The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-27
Is THE rNp rx sraHT,

going on in Russia but the beginning of the end? win the revolutionary spirit survive. gather strength and eventually overthrow the despotlsm which has ruled that nation so long? It took more than half century for the French people to rid themselves of
 kirgly rule. First the Empire. then the Republic, but there were many | years of unrest, of turbulence. of rev. olutionary excesses before kingship was finally overthrown and republican government established in its stead. one by one the monarchies of the old World have fallen before the ever advancing march of the enemies of despotisn. Russia is the latest, and there we may expect the people to have the hardest battle. Few more abso- lute despotisms have existed on earth. at least in modern days. The Czar and the nobility are everything The peo- enslaved and murdered by their mas ters. It is hardly 10 be expected that the present outbreak will succeed. The common people are aroused, they have ample grounds for frenyied discontent, and they have the numbers, but some thing else Is lacking. As yet they have no leaders worthy of the name. No man has yet appeared who Is able to organize, to solidify and to lead the people against a government entrenched behind centuries of absolutism. The divine right of kings Is nowhere more solidly established than in Rus sia. All the powers of the govern ment, civil and military, are practical iy at the command of the rulers Against them Is an unorganized. undis- cipiined and ieaderIsss mob. with cen turtles of wrong and oppression to l arouse them but handicapped by their own frenzy and their own unprepared- ness.
 It is not at all likely that the pres ent outbreak will succeed and per- haps it is better that It should not. The complete overthrow of the Russian Government would shake all Europe from centre to circumference, and its effects would not be unfelt on this side the ocean. It would be like a mighty i earthquake and the entire civilized world would feel it.. It might cause such financial panics and revolutions in Europe and America as we have not seen before. &r
 But this outbreak. even if 1t fails. may bear good fruit. It may not suc- ceed in getting what the Russian peo- pie demand, but it may bring about concessions and ameIiorations which will tighten the burdens of the people. It may pave the way for something more and lay the foundation for an ul- timate superstructure of human free- dom. We are assured that "revolu- tions never go backwards" and Byron writes;
 For freedoms battle. once begun. Bequeathed hv bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, 's ever won.
 When the spirit of unrest takes pos- session of a people like the Russians. no one may safely predict the end. A nation of serfs, they feel that they have little to lose. Their conditions can hardly be worse and to many of them death itself Is preferable to q oontinu- ation of the wretched conditions under which they only exist, for they can hardly be said to live. The cruelties and excesses which always attend the march of a. people from slavery to freedom will doubtless be ins evidence here. Failure will mark this effort. but the failure will hardly be final The dawning of the spirit of human liberty has broken on Russian serfdom A failure now may be but a stepping stone to future success, and experi- ence gained through failure is not lost.
 It may require half a century or more to accomplish what the people are striving for. but it looks now as If the end of Russian absolutism is almost in I sight We may not expect a republican form of government like ours, or even like that of France. for the people are | not prepared or fitted for 1t, but we may look for a limited monarchy, a constitutional monarchy, doing away with the absolute power Of the rulers and giving something like freedom to the people It may be delayed and avoided for one or two generations, but in the end it seems sure to come. It will be better for the Russian peo-
 pie and for the world if it comes
 gradually.