Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1905-02-18

tna1 to minister to the pleasure ana
IT. notiscation of a few more or less as
Etc members of a so-called doyal
suit and the subservient tools OF
l ,nnnntism that constitute the bureau
ue9p This sentiment found express
zion in the recent characteristic re-
s s,o of the Grand Duke Serglus, the
inole of the Gar, the Governor-Gen-
u uraI of Moscow and one of the lead
,l snirits among the reactionaries,
inS in speaking of the demand of
W., NJ zemstyos and the mutterings of
. .ho moor of Russia he said: These
uaooants think. | suppose, that Rus
sia exists for them as dog does for
feas."
While some of the autocrats, how
over are affecting contempt Tor the
nrotests and menacing unrest of the
poonle others are displaying their
alarm by their almost frantic defences
Of the autocracy and by their strenu-
ous efforts to prove that const.tu-
tional government could not exist in
Pussia because of the ignorance of
the people-an ignorance, by TIE way,
for which the church and the bureau
cracy are chiefly responsible. Thus
we find Prince Mestchersky, who is
nrobably the ablest as he is the most
reactionary of the defenders of the
autocracy. industriously circulating
throughout Western civilization the
old. threadbare cry that the people
are too ignorant for self-government;
that the concession to the demand of
the zemstvos would merely mean the
autocracy of class, and that the pres
ent despotism is the only kind of gov
eminent that could successfully carry
forward the best interests of Russia.
This is the old, old cry of tyrants and
despots that has ever rung forth when
the people have demanded justice and
a wider measure of freedom. 1t was
the cry of King George and the reac-
tionaries that brought on the Ameri-
can Revolution. 1t is the false shib-
boleth Of the enemies of democracy
and freedom the world over, by which
they seek to justify reactionary in
novations and the maintenance of the
terrorism that flourishes in nations
where brutal bureaucracy such as
exists in Russia obtains.
The most shameful feature of the
present propaganda of despotism is
the spectacle of American, English
and Continental journalists and other
reactionaries taking up and echoing
these catch-phrases and false pleas of
the special-pleaders for tyranny.
Perhaps there is no Russian think
er and expert better able to utter an
authentic word in answer to the soph-
istical cries of selfish upholders of
autocracy in Russia than Professor
Paul Milyoukov, the eminent econo-
mist, historian and educator, who was
Imprisoned in 1901 for presiding over
a meeting of students and who mas
recently delivered a brilliant course OF
lectures in Boston on present condi
lions in Russia. This eminent and
careful thinker, before the Twentieth
century Club, on December II, 1904
exposed the hollowness of the cry
mat the Russians were not prepared
LOT selt-government. He spoke as an
expert, having, as he stated, conduct
Ell special inquiry to determine that
very question, and in the course oil
ms remarks he pointed out the fact
tnat twenty-five years ago the Czal
vi russia granted the Bulgarians 8
constitution patterned after that Of
tne Belgians. "The only changes in
CIouuced made it even more demo
CraIic than the Belgian constitution
Tor the RlIloo rione ,o+ - 80 :,