Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-02
POLITICAL CONDITIONS INRUSSIA
At Least Seven Great Divisions Of Race Among the People These
Are Not Likely to Get Together for Revolut on.

iast more than about ten minutes, the po-
lice and the troops were very decent In the
way they handled the crowd on the Nevsky.
II was kindly pass along" and viii you
piease not block the sidewalk" q whole lot
more polite In the aggregate than the
Washington police with an Inauguration
crowd
There were two more attempted demon
STATIONS by the students while was there
that were suppressed without bloodshed
They We're both at the Kazan Cathedral
while Mirski was minister of the interior
and Fulton was chief of police in st. Peters
burg. On both occasions Fulton appeared
IN person and sent the police home
Wouldn't that jar you for down-trodden
Russia? Then he made little talk to the
students and told them to go home, and
they WENT But they have a different sort
OF a man in Trepoff. who is now governor
OF st. Petersburg. He is not going to send
any troops or police to their barracks while
he talks to the mob. and consequently there
probably will be more street bloodshed
while he remains in office.
ION the other hand the governmental
party Is just pig-headed and idiotic in
the way they meet the ebulftions Of the
populace. The shooting in St. Petersburg
on the so-called Bloody Sunday in jan
uary was wholly uncalled for. The car
then missed the chance of his life for maxi
ing himself solid with the masses The
crowd that went to the winter palace with
the petition for him did so in absolutely
good faith. If the car had come out per-
sonally and taken the petition from them
there was not a man in the crowd who
would not have gone down and kissed the
riding boots of the Little Father and 1t
would not have mattered much whether the
czar had done anything with the petition
f<1xx - d.
had to commence the shooting then and
the chance for amicable settlement was
gone for years, II not forever.
That is just the situation in Russia now
as 1 figure it out There may be more
killings, and we will hear more about them
because there is no censorship on outgoing
kilograms from Russia, and there will be
more printed in Washington about rioting
in Lodz than there will be printed in st.
Petersburg or Moscow.
But you won't see any organized reyolu-
ton; can't, in fact, for lack of material
unless the army now in Manchura should
be sent back to Russia with guns in their
hands. In that case there probably would
be a pretty shindy. But the Russian gov
eminent knows that as well as anyone, and
If the war is called off and the reservists
to the number of several hundred thousand
are sent home, you can bet they will be
sent back unarmed, even If the troops have
to stack their guns in the middle Of ST.
IBERIA and leave them there to rust"
The Russian navy is a problem by itself
and one who has not an intimate personal
knowledge of the conditions perhaps ought
to be chary of passing Judgment on it. The
latest reports of the outbreak at Odessa
and the mutiny on the KnaZ Polemkine
would indicate that the fleet. what is left of
IL at home. is in about as bad condition
as possible. Now, this Is not very surpris-
ing, either. The Black sea fleet is the most
remarkable in the world. 1t is maintained
solely as strong-arm threat against the
Turk. for 1t cannot get out of the Darda-
nelles to do business with the outside world,
and, according to the BosphoruS convention
of more than thirty years standing. the
fleets of the world cannot get In past Con-
stantinople to do business with it. The
Black sea is one of the few places where
Russia ought to be able to recruit tolerably
good sailors, for, though an inland sea, 1t
is a pretty big piece of water. and the peo-
pie along its shore are many of them very
Black sea sailors are drafted Off to the for
eign fleet, and the caiber of those left might
be indicated by an incident of the maneu-
vers last year. Admiral Chutkine, who is In
command of the feet, signaled at the end of
one days practice for the vessels to all re-
turn to port. Every mothers son of them
promptly turned and steamed out to sea.
They either could not read their own sig
nails, or else the wrong signal was given
them from the flagship.
Very many of the Russian sailors are lit
orally farmers. They raise some good
water men, as has been said, along the
Black set and the Baltic, but one see
that these regions will raise but small
portion of real sailors for the fleet. And
you cannot take man from the inland
provinces who, like a late Secretary of our
Navy, did not know that ship was hol
low, and make a sailor out of him In six
months.