Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1906-02-17
WHITE MAKING
FIGHT OF LIFE
STRUGGLE WITH DURNoV0 IS
NEARING CRISIS
Battle Between Reactionary and Pro-
gressive Forees-Powers Given
to Governor Generals
is Issue
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
ST. PETERSBURG, Feb. 16.-Infor-
nation has reached the Associated
Press that the desperate struggle which
has been raging in the government beS
tween the reactionary and the progress
siVe forces is approaching n culmna-
ton and must end within a few days in
the resignation either of Minister of
the Interior Durnovo, who is leading
the movement for thorough going re-
preston, or of Premier White and sew
eral other members of the cabinet
The question at issue is the with
drawal of the extraordinary powers
confided in governor generals through
out Russia, which in many cases, it Is
alleged, have been exercised for the
repression not alone Of political disor-
ders but also of the political activity
of the parties. The dissension has
reached such an acute and passionate
stage in the cabinet that no other issue
than the fall of one faction or the other
is possible. The chances of victory ins
cline to the side of Count White, who
insists that the governor generals must
be deprived of their extreme powers
within q fortnight in order to remove
the restrictions upon a free electoral
campaign.
Minister of Agriculture Kutler, the
Associated Press has been informed on
excellent authority, has resigned. The
announcement of the acceptance of his
resignation, which was due to influen-
tial opposition to his project for eX-
preparation of private lands and their
division among the peasants, may be
expected shortly 1t is said that M.
Kutler, who like his predecessor, M.
Nnt,r 11T,rf r1xr
strong progressive tendencies, will
leave the state service entirely, not even
receiving the usual promotion to the
council of the empire, which. is reserved
for discarded ministers.
Rumor is busy with other changes to
follow the first break in the cabinet
of Count White. The most persistent
story is directed at the premier him
self, who according to general report
is credited with having bluntly in
formed Emperor Nicholas that he must
choose between him and Minister of
the Interior Durnovo, who through his
control of the police ministry of the
interior, has been pushing repression to
the extreme and throwing all the ee-
ments of society into opposition of the
authorized at Count Whites chancellory
to deny positively the report that Count
White had already resigned, but the
words of an official high in the pre-
mier's confidence that he could vouch
for the fact that at the present mo-
ment the report is untrue, indicates
that there may be something in the
wind$
The project of Minister Kutler, who
is one of the most liberal members of
the cabinet, struck to the heart of the
agrarian problem which the zemstvo-
lists, who are liberals, but land owners,
found too ticklish to handle at the last
congress. 1t provided for the expropria-
ton of private estates in excess of q
maximum acreage at a price dependent
on actual market values and their dis
tribution on easy terms of payment to|
the peaSantry. NJ Kutler held that this
was the only means of preventing aug
mentation of the agrarian troubles,
whose rising pillows are the chief
source of peril to the government; but
his proposal not only awakened the in-1
tense opposition of the rich and pow
erful camarilli at court, but also was
too drastic TO suit the marshals of no
bility, who sent a deputation from the
convention at MOSCOW to demand eX-
plicitly of Premlef Witte whether he
intended to accept the Kutler scheme,
The premier responded that the project
was only tentative suggestion of an
individual member of the cabinet and
that the agrarian problem was too i'm
portant to be settled without referenceI
to the national assembly. However
the mere fathering of the proposition
seems to have been fatal TO NJ Kutler
Should M. Kutler be nominated to the
council of the empire it will be the first
instance of the kind since the retire