Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1906-06-08
RUSSIAN PEASANTS
ARE Selling Land
BEYOND CONTROL IN MANY
PROVINCES AND OWNERS OF
ESTATES BEING OUsTED.
INEVITABLE CONFLICT
is FAST APPROACHING
Distribution of 3,75O,OOO Acres of
Crown Lands Planned - Mobiles
Fear Loss of All Property and
Preparing for Bitter Fight.

st. Petersburg, June THE lower
house OF parliament and the govern
ment are rapidly coming to close
quarters, and the conflict which be-
came inevitable the moment the popu-
lar assembly presented its demands
in the address to the throne cannot be
much longer delayed.
The excitement in the interior is
increasing daily. Partial strikes have
begun at Kietf, Odessa, Moscow, and
other cities, and the peasants In some
provinces are no longer restrainable
and have commenced to seize the land
of the proprietors.
The leaders of the constitutional
democrats in the lower house, who, for
tactful reasons, first sought 20 post
pOne a conflict in order to be able to
choose the time and place tor the
battle, realize that they must go with
the tide, and the government, which
equally sought to calmly ignore the
extra constitutional demands OF the
house and sent the ministers to the
house with conciliatory speeches, real
ICES that the government policy has
failed.
Gear Must Yield or Fight.
Since the government declined to
give the house satisfaction regarding
the continued executions in the prov
inces or to bring to book the local
officials, whose tyranny is fanninlg the
flames Of popular indignation, parlia-
ment has had no alternative except
the immediate insistence on it's ue-
mand for the dismissal of the cab
met.
The scene at Tuesdays session, when
the house refused to listen to the min
listers and practically drove them from
the rostrum, clearly presents the Issue.
The emperor must dismiss the cabinet
or fight In yielding to the militant
spirits Of the radiA's upon this point,
the constitutional democrats again
soliditied the opinion, which was on
the verge of dissenSiOns over the
agrarian question = dissensions OF
which the government is eager to take
advantage, it being reliably reported
that the government had planned tC
make direct appeal to the peasAntry
by distributing the land-hungry peas
ants on easy payments 3,750,O00 acres
of crown lands on the right bank OF
the Volga and in the southern and CEN
trail provinces without awaiting the ac-
ton of parliament.
Nobility Is Organizing
This step is strongly advised by the
leaders of the nobility, who are hold
ing a general congress here. The mem
bers OF the nobility are perfectly aware
that the parliamentary programme, ii
adopted, will wipe out landlOrdism in
Russia, and that the fair" price which
the programme offers for their ex-
propriated property will not save them
from economic ruin.
Therefore the mobiles are organizing
in order q make a stiff fight foc the
preservation of their prerOgatives.
While 4 few of them apparently read
the signs OF the times Alright and are
in favor Of making the best OF n bad
situation, the majority are stiff-necked
aristocrats, who are not in favor OF
yielding all iota.
They even hesitate to indOrse the
moderate government programme and
have sent a message expressing their
loyalty 10 the emperor, in which they
did not even mention the existence OF
parliament