The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-28
MHo IS rHE MAN,

Great crises produce great men. "The man of the hour' comes when his pres ence is most needed. About the middle of the seventeenth century. when the pro6igacy of Charles and his court had brought discredit on England and made the monarchy an object of contempt there was an Oliver Cromwell ready to may disapprove of the stern and almost merciless Puritanism of his methods, but his work had good results. When France was torn by internal and fac tional disputes. when royalists and Jaeobins were at each others threats, and riot. assassination and murder were rife. there rose up Napoleon to take charge of the destinies of France and restore order. We may not admire Napoleon in all respects, but he saved France from anarchy. And when the American colonies revolted against the expressions and exactions of England and set out to conquer their independ- | ence Providence raised up Washing ton to lead them to an honorable peace and to place among the nations of the earth
 England had her Cromwell, America | her Washington, France her Napoleon, | all in good time. and each left his im- press on his time and on his country. Has unhappy Russia man who will l the broken threads of revolution and lead the way to peace and orderly gov- ernment? Rarely in the history of na- tions has there been time when op- portunity was more open, when need
 was more pressing or when circum- | stances were more inviting. The hour 1 is at hand; will the man appear?
 It has been said that when things ar> at their worst they will begin to
 mend. Whether they are at their
 worst in Russia no one may say. but
 there cannot be much worse conditions
 than now exist. It is not merely the l rising of an oppressed people against 1 merciless rulers. not a we'll organized
 revolution against insupportable condi-
 tions, nor combined and well ordered determination of people to attain freedom, It may be little of all
 these, but murder and assassination and
 anarchy are rioting over the vast do-
 main. The people want to kill the
 soldiers and the nobles and the soldiers
 kill men, women and children without
 mercy.
 1 It will require a strong man to con-
 troi tho situation. Only q will of
 adamant and a hand of iron can effect
 a cure of the evils now prevailing.
 Like an epidemic the fever of revolt | grows and spreads in all directions. Town after town and province after province catches the infection and in
 every place the progress of the dis
 ease is marked by all the excesses
 which frenzied and desperate popu- lace can resort to. If there is a man
 in all Russia who possesses the will.
 the courage and the genius to asume
 the leadership the time has come for
 him to assert himself. If there is a Joshua who can lead this people to the
 promised land of orderly and. stable
 government his opportunity is at hand.
 He may now be unknown or he may be some man who has already made his
 mark and left the impress of his genius
 on some part of Russian life. but he
 has not yet been called or seen proper
 to como forward and ta::e the helm.
 It is to be hoped that the right man l lives and that he will shortly appear, | for it does not seem possible for any power now at hand to solve the prob l lem.