The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-06-19
A VOICE IN RUSSIA.

1nOSe VINO are inclined to doubt
whether anything has really been gain
ed for Russian freedom by the estab-
lishment of the douma. says the New
York Tribune. should consider how
much it means in any country to have
the voice of freedom made widely
audible. Before the present yer it
was one of the most discouraging
features of the Russian situation that
gag was in the mouth of the press,
the leaders of liberal thought and the
public. No matter what wise plans
men might conceive. they were not
permitted to make them public. No
matter what aspirations the people
might have, they were not permitted
to make them known or to express
them to their rulers. The great nation
was dumb. The people could not
know the men whom the potential lead
ing had in mind, and such men could
not exert the natural leadership of
intelligence over the people. The
average Russian was in much the
same condition as the negro slave in
America few generations ago, who
was not permitted to learn to read
lest he should learn of liberty and the
rights of man.
But now what do we see and hear?
The douma is fact. And even if it is
we do not concede it is-powerless
for constructive legislation at the pres
ent moment, it is at least free voice
in Russia, and the first such voice
which has been heard in that land of
silence. The members of the douma
are daily making speeches in which
they discuss the policy of the Emperor
and his ministers and the needs and
demands of the people with much the
same freedom as that of the British
parliament or the American congress,
and those speeches are printed in full
and widely circulated throughout the
empire. We are told that, while no
progress is being made at present to-
ward legislation on agarian matters,
the radical leaders are taking advant-
age OF every opportunity of making
campaign speeches for circulation in
the provinces. In this country such
tactics would be regarded with little
favor. There is far too much talk
ing for buncombe" But in Russia
that is one of the most essential and
beneficent of things. We have had
so much free speaking and publishing
in America that it is not easy for us
to appreciate what the removal of the
gag means to nation that never be-
fore has had public voice.
1t may be that the speeches which,
are now being made in the douma and
which are being widely distributed all
over the empire will prove to be of
actually greater value than lot of
laws would be If made without such
public interchange of thought. Now for
the first time the people of Russia can
make their mind known, they can hear
the voice Of the "intellectuals" and
learn from them, and they can make
known to the emperor and to his min
listers their needs and their demands.
We must believe that thus the cause
of ordered and rational emancipation
will be greatly advanced. Tennyson
once spoke Of England as 1.-THE one
Voice in Europe" and the description
was substantially True. Today al
most every European nation has found
voice. latest of all Russia, and in
that making of the mind vocal there
has been much gain for freedom.
There could be few things more
suspicious for Russia than just this
finding of q free national voice.