The Washington herald., 1907-01-20

> elections to the Russian DoU ma amount
to a plain declaration that (. lcilities for
recording votes will be granti,S only TO
the parties already officially called the
government parties" while every pos
sible obstacle is put in the way Of any Of
the opposition parties getting their votes
recorded. Voting papers viii be freely
given out TO members OF the government
parties" Other persons qual ifled to vote
viii only obtain them on p. 'oduction OF
certain certificates of ident ity counter
signed by the police or othe officials of
the government.
The usual methods Of an el sctoral cam
paign in any country, whereof y public en-
thusiasm is reused and the ele ctors' views
are Influenced. are totally for hidden to all
party organizations except t he govern
ment paTties'-that is. those which have
been officially recognized. tt ius. no poll
tcai meetings. no political Ii terature, no
canyassing Of any kind is her iCefoTth per-
mitted to those parties while a sent more
than 80 per cent of the mer obers to the
last DOuma. The whole COZ duct OF the
elections IS removed from tt e control of
party committees and give into the
hands Of the administration that is. OF
the servants Of the govern nent, which
means, everywhere outside Il ie few large
towns that have their own iembers the
rural police and the Zemsky ] Eachalnik, or
rural "czarlet"
in the great centers public opinion will
compel something like an J. npartial ap
plication of the new Tegulat ions, unfair
as they are. But the few e Ueat centeTs
send only a very insignificant number Of
the total members to the Dou ma. Those
who know how the police and the rural
''czarlets' have always dealt with the
peasantry viii have no difficult y In form
ing an idea as 10 the Iikeli * iod of any
considerable number OF vOteus having a
chance 10 record votes for the opposition
candidates 1t would be OF ttmistic TO a
degree to suppose that the country VIII
accept an adverse verdict procured by
such means as the above II. therefore.
the government succeeds IL getting a
majority in the new Doumi by pract-
cally canceling opposition \ Otes, it viii
hardly be a matter Of &C ngratulation,
even to its warnlest partisa ns.
When it became evident tn at some time
must elapse before the Ger man govern
ment obtains the means TO continue the
railway into the interior g Southwest
Africa, experiments were inaugGrated
with the object of ascertaj ming if COM
municatiOn could be mainta med with the
troops by means Of motor sIrs.
The German Southwest African Ga
Zette reports that at the beginning Of
December last Count Stillfrf ed set ont in
an ordinary motor car frc On Keetman-
shoop to Aus The route followed was
practically that which had seen surveyed
for the line demanded of he Reichstag
in the vote which was befo re the House
when it was dissolved It is about 200
miles long The journey was accomplished
without accident. and on firm, even
rocky ground the car ma de excellent
progress. 1t also took hills well but on
three occasions the wheels re- NAMED fixed
in the sand and a team of m 1Ies had TO
be used to get the ear Gle ar and start
it again.
The experience gained on the journey
showed clearly that the idt a of running
freight motor cars along ne route was
impracticable. As, hOweve ?, FIVE such
vehicles had been impOrte d from Ger
many Of the imperial authC rifles, trial
was made. with the result that the car
remained immovably imbe dded in the
sand.
Another roughly printed i lafiet purport-
ing to emanate from the " Fighting Bri-
gade" Of the South Russian section of the
social revOlutionaTies has be en- circulated
through the post at Odessa in open en-
YelOpes and scattered in II streets by
night Tt declares, that the real and in
evitable Bloody revolution" will shortly
be inauguTated, and that rs first task
VIII be the relentless extir patton Of all
highly placed civil and mil Itary bureau
Gratis. The leafiet refers Iriefiy to the
Just sentence executed he other day
upon Count Alexis Pavlovi tch Ignatieff.
and then affirms that 1,O00 members of
the Social Revolutionary A association are
already sworn, at the possible sacrifice
or their own lives. TO exec nte the death
sentences pronounced by the Revolutionary
Council. A life for a life il proceeds. for
every sOcialistic victim will be ,exacted from
among the upper ranks of bureaucratic
administrators, and the 8 Governmental
terror Of the field courts-ma rtial will be
met by socialist terror still more merci-
less, but absolutely justifiabIe e. The leaf
let IS indited in literary Rus sian.
According TO a dispatch from Rome.
Cardinal Oreglia, the doyen If the Sacred
College, who is the only car linaI of Plus
ks time still surviving. haf directed the
attention of Roman Catholics TO the prep
aratiOns being made b.T the Young
Catholic Society in Italy Tor celebrating
the jubilee Of Plus ks a6 mission TO the
1
present Pope became a pTi'sst in the Do
cese Of TrevisO. then Aus srian territory
in which his birthplace OF Riese was
situated.
The dispute which has broken out be-
tween the shipping comp anies Of Ham
burg and their officers hf s not yet been
fully settled, as was repo,rted before, the
lines demanding that the II officers should
sign a document amour lcing their with
drawal from the Assoch alton of German
Captains and officers OF, the Mercantile
Marine, an organization which the lines
contend, Is in direct opp Dsition to them.
The principal lines cor tceFne6 are the
Hamburg-American Germ lan East Africa
Levant, KOsmos and Ger man Australian.
The majority OF the office rs have refused
to sign any such document. declaring
themselves unable to admit the right of
their employers to interfere in their
private affairs. The result is that
seventy-one officers have been punished
and eight officers OF the German East
Africa Line dismissed.
At a meeting of the officers of the
Hamburg-American Line recently, Capt.
what amounted to an. uItimatum to the
officers. asking them & lther to sign the
document or be dismiss d. At a meeting
attended By sixty-thTelc captains and off,
GERS Of the Hamburg-Anlericdn Line ind
thirty members OF the ssOCiatiOn. yes
terday, q resolution was TldOpted aVOWing
the loyalty Of those present to the lines,
but petitioning for the Withdrawal Of the