Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-08
IT MIGHT HELP SOMEWHAT
Plan Probably Never Will Be Per-
fected.
THE IRRESPONSIBLE Ex-sERF
Freeing the Farmers From the Soil
Would Mean Worse Conges-
ton in the Cities.

StOlypin had struck the proper solution for
the Russian trouble" said an old CONNER
cial man who has seen a good deal of Rus
STA, In discussing the situation with a Star
reporter. 'Of course, there are SO many
chances of a fall-down through court in
trigues and the yacillation Of the emperor
that it is hard to say any one policy will be
adhered to till 1t brings fruit. But the
scheme for giving the peasants land in sew
crafty will have a whole lot to do with
quieting the popular clamor, and if the
situation could be worked by one strong
man with definite policy there are lot
Of other minor forms Of relief that might
be granted. so that the people would be
quiet and satisfied, and there might be
nothing more heard Of the douma for q
score of years.
Mind you, do not say that is what is
going to happen The chances are that
StOlypin will be allowed to work his land
purchase scheme about to the point Of in
volving the country in a financial tangle.
then there will be governor or an official
rushed out and all the work Of pacidcation
will have to be done over. Probably the
situation will never come to actual civil
war. The days Of revolutions like the
French terror are about over. The rail-
roads and teegraphs make against the pos
sfbiiity of such things. But 1t is just pos
sible that the radical party will some day
stead of scattered burnings and killings,
there will be a widespread holocaust. Still.
think that Is a matter Of the future.
Tied to the Land.
'The thing that matters now is Stoly-
pins scheme for land purchase and dis
tribution to the peasants. Most people do
not understand how land is held in Russia
There Is nearly as much land in European
Russia as there Is in the United States, ex-
elusive Of Alaska. and there is about twice
as much in Asiatic Russia as there Is In
this land is held in immense private es-
tates. One man that I know In st. Peters
burg has seven farms with an aggregate OF
so, 900 acres He Is prince, but not OF
the royal family, by any means. However.
much the greater part of the land Is crown
land, and the villages on 1t are a part OF
the crown property. Serfdom has been
abolished over the empire. but the laborer
is attached to the land. He cannot leave
it without police permission. II he does
not like the conditions he cannot pack up
in prairie schooner and dig out FOR some
fresh locality as we can in this country,
and he cannot drift into town and work at
odd jobs or become a charge on the PUBLIC.
In fact, the vast majority OF the arrests
peasants who have drifted into the towns
without a license and were being sent
back, at government expense, to their COM
munes. They did not seem to mino l! very
at least half the expense OF which was on
the government. But the peasants want
to be able to own their farms, to work them
as they please and sell them If they want TO-
In Famine Times.
"They probably would want to and the
result would not be economically to the ad-
vantage of the farmer. for the people are
no more fitted as rule for self-govern-
ment than lot Of children. They need
despotism. but If they are to be reason
ably comfortable it ought to be a benevolent
despotism l will just give you an example
of their responsibility. Famines are more
or less frequent. widespread and cause a
deal of suffering. The government and prl-
vate philanthropy comes very generously
to the front and there Is a lot of grain dis
tributed and the bad seasons ought to be
pretty we'll tded over. But they are not
One autumn when l was In southern Rus
STA there had been a bad famine. Govern
was the result? Some of the peasants had
to ride or walk as much as thirty miles
to get their allowance of grain. There
was enough given them to last their family
for two weeks. at the end of which time
they were supposed to come again.
There were q lot of brokers waiting
around the relief stations and they bought
the grain as fast as 1t was issued to the
peasants paying occasionally twentieth
of its value in money, but just as often in
vodka The recipient would go of on a
two days drunk and turn up without either
grain, money or liquor. Meantime the fam
lily would be starving at home. and the
whole town would be filled with govern
ment grain that the spectators would take
out and peddle through the country at
starvation prices. What are you going to
do with people of that sort? This was not
the exception, mind you. but the rule. Now,
II they get hold Of their land in fee SIM
pie, they will squander their farms just
as readily as they do their allowance Of
government grain.
Has One Ambition.
"As the case stands now the farmer has
to stay on the land and work it after a
fashion He is entitled to the results of his
labor with a rake-off to the government or
other proprietor Of the land His neigh
bors in the commune see to that he does
his part of the work. And the result Is
that he Is perhaps Disconnected. poorly paid
and on the verge Of starvation half the
time. But he is at least prevented from
drifting in and cluttering up the towns. He
is also fed by his own labor after a fash
fon and he Is really good deal better on
than il he owned his farm and were at lib
erty to sell 1t.
some of the big towns are tolerably con-
gested and there Is a depiorable amount OF
souaIor and poverty. the situation is not
half so bad as 1t would be were the whole
of the country population at liberty to drift
into the towns as they can do and are do
ing in England.
sarhe land in severalty plan would be both
a good thing and bad thing for the peas
ant and for the country. But 1t would
satisfy one Of the ambitions Of the lower
classes and 1t probably would work out
more slowly even than 1t is doing in Ire
land. In fact. it might work out SO slowly
that the peasant would have chance to
get educated up to a measure Of personal
responsibility before he got to the point
where he could make ducks and brakes OF
his farm land. But 1t would do more than
anything else to keep the agrarfan popula-
ton quiet for a while and bridge over the
period between absolutely childlike ire
sponsibility and the time that will ultimate
ly come when the nation will have self
government of some sort and in some
measure"
Taggart Denies Certain Rumors.
Tboynas Taorart chairman Of the ma.