The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-29
The nnma.s rhnlIenae ,o ,hs r,as

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The sreerh mtde Nv Premier uoaHav.
Ety In tho Dunn on May 20 efubudied
a denial IN tho Crnr'a part ~ every
demand pat forward by tho peoples
representative etcep, Tho demand for
universal suffrage, which IN" aorereign
grants. recalling. perhaps, how willing
Inrts N,rOtroS waa ~ grant " after
tho soup d'ffdi ~ December 2 1871
The outcome " IN indirect and coin
plicated election has proved u disap-
pointmcnt 10 tho Rrnctioniata Per-
hAps the product ~ universal suffrage
would prove m Russia moro nmcnablo
20 official influence, M II unqIcstionably
proved for q time in France, Every
other request presented in the address
responsive ~ tho Car speech Ia re-
jected in either n defiant or n dtsinsen-
nous way. The lines are sharply drawn
between tho ~autocrat and his subjects.
What will the issue be?
II il plain enough that the Cars de-
cision between yielding 10 the Duma
and dispensing 1t by force cannot be
evaded or delayed. He must answer
the challenge which the spokesman Of his
people have not hesitated to offer.
Scarcely had Premier GoREMYK1N fin
ishcd reading a long, rambling state
ment, in which the position taken by
the Constitutional Democratic majority
with regard to the solution Of Russia's
urgent agraTian problem was grossly
misrepresented, when Mr.. RoDITCHEFF,
the leader Of the dominant party in the
Duma, flung down the gauntlet to the
Government by the declaration that it
il not the sovereign but the peoples
representatives who must decide what
is best for the welfare. of the country.
The declaration was received, we are
told. with cheers which lasted for three
minutes, and it was followed by a reso-
luton, adopted with only seven dissent
ing votes, expressing absolute want OF
confidence in the Goremykin Ministry,
and requesting that it be replaced by
one commanding the approval Of a
majority OF the elected legislators.
That is to say, the Duma has passed
over in sixteen days the ground which
the French States General took thirty
seven days to traverse, for, although
they met on May 10, 1889, it was not
until June IT that the Third Estate took
upon itself the title Of National Assem-
bly, and assumed immediate control
over taxation and the national debt.
The chance of n peaceful and orderly
transition between an autocratio and a
constitutional form Of government has
been we'll nigh lost and may never be
recovered.
The hour has also gone by when the
ruthless application of military force
might have been sanctioned by the
peasantry and when thus the permanent
triumph Of reaction might have been
assured. Tho trust 80 long reposed by
the mujiks in their Little Father would
be annihilated by the Governments
persistent refusal to accept even par
italy the solution of the agrarian prob
lem which the Constitutional Demo-
Gratis had proposed. Not content with
brushing aside 1.-The solution, Premier
GoREMYKIN misconstrued and calum-
mated it. He described it as a sweep
ing denial Of the right OF private owner-
ship, not only of land but Of every
species of private property. AS a mat
ter of fact the agrarian programme of
the Constitutional Democrats, which
Premier GoREMYKIN seems deliberately
to have confused with that OF the Labor
Socialists, goes no further in principle
than does the Wyndham Land Purchase
act applicable to ireland. 1t proposed
not to c~onfiscate but to lease the Crown
lands and Church lands, thereby advo-
eating a course much more conservative
than was that pursued by the French
Revolutionists; and to appropriate by
purchase only such private lands as are
now untitled or leased for money or
occupied by peasants whose rent is paid
by work on their landlords separate
property. Specially exempted from ex-
preparation by the Constitutional Demo-
cratic project are private estates not
exceeding the unit fixed in a given dis
trict for peasant occupiers; also grazing
ldnuS DtiOlEllR W NllldbeS, municipal
lands and estates of zemstvos, educa-
tional and benevolent institutions. 1t
is obvious that if this plan were carried
out the principle of individual owner
ship would be immensely strengthened,
because it would rest on a far wider
foundation.
1t cannot, indeed, be too clearly recog-
nized, if the view taken by onlookers Of
the momentous drama now going on in
Russia is to be enlightened and just,
that the Constitutional Democrats, who
dominate the present Duma, have moth
ing in common with Socialists but are,
on the contrary, true counterparts of
the Jaco5ins, who ultimately shaped the
economic and social outcome of the
French Revolution. The Jacobins were
individualists in the strictest sense of
the word. The urban p%roletariat, on the
other hand, is in Russia, as it now is in
France, largely if not wholly Socialistic,
and its leaders undoubtedly will try to
gain the cooperation of the peasants by
promising to urn over to them at once
all Crown lands, Church lands and