The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-25
TOLSTOY GIVES ADVICE
 TO THE GEAR OF RUSSIA

| behind the troops along the whole of the railway and hear what is said by these peasants--various village elders driven there from the neighborhood to remain in the cold and dirt, without remuneration, eating their own bread, awaiting during several days the pass ing of the train--you would bear from these most genuine representatives of the people, simple peasants, all along the line, words quite incompatible with devotion to autocracy and its represen- tative. If some fifty years ago, dur ing the reign of Nicholas l., the pres tige of the Tsar's power was still high. during the last thirty years it has been necessarily falling, and has latterly fallen so low that amongst all classes no one now restraints himself from con- demning not only the measure of the government, but also the Tsar himself, abusing and laughing at him
 Autocracy Is an outgrown form of government which may answer to the demands of people somewhere in Gen. tral Africa, apart from the whole world. but not the demands of the Russian people, which is growing ever more enlightened by the enlighten- ment common to the whole world, and therefore 1t is possible to maintain this form of government and the orthodoxy connected with it--as. indeed. is now being done-only by every kind of violence, special control. arbitrary ex- dement's. executions. religious persecu- tions, prohibitions of books and pa- pers, distortion of education. and, in general, every kind of bad and cruel deeds.
 Such have hitherto been the action of your reign. beginning with the an- swer to the Tyer deputation. which called forth the general indignation of all the Russian public. when you called the most legitimate desires of the people "senseless dreamings," and continuing in all your measures con- | corning Finland, Chinese appropria- tions. your project of The Hague Con- ference accompanied by the increase of the army, your weakening of selfsgov- ernment and strengthening of admin istrative despotism. your support of persecution for faith, your consent to the institution of the spirit monopoly i. e.. Governmental trading in that poison which Is running the people and. lastly, your insistence in main taining corporal punishment notwith- l standing all the petitions which are being addressed to you for the aboli- ton of this senseless and utterly use- less measure which disgraces the Rus sian people. All these are deeds which you could not have committed had you not. according to the advice of your lightminded helpers, put before your self the impossible aim not only of 1 arresting the life of the people but of reverting it to its former and out lived condition.
 Can Oppress, But Not Rule. | By measures of coercion one can op- press 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 peo- pie from evil to good, from darkness to light. to lead them to the attain ment of the objects nearest to this end. In order to be able to do this 1t is first of all necessary to give the people the possibility of expressing their desires and wants, then lending ear to these desires and wants, to full fill those of them which will answer the demands not of one class or cate gory, but of the majority, the mass of the working people.
 The desires which the Russian peo- pie would at present express, were it possible for them to do so would, In my opinion, be the folloWlng:- .--, .-
 First of all the working people would say that they wish to be de- livered from those special laws which place them in the position of a pariah. deprived of the rights of all other citi- 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 million peo- pic would say with one voice that they desire freedom in the use of land l-i. e., the abolition of the right of landed property.
 It is this abolition of the right of | nFi wal To iT1 taI opinion, constitutes that primary ob- 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 q proximate step to the realization of those better forms of life to which 1t Qife) tends. Fifty years ago such proximate step was the abolition of slavery. In our time such a step is that which is called the labor question:. C., 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 transfcrence 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. 1t is ob- Viously inapplicable to Russia as she now is
 In Russia. where an enormous DOT tion of the population lives on the land ] and is In complete dependence upon the large landlords, the libara- tion of the workers obviously cannot be achieved through thee transferenc of factories and mires into common use For the Russian people such a liberation can be attained only through the abolition of landed property and by the recognition of the land as a common possession-that which for a long time past has constituted the heartfelt desire, of the Russian people and the realization of which they con- tinue to expect from the Russian Gov ernment.
 l know that these suggestions will be regarded by your counseIlors as be- ing the height of lightmindedness, the impracticality of a man who does not grasp all the difficulty of state gov ernment and especially the idea of recognizing the land as a common na- l tlonal property; but I also know that Tn order not to be compelled to com-
 init ever more and more cruel acts of violence on the people there is but one means-namely, to take as ones object such an aim as stands in front of the peoples desires and, without waiting till the descending cart knocks against ones legs, to draw 1t oneself, 1. e., to advance in the first ranks towards the i realization of better forms of life For