Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1906-02-09
ODE 1)rrmOnt 91bGni..
BRATTLEBORO.
FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 9. 1906.

Conditions in Russia as They Are Today.
While the internal condition Of Russia
has dropped out of prominence in the
foreign dispatches public interest in that
countrys affairs has not waned It is
natural, under the circumstances, that the
idea should prevail that there has simply
been a relapse into absolutism and stern
military repression. One reads with live
~ attention, therefore, an editorial sum
mary in the New York Tribune in which
it is said that it is obvious that both
revolutionary and repressive passions are
raging with undiminished fury. Insurrec-
ton is rife in Siberia and in the Caucasus,
and 1t Is not suppressed in the Baltic
provinces. We hear Of a governor arbi-
trarily imposing heavy daily fines upon
men who refrain from working and upon
tradesmen who close their places Of
business--a measure of coercion unprece-
dented in any land where slavery does
not exist On the other hand, we also
hear of revolutionists who assassinated
the wrong man by mistake, and there
upon publicly apologized for so doing and
promised to rectify the matter by killing
the right man!
But in spite OF these grewsome Incl.
dents, this article continues, there is
ample reason to believe that steady pro-
gress is being made toward a vastly i'm
proved state of affairs. 1t is true Count
White is reported as saying he is opposed
to any further grants to the people at
this time. That does not mean reaction,
but merely a Discrimination to go ahead
too fast and determination to complete
the work already in hand before under
taking more-an eminently sound policy.
1t was recently reported that he had ex-
pressed reactionary views and had
threatened a revocation of the reform
DEGREES of October last. In those stories
there was not a word of truth. Count
White has put his hand to the plough.
and has not turned OF looked back
He has not halted in the great work of
constructing a constitutional and repre-
sentative government. The program of
october 80 last is to be executed to the
letter and in spirit. Repressive meas
ures may and must be exercised mean
time, but they are intended not TO defeat
but to promote and to insure that end.
1t must be remembered that the revolu.
tionists who are now active are largely
revolving not against autocracy, but
against constitutionalism. They are OPP
posed to the douma as much as to the
grand dukes. They hate a constitution
as much as car. They would conspire
against a republic as much as against an
empire. Their ideal is anarchy. Such
movements and tendencies must be re-
pressed If Russia is to have a free and
enlightened government, and must be re-
pressed. if necessary. with inexorabie
force 1t is such repression, for the sake
Of freedom and progress, that Count
Witte is now exercising, and it is as
necessary for him to do so as it was for
him to persuade the Gar to issue his
reform decree. Freedom and order must
be one and inseparable.
II is to be noted, as confirmation of the
Cars good faith and earnestness in NOV
ing for constitution, that he has taken
the work of preparing the constitution
away from the bureaucratic committee
that had it in charge ard has remitted it
to the douma, when that body shall be
chosen by the popular electorate That
act should be sufficient to dispel all
notions of reaction or abandonment Of
reform All that is needed is for all the
clements of order and progress TO stand
together against their foes to assure the
triumph of liberalism and enlightenment.