Arizona republican., 1906-07-09
AND
 GROWN LANDS
Progress in Construction
 of Agrdrian Law
the Russian PeO- pie Must Choose Between
 OUtIawry and Starvation.

St. Petersburg, July S.-The first paragraph of the proposed agrarian law, viz, the augmentation of the lands of the peasants by the appropriation of all state and crown domains and church and monastery lands, has been accepted by the commission of the lower house with practical unanimity. The commissioners have now locked horns over the mode of appropriation and the method of disposal of private estates, and the end is not yet in sight.
 The determination to appropriate the church lands, which, in distinction to the great estates owned by the monas- teries, lie scattered like the lands of common schools in America, in small
 tracts throughout the country and sup
 port the local clergy. will cause com
 plicatiOns. Such action will deprive
 the parish priests of the principal part
 of their scanty emOluments and neces-
 sitate an equivalent from some other
 source.
 A correspondent of the Associated
 Press has just completed a tour of the
 provinces of Samara and Saratov. He
 reports that the drought is finally
 broken; but the rains have come too
 late to save the crops and help the
 peasants. who are in a pitiable condi-
 tion. Their cattle have either been sold or are starving to death in the fields.
 The government relief granaries
 were completely exhausted during last
 years famine. The present agrartan disorders. which can be expected to
 grow worse. are largely due to the ne
 cessity of the peasants seizing food and forage to preserve their lives and save from starvation the remainder of their cattle. These disorders have reached their highest pitch in the province of Norontzh, where the troops and Cos i sacks, although in considerable force are practically helpless and on the de- fensive. Many peasants have been killed or wounded in desperate attacks
 on the military patrols and rural guards. According to a telegram re- ceived here from Tambov, the peasants on the estate of Princess Bariatinsky attacked a cOmmissary and posse of rural police. The commissary and four : policemen were seriously wounded In another section of the province of Tam ! boy a body of peasants. armed with 1 pitchforks and spades, resisted a squadron of dragons. Because oi these resistances, the troops fired. kill ing three peasants and wounding many | others.
 d ! hand-to-hand fight occurred between the COssacks and an armed band ot | peasants. with the result that sever men were killed on both sides.
 There has been a fatal encounter al Krasnopolsk. in the province of Po- dolia, between the rich peasants and l the poor peasants. The poor men were l incensed because the rich men sent a | telegram to the lower house protesting against the proposed distribution o1 | land. In the fighting, one of the wealthy peasants killed four and seri- ously wounded several of the poorer men.
 1 There have been grave disorders or 1 the estate of Minister of Agriculture | Stichinsky, in Tula province. rep | resentative of the Associated Press al | ROstov reports that crops in the KubaT | and Don districts are above the aver | age. Agrarian disorders among the l COssacks in the agricultural population ! are not expected, although there is | some ferment among the military ! levees for having to do police duty.