The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-09-18

mount. About One-third of the entire
mount of ana in the empire is in the
hands of the ear, the government and
the nobility, and the peasants demand
that it shall be turned over to them.
At this time they are willing to have
compensation made to the owners
but the more they think about il and
the more vehement their demands be
come. the less they are likely to con-
slider compensation. There is no doubt
that there are enough cases OF injuS-
tce and cOntemptuOuS indifference to
their needs to arouse resentment
among the peasants ii we take human
nature as we find it. They tell of in
stances where whole villages have
been compelled to pay toll generation
after generation for the privilege OF
crossing some nobleman's land to reach
the land farmed in common by the
people of the village. PoWerleSs to
condemn land for roads. as it can be
done in other countries, they have
grown embittered year By year until
some of them feel hat patience has
ceased TO be Il virtue. 1t Is now init
mated that the government will offer
Il partial distribution of land as a COM
promise.
The opponents of appropriation seek
shelter behind the excuse that the
peasants attack the principles of pri-
Vate ownership. While it is true that
there are socialists in the duma who
prefer communal holdings to private
ownership. the object Of the peasants
is not to dispossess small holders but
simply to give the peasants access to
large etates. The ituation resembles,
in some respects, the situation in Ire
land, except hat in Russia the land
is to be turned over to communities. !
made some inquiry regarding the ques-
ton of joint ownership and learned
from one Of the be"St-informed men in
Russia that there is a growing Senti-
ment in favor of individual ownership.
, ownership in common does not give
to each individual that stimulus to i'm
prove his land. which is the important
element in individual ownership.
In riding through a unit one can
distinguish with considerable accuracy
betWeen The farms cultivated by their
owners and those cultivated by ten
! ants, because the tenants, as a rule, are
unwilling to make permanent improve
ments. one Russian economist eSti-
mates the income from the owned
lands of Russia at 80 per cent. above
/ the income Of the same area of com.
! munal lands. He attributes it to the
ability of he land owners to supply
themselves WITH proper tools and to
furnish or borrow at low rates the
money needed for cultivation, but it is
possible that this difference may be
in part due to the fact that ownership
! makes the incentive to labor greater.
ana offers a richer reward to superior
effort.
There is an upper house, or council
of empire. as it is called. which shares
the legislative power with the duma.
but it does not receive much attention
because its composition is such that
it cannot reflect public sentiment and
cannot ppose the Will of the people
except at the risk Of it's existence.
Half Of the members Of this council
are appointed by the emperor and the
other half elected By different inter
ests. The nobility elect some, the uni
eVrsities some, and the zemstwos
some.
i The luna does not the
council of the empire as 4 coordinate
branch of the government and Will
not be slow To express itself in favor
of q radical change in the method of
selecting the members of this upper
house, or even its abolition. if il
stands in the way of measures which
have a large majority in the duma.
What will be the outcome in Russia >
As Russia would hardly venture a pre-
diction. and for an outsider prophecy
is even more hazardous. The SITUATIONS
could scarcely be more complicated
generations Of misrule have brought
an accumulation of questions an
pressing FOR solution. The duma wants
a great many things done and wants
them done at once, While the govern
ment, if it remains under the infu-