New-York tribune., 1908-01-16
PROFESSOR MILYOUkOF.

| Professor Paul Milyoukov seems to possess
the unusual gift of being able, while taking
part in great action. to view it in perspective
His address Oh Tuesday night was in admirable
| temper without trace of bitterness, passion
or egoism Having participated in tremen
dous drama. which. though most inadequatey
known, takes powerful hold upon the feel
| ings even of a people so distant from the
scene as ourselves he temporarily stands apart
and discusses ii with the detachment of an
bistoriaG half a century hence. 1t is given To
few men to feel intensely act effectively and
think deeply at the same time and the philo-
sophie calm of Professor A1ilyoukovs acute anal
ysis of Russia's progress and retrogression in
| consttutionalism stamps him as man of I'M
| usually powerful mind. He is indeed by right
the leader of the 'intelIectuals.
Professor NIilyoukOv showed that public opin-
ion had been united only once against the au-
tocracy, but then it SO wonderfully united
that during the general strike capitalists PAID
their striking laborers in full Before that
overwhelming opinion the government bowed
and granted the constitution. Since then.
through the division of the people into various
groups, the government has gained strength
and gradually stripped the concessions granted
of much of their substance. 1t was character
istic of the socialists that, with their usual
irreconcflable impracticality, they first weak
ened the cause Of liberty by proceeding to turn
the struggle for freedom into an attack ON capt.
tai This drove the capitalists into alliance
with the autocracy. Then the agrarians, who
could think of nothing beyond the peasants
immediate need of land, aligned the petty no.
bility and landed proprietOrs under the standard
of the government. They had similar interests
to protect against the wild and radical policy
of the extreme groups. The moderates,
o. Constitutional Democrats Of whom Profes-
sor Milyoukov is the leader, have played the
role of mediator between the two extremes,
seeming to have sought to preserve what had
already been won in the way of constitutional
government rather than TO trust the wild forces
of socialism. terrorism and agraranism to
win them more. They have played the part
played by the "inteectuals In almost every
great movement, distrusting revolution and
opposing reaction. seeking to conserve what
they had and to advance by reasonable means.
In Russia they have not been wholly success
full. The autOcracy, strengthened by the al
lance with the landhoders and the capital
lists the propertied classes in general, has
effected what the professO: called a counter
revolution, leaving the shadow Of the constitu-
ton, but In large measure annulling its sub
stance. The change in the electoral laws puts
a small group of landholders in control of a
majority of the Douma, so that the present
sembly will probably be reactionary. In other
words. the net result of RusSia's changes of
government so far has been to substitute in
effect an oligarchy for an autocracy the En-
peror and the landed proprietorS together con-
trolling the executive and legislative branches.
The alliance is that has many times before
appeared in the history of peoples working up
ward toward constitutonalism, and its weak
ness would seem to be that 1t commits the
government to a policy opposed to the interests
Of the greatest single class, the peasants, whose
needs hardest to deny.
The professor takes pessimistic view of the
prospects of constitutionalism, but he must
mean constitutonalism in the immediate fut-
ure perhaps within his lifetime; for with
his philosophical view of history he must see
that Russia is following in the footsteps of
other nations which long ago worked their slow
way upward to better and freer government.
1t is painful and dangerous way, but they
have successfully travelled it. For the part
he has TO play in 1t, protecting Russia to the
best of his ability at once from the perils of
reaction and the equal, perhaps greater, perils
of revolution by the sheer force Of intellect
ual leadership, Professor Milyoukov is evil
IDENTITY we'll equipped If fuller constitutional
ism comes in his time his talents may be indis-
pensabIe to his country in the constructive era.