The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-14
LAND OF TERROR.

Is there never to be anything in Rus sia but disorder and bloodshed? Will there never be peace and good gov ernment? For many generations that country has been the seat of the most heartless and merciless autocracy that ever existed in a country claiming to be a civilized and Christian nation. There have been revolts and uprisings, always followed by failure and the most bloody punishment. The liber- ties, the property and the lives of the people remained at the mercy of the ruler and the nobility
 It has been but a short while, com- paratively, since beginning was made towards what was thought and hoped would be the foundation of representa- tive government in that unhappy land. It was supposed and announced that autocracy was to be abolished or modi- fled and that the people were to have a voice in the government and in the selection of those who should govern. In short, there was to be, If not a democratic form of government, at least a limited monarchy. And withal it was hoped and believed that peace and order would reign in Russia. Have those hopes and anticipations been realized2 The NewJYork Tribune puts the case so plainly that we copy freely from 1t, as follows
 Never before in the history of Rus sia has the terror been more active or more successful in fulfilling its murderous designs than it Is at the present time. Apparently. however it's purposes and its ideals are now dif- ferent from what they were in the pre- ceding two reigns. There may be among the terrorists some of the old malignant against all government. There is reason to think. however, that they. are the. minority and that the is something new. These terrorists de sire constitutional reforms, perhaps of a pretty radical nature. but still within They have been provoked to their present awful excesses by the action of the government in dlsmissing the the election of another Douma such ar- bitrary and restrictive conditions as threaten to make that body mere box of puppets. under reacttonary and bu- reaucratic control. The terrorists seem to have it in mind to gain a free rep resentatiye goyeri ment, istd either by
 
 ing 1t or by killing off all those who are opposed to it.
 In that we must hold them to be dreadfully misguided. Their ultimate aim is good. The means by which they seek it are evil, and would be evil still. no matter how successful they might be. That they. will be highly Successful we canno- believe. Whether or not it Is true that assassination has never changed the history Of the world we are inclined to think 1t Is not true we cannot believe that the cause of law In Russia is to be promoted by law lessness or that the establishment of liberty will be hastened by the exer- else of license. We can understand and sympathiZe with the impatience of the Russian people for governmental reforms and their resentment against the evils of the bureaucracy. but with their resort to systematic or sporadic murder it is impossible for a law low ing people no matter how liberty loN- inc 10 sympathize. Theorists may dis cuss mechanically whether recourse to snch meth as is ever necessary, eXpe- dient or justifiable. Practlcai st9deht 5 of affairs will not be convinced that in this case it was necessary. expedient ar iustifable or that it will prove Tor The good of the cause which Its prac- titioners have at heart.
 And that is the Russia of today, ln- stead of an absolute autocracy of Czar and nobility 1t Is a land where grim and merciIess Terror stalks abroad at monday and Death lies in wait for those in authority. It is getting to he a land of worse than Nihilism; a land where no man in authority is