The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1908-07-25
COUNT LEO 7OLST0Y
STIRRED INTO ACTION.
Can No Longer Endure Without
Protest the Horror of Rus
sian Atrocities.
ASyI,:. IS HIS GOVERNMENT
Oh TTgoLEsALE BUTcHERY
Prefers to-, Re Hanged Than to
Witness Inhuman State
of Nfairs.

The Daily Chronicle of London, Eng
land, recently published long and
communication. penned by
Count Leo Tolstoy, who has been
stirred into action by the wholesale
executions that the government Of the
czar inf1icts on the peasants. 1t is I'M
possible for him to endure any longer
the atrocities, and he states that he
would rather the rope tighten around
his neck, too, than be compelled as
he is to witness the horrible slaugh-
ter
Hanaed for "Intent" to Rob. :
II take up to-day's paper" he
writes. To-day, the 9th of May, 1t Is
awful. The paper contains
these few words: To-day In EMERSON
on the Strelbit2ky Field IL peasants
were hanged for an attack made with
intent to rob on a landed proprietors
estate in the Elizabetgrad district
Twelve Of those by whose labor we
live, the very men whom we have de-
praved and are still depraving by ev-
cry means in our power-rom the
poison of vodka to the terrible false
hood of a creed we not not ourselves
believe in. but impose on them with
al lour might-twelve of these men
strangled with cords by those whom
they feed and clothe and house, and
who have depraved and still continue
to deprave them. Twelve husbands,
fathers, sons, from among those on
whose kindness, industry and simpli-
city alone rests the whole Russian life,
were seized, imprisoned and shack'ed.
Then their hands were tied behind
their backs, lest they should seize the
ropes by which they would be hanged,
and they were led to tho gal'ows.
And then. one after another, living
men are pushed off the benches which
are drawn from under their feet. and
by their own weight -eu ddan4y tighten
the nooses around their necks and are
painfully strangled. Men, alive a min
ute before, become corpses dangling
from a rope at first slowly swinging
and then resting motionless.
1.-The thing is awful.
"And this1@is not done once, and
not to these IL unhappy, misguided
mon from among the best class Of
the Russian people only, but it is done
increasingly for years to hundreds and
thousands Of similar misguided men
Misguided. by the very people who do
these awful things to them.
What is most dreadful in the
Ut TIL,
violence and killing, besides the direct
evil done to the victims and their
families, brings yet more enormous
evil on the whole people by spread
ing depravity-as fire spreads amid
dry straw-among every class of
Russians.
Murder Committed in the Name Of
General Welfare.
'Tverything now being done in
Russia is done in the name Of the
general welfare, in the name of the
protection and tranquility of the in
habitants Of Russia. And If this be
so, then it is also all done for me,
who live in Russia.
For me, therefore, exists the des-
titution Of the people, deprived Of the
first, most natural right Of man-the
right to use the land on which he is
born; for me the half million men
torn away from wholesome peasant
life and dressed In uniforms and
taught to kill; for me that false So
called priesthood, whose chief duty it
it to pervert and concel true Chris
tianity; for me all these transporter
tions Of men from place to place; for
me these hundreds Of thousands OF
hungry workmen wandering about
Russia; for me these hundreds OF
thousands Of unfortunates dying OF
typhus and scurvy in the fortresses
and prisons which do not suffice for
such a multitude; for me the mothers,
wives and fathers Of the exiles, the
prisoners and those who are hung, are
suHer1ng; for me are these spies and
THIS DrlDery; for me the interment of
these dozens and hundreds Of men who
nave been shot; for me the horrible
work goes on of these hangmen, at
first enlisted with difficulty, but now
no longer loathing their work; for me
exist these gallows, with well soaped
cords from which hang women, chill
dren and peasants; for me exists this
terrible embitterment of man against
his fellow man.
Prefers to Be Hanged Than Keen Quiet
:4,z A. And, being conscious Of this can
no longer endure 1t. but must free
myself from this intolerable position! !!
1T 1s impossible to live so! I. at
any rate, canunot and will not live 80.
Z: That Is why write this and will
circulate It hv all r,ao,os T., w., ,,...-
both in Russia and abroad: that one
of two things may happen-either that
these inhuman deeds may be stopped
or that my connection with them may
be snapped and I put In prison, where
l may be clearly conscious that these
horrors are not committed on my be-
half; or still better $50 good that I
dare not even dream of such happi-
ness), they may put on mo, as On
those 20 or -welve peasants, . shroud
and cap and may push mo also off
bench, % that by my own wsiaht