The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1906-02-08
AUTOCRACY DOOMED.
Andrew D. Whites Verdict on
the Outlook IN Russia.
NEVER TO RETURN PERMANENTLY

Stormy Period Certain. but Liberty
Is Davyn5Egy Eor Russian People.
Says Former Ambassador - Deems
Count Witte TAei~ Eope--Urges War
ON Corruption IN t7ie United States.
with prospects for liberty in Rus
sia there must come long and
stormy period which would obey what
an American philosopher once spoke
of us the 'osciiIatory law of human
progress.
This statement was recently MADE Dy
the former ambassador to RuSsia, Dr.
Andrew .. White, the first president
of Cornell university, while speaking
before a large assemblage of students
celebrating founders day at Cornell
university, says i special dispatch from
Ithaca, n. Y, to the New York Herald
There are two great difficulties in the
way of anything like constitutional
freedom in Russia at present, Mr..
White said, the first being due to a
complete change of view regarding
Russia and her. needs from 1928 to
1855, resulting i'll lack OF education
which has brought about ignorance
among the masses Of all that is desira-
bic for men who take part in self gov
eminent.
The second great hindrance of prog
ress toward freedom, he said, was the
repression Of all discussion Of political
and social questions, either in the press
or in public bodies
Before there is freedom continued
DR.. White, there will be action and re-
action. Autocracy may from time to
time be restored by soldiery disgust
ed by demagogues, as was the case
with the Bourbons after the French
revolution, or it may be restored by
universal suffrage, as in the case OF
Napoleon III. after the French revOlu-
ton of 1915, but such RESERVATIONS OF
absolute despotism will be temporary.
1.-THE old autocracy can never return
as a permanency, and it is not too
much to hope that progress toward
liberty will be made in Russia some
what like that in France, which after
a century or more of sterile revolu-
tons seems to have emerged into
peaceful and respected republic. A
permanent republic in Russia can hard
IL come for centuries. The idea OF
strong personal, centralized govern
ment is rooted in the ordinary ideas,
Just as the idea of republican and de-
centralized government is rooted IN
the ideas of every man, woman ana
child in the United States.
Count Witte, in my opinion, is the
only man who could stand any chance
of carrying through reasonable plan
for new order Of things in Russia, of
STAYING off bankruptcy and Of checking
civil war On him rests the main, in
deed the only, chance for rational liber-
ty. He will undoubtedly at times have
to do some severe things to represS
not the aspirations for freedom, with
which he is evidently in sympathy, but
the mixture of wild fanaticism and Of
scoundrehsm, which has caused the
massacre of the Hebrews at Odessa
and elsewhere, the destruction Of great
factories at Moscow and in other parts
of the great empire and the wholesale
burning and robbery Of the landed
proprietors in the Baltic provinces.
"Count Whites opponents are many.
On one side is the court and on the
other the fanatics Of every sort, but 1t
is to be hoped that the terrible dangers
Of the country may unite men OF all
parties in giving him support. The
idea Of the nihilists is to make the
country mass Of ruins on which they
shall stand supreme. The folly OF all
this is proved by history.
cat the end of every such movement
comes in the man on horseback,
whether Caesar, or General Monk, or
Napoleon, or Napoleon Ill, or William
T.. or Bismarck and MoltlKe, or Cavour
AS between life and liberty men will
~gsye life, as rule, the place assigned
it in the Declaration Of Independence
where it speaks of the three inallenahle
rights as life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness A nation must live, and
as long as life lasts there is always
hope that liberty may yet be achieyeq.,
e Dr. White expressed his sympathy
and good will, which, in his opinion, all
right minded Americans ought to feel
s,9or Russia in her present crisis. He
continued:
sThe Russian people are great peo
pie. They are in great trouble. they
are capable of noble future, and our
most heartfelt sympathies should &C
out to them. Our own country is mo-
without great and grievous faults. The
corruption which has been engendereo
by widespread devotion to money Il
known to the world. Fortunately W.
have free institutions which allow yot
to undermine and attack 1t. 1t is no
covered up and shielded as corruption
In Russia has been. Promotion ant
fame come here to those who expose
and attack.
ST make a special appeal to you stu
dents to do all in your power to ign
the men and things which are re
,nrno nh RI fnmocracv and to deVOt