The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-01-27
WAITING


centered upon the progress of the
movement, and everywhere the ques-
ton is asked how rapidly the revolu-
ton will proceed and when we may
expect it's elimination. Certainly no
man outside of Russia, and very few
within it, can give an answer worthy
of respect.
1t all depends upon the temperament
of the people Had the events of last
Sunday occurred in France or Italy or
Spain, or among any of the hot-blood
ed and impulsive Latin races, the
whole land would have been in flames
before this and the revolution have ac-
complished itself quickly at any cost
Could we conceive of them as having
occurred in Great Britain or the
United States, or in any country with
really representative institutions, we
could mark with some accuracy their
inevitable fate. But in Russia, that
dark and silent land, whose immense
spaces cover populace that has not
appeared on the worlds stage except
as food for powder, what are we to
know of the mental and spiritual re-
action that these terrible Incidents
must provoke?
The masses of the Russian people
or 10 fha tr;1
known quantity. We know them as
q people of phenomenal patience, Of
almost Incredible endurance and of a
capacity for self-sacrifiee and other
deep spiritual experiences not yet real
lied by the rest of the world. We
know that they are a people to carry
through a revolution to the bitter end
at any cost. What we do not know is
their rate of motion. Are the occur
rences now taking place in Russia the
slow uprising of mighty tide that will
advance without halt until it over
whelms the throne and autocracy for
ever, or are they but ripples upon it's
surface, leaving the deeps undisturbed
until some greater CONFUSION occurs?
This is the crucial question, and no
one in the world can answer 1t.
The world that waits for news from
Russia IS waiting for demonstration
of Russian characteristics. We know
the revolution to be as certain as the
rising and setting of the sun. It must
surely come. 1t will come, too, in
Russian fashion, through such events
as have happened and are happening.
The immediate producing cause will
be Industrial; material want and in
justice squirting hundreds of thou
sands to action which they would not
take as part of a mere political revolt.
We know that the doctrine of noa-
resistance, acceptable to the Russian
mind and. deeply grated upon 1t by
the tremendous work Of Tolstoy. must
have its part, as it had on Sunday
last, when unarned masses knelt to
receive the deadly fire of the seldiery.
We do not know when that great mar
tyrdom will at last provoke reprisaIs.
The instant that 1t does, the throne
and the grand dukes and all the bu-
reaucracy will perish in a sea of blood
Speculation in these premises is not
only useless, but foolish The present
demonstration, though widespread. is
ineffective. Sporadic outbreaks appear.
but are easily quelled by the military
and the police. There seems to be no
effective revolutionary organization,
no determined resistance, no central
lied movement, no determination TO
take away from the authorities tbs
power they are SO fearfully abusing
and to vest it in the people It is still
a national remonstrance rather than a
revolution; and it's methods are those
of the mob rather than of an army or
a government.
It may be that the genius of tbs
Russian people compels them to move
IN this fashion; and to achieve their
end by steady and resistless pres
sure, exercised through years and at
the cost of many lives willingly ana
hopelessly given, until the new era
comes in with the imperceptible but
irresistible movement of glacier. It
may be that endurance is merely being
strained to the breaking point, and that
when this is reached all Russia will
burst into fame out of which tbe
new regime shall rise. He who pre-
tends TO know or even to guess which
event is more likely is vain boaster
The world must simply wait upon that
evolution of an unknown characta-
me mode oe thought and the rode Of
action Of nation more mysterious