Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-14
REAL RUSSIA
EConflnMea from rage 3

working class whose rights their ruler is
not only ready but eager to adjust:
Firms with a special interest, Poles with
their special aspirations, Jews who are
the natural enemies of the muzhiks, or
peasants How national revolution
could arise under such conditions no
one can see.
None the less, we are hearing much
nowadays about the Revolutionary Party,
its Executive Committee, its plans, its
overlooking treasury, and all the rose
colored details of Jealous propaganda.
And these statements are taken seriously
everywhere except in Russia. The in
telligent Russian simply shrugs his Shout
ders and says: Who are they? The
Terrorists we know but there are not a
thousand of them all told. The work
ing-men we know; but they are like the
working men of any other country, and
we want, as a national policy, all the
working-1n men we can get; and shall treat
them as we'll if not better than any other
country in order to get them. There
are certain hardships incidental to the
war and the popular agitation which al
WAYS attend an unsuccessful war; but the
are the real serious Revolutionists, where
are they, and what do they want that we
are not trying our very best to give them?"
And this is perfectly true. No better
proof could be offered than the proposed
new press law Russia probably will have
a free press, with the English libel law
having the German lese-majesty provision
superadded The wild claimants for a free
press are going to have what they desire.
1t is a step in advance, and an extremely
clever one on the part of the Government.
Every man will be free to speak and write,
and will be held responsible for all he
says by justice swift and sure.
On that fateful January when men
and women, honest workers with an
honest intent, fell on their knees on the
cobblestones beside the Winter Palace
and begged the Cossacks to spare them,
they spoke a language which the Cos
sacks did not understand. The panto-
mime of terror was read easily; but the
words fell on the ears of an alien soldiery,
of a different race, born thousands of
miles away And the Cossacks who fired
were not French troops firing upon
French people, but the men of a captive
and subject race firing upon their captors.
1t may we'll be understood therefore that
among the troops there was little danger
of mutiny through sympathy, no ikeli-
hood whatever of a trigger-fnger para
lyzed by fraternal leanings. Polish
regiment keeps order among the Films;
a Finnish regiment guards the streets of
Moscow; the conquered naturally hostile
races, are played off, one against the
other, by the military system,
No bond of sympathy ever exists be-
tween the troops and the people of the
cities in which they are stationed, and
the possibility of disaffection, or at
least of the fraternity of disaffection,
thus is minimized to the last degree.
And, as all the world has learned lately, |
the Russian soldier is fine soldier He
is better paid, better fed, better clothed,
better housed, better situated in all re-
spects, than he was before he entered
the army or will be after he leaves it.
The corruption of individuals, army
officers and police officers, through
money, is always a possible contingency,