Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-03-24

Nv
that a strong government over large
territory is not infrequently a great
benefit to humanity if it is just gov
eminent. So long as Rome was gov
erned for the promotion of the general
welfare OF it's people, it prospered, but
when corruption and commercialism
came in power the people were OPP
pressed, and the Roman empire went
down forever.
1T is the character of government
and not it's form that keeps the masses
happy and contented. Mexico, our
near neighbor, is republic in form but
monarchy in fact; the people, how
ever are happy and prosperous. /
make this allusion to Rome to show
that the vastness of the territory of
Russia and the monarchial form of its
government have nothing to do with
this subject for The object of govern
ment is the promotion of the general
welfare of the people, and this they
have attained.
MY attention has been called to the
absence of law and order in Russia as
shown by the massacre of the Jews at
kisheniff, but what is this to the hor-
rors Of the French revolution? Is Rus
STA the only country that has had
trouble with the Jews? This affair
Neh.' ioSdl. SOISluGI lHt vast oollluii
and -yet man may travel in safety and
be courteously treated all over it.
Again, why bring up this Kisheniff
matter when so recently the governor
of Ohio sent thirteen companies of
militia to Springfield to maintain order
and save the colored men from ex-
termination after one of them had been
hanged without trial and the homes of
large number of others had been
, q 11,nc
for of government for the trial of per-
sons accused of crime, yet down in the
state of Kentucky a bright young man
has been confined in Jail for two years,
convicted in due and legal form of law
and sentenced to be hanged for a crime
that not an honest man outside of that
immediate district believes him guilty
OF. Here we have a form of govern
ment unobjectionable but with char
acter deplorable. Settle this matter at
home before you find fault with Russia,
for judged in the light of civilization
of the age in Europe, Russia is justi-
fed in her conduct of expansion and
character of government. With this
land she has furnished homes for her
people, eighty per cent of whom in Eu-
ropean Russia are farmers. The ex-
tensive valleys of Siberia are covered
with wheat fields and the great plains
with fine horses, cattle, sheep and
swine. Her vast mines and manufac-
turing interests are being rapidly de-
veloped. Many beautiful cities, fine
universities, and other public buildings
are built. She has more than thirty
thousand miles of railroad, nearly five
hundred miles of canal; they have cost
her more than two hundred millions of
dollars. She has more than thirty
thousand miles of navigahle streams
with many thousand vessels plying in
the trade. Her people are happy and
prosperous. Few of their people are
beggars or paupers and considering
her vast population she sends the
smallest percentage of immigrants to
us of any other country in Europe, and
they make industrious, peaceable, pros
porous, law-abiding citizens. Like our
selves she believes in protection to
home industries and products feeding
and clothing her own people and devel-
oping her country from her own pro-
ducts first and the surplus Of her ST.
than one hundred million bushels per
annum, makes her our most active
competitor in, the wheat markets of
Europe. She buys abroad only such
things that she cannot produce at
home, and this system is causing the
people and the nation to become very
progressive. Now it seems to me I
nave SHOWN SOOu MANY SuDStdnLlal
reasons why Americans should at
least be the warm friends and admirers
Of Russia in a general way.
Nov, why are we under such last
ing obligations to her as a nation? She
has always been our unselfish friend I'M
der all circumstances. In 1916 before
King George hired the Hessians to as
sist England in trying to subdue us,
he applied to Catherine, who was then
n,,, 0f tnr, o,,I
troops for that purpose. These ma
lions We're on friendly terms. King
George wrote her an autograph letter
on the subject, but Catherine became
indignant, promptly refused his re-
quest, and told him plainly that her
sympathies were for us. Russia prof.
fered mediation between us and Eng
land for peace in 1872, and we sent
John Quincy Adams to st. Petersburg
to negotiate for us, but England refus-
ed. She was our friend at the Panama
treaty of 1921. 1t was in the cause of
the Christian religion and her hatred
for the Pagan and Mohammedan that
caused her to go into what is known
as the Crimean war. and she would
have driven the unspeakable Turk off
of the map of Europe had it not been
for the jealousy of France and Eng
land, who have always feared her pow
er and her onward progress. The Rus
slams have despised the Turk since
long before the days of Catherine, and
that foul blot on the map of Europe
today, remains because of the jeal-
ousies of the smaller nations of Europe
of the Russians, but I hope to live to
see the day that Russia will control to
the Mediterranean.
rapid strides have been made in
Russia in the last fifty years in the
granting of liberties to the people, in
culcating honor, encouraging education
and stimulating trade among it's peo-
pie. In 1861 Gear Alexander II, called
the lberatpr, did more than all his pre-
decessors in this direction. He eman-
cipated the serfs and did many other
acts of kindness to the people, and like
our own Lincoln came to his death al
the hands of an assassin while striv-
| ing to serve his people. But it was in
1868, called the great battle year of our
civil war, in the very darkest period
of our national existence. when we
were in regular life and death strug-
gle, when all other nations We're oul
| foe, that she showed us the quality OF
her friendship for us in a manner
can never forget. France had defiet
our Monroe doctrine and established
an empire in Mexico, supported by the
French army. England. in spite of al
our efforts and diplomacy was building
| iron clad battleShipS and eu,1inpinc