Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-17

rection produced a counter current is an ac-
| cepted axiom In human af
= Couneer fairs. The revolution In Rus
Current, STA. controlled until now by
socialists and their allies in
the cities, appears. so far as may be seen
through the veil that obscures events. to
have changed Its current. That reaction
has begun and the power OF a pseudo pro-
ietariat has passed to the peasant? Such
| Is the trend of the present moment.
The peasant. IT may be recalled, constf-
tutes % per cent of Russia's one hundred
and twenty million souls. The workmen of
the cities and the intellectuals who COM
| prised the revolutionists are insignificant In
| numbers by comparison.
That the revolutionary machine has brok-
en- down may be inferred from the dis
patches which announce that the workmen
OF st. Petersburg have postponed their pro-
posed strike and In lieu thereof have APP
pointed trfumvirate as a governing body
d.
The arrest of M. Krustalen, the chief of
the revoiutionists. coupled with the fact
that funds are lacking to carry on the prop
uganda, gives evidence of the waning
strength Of the revolution. The govern
ment has further manifested its power by
arrest1ng syndicate of employees of posts
and telegraph. and ordered them to return
to duty on pain of prosecution.
Ihere is something cynical in the state
ment that when the strike leaders-whose
virtues have been so extolled as to make
them the embodiment of all that is good
ana patrlotlc-were arrested, they were
found INDUCING In superb banuIet in n
| restaurant of mark in Moscow IL, common
with women strikers and spending the
strikers funds on expensive wines, cigars
ana liquors.. II asked to explain the mani
lest anomaly doubtless they would have
answered that banquets were after all
better than bombsr'
Does this not mean that reaction has be-
gun In Russia? 1t would signify this In
any country but Russia which not only
mystifies the world. aghast at the mani
festations of brutality, but also NJ Witte.
y ne has been correctly reported in recent
his interlocutor. "the vast changes which
the imperial manifesto heralded re-
CURED time and patience to carry out but
what happened was utterly unexpected
oecuons OF the country, nay, whole classes,
went to work Systematically to annihilate
their own means of livelihood and to ruin
themselves and the whole nation. Social
instincts seemed to have been atrophied
Instead of uniting to preserve order the
people quarreled among themselves and at
tackled the government"
Are you prepared to have recourse to
coercion?' asked the interviewer, and NJ
Wltte is reported to have replied:
If this Alternative comes to pass 1t will
pc conf1ded to somebody qualified to essay
devoid of the requisite qualities and the
disposition"
<*
The writer has had sincere admiration
for M. White and he does not believe that
he could have declared that
"ittes he was devoid of the quail
Policy, ties and the disposition to
coerce if need be the anarch-
though 2 I'm Of
| man. The whole statement is contradictory
and so unlike NJ. Witte that it may be safe
ly discarded untrue.
On the contrary it would seem that NJ
Witte has adopted a policy of temporiza-
ton. a principle that AL comes to him
who knows how to wait The difficulties
have been immense. No parties are virtu-
Gus or patriotic in Russia; they are all bent
on plumber of government, the prince as
well as the proetary. NJ White could not
foresee or prevent the military mutinies
which have disgraced CronstadL and Vlad-
ivostok; the horrible massacfes at Odessa
l<ief, kasan, kherson, Iarostaf and else
where Let us hope that his policy of
temporization means that he hopes thus to
gain time, disgust and fatigue the working
classes with their own regime of disorder
whilst seeking to appease the peasant and
avert the horrors of an uprising compared
to which the barbarities committed will
count as little. VIII his device, like that
of another state in difficulty, be that
Russia will come out of her troubles
through her own efforts. that is through
the agency of the Russian premier? The
instruction of the peasants in France in
1853 will differ from that in Russia in
that the former was revolt against the
noble, whilst the latter would be directed
| not against the noble specially, but what
are known as the intellectuals, includ-
ing lawyers, doctors, professors, en-
gneers and students. NJ. Whites tenure
of authority is based upon his influence
with the intellectuals to infuse in them
understand
ing of the peril which menaces the country.
The ''black band" is the power behind the
throne power which the emperor Will In
woke only in the hour of supreme danger
| to his dynasty. 1t will serve to throw
some light upon the Russian situation to
give the reader an idea of the aims and
objects of parties in Russia.
| The party of intellectuals Is composed.
as indicated, of professionals or students.
Their dream is to overthrow
| Russian the aristocracy of blood.
| p.r+;as They are In fact what are
called opportunists; sons OF
peasants or the poor bourgeoisie. They
are vain, ambitious and joined to their
science an unfortunate lack of education
| and polish augments their hatred of the
| aristocracy, which they amect to despise,
| but of which they are jealous in fact They
| loudly proclaim the rights of the people"
| of whom they speak disdainfully among
| themselves as a pack of brutes." All
aspire to be deputy to the coming douma,
| a mayor or governor general
The extreme opposite OF the aforecited
party is the iliterates, the lavochniki,
| composed of shop keepers, butchers bakers
and chiefly an immense number o. peasants.
| From the illiterates has been recruited
| faction composed of workmen In cities,
| factory men and others. Taking their
model from the workmen of other cities.
| Paris and Berlin, they become easy VIC
| tins of the propaganda and these have
but one idea, the division of property. This
! party makes a great deal of noise, but
| their numbers are small, and cali them
selves nihilists and communists.
The aristocratic party is divided One