The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-09-16
THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA.
Continued from Page 2.

ifSfH
er than Nabokon, but has already
shown himself TO be a man of force
and originality.
Count Heyden is the leader of the
conservative element, If there is a con-
sentative element in the douma. Per-
haps IL would be more accurate to de-
scribe him as the spokesman for the
least radical group, for all of the MEM
bers of the douma are reformers, differ
ing only as to the extent of the changes
and the speed with which they shall he
made. He was once considered radical
but he has not moved as rapidly as
public sentiment. Count Heyden bears
quite a resemblance to Uncle Sam as
he is pictured in the newspapers. I
have spoken somewhat at length of the
leaders I'm order TO show that while the
grievances Of the peasants and labor
ers are at the bottom Of the movement,
all classes are enlisted in the effort to
establish constitutional government
%%*
The afternoon sessions are generally
lively, for. it is at this time that the
ministers make their reports, offer
their messages and answer the ques-
tons propounded by the members. The
session which we attended was no ex-
ception to the rule. The house was
full, the galleries crowded and the
newspapers fully represented. There
were more than forty Russian writer's
in their corner and not less than nifty
of the foreign press. When the repre-
sentative of the war department, reply
ing to question concerning some re-
cent military executions, declared that
the minister of war was powerless TO
overrule the generals. there were shouts
Of Murderer Assassin" Dog" and
other equally uncomplimentary cpl
thets.
One of the demands made by the dou-
ma is for the abolition of the death
penalty. This might seem a very rad
ical measure to us, but the conditions
are quite different in Russia. Here
there is no assurance of an impartial
trial, and torture is resOrted TO to force
an admission of guilt. Only recently
three persons were found TO be innocent
after they had been tortured and put TO
death. The members of the douma feel
that the only security TO the people is
I'm the entire abolition of the death pen
atty, for while those who are falsely
accused still live. there is a chance to
rescue them. In this respect. exile,
hateful as it is, has its advantages. and
1 met member of the douma who was
returned from exile by the government
torturing of prisoners for the purpose
OF extorting a confession, Russia is
even behind China, bad as China is,
for in the latter nation it mas been
abolished except where one is charged
with murder, and is only permitted
then after the guilt of the accused has
been established by other evidence.
There are a number OF important
measures which are very little dis
H., Il. \
certain TO receive the approval OF the
government: one Of these provides for
universal education. The program Of
the douma also includes legislation
guaranteeing freedom of speech free
dom of the press, protection for the
Jews and local self-government for the
Polish portion of Russia. AS the Wo-
men have taken an active part i'm the
agitation for constitutional reform, all
of the parties are committed to wo-
mans suffrage.
Just now the land question is para
mount About one-third OF the entire
amount of land in the empire is in the
hands of the czar, TIE government and
the nobility, ana the peasants demand
that il shall be turned over 10 them.
At this time they are willing to haze
compensation made 20 the owners but
the more they think about it and the
more vehement their demand becomes,
the less they are likely to consider
compensation. There Is no doubt that
there are enough cases of Injustice and
contemptuous indifference TO their
needs to arouse resentment among the
peasants if we take human nature as
we find IL. They tell OF instances where
whole villages have been compelled to
pay toll generation after generation for
the privilege of crossing some noble
mans land TO reach the land farmed i'm
common by the people OF the village.
Powerless to condemn land for roads
as 1t can be done III other countries,
they have grown embittered year by
year until some of them feel that pa
thence has ceased to be a virtue. 1t is
now intimated that the government