The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1905-02-10
M OF DUTCH STOCK
He Is the Enemy OF Every Democratic
Tendency and the Powerful Advo.
cate of lndustrialism for
the Russian Nation.

OIL Russia, lnal marrow SlIlp VI AdiAo
dividing the Caspian from the Black
sea, and lying upon the northern Dor
der of Persia. hat is the oil country,
and TitliS is the principal station upon
railroad that connects Batum, on
the Black sea, and Baku. on the Cas-
plan, the centerS of the petroleum trade.
He is not of peasant origin, as has fire.
1uently been published. He comes from
solid Dutch stock, which emigrated
from Holland to the Black sea country
In the earlier part of the nineteenth
and his ancestors have always
been, so far as he can trace them c
enterprising and successful merchants.
His father WAS a banker and mercnan'
at Tinis. and sent his son to the Uni
versity of NovorossiskOe. a little town
on the north coast of the Black sea.
near the Sea of A.Zof.
De Witte graduated from that insti-
tuition IN 1870. when he was Il years OF
age, with a degree oc engineer. and en-
tered the railway service of the govern
ment. assisting in the construction of
the road which now crosses the PENN,
sula and hauls the products of the Oil
country for shipment at Batum. When
the wal with Turkey broke U
six years later. he was en-
ployed in managing the eran aso
p%ortation of troops, and IN 1863
was appointed a member OF a commls
sion to recommend q plan for the eX-
tension of the railway facilities In the
southern part of the empire. He Wrote
the report of that commission UNI
formulated the recommendations when
have since been partially carried INTO
effect. During the next few years he
was employed in the preparation Of a
code of laws and regulations for the
government Of the state railways,
which are still in force. Having COM
pleted that task he vas made super
intendent of the government railways
in southern Russia, and in 1889 was
called to st. Petersburg to be chief of
| the railway bureau of the ministry of
finance. In January. 1892, he was pro-
noted to the cabinet as minister of
communications. the post now held by
Prince Khilhoff, his particular friend.
who was educated in the United States.
In December of the same year, De
White was promoted to be minister of
finance and from that time until eigh-
teen months ago was the most intluen-
tial man in the ministry and q con-
trolling force in the Russian admins
t%ration.
BY his honesty, his candor, his
friendship for the Jews. his hatred of
official corruption and his habit of
speaking the truth at all times. he in
CURED the hostility of the grand dukes,
NJ. Pobiedonostseff. %procurator of the
holy synod, and the late NJ. De Plehve,
the minister of the interior. who was
assassinated last summer. These
forces drove him from the cabinet by
Misrepresentation to the car. just as
they compelled the resignation of M.
Sanger, the minister of education, who
prepared and secured the cars as
sent to a comprehensive plan for the
education of the masses. To carry out
this plan between s12, 600, 900 and 3d.
100000 a yea was spent for several
years, and Nicholas III. was deeply in
terested in the movement. The en-
press was wrapped ur in it also. II
was a fad of the imperial couple, anc
they would have been gratiied if a fret
public school had been established il
every village in Russia. Already more
than 1900. 900 citizens were being
taught in nearly 10000 schools whel
Pobiedonostseff. who represents Thu
orthodox Greek church in the ministr.
and is perhaps the most conservativ,
of all The advisers of the czar, de
clared that free education was under
mining the influence of the priests m
eu%dangering the throne. His position
was Endorsed by De Plchve and TIL,
holy synod over which the metropolitan
or pope of the Greek church presides
and the cZar was finally convinced tina
his scheme of education must be aban
doned. Sanger was dismissed from tn
ministry of education and M. Luki
anoff, IN adherent Of the holy SYNOD
was placed in charge last February.
1t has long been the theory of tn
conservatives in Russia that educatio
breeds discomfort, which is as true a
gospel, for the moment a Russia
peasant learns to read and write II
begins to realize the misery of his con
dition n to rebel against it. Kiplin
once said that as long as q Russia
wears his shirt outside his trousers Ga
the peasants do) he is a loyal subjec
tNt,t fln ,,,nr,ntf No lnny,o rD,,rr !
tuck it in he becomes dangerous I
the state. That remark also is strict
true. AS long as the moujiks, or eman
cipated serfs, remain in ignorance the
are devoted to "the little father" q
they call the cZar, and are fanatical i
their religion.
De Witte did not sympathize with tt
broad and philanthropic plans of Sange
his colleague, and the car. He is by I
means a liberal. He is a firm believer
the autocracy. and is opposed to eve,
democratic tendency. In conversatic
with Americans he is in the habit of G;
pressing his ~disapproval of our system
government with great candor, and |
frequently does the same with his Frcnt
friends. In 1901 he told me th2t the grea
est weakness in the American system
government was universal suffrage, al
declared that the masses OF the Peep
could not be trusted. He used several
the South American republics as illustr
tons, and when | explained to him the di
ference in education. character and di
position between our people and those
the ~Iatin-Amcrican nations he dissent'
and declared that the United States won
not exist more than a century long
without some change in our electoral sly
TEN. He asserted that its moditicatit
had already begun In the soutller stat
hnd that the northern states would so,
be compelled to disinfranclise all ron-ta
payers. just as the southern states Il;
disinfranchiscd the black man In order
secure good government.
I had asked him for an interview e
pressing the sentiment of the Russian go
ernmcnt concerning the policy OF I
United States in shutting out OF our ma
llets sugar that had been raised under t
Russian bounty system, and he discuss
the subject very freely.
He explained that the increase in t
Russian tariff. which was construed
retaliation for the action OF Secreta