The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-09-16
THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA. B

Stockholm, June %. 1906.-There is at
loast one man in Russia who has rea-
son 20 feel that his political judgment
mas been indicated and his predic-
tons verified by the assembling of the
couma. II is Count Ignatieff who at
the age OF 2S framed the Picking treaty
and who, as minister of the interior
tthe highest cabinet position at that
time). in 1881 formulated plan for a
national assembly.
His scheme was to have 1000 repre-
sentatives) elected by the people, these
representatives. gathered from all
parts OF the empire. to meet at Mos
COW and confer with the emperor in
person in regard to legislative meas
TRES. In order TO avoid the objections
raised to so large an assembly, he pro-
posed TO divide the body into groups
or 10 each, these groups to meet sep
S.a.ciy. He secured the approval of
t'e emperor, but the other members OF
The cabinet were so strenuous IN their
opposition that the emperor decided not
10 attempt the reform. and Count Ig-
naeiefi resigned from the ministry. He
warned them that a failure 70 recog-
n.ze the demands of the people for
representation in the government would
simply delay the change and that II
'~as better to yield before the demands
became more radical. but the members
of the bureaucracy. deaf to the appeals
o: the people and blind TO their own in
ieyests, resisted. and as a result a
couIna is now In session at St Peters
burg and the bureaucracy finds itself
GA object OF contempt and loathine
and the present emperor like his pred
eceSFor. has 10 bear the sins of his ad-
visers
! called upon Count Ignatieff and
found him still vigorous i'm spite of his
gray hairs and advancing years / was
interested In him. not only because he
Is friendly toward our country and
speaks our language fluently, but more
especially because he was a pioneer h
n great movement and foresaw what
many OF the nobility even now fail 10
recognize, viz, that there is no olare
where arbitrary Power can Justify SIS
existence. The tide OF progress has
swept past the count and he is now
c-aSsed among the conservatives. hut
he deserves to be remembered beCause
ne had the courage TO speak out when
II required bravery to propose the taxi
lng OF step I'm a direction OF popular
government.
The doums is he result OF the labors
or hundreds. yes. thousands OF Russian
reformers, a few conspicuous but the
most or them unknown 20 fame who
Tor more than seventy-hve years have
Deen insisting upon constitutional gov
eminent. 1t is one OF the most remark
able bodies OF men ever convened in "a
national capital, and I have been album
dainty repaid for coming here. The
dOurna must be seen to be aDpreci-
ated; even more. TO understand Il one
must know something OF the struggle
through which they have passed. / am
SATISFIED that the czar himself Is more
liberal than his advisers and that. left
to himself. he would long ago have
made concessions which would have
brought the throne and the subjects
nearer together. but ne has yielded so
slowly and given so grudgingly that the
people nave become very much es-
tranged. To illustrate this I need only
cite two facts: First. as to the cleo
ton. st. Petersburg and Moscow are
the political centers where the officials
and the nobility have the strongest rep
reSentation. and yet. i'm the elections
hte constitutional democrats won an
overwhelming victory I'm both these
cities. In ST. Petersburg the ticket
v hich represented the emperor re- |
ceived only 1000 votes out OF a total of
$4,000, and I'm his home precinct. where
900 voters were sent to the polls I'm
court carriages. his ticket received |
only eighty votes Could anything more
clearly prove the frail hold OF the gov |
eminent upon the people? And It must
he remembered that they do not have |
universal suffrage i'm the cities. but a !
property qualification which excludes
the poorest OF the people, the very ones !