spirptned aetion by the men employed IN
nl.erept factories Is severely punished.
en the other hand. the secret police Of
sditcate the Nqrkmen. IN loyalty to tie ex-
fn5ufutf00E Of the country by fell |