The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-03
WITTE QUITS PUBLICL
 Goremykin to Be Russian Premier.
 NEW OFFICIAL IS REAcTI0NARY
Also Regarded as a Man of
 Mediocre Ability.
Man Who Saved Honor and Credit ss His Nation From wreck of War in East VIII Retire to
 Privfte Life.

St. Petersburg. May 2.--The official announcement that Premier Wftte's resignation had been accepted coupled with the statement that former minister of the Interior Goremykin would sue ceed him was made today
 In view of the publications of the last few days, the former statement dld not come as surprise but M. Goremy- kin's election to the premiership creat- ed amazement. He is not only regard ed as a reactionary. but the general opinion is that he is not equal to the task of facing the coming crisis. Count wittes retirement from public life is complete.
 There is now no uestion of his ap- pointment to be president of the Coun- ell of the Empire and although 1t Is rumored that he may be asked to act as chairman of the finance committe, ik | is learned that this Is incorrect Count witte will again assume the role of a spectator of the great events which are l transpiring. returning to private life from which he was summoned last summer to negotiate the peace of ports mouth.
 The work of removing his furniture from the annex of the winter palace | back to his old residence on Yelagin Island has already begun. While req sons of health are assigned for his re- tirement 1t must be accepted as a vtc- tory for the reactionists at court. Count Witte simply served the ernporor's pur- pose as barrier between him and the people during the trying months of the revolution and now that the uprising Is suppressed and the treasury again rec plenished the Count has been ignomin- ously dismissed.
 The New Premier.
 M. Goremylxin. the new premier. was exposed by witte in 1899 and since then has been the retiring premier's unre- lenting enemy. At that time the form CT minister of the interior made res port to the emperor to the effect that the stories of famine and suffering which were said to exist in certain provinces were untrue.
 witte. who was then Minister of ri. nance. thereupon produced documents ] to prove that the conditions in the in- terior were as they had been represents l ed to be. When the emperor confronted NJ Goremykin with this. he is said 10 have fallen on his knees before the emperor, to have wept and to have beg ged forgiveness. The minister was so overcome that the emperor himself brought him a glaes of water. Later M. Goremykin took part in the von Plehve cabal which drove Witte from the ministry of finance in 1903. M Goremykin is considered a medio- ere man of insignificant appearance as well as capacity. He wears side whiskers and looks like an English butler. While for some time he has been called a Liberal, 1t was in con- trast with such men as von Plehve and M. Sipiaguine. the late interior minis ter. He began his career in the ulin- istry of justice. becoming assistant minister, from which post he was called in 1895 as a protege of the dowager empress, to become minister of the in- terior. The student troubles, the fore runners of the recent revolution, were thu just beginning and M Goremykin lacked the energy necessary to enas them and he was supplanted m lSs9 by M Sipiaguine. Last year when Inc terior Minister Durnovo legislated out of existence the rural commission of which he was president and which had been Investigating the Agrarian question several years NJ. Goremykin was appointed head of the agricultural commission which snppianted i.. when he became premier. Witte retaliated on M. Goremykin by dissolving the agri- cultural commission.
 Other Changes Not Known.
 What other changes in the cabinet are involved in Count Witte'a retires ment have not yet developed. but ft is thought that the emperor intends to nGH0 Ing representatives of the constitu- tional democrats to power.
 If is stated positively that Mir. Gore mykin and Interior Minister Durnovo had a falling -out recently and that the latter's continuance in the cabinet is impossible,
 Count witte. unauestionably Is the biggest man in the public life here. goes out unwept and unsung and amid the rejoicings of the reactionists who hate him and the Liberals who distrust him. Yet even today 1t is predicted that when the next great crisfs comes. the emperor will be fonced to summon Witte from his retirement
 Privy Councillor Goremykin was mins ister of the interior from 1895 to 1899. and has taken a prominent part in Rus sian political life. especially during the revolutionary period of the last few years. He Is greatly interested Tn agrarian subjects and in April. 1905. Emperor Nicholas appointed him chair man of the special commission formed fin an endeavor to check the agrarian movement which was causing consider able disturbance in the Caucasus. The question was so vast. however, that up to the present time no definite re- port has been made by the commits sion, although it was rumored in Octo- Der, 1905, that a measure had been drafted providing for the distribution of state lands to the peasants on easy terms. The administration of M. Gore mykin as minister of the interior was not marked by any of the harshness which had been so prevalent during the administration of several of his prede- cessors and his name has never been mentioned as one of the likely victims of the terrorists, who assassinated two of his immediate predecessors.