Arizona republican., 1904-12-30
PHoEN1x, ARIZONA, DEC. 30, 1904.
II. de Witte.


 last day or two from St. Petersburg NJ de Witte has returned to power just in time to have thrust upon him the heaviest burden any Russian statesman has borne in recent years. As president of the council of min isters, de Witte is the highest official of the empire, and he is charged with the responsibility of preventing re- EelIion of the Russian people. The csaF has issued a wOrdy manifesto to his subjects, in response to the peti- tions of the zemstvos, but the more the imperial document is examined the less apparent does it become that any real reforms are granted. Discomfort is so widespread and the murmurings are becoming so bold that the danger of a popular uprising can be no long CT ignored.
 Fortunately for the autocracy. w. de Witte is not only the strongest man intellectually in the czar's service, but is known to. be in sympathy with the loyal reformers. He and Prince Svia-
 
 terior. are the only powerful friends who stand between the people and the reactionary crowd of relatives and sy- cophants which surrounds the czar and directs his mnid on most occasions. The people, therefore. will be inclined to listen to Witte and Mirsky-more inclined, at any rate than they would be to listen if these officials were enc mics of all forms Of representative government.
 Personally, M. de Witte might have been glad to stay in the retirement into which he was forced by Viceroy Alexieff, the late Minister de Plehve and their followers of the war party last year. But it is a way of autocrats both of the official and business class, to drive stupidly into trouble and then call frantically for help from men whose advice was rejected in fair weather.
 The overshadowing importance which attaches to de witte during the present internal troubles of Russia would make him an interesting per sonage in any event, and to the peo- pie of this country he is all the more interesting from the fact that he has always been steadfastly friendly to the United States. There is nothing emo tionaI in his nature, and he has not indulged in slop-over speeches. In the tariff difficulties between Russia -r-s- It. alert in protecting Russian interests, but throughout his long official career he has been our friend. His friendship for the United States was demonstrat- ed in a striking manner as long ago as 1893, when he offered to make a large loan to President Cleveland
 It will be remembered by some readers of the newspapers that during the financial crisis of 1893, when gold had disappeared from the treasury and the timid had been led to be- lieve that not even an issue of gov ernment bonds would bring the gold from hiding, there were rumors that Russia had offered to come to our rescue. The story ran to the effect that the czar, Alexander III, had of fered to lend the sum of 50 million dol lars in gold to President Cleveland for the use of the national treasury. humorous turn was given to the story by comments on the czar's supposition that it was in MT. Clevelands power to accept the loan, and the apparent belief of the Russian government that the transaction could be arranged as 2 simple deal between brother mon archs. But there was no confirmation of the rumor. MT. Cleveland and hls officials refused to discuss the report, and it was finally concluded that it had been started by some imaginative cor respondent at Washington.
 But the truth of the story is estab- lished at this late day. Such readers of The Republican as have been fol- Ioiwng, in the Century magazine. for mer Ambassador Whites reminiscenc- es of his official life at Berlin and St. Petersburg, will recall that MT. White in the November number gave credit to M. de Witte for the generous offer of gold to carry this country through it's financial difficulties. MT White covers the incident in a few words:
 His (de Witte's) dealings with Rus sian finance have shown great capac- ity: he brought the empire out of the slough of depreciated currency and placed it on a gold basis. I came es- pecially to know him when he offered, through me, to the United States Q loan in gold to tide over the difficult ties with the currency question. He informed me that Russia had in her