The sun., 1904-07-17
RUSSIA'S IRON HAND AT HOME
ST. PETERSBURG BEING CLEARED
or IDLE WORKMEN.

Factories Ordered Closed ana LAD0fefs
Departed to Homo Provinces, Where
Already Food II soaroe-Prompt
Measures to Break Up AL Meetings.
ST. PETERSBURG, July SIN the life that
throngs the wide quays Of the Neva and
scarcely leaves for an hour In these mild
! light nights the mile long half paved streets
Longer from their uniform, inscrutable
house fronts and infrequent doorway
there is always the same note. The people
| have had five months OF war sensations,
| and they have not been wrought to any
excitement.
Messages may have gone abroad that
say otherwise. A week ago to-day tele-
gram from London came to a correspond
| ent here asking what was known Of tho
foundering Of the Peresveit and damage
to two other vessels Of the Port Arthur
feet.
Without moving from his seat he wrote:
THE news Of Russias latest naval disaster
has driven the public to frenzy. Holiday
makers returning to town after their Sun
days outing hear the news with blank
despair"
The few Russians who see foreign news
| papers complain somewhat Of this sort OF
thing. but the great stolid mass, whose
| frenzy and despair has been 50 comfortably
imagined for it, hears nothing Of it and
does not care. What it does care about Is
that trade is bad and the price OF food 10
rising.
So 1t Is In the capital, where the popu-
lation is under vigiant surveillance. Out
side the capital, even only few miles away
the scene is vastly different.
One passing unobtrusive sign in the
streets tells more frequently than a month
ago what pains are being taken to remove
disturbing factors. You will see almost
any day In the poorer streets Of the East
| Side an honest faced workman. in long,
rough blouse and heavy top boots, walking
| quietly with soldier at each side. and
another behind him, with fixed bayonets.
He is being deported for talking, not
| In any formal speech-making way, but
| for talking at meal times, when some
| times there is not a meal, with his comrades
about what he thinks makes trade 80 bad
and food so dear. It is not the war and
high politics on which he has been giving
| an unwelcome opinion, but the commoner
problem Of feeding and clothing himself.
He is deported very lawfully and very
easily. His passport bears the name Of
| the parish in which he was born. That
community is for all purposes unit. which
has, II required by its Government, to
| maintain all it's members. however long
ago they may have left it to seek better
| work elsewhere. They are being now
required wholesale to take back their men,
bers from the capital.
St. Petersburg does not breed it's own
mechanics and laborers: the skilled workers
come mostly from the Baltic provinces and the
unskilled from the peasant villages inland.
As they fall out Of employment their pass
ports are taken up by the police and they
themselves sent back to their birthplaces
no matter how impossible it be to make a
| living there. II they say a word about
guard, with perhaps a week or two Of hard
labor imprisonment thrown In.
1t is this class of men whom you see now
and again escorted through the streets.
| The bystanders, even the children playing
in the doorways, scarcely trouble to look
twice at his silent processio on. Most signi-
fcant Of all is the patent fact that the soldiers
are on good terms with the prisoners.
| There is no force. no hustling, they walk
| along at his pace and spare him any possible
affront Their honest faces never conceal
their feeling that he is their friend. Only
they may not speak to him.
For every case like this that one sees
in the streets there are hundreds deported
from the capital without any arrest or pub
licity. They are merely told that they
must return to their oommunes. and they go.
| At frst these we're men who had all fallen
into unemployment from the usual period
ical bad trade. The depression has been
made worse here by the sudden abandon
ment a year ago Of NJ. de Whites policy
Of State-subsidized industry and profuse
expenditure on public works.
But now the Government has broken
new ground in driving workmen from
the capital to compulsory idleness. 1t
Is not any longer a question Of preventing
the possibility Of crowds Of unemployed
gathering. The very material Of which
! a crowd is made is to be reduced to mini
mum. Safety. it is held, lies in increasing
| to the highest proportion the number OF
! uniformed persons and State employees
near to the seat Of central authority in
comparison with the working citizen popu-
lation. To secure this they are now clos
ing factories around the capital which,
have been employed on such urgent work
as making war material.
All along the road to Sohlnsselburg and
on the road to the Emperor's summer
palace these works are being closed and
the contracts sent to be completed far
away The works once looked up, the stay
OF the workmen is made impossible. They
are swept up by the Government machine
and thrown back to the land in the re.
lentlees process Of clearing the ground or
which imperial and ministerial person,
| live and move.
As an executive measure the removal ol
the industrial unemployed from the capita
has succeeded locally. 1t has, however
Immediately produced the most danger
GUS kind OF social trouble in the district.
10 which the people have been deported
In Riga, Libau and Marye, which are grea
nurseries Of skilled artisans for the work
shops Of the capital, military proclama
tions are resorted to to keep the mon who
have been sent back to their native town,
| from discussing their position. No meet.
| ings Of any kind may be held, and the polio.
may enter domestic apartments and breal
up any gathering without producing war