The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-02


 fnee; the other is to ada them to it's own ranks. as feeders from the public crib.
 The latter plan has been followed to an extent that ia almost beyond belief. Department after department has been created, hive after hive of great office buildings has been built in St. Peters burg for this purpose. It is. said to be literally true. for instance. that there are as many clerks upon the pay roll of the oflce for dog licenses in St Pe- tersburg as there are dogs in the cap- .itai.
 Unparalleled Grating.
 Tammany in its most audacious days never dreamed of such a system of graft as exists here. II has grown in- to such an octopus that the nation is at it's mercy. Nothing but . revolution could destroy 1t.
 Moreover, 1t continues to grow. An- other important addition will be creat- cd at the end of the year, when the Gov ernment will establish . system of public life insurance. a Minor exten- sions of the civil service are constant ly being added in the older depart ments. It is probably true that a con- siderable majority of the population of nearly a million inhabitants of St. Pc. tersburg exist sSon funds drawn di- rectly or indirectly from the Imperial Treasury.
 It needs no argument to demonstrate that sooner or later this evil alone must force crisis in Russian destinies. No man in Russia, reformer or other wise. dares to grappfe seriously with the problem. The bureaucracy and the church are throttling the prosperity of Russia, and 1t is an open question which will first bring the inevitable disaster.
 It Is necessary in the interests of truth to speak in the frankest terms of the influence of the Greek Church upon Russian life. It is a subject of the utmost practical importance. for it is the church more than the gov ernment, more. indeed than any other obstacle, which has held back the march of progress In Russia
 To mention first what may seem q trifiing matter it is the church which insists upon the retention of the Rus sian calendar. which is thirteen days slower than the true record. It may be imagined that religious tradition and conservatism, account for the opposi- tion to such an obvious reform. Not so. The real reason is that the change would confuse the arrangement of the calendar of religious holidays and would operate to abolish them.
 Handicapped by Holidays.
 Will it be believed that there are in the Russian calendar some eighty secu- lar days in each year when ordinary labor Is prohibited? It must be obvj- ous that a heavy handicap is thus im- posed upon the prosperity of a nation.
 1t means that no less than twenty five per cent. of ordinary labor-produc- tive opportunity is cancelled. Tn other words, livelihood for three hundred and sixty-five days must be gained by two hundred and thiFty-three days work.
 Here lies the secret of the hard struggle og the Russian masses with poverty No nation under the freest political institutions could prosper un- der such conditions
 The Church will not. if 1t can avoid it, yield & single one of its compulso. ry saint days whys Simply because on every such day the people 30 at least once to church and each attend ance means a contribution of few kopecks or more to tho priests cofeers.
 The treasure of the Church in money and jewels amounts to a fabulous sum. It is. in fact, unless well informed Russians are deceived, better able to supply the sinews of war in the pres ent struggle in the Far East than the 1 Imperial treasury itself.
 The Church is responsible also for grave social evils in Russia. It per- | mits no marriages between the faith | full and those outside its ranks. and it l prohibits divorce. But Russia com l prises many races and many religions, l and so it happens that nowhere are H. legal unions so numerous and SO com mon. The evil is so widespread that 1t excites no comment and carries ao disgrace.
 Grand Dukes are PIunderers.
 Intelligent Russia is learning. fortr- | nateIy, to analyze the evil influences of which the emperor is the victim. Honest reactionaries are becoming thoroughly alarmed by the crimes and corruption of the small group who have brought the empire to the verge of ruin. These plunderers of Russia are all members of the Imperial family, near relatives of the Czar. They are;
 Grand Duke Alexander Michaelo- witch, who married the Emperor's fa- vorite sister, Grand Duchess Xenie. Grand Dukes Vladimir, Alexis and Serge, the brothers of Alexander III.
 These are the men whom the auto | crat of all the Russias permits to wield his scepter.
 The OOmInaLlOn or LuSlT VIII over lhc Emperor Is no new thing. All his life Nicholas has been accustomed to su- bordinate himself to his uncles, and his accession to the throne made no dif~ ference. For the last year or two the influence of the brother-in- law has in- creased above that of the uncles. but there has been no rivalry in policy among them.
 Tall. dark. with aduiline features and strikingly handsome, is Alexander ] Michaelovitch. He is forty-four years old, eight years the senior of the Elm peror. Alexander's upbringing was neither very happy nor very luxurious His father was strict disciplinarian' who had a large family, but a very l moderate fortune. He married when | quite young, the Emperor's sister.
 They have six children and enjoy the l distinction of being almost the only | Grand DucaI couple who live on terms | of loyalty to each other. Their home is l at Peterhof near the palace of the Czar. and they are in his company ev- cry day.
 Aiexander's first appointment was that of e-Admiral- in Chief. under | his uncle, Grand Duke Alexis. He re- signed this post after short time' put | he has now resumed 1t in addition to | his Cabinet place.
 The resisnation followed on a quar- | rel arising from the foundering of . | Russian battleship in the Baltic about ten years ago. Certain naval oficials declared that the vessel was unseawor- | thy and that her water-tiRht bulk heads were shams and they induced I AA a ErnnHFnF'H