Weekly Arizona journal-miner. [volume] (Prescott, Ariz.) 1903-1908, 1905-02-08
TOLSTOY ADVISES CAR.

Count ToIstoi, the celebrated Rus
sian author and reformer, while sup
posedly on his death bed recently sd-
dressed letter to the car which was
pointed in its nature as to the re-
forms needed in the Russian empire
and which will be endorsed by the en-
tire civilized world. While the letter
is of extreme length the following
quotation from it is specially inter
esting:
Autocraey is an outgrown form of
government which may answer to the
demands of a people somewhere in
Central Africa, apart from the whole
world, but not to the demands of the
Russian people, which is growing ever
more enlightened by the enIighten-
ment common to the whole world,
and, therefore, it is possible to main
tain this form of government and the
orthodoxy connected with It, only by
every kind of violence, special con-
troll, arbitrary exiIements, executions,
religious prosecutions, prohibitions
of books and papers, distortion of ed
ucation, and, in general, every kind
of wicked and cruel deeds.
By measures of coercion one can
Cypress a people, but not rule them.
The only means in our time to rule
the people indeed is placing oneself
at the head of the movement of the
people from evil to good, from dark
ness to light, to lead them to the at
tainment of the objects nearest to this
end.
In order to be able to do this it is
first of all necessary to give the people
the possibility OF expressing their de-
sires and wants, to fulfill those of
whom which will answer the demands
not of one class or category, but of
the majority of the working people.
The desire which the Russian people
would at present express, were it pos
sible for them to do so, would, in my
opinion, be the following:
First of all, the working people
would say that they wish to be deliv-
cred from those special laws which
place them in the position of pariahs,
deprived of the rights of all other cit
liens, then they would say that they
desire freedom of removal from place
to place, freedom of education and
freedom to profess the religion which
corresponds to their spiritual needs;
and above all, all the 100, 600, 600 peo-
pie would say with one voice that
they desire freedom in the use of land
i. e., the abolition of the right of
landed property.
1t is this abolition of the right of
private property II land which, in my
opinion, constitutes that primary OBJ
ject the attainment OF which the Rus
sian government of our time ought TO
take as its aim.
In every period of human develop
ment there is proximate step to the
realization of those better forms of
life to which life tends. Fifty years
ago such a proximate step was the
abolition Of slavery In our time such
a step is that which is called the labor
problem. e., the Liberation of the
working masses from the minority
which Expresses them
In western Europe the attainment of
this object is regarded as possible
through the transference of the mines
and factories into the common owner
ship of the workers. Whether for
western people such solution of the
question be correct or not, it is Oh
viously inappIicable to Russia as she
now is.
But, at all events, the first thing
which lies before the government is
the abolition of that oppression which
prevents the people from expressing
their desires and needs. One cannot
do good to a man whose mouth has
been gagged in order MOTTO hear what
he desires for his welfare. Only after
having ascertained the desires and
needs of your people, or of the major
ity of them, is it possible to rule the
people and do them good.
Dear brother, you have but one life /
in this world, and you can spend it
painfully in futile efforts to arres }