Arizona republican., 1904-07-29
The St. Petersburg Tragedy.

The assassination of NJ. de Plehve yesterday. ended the life of the most powerful official of the Russian empire. Nomjnslly the czar is supreme. His Rlese nod is sufficient to sentence Guy of his subjects to death. from the highest grand duke to the lowest peas ant. Eicholos. however, is an autocrat only in the law. Good of heart, anx- ious above everything else to have peace. lacking the mind and force of character to be emperor in fact. he has but little voice in the government. More potent than the czar is the olig- archy of grand dukes. More powerful than all was de Plehve. minister of the interior. By grace of the empress dowager, mother of the czar. de Plehve has been Russia for the last six months.
 He rose from obscurity only so re- gently that the world has learned little of his antecedents, although he had held many important offices. He was a protege of M. de Witte, minister of finance, until he began to cast a shad ow across de Wittes path. NJ. de Witte and Count Lamsdorff. the minis ter of foreign affairs, are the most en- lightened statesmen in the service of the czar. But being so unfortunate as to have liberal tendencies, they have found their influence more and more cur;ailed. They were forced to yield first place to de Plehve, the idol of the reactionaries.
 Responsibility for the war lies at de Plehve's door. Alexieff in the far east and de Plehve at St Petersburg made it impossible for the czar and mikado to reach an understanding. Aexieff and de PIehve believed that the Japan ese were only bluffing and would back down at the last minute. Their ig- norance of Japan's readiness for war was like British ignorance of South Africa prior to the Boer war. And in any event, de Plehve and Alexieff thought. Russia would quickly crush Japan. With theme were the grand dukes and the czar's mother. The help less, bewildeTed Czar was putty in de Plehve's hands. Under de Plehve's iron rule I.zmsdorff and de Witte have been little more than government clerks. These facts establish beyond cOntrover- sy that de Plehve was a great man. Had he not been the most stubborn of reactionaries his remarkable talents might have been an inestimable bless ing to Russia. But he was the incar- nation of the spirit of despotism which has ruled Russia since that other ghastly tragedy in the streets of St. Petersb burg twenty-three years ago, when Alexander II was assassinated as was de Plehve yesterday.
 IL would be well, indeed, if the dark chapter covered by these twenty three years were to end with the death Of de Plehve. but there is no reason to hope for a change so fortunate. Re forms do not come through the bomb Of the anarchist, as was demonstrated when Alexander fell. That emperor
  condition of his people. He had liber- ated twenty million slaves, and on the very day of his assassination had com pIeted a scheme fo constitutional gov crnment in Russia. His son, father of the present czar, reversed the liberal policies of the preceding reign. Ab- solutism, government by administra- tive process, the exile of thousands Of Russia's brightest men and women to Siberia, made up one of the darkest periods in Russian history. The pres ent emperor, amiable and benevolent as he is, has no sympathy with the as- pirations of his people. He believes de- voutly that he is the divinely appoint ed autocrat of his empire, and de Plahve worshipper of this theory of divinity was his ideal lieutenant.
 It is altogether probable that the as- sassination of de Plehve will, therefore,