Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-05-13
GERM OF A PARLIAMENT.

To Americans, or, indeed, to any
people OF western Europe and their
colonies having the experience and
traditions of constitutional govern
ment, the Russian experiment of a
parliament under the explicit reserva-
tons of power contained in the cars
proclamation of the Fundamental Law
just before the meeting of the Duma, or
national assembly, seems at first blush
preposterous and futile. We can
hardly conceive OF a national legis-
lature from which are withheld by
written constitution the power of the
purse and control of the public do
main, to say nothing of many other
great powers denied to the Russian
national assembly and definitely re-
tanned as crown prerogatives by the
car.
On the terms OF this organic writing
the car, theoretically, can carry on
government without regard to Parlia-
ment, borrowing and expanding the
as the autocrat of all the Russias has
heretofore done. Practically and in
the long run, however. the reverse is
likely to happen, unless the general
history of constitutional progress fails
to repeat itself. The Russian loan of
100000, taken within a few
weeks through foreign banking houses,
could not have been successfully
floated, it is agreed but for the assur-
ance that II would be duly confirmed
and ratified by the Parliament. So
the czar will, in emergency, in all
probability, be thrown back upon the
approval of the assembly as the popu
lar representative. and concession by
him of popular demands and rights
will be the price of approval.
The very exclusion of the Parlia-
ment by written prohibition from land
control may tend, along this line, TO
a solution of what is probably the
most formidable, practical national
problem. A peasant population equal
TO two-thiTds the total population of
the United States owns an average of
less than seven acres each. on whom
rests the weight OF excessive taxation;
before whom is the menace OF re-
current famine, and yet who have
before their very eyes the tantaliZing
sight of almost illimitable rich but
now waste land that would save them.
Altogether the crown, the imperial
family, the church and the mobiles
monopolize, in large part without
using and preventing others from
using. nearly a billion acres of land,
The passionate desire OF the peasantry
is, as It long has been, to possess this
vital opportunity and II grows
stronger every year. The cars res
ervation of power over it tends 10 fix
upon him responsibility in the peas
ants mind, so densely ignorant, that
heretofore this fact has been obseured.
while the national assembly is an in
strument though not yet an immedi-
ately decisive Que. for pressing that
fact home.
Historically, constitutional progress
has mainly been limitation on royal
power The very calling and existence
OF the popular assembly is itself a
memorable surrender of autoeracy. II
affords a point of vantage from which
popular right may progressively wrest
concessions OF liberty, political power,
land and the other means of happiness
as emergency from time to time con
fronts autoorauc authority,
II is indeed not a parliament as we
understand its function. Behind an
Anglo-saxon parliament there IL a
thousand wears of tradition and con-
tinuous constitutional growth and
practical adjustment The Russian
assembly will be a historic triumph for
human liberty II Il proves but the