Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-08-19
WANING OF AuTocRAoY.

Royalty, we imasine, is firmly fixed in the old world for sood many years to come, but it is hardly to 10 doubted that acknowledged autocracy has seen its best days and will soon be nothing more than memory and song.
 The douma, grudgingly instituted by the czar for time and purposely ham, pered at every indication of progres. sive spirit, has, nevertheless, come to make itself force to be reckoned with in Russia, even by the Little Father himself. One of the grating grand dukes, an uncle of his majesty, we be- heve, has been removed with thanks from his control of one of the govern ment's most important departments, and the reason assigned is adverse criti- cism in open debate by a member of the douma. This, to bo sure, isn't much, but it serves to indicate that the czar has realized at last the fact that another and better day is dawn ing in his empire, and that it's brighten ing skies cannot be dimmed indefinitely by any old fashioned notions of "divine right" and that sort of kingly talk.
 Then, there is Turkey. Surely Tm- key seemed few short weeks ago, in deed, hopelessly autocratic govern ment. Apparently, the people were powerless to resist the sultan. So far as outsiders were able to judge, the roy. al word was final and the royal judg. ment matter from which no appeal could be entertained. Now, with seem ingly incredible swiftness this old ar engagement has been brushed away. True Turkey is still far from free; a stable and constitutional form of government is yet thing in embryo. But Turkey has taken a step forward which must lead to better conditions; step that neither the sultan nor the progressive influences in the nation can ever cause the country to retrace, even if the, would. Persia, too, is headed for a new order of things; not all the shah E horses and all the shah's men can war6 it of. The handwriting is on the wall There will soon be no government in the old world where the notion that the king is the state prevails.
 Humanity at large should be glad that these things are coming to pass, VIC presume. Not all countries rid of the form of autocracy are rid of the sub stance as we'll; but it's good to be rid of even the form, broadly speaking. Sometimes we halfway suspect tha- England has evolved rather satisfac, tory plan of dealing with executive power. Over there the king is treated as sort of glorified joke; too ancient and too honorable an institution-no reference to Edward, personally, of course-to be laughed at right out loud but too useless to be vested with any power to speak of, neverthelessl
 Let us not wander away too far annie theoretical fields, or seek to speculate too generously on fancy's exchange however. Let us. rather, be thankful that Russia, Turkey, Persia, ct al.. are facing that which we like to call the rising sun. Let us rejoice that admitted autocracy is tottering to its fall across the waters. If there were no such thing as greed of gold, money lust, in this world, it might not matter much the form of government under which we lived. Unfortunately, however, there is no present prospect that any such ideal state of things will ever come to pass, so we may rest the argument with congratulations to those nations enum erated that are about to be born again, it seems.