Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-26
RUSSIA FROM WITHIN. BY Alexander
Ular. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Washington: William Baliantyne &


Although Alexander Ular is not identified
In any way in this. volume. the publishers
state in another connection that his present
work is French indictment" of Russia.
He affords a slight clue to his own identity
in the course of his work by references
which to show that he Is journalist
who has spent some years in Russia. But
whoever he Is. whatever his pursuit, what
ever his souxces of information. he has
written ore of the most astounding accusa-
tons of the entire Russian organization
which has ever appeared In print. If it is
discounted as partisan incorporate state
ment. it still carries the conviction that
Russia is unspeakably corrupt. If all that
he says is true Mr.. Ular mas proved Russia
to be rotten to the core; that the monarch
Is physical degenerate. of epileptic stock.
megalomaniac, a mental moral and phys
zeal weakling totally untitled to rule; that
he is surrounded by a grand ducal clique
of insa table grafters and corruptionsts,
that he is ruled by bureaucracy of par
venues who are hated cordially by both the
grand ducal circle and the lesser nobility,
that this lesser nobility is rapidly becoming
revolutionary in tendency as a measure OF
self-defense against the bureaucrats; that
the peasantry is a starving. hopeless. illit-
crate mass. steadily retrogradng in every
sense and yet rapidly acquiring a concep-
ton of the revolution as a means to escape
from the awful tyranny that is crushing
them; that the industries of Russia are
trembling on the verge of a disastrous col
lapse. the result of NJ. Whites extraordi-
nary fiscal policies of ten years ago; that
the war with Japan brought about
solely as a bureaucratic device to strength
en- the cause of the reactionaries with the
czar; that the army and navy are honey
combed with corruption; that there is no
such thing as justice in Russia and that
every administrative office is a mass Of
graft.
The writer has arranged his topic effect
lively He proceeds logically with his dem
onstration and reaches the conclusion that
Russia turned corner when Plehve was
slain. The revolution then showed itself as
sign of hope for the long-suffering Rus
slams. Plehve. sage MIR. Uiar. was for years
RuSSias evil genius. He played upon the
terrors of the car by organizing fake as
sassinaten plots and printing fraudulent
revolutionary proclamations. He even went
so far as to have a section of the railroad
track on which the imperial train was later
to run destroyed by his agents in order
that he might brighten the car into even
more reactionary policies and at the same
time advance his own prestige with the
emperor He maintained for some years
well-organiZed system of diplomatic spies
at all the capitals of the world-spies not
merely upon foreign nations. but upon the
very INuSSIdu UIplOIndlS, whose reports, IOi-
lowing the usual official channels. were al
ways discounted in advance by Plehye's pri-
waite reports FASTENED to him by these en-
issaries. 1t was King Edward. says the
author, who betrayed the iniquity of this
scheme to Nicholas by means of private
letter sent by hand of the Russian am
bassador at London to his wfe's nephew.
1t is impossible within reasonable space
limits to give more than brief summary
OF this books remarkable features. Every
student of Russian affairs will be instructed
or at least entertained by reading. 1t
corroborates much that has been charged
against Russia and Russian officials in
connection with the exploitation of China
and the war with Japan. 1t offers statis-
ties to show the frightful condition of the
Russian peasantry. 50 per cent of whom
are iIlIterate. the great majority never fully
fed. with average death rate of 80 per
cent among the children and debt burden
that can never be lifted short of the total
smash of what Mr.. Ular styles ''Tsardom."
And the author looks to this end saying
in conclusion:
The precise forms that Will be assumed
by this upheaval are secondary, notwith-
standing their immense Importance. Upon
them II is true depends the number of vic
TINS here or there. and humanity bids US
hope that the agony of Tsardom will be
unaccompanied by disastrous commissions
This hope. however, can scarcely be real
lied. The Russian empire has become 4
chaos, where men and ideas ephemerally
set and rise. This chaos is symbolized in
the reiterated and monstrous contradictions
OF Nicholas II: by his indecision: his mani
fest duplicity; his megalomania. which
after the scattering of his fleet and armies
stickles for the notion of honor-the fools
honor. which immolates the rising genera
ton OF the country to economic a little
money in this disgraceful affair!-the honor
OF this caricature of n sovereign who en-
sconces himself trembling in his castle
dares not show himself to his people as yet
pacific. and traitorously assassinates them
in the Streets the honor no eli
who brags in the morning that he will save
his country, and saves 1t again at night by
undong what he has just done. The bu-
reauCraCy today takes part with the tsar.
tomorrow, when menaced, compromises
with the enemy; the bourgeois osciilating
between childish timidity and virle wrath;
the artisan going from icon to bomb; the
peasant sacrificing Noday the terrorists to-
morrow the mobiles; all these classes are at
present involved in tempest of infatua-
ton which forbids any prospect of consecu-
tive action. But the initial phases OF all
revolutions have followed the same course"
CLAIMS AND COUNTERCLAIMs. By
Maud Wilder Goodwin. author of
-Four Roads 10 Paradise" &c New
York: Doubleday. Page Il Co.
What is the duty OF man to another
man who has saved the first mans life?
Is 1t incumbent upon the saved In this day
and in these ATTITUDES. to regard his savior
as a perpetual claimant upon his charity
whether charity of mind or OF purse? In
China the man who saves another's life
himself assumes full responsibility for that
life He has interfered with fate and must
pay the penalty in his guardianship. But
the author of Claims and Counterclaims''
propounds the contrary proposition An
thony Dixie young physician. owes his
life to an English war correspondent. a
man of facile conscience and shady past
Eventually both love the same woman.
Dixie Is less entcrprisng than Brandyce
who declares himself first. BY force OF
circumstances ingeniously contrived Dixie
finds himself confronted with the problem
OF loyalty in acute terms. The girls father
his patient, appeals to him to know IL there
Is anything In Brandyce's career of a dis
honorable nature. How shall he answer?
He meets the case by declining to reply
The tale proceeds to conclusion that fulffIls
the logical requirements In the telling the
author shows the same acute power OF
psychological analysis that she displayed In
-Four Roads TO Paradise and she renders
a novel of absorbing interest. with several
entertaining characters At the outset oc-
ours an episode which strongly suggests the
problem recently encountered by one OF the.
religious denominations to which was Of.
fered the tainted money" OF a great capt.
talist