Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-22
IS ABLE AND LIBERAL
Wise Policy of StoIypin, the
Russian Premier.
MANY REFORMS EFFECTED
Amelioration of the Treatment of the
Jews.
PEASANTS HAVE MORE FREEDOM
Shorter Work Day Proposed for Gov
eminent Employes-Distribu-
ton Of State Lands.
PEASANTS HAVE MORE FREEDOM
BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.


Herald.
Although public meetings are broken up
! by the police every day. newspapers are
suppressed and innocent people as we'll as
wicked conspirators are arrested for politi-
! cal reasons, there has been q remarkable
change in Russia, and especially in st.
Petersburg, within the last few months.
Formerly every printed book and manu-
script found in the baggage Of traveller
was closely examined and usually seized in
the effort to prevent the dissemination of
revolutionary literature. Nowadays manu-
scripts, books and pamphlets are passed
without question You can buy revolution
airy music, photographs and post cards on
the streets and at the news stands. You
can find ali kinds of newspapers, including
! the most radical organs of the socialists,
upon the files in the reading rooms of the
hotels and cartoonists are taking amazing
liberties with public men and public ques-
tons in the comic papers. If such carica-
lures had been printed two years ago both
the artist and the publisher would have
gone to a dungeon. Boys on the street are
selling photographs of Martyrs for Liberty
Polish Jews who have thrown bombs and
assassinated officials, revolutionists who
have been killed by the police or executed
for political offenses and the leaders of the
mutinies at Cronstadt, Hesingfors and Sc
vastopol. One of the most popular and
profitable photographs represents William
Jennings Bryan sitting in the center of a
group of the reddest socialists and
archists in Russia. 1t was taken on the
steps of Tauride paace during session Of
the duma and has done incalculable harm
because 1t has convinced many honest
workingmen that Mr.. Bryan and the peo-
pie of the United States sympathize with
the bomb throwers and anarchists.
The mails are longer interfered with;
the censors have been discharged. Foreign
correspondents can criticise the govern
ment much as they like and send their
dispatches over the official telegraph lines.
Recent tranquility.
Russia has been more tranquil during the
last three months than for three years
previous. The great strike that was
ranged by the socialists as protest against
the dissolution of the duma did not come
off because the workingmen would not obey
the instructions of the politicians. The up
rising of the peasants which was to occur
after the crops had been gathered in was
indefinitely postponed and few estates have
been destroyed recently. No more massa-
ores will be permitted, because Mr.. Stoypin
knows how to prevent them and is de-
termned to do SO. There was no unfriendly
demonstration toward the government on
October 80, the first anniversary of the
manifesto which offered liberty to the peo
pie and promised many blessings that have
in Poland have not been so frequent of late.
Mr.. Stoiypn has introduced more reforms
during the last three months than were
ever known in any previous administration.
He has taken a sensible view of the situa-
ton. He recognizes that the people have
been wronged and have grievances that
should be redressed. He has tried to see
both sides of the situation, and not long ago
declared the opinion that men who are
compelled to live one herring and three
potatoes day cannot be expected to under
stand the benefits of an autocracy or the
obligations of citizenship" He referred to
the starving Jews, and while he did not feel
at liberty to grant them the full rights en-
joyed by other subjects without the con-
currence of the duma, he has relieved
them from the most severe of the re-
strictons under which they have been suf-
fering, and now they can go about Russia
with ordinary passport. They may en-
gage in any business but are not yet al
Element. Jewish children are admitted
to all the schools and universities of Russia
without condition The members of that
race are now enjoying nearly all the same
liberties those of other races and re-
ligions, except that there has been no
change in passport regulations which has
been promised from year to year. Foreign
Jews are still compelled to explain the OBJ
ject of their visit before they are permitted
undoubtedly remove that humiliation in due
time.
Leaders of the Revolutionists.
Perhaps these reforms are the cause of
the present tranquility. because the revo-
lutionary leaders nearly all belong to the
Jewish. and the