Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-24

were nxeo Oy fne Imperial ukaSe Tor the
10Th instant. began on that
Election day ana are not yet conn
Results. pleted. The results so far in
dictate that the liberals and
conservatives have won about so per cent
of the seats. the radicals 40 per cent. and
the remaining 10 per cent may be divided
between nationa1ists and indefinites or those
who have no fixed classification.
Dispatches widely promulgated on the
21st instant as private dispatches from
Berlin from authoritative sources" an
nounced that Russia was preparing for re-
action, return to former violence and
.pogroms" which would serve as pretext
to prevent the duma from assembling on the
9Th of Maych and thus precipitate Its disso-
luton.
The moujik ex-member of the first duma.
Alexis Alaydin, actually In Pittsburg when
interviewed on the subject. is reported to
have corroborated the truth of the dis
patches from Berlin. Nevertheless they
were promptly denied the same day on min
isterial authority from St. Petersburg the
dispat CHI concluding as follows: The duma
The ministerial program and budget will be
introduced and the duma will be left to
work ont its own fate. /
Nor is there the slightest reason to impute
Stolypine. who have manifested great pa
thence and generosity in dealing with a rev.
olution which is in avowed revolt not only
against Its own government. but against
society throughout the world. Should the
government find that it cannot work with
the new duma and that so-called liberals
and conservatives may cast their lot with
the reyolutfonists. then the car will simply
use his prerogative and dissolve the duma
and If necessary govern with the. sword.
But such contingency is remote, and the
lesson of a dissolution already administered
may prove eficaciOus. 1t Is no easy matter.
for the moujik deputy to explain to his fell
low moujiks his failure to deliver the goods
promised during the electoral campaign, and
thus there is every reason to conclude that
the comedy at Viborg will not be enacted
by the second duma.
The National Review for February con-
tains an article entitled Russia on the
Eve Of the Elections in
On Eve of (which the author says:
a Crisis, Russia is about to undergo
a new and fitful ordeal The
nation is on the eve of one Of those mo-
mentous crises which mark the systole and
diastole of the movement, now revolution
airy. now reactionary, to which the war
with Japan gave powerful. perhaps a de-
cisive, impetus In February the elections
take place under conditions which it is no
exaggerat ton to term grotesque.
"The first duma wanted the rights Of
constituent assembly, and refused to legis-
late until it received them. It diShed
up speeches that had won for Robespierre
the plaudits of the Jacobins, or for Danton
the passionate approval Of the Cordeliers.
One deputy in particular delivered a good
speech in the duma and received the credit
of it from all his hearers but one. That
one was a well-known professor, who not
only recognized in it a celebrated speech of
Robespierre. but also remarked to the
orator that an effective passage of 1t had
been omitted!
I'm March the deputies will assemble in
the Tauride Palace, either to make laws or
to break them, and within a few days or
weeks of the opening of the second duma
the fate of the present constitution, with
the existence of which that of the duma
itself is bound up, will he definitely decided.
DOUBTLESS history will not be more
acting when dealing with the Russian move
ment than with the English or French rev.
olutiOn. And large allowances must be
made for .exeesses perpetrated in the white
heat of passion. Crimes against the person
and property are, SO to say the shadow of
revolutions. They must be taken as a
necessary evil coming from uncontrolled
and perhaps uncomfortable impulse, from
overpowering emotion, from an enfeebled
moral sense. But none the less they are
labeled crimes by all normal people, and
no great party seriously prOpagates them
as part of system. In Russia, unhapply,
it s otherwise. These deeds of blood and
cruelty are praised, the perpetrators ex-
cially the youth of the nation exhorted to
initiate the generous example And abroad
many applaud !unwistingiy."
IN
The author continues to say that had the
first eduma. set to work to redress griev-
ances, ,o inaugurate re-
First Dumas forms and change the
Opportunity. conditions of the nation
for the better by extract
ing all the good possible from the institu-
lions that existed. or could be created, there
would have been a marked change In the
direction of greater freedom for the people
and fuller rights for the nations represent
atives. And the author concludes In these
words:
9 ''Unless the second duma proceeds to real
business and discharges some part of its
primary duties, there Is little hope Of
compromise. duma to DE used only as
a revolutionary center for carrying on sub
versive agitation at the expense Of the
crown is an anomaly which the govern
ment declares 1t will not brook i"
Universities have been made the nurseries
of political disaffections, the headquarters
of socialism and anarchism. The govern
ment will doubtless abolish these schools,
and in their places found professional and
technical schools. where instruction shall
be given and politics excluded.
The question of the universities is a cru
cial one. 1t is the touchstone of the Rus
sian revolution and involves alike the ques-
ton of the moujik and the student, which,
for a fact. is one. And this apparent para
dox is perfectly clear when 1t Is understood
that the majority of the students are re-
cruited by scholarships, or educated at the
expense of government They are the sons
of popes, peasants, humble employees and
a large number the sons and daughters
of Jewish merchants. The great part of
these have never received, either at home
br in the primary schools. the basis of
instruction, which might give them an ap
probation of q higher education. Some of
them are dazzled by the heights. which
are beyond them, fall into a trance and
lose their senses. Others, and these con-
stitute the great majority, understand the
instruction only from the inferior side. In
stinctively, almost innocently, they fail to
comprehend their situation, and the recol-
lection of the wretched isba or cabin,
whence they came, with it's associations
begets, by contrast, in their morbid and in
famed imagination, "a desire to attack a
society which they Imagine has wronged
them.
And what is true of the male students
is also true of the females, the exception
being it should be remarked. that the ma
jority of the latter are the children of Jew