Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-11-02
FULL MEANING OF
 CHARS SURRENDER
James Creelman Explains Grant
 of Liberty to Russians.
RoMANoFr ABsoLUTIsM CRUSHED

Stroke All the Agencies That En-
 sIaved His People.
 To understand the immensity of the czar's surrender to his people it is nec- essary to know that even the new Russian prime minister, Count Witte, who secured the imperial signature to Russia's "Magna Charta," has been a firm defender of autocracy and as re- gently as his visit to the United States declared his belief that greater and more desirable reforms could be brought about by an honest and intel ligent absolutism than through loose and premature experiments in consti- tutional and legislative government, says James Creelman in the New York World.
 Witte came to America this year be- lieving there was no middle class in his country and that, without such a bridge between the corrupt, arrogant aristocracy and the ignorant, scattered and inert peasantry, constitutional gov ernment would be farce.
 He went back to find that organized labor, working under the advice of ex- perienced labor leaders from other Eu- ropean countries, notably Germany, had taken the places of the old concep- ton of middle class.
 The most powerful despotism in the world, with more than a million armed men at it's command, has crumbled in the presence of comparatively peace ful strike of the factory and railroad employees led in many instances by young students
 The unchangeable guarantee of free dom of conscience" read in the light of Witte's written plea for equality be- fore the laws of all Russians, without distinction of race or religion"-a docu- ment which the czar inscribed "To be taken for guide"-not only removes the cruel and unjust disabilities of the 100000 RussiaS Jews, but paralyzes the political powe, of the Holy Ortho- dox church, that tekibIe and relentless system which has thus far prevented the education of the Russian masses.
 No one who has lived in Russia can doubt that with the disappearance of the exclusive mediaeval prerogatives of the Orthodox church-to proselytize or to secede from which was a grave crime - the mightiest bulwark of op- pression falls.
 This will clear the way for genuine free public school system and compul- sory education.
 The creation of a Russian parlia- ment, with real legislative rather than advisory powers "a body without whose consent no law can be enforced in the empire gains it's supreme value in the fact that virtually universal suf- frage has been granted.
 To appreciate the difference between this new scheme of representative gov srnment and the advisory douma pro- vided for in the imperial manifesto of August it Is only necessary to recall the fact that under the plan by which the douma was to be elected St. Peters burg, with 100000 inhabitants. would have only $500 voters, including 137 Jews. and Moscow. with more than 100000 inhabitants, would have only 11000 voters. It was intended that in rural communities the 90.000,O00 peas ants should have altogether 2505 votes. as against 1,972 of the landed proprletors and 1854 of the municipal councils.
 With the extension of the right to vote to the masses of Russia one gets an Idea of the proportions of the czar's surrender expressed in "an unchange- able rule that no law shall be enforce able without. the approval of the state douma."
 Up to this time the sole legislative and executive power has been the per sonal will of the czar. Henceforth he cannot enforce a single decree without the consent of his people.
 The guarantee of the right of habeas corpus and of ''inviolability of the per son" sweeps away at a single stroke the dreadful system of secret arrest, secret trial and secret deportation. It robs the minister of the interior and his police of their terrors.
 With free speech and the right of association and union. political parties may be formed and the future of Rus sla worked out in the open.
 Nothing Is said about trial by jury, but the new parliament will have pow CT to provide for that
 Hitherto there has been no cabinet. no ministerial responsibility. The ab- solute czar dealt with his ministers separately The particular minister who happened to gain ascendsncy over his sovereign's mind became for the time the real ruler. He could Interfere with and control any or all depart. ments of the government Sometimes it was the minister of finance who ruled. sometimes the minister of the interior and sometimes the minister of war. The ministers plotted against each other. They seldom worked to- sether
 The new cabinet must work ln ac- cord with the prime minister. Count Witte. and the people of Russia. through their parliament. will probably he able. as in Great Britain. to com pei their sovereign to dismiss his min isters by simply refusing their assent to revenue raising or equally important lavE No doubt one of the first steps to hs