Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-01

be punished In the severest manner"
The credit of this Initiative. II Is simple
government. and not to the American Con-
gress Let Justice be done. though the
heavens fall
An article In the Fortnightly Review for
June. by an acknowledged authority. Prot
Paul vinogradoff. F. B. A,
| Russian entitled Russia at the
Viewpoint, Parting of the Ways" Is
| : highly interesting. because
| 1t is Russia from a Russian point of view:
1T does not require q prophet TO read the
signs OF the times. Events have come 10
such a pass that they are bound to proceed
for some time on lines rigid as the met
| ais of railway track. We need not look
back to the middle ages or even to the
1 abortiye reform projects of Catherine III
| and Speransky in order to see what a ben
eficial influence monarchy might have ex-
| erted on the beginnings of Russian free
| DOM The proper moment TOR its introduce
ton ought to have been the glorious epoch
/, Of Alexander lis reign. which laid the
foundations not only of new social order.
| but OF seif-government and OF an indie
pendent judicature. The browning OF the
edifiee by syste OF national representa-
ton contemplated In vague manner
1 by the emperor himself and proposed In
definite way by members of the liberal
! gentry OF liver. OF Moscow and OF st. Pc
4 II, u
assembly led by weil-educated and well-io-
do squires would have presented an inval-
liable stepping stone toward institutions or
a more advanced type. But the govern
ment drew back after having gone half way
and left the country not only without pop
, ular representation. but even without CIVIC
| rights; 1t preferred to safeguard the state
by the help of men like MuravieH and
| Shuvaloff by official terrorism and arbitrary
police rule. After the sad end of the car
| liberator's career another opportunity was
| lost when Loris Melikoff's plan of strength
ening the council of the empire by repre-
| sentatiyes of the zemstyos was nipped In
| the bud by the policy of Alexander III. A
| third fatal instance of the biunder of the
governing bureaucracy was given by the
! campaign of it's foremost representativ
Witte and Plehve. against the zemstvos.
| The former trammeled the productive en-
| terprises of the provincial self-governing
| bodies in favor of the unproductive ex-
penditure of the empire and denounced In
| famous memoir all concessions to the
zemstvos steps toward the great impos
ture of our timeS'-constitutlon govern
| ment. Plehve ruthlessly suppressed all at
| tempts of the zernstvos to communicate with
| each other in order to bring some unity and
| coordination into their treatment of SIN lar
| tasks, and tried to prove by series of
prejudieed inquiries that the self-governing
| bodies mismanaged their affairs and squan-
dered the money of the people. Trium-
| plant bureaucracy hampered and reyiied
the work OF men like DIN. Shipoff. whose
| real fault was that they actually succeeded
| in spite of official obstruction in rendering
| self-government source of progress and
social order"
| AT the first protest meeting of zemstvorsts
| In November. 1904, nothing more than ma
| tlonal representation on moderate lines was
| demanded, and the creation of a central
! zenlstvo in St Petersburg would have been
| accepted with joy. Prince Svlatopock-Mir-
| sky actually advised the emperor to grant
these moderate demands. 1t not to be.
| ut is maintained that NJ de White again
gave his casting vote against Mfrsky'S sug-
geston and another opportunity was lost
| The ukase of December %, 1904, appeared
| in a truncated shape with a significant
omission of any reference to popular repre-
| sentation. Thus Russian monarchy reject
ed, at least four times. favorable oppor-
| tunities for gradual initiation of the
| ton to political work.
| The author continues at some length and
concludes that the ominous aspect of the
present situation consists not
Dangerous in the facts. but the feelings
Elements, engendered in that situation.
.-.- THE points at issue" he
says. could possibly be arranged by a
round table conference between level head
ed men. But the leading personalities who
have looked into each others eyes in the
Tauride palace have been brought up in
hatred and contempt for each other. Those
who have now the upper hand have suffer
they are unable to recognize the relative
rights and the conscientious objections of
their opponents. A final trial of strength
must come before Russia is allowed to pro-
coed on its further course. 1t Will mark a
stage of the importation of the principles
of French democracy, German socialism
and American freedom in order to over
come the absurdities of the present regime.
But bye and bye the Russian nation will
realize, as other nations have done before,
that a living organization cannot transform
bones and sinews at pleasure, that the fu-
ture has deeper roots in the past than the
present is inclined to grant, that as the
emperor very properly said the other day,
there blessings of order as well as of
liberty, that public authority and public
force cannot ,be dispensed with least OF all
In periods of violent social unrest, that
Russia cannot give way before the aspira-
tions of all the nationalities composing 1t
without ceasing to be Russia. 1t is by OBJ
ject lessons that the people will be taught
on all these heads. and one may fear almost
that these lessons will come not In the
shape Of painful. yet conservative expert
ments, but In that of a downfall OF the
immense social fabric raised by the efforts
Of SO many generations.
Neither Witte- nor Dournovo the
proper successor of the ministry of Count
de Lamsdorf, for neither
A laundering favored the douma and
Appointment. both were thus discred-
tied In advance by that
body. The nominations OF White and Dour-
noyo were manifest mistakes. Logic
should have suggested that Whites success
sor should be some In sympathy or
having influence with the douma. Mou-
romtseff for example. The emperor ap-
pointed Goremykini Goremykin of all
men was the most Objectionable to the
douma His ministry, like the preceding,
was one of functionaries and utilities ana
doomed to failure.
When the elections are finished, for the
provinces have not yet sent their quota
there will be more than two hundred peas
ants IL the douma. They are conscious or
their strength and Importance. Side by
side with them are the workmen deputies,
who in fact were formerly peasants who
have been removed to industrial centers.
These two forces are allied under the rally
ing cry of Land and Liberty. On the
/ 18th Instant the forces in the douma were
thus constituted: The constitutional dem
ocrats occupied the center, ia seats the
moderates including the Octobfists. the
right 81 seats; the toilers, the left 102 seats
The non-partsans are grouped on botn
sides of the constitutional democrats, the
poles being on the right.