Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-20

for a general strike will rest upon the
shoulders of the government. It
charges that it is the purpose of Count
Witte to propose the assembling of
the douma next summer and in the
meantime to "pacify the country" in
the old bureaucratic way
Appeal to Witte
A committee representing the Mos
COW bourse arrived here today to i'm
plore Count Witte to do something to
ward off the blow of a general strike
and also to settle the post and tele-
graph strike Immediately, as the only
means of preventing financial ruin. The
committee painted the outlook in black
colors. 1t told the premier that al
ready there had been hundreds of small
bankruptcies in the provinces: that
the paper of many firms was going to
protest, and that large concerns were
hanging by a thread. 1t said that
while one week of the general strike
would beggar the proletariat 1t also
would spell the ruin of countless in
dustres.
The council at Tsarskoe-Selo conclud-
ed its sitting without arriving at a
decision regarding the election law, the
consideration of which will be resumed
tomorrow. The choice rests bteween
two proiects-one for limited and the
other for universal suffrage and both
indirect.
A sensa ton has been produced by an
open letter to the Molva written by
Alexander Stakovich of Orel, a promi-
nent zemstvoist which reveals NJ.
Durnovo in the double capacity of act
ing minister of the interior and seller
of forage to the war department.
M. Stakovich bought $4,000 pools Of
oats from M. Durnovo's wife last
spring at 46, but delivery could not be
made on account of the lack of cars.
In the meantime, owing to the failure
of the crops, the prices had risen and
this fall M. Stakovich says that Dur
novo secretly sold oats to the war de-
partment at 64, at the same time pre-
senting a bill against the department
for $3.50 for storage. 1t is considered
that the exposure will make it impos-
sible for M. DurnoVo to remain in the
cabinet.
Martial Law Declared
Instead of the expected promulga-
tion of the election law and OF a mani
festo donating the crown appanages
to the peasants, the emperor's name
day was signalized by the declaration
of a martial law in the province of
Suwalki, on the German frontier of
Poland, and by the feasting of the
army in the country.
An order for the improvement of the
condition of the army and the navy
which preceded the announcement OF
measures for the improvement of the
status of the privates, adopted las a
token of the emperors good action to-
ward his army" provides for an in
crease of the pitiful pay from $1.35
per year to SO in the case of ordinary
privates and of from SO to Sc in the
case of the privates of the guard. At
the same time the pay of the non
commissioned officers is increased in
proportion, in the case of the highest
of the sergeants-major amounting to
$36.
One of the most significant features
was the refusal of 110O0 employees of
the Putiloff works to observe the holi-
day of st. Nicholas. They insisted on
working, on the understanding that the
money earned by them would be used
to swell the strike funds. 1t is stated
that the strike fund of the railroad
men now amounts to $4,000.
Several barristers of st. Petersburg
have resolved to offer their services
for the defense of Lieutenant Schmidt,
the leader of the mutiny at Sebastopol,
who is now in the Ouchakoff fortress.