Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-03-15
SCORING GOVERNMENTS
Tolstoi Says All Are Institu-
 tions to Commit Crime.
HE ADVISES GENERAL LIBERATION

Count Says, Is to ReligiousIy and
 Morally Perfect Separate Individ-
 uals - Declares That We Are All
 Slaves and Do Not Know It.
 Count Leo Tolstoi in recent letter to the London Times says that he re- gards not only the Russian govern nent but all governments as intricate institutions sanctiled by tradition and custom for the purpose of committing by violence and with impunity the most dreadful social crimes"
 He therefore thinks the efforts of those who wish to improve social life should be directed to the liberation of themselves from the governments whose futility in these times is becom- ing more and more obvious" This ob- ject, he holds, could only be attained by the unique means of religiously and morally perfecting separate individ- uals. The idea is prevalent, he adds, that the evil accomplished by the 'pres- ent particularly coarse. cruel, stupid and deceitful Russian government" is duo to the fact that the Russian gov ernment is not organized on the model of other existing governments which "are similar to institutions for the con- i. initial eofe all ,kinds7of crimes against their peoples" ;9l'.i'
 For the purpose of correcting this, Count Tolstoi continues, the people have used all the means at their dis posaI, imagining that an alteration of the external forms might alter the essence" Such activity, he says, is in- expedient and unreasonable in that the people assert rights which they do not have. Violent strife by external means on the part of an insignificant handful of men against a powerful government defending its life is only comical from the point of view of the possibility of success and piteous as regards the unfortunate misled indi- viduals who perish in the unequal strife.
 "The Russian government has no right to claims which do not appeal to the great mass of the people. One hun dred million of the peasantry need nothing of these demands their one de- sire and expectation being the libera- ton of the land from the law of prop erty or common ownership of land. matters which are entirely ignored in Liberal positions and speeches and on ly incidentally alluded to in the revo- lutionary Socialistic programme"
 Concerning the present demands, Count Tolstoi says:
 "The people in great mass still be- lieve in autocracy. both by reason of inertia and because they think that only through autocracy and through the czar can they attain this con- munalization of land. The present ac- tivity is pernicious because it abstracts the people from the moral perfectlng of separate individuals, whereby only can be obtained the objects toward which those who are fighting the government are striving.
 "One cannot participate in political action which draws the people into intrigue. subterfuge. strife and spite, extending to murder. Political action not only fails to contribute to the Ib- eration of men from the violence of governments. but. on the contrary. renders the people more incapable of that vigor which only can liberate them.
 Light minded people, judging super fcially. especially those upset by the butchery in St Petersburg. thought the chief cause of those events lay in the despotism of the government and if the autocratic monarchical form of the Russian government was replaced by a constitutional or republican one then such events could not be repeated
 But the chief calamity from which the Russian people are suffering is not St Petersburg events. but the reck. less. disgraceful. cruel war instigated by a score of immoral individuals. The war. which already has destroyed hun dreds of thousands of Russians. i'm