Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1905-12-09
THE EFFECTS OF THE RUSSIAN STOR a.


"The many striking parallels between the
| course of events in Russia and those in the
| early days of the French revolution have been
frequently commented on. In Russia, as i'll
France, we have peasantry STEPPED IN ignor-
anCe, superstitious and apparently hopeless
We find certain districts poorly served by
railroads that, as in France in 1889, they are
practically isolated except for slow communica-
| ton by wagon road. We find a consequence
these districts sometimes swept by famine when
there is plenty only a hundred two miles
away. We have in the bureaucracy and the
grand ducal ring a reproduction Of those who
misgoverned France and crushed it's people
! under the weight of an enormous taxation that
squeezed out almost all the annual income of
! the poorer classes. We find at the head of the
government an autocrat legally supreme, but
in character weak and vacillating We find
him yielding to the rising storm but always
yielding too late. We find the people forcing
national assembly and the recognition of their
right to this or that liberty, and sooner gain
ing one point than they press to the next.
We begin to see the army itself injected With
the popular fever and turning against the
government. And finally we see the conflagra-
ton in the cities spreading to the rural districts,
and the peasants armed with scythes and pitch
forks tramplng in il-ordered bands over the
estates in their neighborhood to burn down the
houses and the granares of the landed ar1stoc-
racy. Riot, arson, bloodshed, all the fruits of
popular passion long repressed and suddenly
loosed by the relaxation of authority, are the
accomplishments of the general turmoil The
puppets of the Russian and the French drama
and it's lurid background are remarkably alike
says the ST. Paul Pioneer Press.
"But to base upon this interesting similarity
anything more than a speculative forecast
would be rash proceeding. For the parallelisn
is as superficial as it is interesting Some of
the forces that made the French revolution are
unquestionably present in the Russian cata
clysm, but some are wanting and in their stead
are new Of different intensity and direction
The objects which they are acting, the obsta-
cles in their path, are different; and only by a
rare chance can the resultant have the same
same results.
"Stil more must this difference in the fac
tors of the two revolutions be borne in mind in
speculat1ons on the effect OF the Russian reVolu-
ton the world at large. Yet there those
who profess to see init the beginning of a world
wide disturbance like that which issued FRONT
the French revolution and ended in the general
overthrow of absolutism and the establishment
of constitutionalism 1t may be admitted as
truisn that the world will not escape entirely.
Just as the so-Japanese war is bound tol
have marked aud unexpected results far outside
the territories or immediate interests of the
combatants, 50 the present turmoil, and still
more any noticeable change in the government
of Russia will effect, less, all the world.
But there who see prospects of politi
cal upheavals consequence. They point