Evening star., 1906-09-09
Impossible to Garry Out His Program
of Reform.
CABINET IS REACTIONARY
Disorder Not Seen by the Visitor to St
Petersburg-City Covering
Great Area.
BY WILLIAM L. CIIRTIS.

and, while We did not see any trouble or
suffer any annoyance whatever from the
political disturbances, the atmosphere in
st. Petersburg is charged with anarchy,
murder and revolution. In the business and
residence sections of the city everything is
just quiet and orderly as it ever was.
The parks are filled with children playing,
and nurses pushing baby carriages and
lovers wandering arm in arm in the shady
places while in the evening the bands play
as usual and there is no diminutlon in the
number of listeners. A stranger dropping
into the Russian capitaf would never for a
moment suspect that its people on the
verge of a revolution, and that hundreds of
men are being arrested for political reasons
every day. In the neighborhood of the no.
tells where well-to-do travellers from foreign
countries usually stop no disturbance is
likely to take place. At the Hotel l'Europe,
where we have been for several weeks,
everything is going on just the same as
usual. except that the number of guests is
smaller and few tourists are seen.
There were fourteen strikes in st. Peters,
burg while we were there, but we saw moth
ing of them and only knew of them through
the newspapers. There were riots almost
every night, but they did not occur in that
broken up by the police, but they were held
In the tenement-house districts for the ben
eft of the strikers and workingmen. so that
saw nothing of them. Between 80 600
and 10000 artisans of the various trades are
out of employment, and are fed daily at the
expense of the municipality on boats that
move from place to place on the canals. ST.
Petersburg is ntersected by network of
canals connected with the Neva river, and
they are very useful for commerce. Heavy
traffic, such machinery, construction
iron. stone and bricks and other building
material are transported about on tiatboats.
"a 20 CT pD mi n
on the Thames in London, running at
Intervals of five or ten minutes, which are
as well patrOnized the street cars. The
'soup boats" as they are called, maintain
ed by the municipal government, move
from station to station on these canals and
are due at certain hours; that there is
always a crowd of hungry people awaiting
them. But they make demonstration.
They take their places in line silently and
patiently as If they were used to 1t, and
when they have received their allowance of
cabbage soup and black bread they move
away alone or in groups and disappear
around the corner. A stranger can see
nothing of all this unless he goes, as did,
to the manufacturing section of the city TO
watch the proceedings.
Spacious City of Palaces.
st. Petersburg is a city of palaces,
enormous buildings occupied by the grand
dues, the mobiles the ambassadors and
rich citizens. Most of them are closed at
this time of year. The owners are in
Paris or Switzerland or at the German
summer resorts or at their country estates
with their families. There are many parks
and open squares for the benefit of the
people, and many great barracks for the
accommodation of the guards and other
regiments. Each has its parade grounds
covering several acres. There are large
number of government offices located In
different parts of the city-vast buildings
of more or less architectural pretensions.
These, with the churches, cover very
large area. and occupy that section of the
city which lies along the banks of the
Neva river. Behind them, extending for
miles upon prairie, are the toilers and
tradesmen. The laboring people are housed
in apartment houses which front wide
streets and have plenty of room and air
and light. There are no overcrowded tene-
ments. The poor of Russia are well shell
tered. The tenement houses are not more
than four or, five stories high.
All of this makes st. Petersburg a city
of magnificent distances. 1t covers much
larger area than New York, although it
has less than half the population. 1t is as
large as Chicago: and battle might be
going on for weeks in one end of town
without the knowledge of the people at the
other end.
Any person who would be so silly as to
hunt for trouble could find 1t easily enough,
but those who mind their own business in
ST. Petersburg and behave like gentlemen
have nothing to fear. The great strike has
fallen through because the WOThlHeIl dIe
wiser than the leaders of the labor party
and the revolutionists, and / doubt If they
will ever again allow themselves TO be used
for political purposes as they were last fall.
A Russian workman is usually considered
a stupid, unreasoning being without initi-
ative or judgment but during the present
crisis-that is, within the last six months,
he has proved that he is not such fool
as he looks, and with the education and
experience that the unions will give him, he
is likely to develop good deal of indi-
viduality and force of character. Thus far
the government has mot interfered with the
meetings of the unions, although all polit-
ical assemblies have been prohibited. The
workmen of st. ePtersburg almost uni
versally belong to the unions and hold
meetings at frequent intervals for the dis
cussion of various topics. political and
otherwise. How long this will be tolerated
is a question, but II the government Is
wise 1t will instruct the police not to dis
turb them. II they are let alone the work
ingmen will act nationally; if they meet
with resistance If they denied what
they consider their just rights, they are
likely to make fuss about 1t. and that will
give the SOCIALIST leaders an opportunity lo
use them again.
Frankness of the Russians.
The officials of the Russian government
are very polite and oblging, and l wish to
take this opportunity to acknowledge many
courtesies extended to me. They take a
to foreign correspondents and have usu
ally found them candid. accurate and quite
free in their communications. The same
is true all over Europe. l have never failed
to find the officials of a foreign government
ready to answer questions and furnish me
information whenever l have called upon
them-except in France. The French Of
ficia,s appear as rule ito have 1t in foe
newspaper men, and do not treat them with
ordinary courtesy. l suppose they judge
us by their own journalists.
In Russia the revolutionist leaders are
also very frank and open. They will talk
as freely as II you were one of themselves.
They do not hesitate to take American cor
respondents into their confidence. and tell
them not only their aspirations, but their
plans. They are usually pleased at an OPP
portunity to see themselves quoted or re-
ferred to in an American newspaper.
There seems to be a general misapprehen-
sion amDug the leaders of the radical par
ties in Russia about the attitude of the peo-
pie of the United States toward them and
their methods. They are laboring under the
delusion that we, being the members Of
republic and apostles of liberty, sympathize
with all other human beings who aspire to
the same conditions. They have been led
TO understand that the great heart of the
American public beats in sympathy with