The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-23
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE
 REFUSED THE RUSSIANS
DECISION REACHED AT CABINET SESSION PRESIDED OYER
 BY GEAR.

General Strike Can be Ranked as a
 Success or as FaiIure-AuthOrities
 BewiIdered by the Strength of the
 Men-Leaders Confident of Bringing
 All worImen Into LiTe-GOyern-
 ment Assumes Air of Confidence.
 St. Petersburg, Dec. 2S.-The emperor and his cabinet late last night reached final decision regarding the electoral law, deciding against universal and equal suffrage and in favor of the ex- tension of the law. promulgated August 1s last, to include, in addition to the small landowners in the country, the workmen and the educated classes, the small rent payers in the cities. The details of this law were covered at the time in these dispatches. The douma will be convoked in March.
 St. Petersburg, Dec. 22.-It is difficult to judge whether the general political strike can be ranked as success or as a failure. The authorities are bewil- .dered by the strength of the strikers, and the strike has reached formidable proportions in St. Petersburg, where, even according to the officials, over a third of the workmen obeyed the order of the workmen's council.
 The strike leaders are confidently as- serting that the others will be brought into line immediately. The government, however, has succeeded in keeping rail- way traffic out of St. Petersburg mov- ing with considerable regularity.
 The scanty dispatches received from the interior do not indicate whether the order to strike is meeting with gen. eraI response, which will be necessary to prevent it flashing in the.pan like the November strike.
 The government while entering on a vigorous offensive against the revolu- tionary leaders and making arrests by wholesale, maintains an air ot calm confidence It has issued reassuring communication, declaring that all nec- essary measures have been taken to prevent disorders. The proletariat organizations are rnarshalling all their forces to throw into the balance. The prevailing irn- pression is that with the limited funds at the disposition of the unions the strike must spread rapidly, and enter a new and more violent phase. or the game will be lost by the revolution aries, General December and, Cen eral Hunger are powerful allies on the side of the emperor at the present time just as they were in the fight against NapoIeon, and 1t is thought that the men in line unless an immediate vic- tory Is scored or a conflict forced and blood shed.
 St. Petersburg, Dec. 22.-1:90 p. m.- The Russ, evidently discounting the failure of the strike, to-day declares that in any event "every defeat is a revoEutionist victory, and every victory of the government approaches its final surrender
 Itis reported here that the disorders at Pskoff (162 miles southwest of St. Petersburg) have assumed great di- mensions, and at Vilorsk on the War saw line a squadron of dragoons has been besieged for three days.
 The news from the Baltic provinces T continues bad. Frederickstadt has been taken by the insurgents, and Kreutzburg is surrounded and standing D siege.
 The railroad mems strike committee made heroic efforts to stop trains from being run out of St. Petersburg to-day, and succeeded in inducing practically Rll the station and round house men, and many of the trainmen who remain- ed on duty yesterday, to join in the strike. Nevertheless the government has been dispatching trains under mill itary guards over all the lines, al- though regular schedules have not been maintained. Soldiers with flags on their bayonets have been doing duty as switchmen.
 The strikers are intensely enraged at their failure to suspend traffic. They stopped g. train from Berlin last night outside of St. Petersburg, using @ red lantern, and ordered the engineer out, but the soldier guard doubled up, drove off the strikers, and the train proceed ed. .,.-~~.~ ~,..-~
 The engineer of, a Kursk train was shot dead in the cab of his engine while taking his train into St. Petersburg.
 M. Nimechieff, minister of communi- cations, has issued an order that all employees falling to report for duty to- day will be dismissed. Agitators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Throughout the city notices sign ed by the prefect of police have been posted announcing that, in accordance with the strike law, agitators who in- cite the people to strike by using threats will be arrested and are subject to a fine of $250 and imprisonment for three months. S5>
 The landlords throughout the coun- try were empowered by an imperial ukase made public to-day to organize guards for the protection of their prop erty.
 St. Petersburg, Dec. 22.-An official communication authorizes the gover- nors of districts in which martial law has not been declared to permit the landowners to form a police organiza- ton for the protection of their proper ties.
 The bourse to-day was quiet. The change in prices was scarcely notice able.
 Y1nascape Inv taInnhona from Mos-