The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-09
AUTOCRACY
 IS CORNERED Sweeping Victory for the
 Democrats. WIDEST HOPES ARE REALIZED Not a Reactionary Returned to the
 National Parliament. Also Not An Octoberist So Far Has Been Chosen.-New Arguments For the Promulgntion of . COn-
 stitution.
WIDEST HOPES ARE REALIZED

St. Petersburg, April S.--The electo- ral colleges in twenty-eight out Of the fifty-one provinces In European Rus sia today elected ITS members to the National Parliament-about one third of its entire membership-and returns received up to midnight indicate that the widest hopes of the liberals have been realized. the Constitutional Demo crats and old Progressivists practical ly everywhere having gained tre- mendous victory over the Octoberists and other conservatives.
 As far as is ascertained. not single reactionary candidate pulled through and nowhere did even the Octoberists score a triumph. The matorities ob- tained by the radicals clinch the char acter of the victory. From the frontier of Poland, and from the still ice-bound coast of Archangel to the Black Sea. the story is substantially the same.
 One of the astonishing as well as hopeful signs for the future is the character of many of the peasants elected. Before the electoral college be- gan to elect the members allotted. province, the peasants separately chose one of their number as q candidate. This provision was designed to appease the peasants and also was regarded by the government as insuring a conserva- tive nucleus but this calculation has been sadly upset. for in almost every instance the peasants elected not only were Progressives, but the most high Iy educated among their class. the ma jority of them at least having high school education. A peasant in Sim birsk named Al1adin was educated in England.
 Peasant Vote Radical.
 In the Volga district and the central provinces, where famine and agrarian disorders have been the greatest. the peasant vote was most radical
 In Samara, by vote of eighty-six to eight, they chose socialist, while the members elected by the college were a doctor. four Zemstvoists and five progressive peasants.
 In faraway Ufa, the border terri tory, the Orenburg Cossacks returned a solid progressive delegation consisting of four Russians aud six Massulmans.
 The effect of the revolutionary out breaks at Scbastopol was reflected In the results in Taurida, which includes the whole of the Crimea where the peasants chose a. social revolutionist
 In the province of Grodno, in the Jewish pale, a solid progressive delega- tion was chosen including two Jews.
 Tver, where Governor General Slep- tzoff was assassinated Saturday. was swept by the constitutional Democrats by an overwhelming majority. Ivan Petrunkevitch, leader of the constitu- tional democrats, and against whom the opposition was concentrated, and Rodicheff and Kuzminkaravieff were elected.
 Among other prominent persons cleo ted are Prince Balataiteff. the we'll known Zemstvoist worker of Simbirsk; Prince Shakeffsky and Professor Max i'm Kovotevsky of Kharoff.
 In Favor of PrOgressIves.
 While no definite results of the mu- nicipal election held today are known, they seem also everywhere to have gone in favor of the progressive. In Minsk, the radical Russians and Jews and Poles formed a coalition and de- cided to put up joint ticket compris- ed of four Jews, two Poles and one Russian.
 Todays result proves beyond question that the calculations of the govern ment have been rudely upset and that the opposition elements will control the national parliament by a decisive majority. Premier Witte's efforts to induce Emperor Nicholas to proclaim should now be greatly re- inforced.
 Another crisis plainly confronts the for the sweeping character of their victory undoubtedly will en- courage the liberals to push the gov ernment to the wall and 1t should seem that the emperor must yield to the en- traties of those who counsel a final surrender, by issuing co5istitution to the people or dispensing Tthe national as soon as 1t assemblies. There seems no alternative except the choice of one of these two courses,