The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-09

stretching half way across the street is
erected; The building i to let but nc
one desires to become a tenant OF the Russian
CovernmeaE. The gas company and the
water company shut of the gas and water
and refuse to renew the supply. Anybody
who rented the building would meet with
qaiOic death from q hludgeou.'
The pressing question in Russia Is the
attitude OF the peasants. Mackenzie Wallace,
Who il now travelling among them in the
interior, thus describes their condition
and the causes thereof:
"Th Government, acting in a panic,
suddenly, inoonsiderately and in q blunder-
ing fashion. gave the peasants not merely
a little but much excellent freedom. In
October it acted toward the peasant as the
peasant acts toward his cattle in the spring,
when, after their strict confinement during
; the, long winter In a dark, unventilated
shed, he thrusts them forth incontinently
into the open field. where, intoxicated by
the sudden access to light and air, they
rush blindly and aimlessly around. dash
themselves against walls and trample
each other under foot. b bewildered
peasant is acting like the beast OF the field.
He burns crops which he needs to satisfy
his hunger, devastates lands which he
wishes to possess and drinks vodka which
yields a tax which he has sworn not to pay.
- have driven across long reaches OF
territory over which previously hordes Of
drunken peasants have passed, pulling
down houses and barns, burning forests
and crops and killing man and beast. They
had no definite plans, 10 distinct object,
no clear motive, and when l have asked
them why they have done these things they
scratched their heads and replied; How
can / sayT'
They had hitherto beer protected by
pRternal government. protected from all
thought and initiative and effort, and there
fore a political economists words regard
ing protection may apply: TT you have
been protecting for a long series OF years
you must not take protection of in a mo-
ment any more than you must take all
its wrappings eff a. feeble child in cold
weather, though the cumber Of them may
have been redically injWing its health.
Little. by little you must restore it to free
dom and air.
The Government seems to have realized
this 'truth, bat too hate. Having suddenly,
under the pressure Of public opinion and
general discomfort, given forced ~tolera-
ton to all opinions, it now seeks by re-
striction and repression to cucumber the
feeble child in all its Wrappings once more,
honestly intending, no doubt, TO restore
Il little by little to freedom and air. But
some mistakes are irrepaFable, and the
age long mistake OF the Government was
in refusing the peasant a little freedom
when a little would have counted for much
and would have prepared him to receive
more.
But Of all that has recently been
hurriedly given nothing can be safely
taken back now. and already the peasant
who il intellectually unfit for a representa-
tive assembly, is ready to lay down his
life and still more ready to take others
lives to preserve the Duma, not because
constitutional liberty has become dear
to him and he hopes by a national assembly
to establish great securities Of national
liberty, but simply because in the Duma
he finds a promise Of land.
1T j. land and only land for which he
cares, He is incapable Of any larger view.
Attempts that have been made to take OF
the blinders In which he has hitherto worked
have only rendered him confused, so that
he rears and plunges, causing outraRes,
which are reported in increasing numbers
every day, and which will yet increase in
number and ferooity beyond the hopes
Of anarchists and the fears OF those whose
duty it is to maintain law and order"
A month will tell the story Of rebellion
or submission by the Russian peasantry.