The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1907-02-06
ARMY CAR MUST FEAR
Five Million Wandering Peas
ants Who Demand Land.
MADE WOLVES BY RUSSIAN LAW

Or. Mackenzie Wallace Describes
Miserable Condition of Trekking
Agriculturists In Search Of Harvest
Employment-Worked ON By Revo-
lutionlsts, Each One Returns Home
. Firebrand.
Further light upon the great tragedy
that Is being enacted in Russia IL
thrown by DR.. Mackenzie Wallace in
the London Times. where he discusses
the condition Of the landless peasant,
says a special cable dispatch to the
New York Sun. He Is now living In
the open air with a company which is
one contingent Of a vast host Of $780,
600 trekking agriculturists. He Is
with a band who LETT their homes
months ago, according to the annual
custom, to seek work ON the crops In
other parts Of the empire. They are
now returning.
THE lot Of these wanderers" says
DR.. Wallace, lis miserable enough,
God knows. Most Of them are from
Little Russia and the steppe provinces.
Some Of them travel as far as 1000
versts. They are absent from their
villages from two to six months, and
their average wage is SO rubles, Of
which they have a minimum outlay
Of Fl rubles for passport and food en-
route. This leaves II rubles, which
makes an average wage Of IA kopecks,
or 0 cents a day. Some travel by train
In fourth class or on the slowest Volga
boats part Of the way, but m%ultitudes
go on foot. They spend the night
wherever they happen to be when
darkness falls. They suffer innumer-
able privations from hunger, cold, heat
and sickness, and finally. If they sur
vive, they reach their destination with
all their strength spent before they
have begun work.
Island; give us land!.' these peasants
cry. Nor do they dream Of compensat-
Ing any Of the present landowners
whom they may dispossess. At the
bottom of their hearts is the ineradica-
BILE conviction that a man who works
on the land has a natural right to 1t,
which if put In the balance against all
the positive laws Of property makes
them kick the beam. we are the
Lord's,' they say, and the land Is ours
Yes; they still believe in the Lord. and
before they lie down on empty stom-
achs on the steppe they commit them
/ selves by the sign Of the cross to the
divine care. They believe, too, in the
Blessed Virgin and the saints and in
icons and heaven and hell. This steppe
yer which they wander loses itself in
the dim horizon, where the earth and
sky mingle and are lost, and there is
mystical background encOmpassing
these wanderers lives, in the midst OF
which are superstitions and portents.
"In the Russian revolution what is
these peasants role? 1t was discovered
to me by q man who had been the
companion Of my j~ourneyings for two
days. He forced his company upo1
me, for while l was driving across the
country he sprang upon me from be
hind Il tree and made the demand
which, almost with Impotence, I ha(
long expected to hear, Hands up!
Even If l had possessed a revolver
should not have fred, for l could have
blown the wretch out Of existence will
q puff Of smoke from my cigarette.
have seer pitiable specimens of hui
mainly in my day, but none ever stir
red my compassion S o profoundly a
> this man. and l cheerfully gave hin
4 the few rubles I had and some Of m,
! cigarettes.
u "As he smoked he told me his history
! For a political offense he had been pro
I vided by nm administrative order witt
: what the peasants appropriately call
VOLTS passport, which forces him to b
a perpetual wanderer on the face Of tn
t earth or such part Of 1t as is under tn
dominion Of the car. reporting himsel
IL at specified police stations as he goe
" along, and forbids all the ears sui
jects to give bin shelter for more tina,
+ one night. 1t Is the curse of Cain, an
q certainly this mans punishment i
Is greater than he can bear. although hi
II sin was not murder, but merely con
plicity in printing some illegal liter1
ture which the government was NAL
ing vain efforts to suppress. l am tol
by this wolf that he had met fewer {
9 his kind during the last four or fv
l. months than in earlier times.
l. But during many years the revolt
d tionary leaders have found use Il
IS these men. although the governme1
E has none. They have ordained thel
peripatetic missionaries to the perip'
IL tetic peasants. They supply the pea
E. ants with revolutionary pamphlets fl
r dissemination in their villages OF the
L. return. They teach them the 'Marsel