Omaha daily bee., 1905-07-01
OTHER LANDS THAN ouas.

ONHbH LANDS THAN ONHSs
Far back in the dawn Of Polish history
the wild horsemen Of the steppes in south
ern Russia were foes Of the town dweliers
and tlers Of the soil In Poland. The Cos
sacks were adventures, frontiersmen, free
hooters They despised and hated the set
tied life of cities. Only tribal government
harmonized with their rowing and preda-
tory life. Often Polish arms prevailed
against these medieval cowboys OF the
Russian plains, and for long periods they
were forced to acknowledge the sovereignty
Of Poland. The feud between Pole and
Cossack never abated. The old feeling still
| exists. No soldiery could so madden the
mobs of Polish cities as the rude and
brutal cavalry of the steppes, where Cos
| sack and Tartar struggled long for mas
| terry and the spoils Of war To the intellt-
| gent and highly civilized people of Warsaw
| the Cossacks are bloodthirsty barbarians
| In Cossacks barracks there is unmeasured
contempt for the peaceful artisans of the
Polish capital Order and the authority
of the imperial government of Russia might
be enforced in Poland with less brutality
and bloodshed by the use of other troops
| to the exclusion of the Cossacks. But that
would not be Muscovite despotsm in action.
NJ. Gauthier French minister of public
| works, is credited with a scheme to tun-
| mel Mont Blanc 1t was inspired, OF
course by the simplon tunnel undertaking.
The st. Gothard line when opened dam
! aged French trade considerably. The
! Simplon route will probably hurt 1t still
| more France has few direct railway roads
into Switzerland and Italy. NJ. Gauthier's
| scheme is to open quicker means of com
muncaton, first of all with Switzerland.
! This would be provided by tunneling the
! Faucille pass, an engineering work esu-
mated to cost $23,00O000, and to occupy five
years. BY this way a route almost in
straight line would be opened from Dijon
| to Geneva The second and more startling
part of the scheme is the proposed continu-
alton of the line from Geneva by way of
| Chamonix, through Mont Blanc, to Aosta,
| thus connecting with the Italian system.
| The advantages of the route for French
| trade are obvious. as by far the most rapid
route from England to Italy would pass
across half of France. The magnitude of
such an enterprise as tunneling Mont
Blanc is rather staggering, but the plans
are said to be complete and to suggest no
insuperable difficulty. What surprises the
interior of the moutain may have in store
no one. Of course, can even guess.
The House of Commons, 'the mother of
parliaments," will look with a plying smile
upon the features of it's youngest daughter,
II the popular branch of the promised Rus
sian national assembly is to be of the char
acter that is forecast The power of shdt
branch will, it seems, be hedged around by
restrictions so great and so numerous that
the body will have hardly more real power
than a college debating society. In addi-
ton to these limitations upon It's acts,
there will be very rigorous limitation
upon the debates themselves. Altogether,
we may look for a very Russian state Of
things lp the lower house of the national
assembly at st. Petersburg whenever it may
be constituted. Bit if the czar imagines
that his autocracy can have an easy time
with a popular assembly of any sort, he Is
doomed to bitter disappointment Once get
debate started, and the suppression of it is
more eloquent than it's continuance could
be. Pariaments are hard things to keep
in order. The one at St. Petersburg may
effect nothing either in speech or in ac-
ton, but we may be sure it will make u
lot of trouble Constitutional government
has by no means arrived in Russia, but
It Is on the way, and, though there may be
lot of rough travelling before 1t reaches
its destination, 1t is sure to keep on moving
pretty steadily, and on the whole in one di-
rection, to the end.
Lord Kitchener is ambitious to be the
Oyama and the Kodama of the British en-
pire rolled into one-the commander and
strategist and the organizer and master
of transportation and business detail. Evi-
IDENTIFY he is to have the chance. AS COM
mander-in chief in India, he perceives that
he is on the empires firing line Accord
ing to his idea, Russia will try to recoup
itself some time in India or Persia for what
1t has lost in Manchuria, and 1t Is conse-
quently necessary that Britain's Indian
q army shall always be organized on a war
basis, not a peace basis. Kitchener has won
his point with the British government He
4 has overridden the judgment of Lord Cur
Y zon, the viceroy whose eye Is fixed upon
e India and its peoples and princpalities, and
upon the frontier nations, and not upon St
o Petersburg Kitchener has obtained an in
( crease of the Indian army from $1,000 tc
= 10000 men. He has taken a leaf, in the
n matter of organization. from Japan's book
The population of Warsaw is about 5O0,.
900 and ordinarily it's garrison consists OF
35 900 men. which has now been increased
1t is said, by thirty-fve additional bat.
talions. But the indications are that a pro-
portionately large number Of soldiers will
be required "to make cemetery and cal
II it peace" in score of other cities of thu
Russian empire If one battalion, LOO
" strong, to each 1900 inhabitants (men
u women and children) be required to main
tain the autocracy in Russia that institu
: ton has ceased to be maintained. It will
- be bound to fall ere long for lack of troops
The attempt of the car to carry on wa
= ', at the furthest extremity and in the cente
y of his empire at one and the same tim
. cannot but end in failure. The 'lttl
y father must choose between making peac
:, with Japan or with his revolted subjects
y He cannot tight both except at the risl
= of disaster in both quarters.
II An influential movement has been starte
d in England to put the British School o
J. Archaeology in Egypt upon a more sub
y. stantial foundation. Hitherto a certai
le number of students who have been work
>" ing with Prof. Flinders Petrie have bee
lc assisted by the Egyptian research account
Is In consequence of the Importance OF tn
Id work and successes achieved by some &