The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-01-25
RUSS AUTOCRATS
FACE REAL CRISIS
People, Long Ground Under Heel
of Bureaucracy, Awakening
to Resist Evils.
CZAR KEPT IN DARK AS
TO. TRUE CONDITIONS
Corruption and Tyranny Made
Possible by Capitalization
Of Authority.
Special to The Journal.


Chica 60, Jan. 25-John Collan
O'Laughlin, long a St. Petersburg cor
respondent of American and London
newspapers. says in Washington spe-
cial to the Tribune:
Autocratic Russia is face to face at
last with grave revolutionary crisis,
Emperor Nicholas I. ancestor of the
for greater liberty eighty years ago. be-
cause the mass of the people was in a
state Of slavery and knew nothing be-
yond the orders of it's master. -.
Alexander II. ground nihilism into
the dust twenty years ago because the
people were in condition of dense ig-
norance, tho they had been freed from
the shackles Of serfdom, and were I'M
able to appreciate the aims of a party
which had consecrated itself to the mis-
sion of raising them to liberty.
Weight of Bureaucracy.
Today the population of Russia, while
still uneducated, is more enlightened.
It feels the crushing weight Of bureau
cratic government. It inveighs against
the willful ignorance and the vicious
holds it responsible for the disasters
which Russian arms have suffered upon
the far eastern battlefelds.
The peasants of the country have in
adequate and poor land from which to
wrench the means of livelihood, while
the peasants in the factories barely earn
gether. The small land holders are en-
barrassed by heavy mortgages and by
q soil which is exhausted. as the result
, of repeated sowing of the same crop.
The nobility struggles incessantly. with
grin ding poverty. Commanding officers
fourth of the pay Of American officers
! of the same rank The officials 1.-THE
I bureaucracy receive insignificant ssla-
|. fies.
Economic Distress Everywhere.
, EVERYWHERE exists economic distress,
and In no direction does there. appear
the possibility Of adequate relief. Such
condition is we'll calculated to serve
as soil for the choking weeds Of revo-
lutiOp.
Ask any Russian you meet to explain
the causes of this deplorable state Of
the people, and he will summarize them
in one word-the bureaucracy. To him
it is the curse of the empire. 1t is the
medium which has separated the people
advocated policies designed to increase
it's own power and to widen the gulf
Nicholas II. believes, that he knows
the condition and aspirations Of his
people. He is willing to grant them re.
fornl--extensive reform. He does not
however, consider them fit for self.
government and recently tisapproved
of tho petition Of the zemstvos for par.
ticipation by the public in national leg.
islation and administration.
Gear Kept in Ignorance.
The Russian asks, how can the EN-
peror know the condition of the people
when he only feels their heart throbs
thru the thick partition Of the bureau
cracya How can he understand theil
aspir4tions when these aspirations arr
distorted or ridiculed by the officials
surrounding him9
"Why should we. propose a reform
however necessarily said one officer
cit has to run the gauntlet of numer
Gus officials, who hack and criticise un
til it is in such condition that it il
49, unfit for consideration by the supreme
authority Only those measures ar
adopted which increase the power O.
'The emperor undoubtedly favor
government decentralization; the bu
reaucracy desires and has consistent,
aimed to secure greater governmental
decentralization. The bureaucrac.
has triumphed.
Authority Is Centralized.
"From the Arctic ocean to the Blacl
sea-, from the European frontier to tn
Pacific ocean sweeps a dead level O
centralized authority. Nothing can b
done, no matter how important and nee
essary, unless the bureaucracy has frs
given its approval to the proposed &C
tion. .
t'Wherever you turn, whatever yo
do there you run counter to bureaucracy
In the United States on are permitte
to do anything not forbidden; in Rus
sip YOU are permitted to do only tina
which is authOriZed.' ~ -.