The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-01-27
rs TT REVOLUTION?

Is it revolution in Russia Do the
bloody scenes in the streets Of st. Pc
tersburg OF last Sunday mean that
Russia is to go through Frances fear
full experiences with her revolution,
her reign of terror and the conl-
mune?
The conditions in Russia at the
present day are very similar to those
in France just preceding the outbreak
OF the revolution which astoundei
and Mortified the civilized world in
the closing days of the Eighteenth
century. There is the same arrogance
of royalty, ard the aristocracy, the
same grinding down into h lowest
depths of poverty and misery Of the
lower classes, the same assumption by
the former of the God given right to
rule and to dominate their less for
turate fellow-citizens. the same Often
sive assumption Of the divine right Of
the king to rule and to t~yrannize over
his people, to extort from them the
last farthing in h way of burden
some taxes and unjust exactions In
order that he and his mobiles ami
favorites may revel in extravagant
and bestial luxury. On the other side
Of the picture are reproduced the
same conditions of h French peas
ants-a whole nation down-troddeI,
Inundated, treated more as wild and
savage beasts who require the Lash
and the prison cage to teach them
t~ractability and submission to their
self-appointed superiors, tina as fell
lew beings and men made, like them
selves, after Cod own image.
Tn France this inhuman process con-
.inued until the people could stand it
no longer. In their desperation they
arose against their oppressors. They
at last realized that death was pref
cradle to life under such conditions.
Successful resistance. against years Of
tyranny opened their eyes to the pos
sibility of revenge for what they and
IlC pCopIS 1du " SN
tons, and how fearfully they wreaked
that vengeance and what demons he
sight of the blood of their oppressors
made of them make up the bloodiest
annals Of modern history.
It looks as if Russia was about TO
suffer Frances experience in the
throwing Off of the yoke of despotic
rule. The conditions of oppression are
not the only similarities in the two
countries just preceding the revolu-
tons. In France the first serious con-
| fict was brought about by the people
trying to force themselves into the
presence of their king that they might
| Law their grievances before him per-
sonally and receive his assurances OF
relief from their burdens, just as was
attempted in st. Petersburg last Sun
day. Again, the French revolution be-
gan in the reign of a of less
mental vigor than his several imme-
date predecessors and who was in
clined to take some steps to ametior-
ate the sufferings Of his people, who
by slackening the tight reins which
their former rulers had held over the
people give them the opportunity for
taking the first steps which overthrow
his throne and brought himself and
thousands of others to the scaffold:
Just so it is today in Russia. Nicholas
II is not the man of brains Or of iron
manoff rulers. He has governed his
people, Or tried to do so with a less
heavy hand. He has been inclined ~
grant the lower class privileges thai
have been denied them heretofore.
The concessions ave apparently come
too late. He vas not able to hold the
tight reigns that his ancestors did, nor
to relax them in such a way as to
grant the relief desired and, to all
I appearances, wished for by himself
L without arousing the long pent-up pas
, sions and thirst for revenge by the
masses of laborers and peasants.
The agitation which eliminated in
p the fearful slaughter in st. Peters
burg on Sunday at first appeared te
be only an ordinary industrial up
q heavaI, such as we often have in this
a country-a strike of factory hands for
higher wages and shorter hours o
work per day. If this was it's true
nature at first it soon took on p%olitica
and revolutionary features. The revo-
lutionists found the conditions ripe
for. their schemes. Conditions have
passed beyond the limits of an indus.
trial uprising and the men who en-.
tered into it thinking that to be it's OBJ.