The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-07
GERMANS IN RUSSIA
THEY APPEAR TO BE IN CON-
 TROL.
In The Meanwhile Russia is Borrowing From The English And France And The Germans Are Doing
 Practically All The Busf- ness.
ny ARNOLD METZLER.

St Petersburg March 6-To the un- initiated 1t must seem peculiar Tact that, while Russia succeeds in borrow ing enormous sums of money from France and a little from England and Holland, she raises not a single kopek from her wealthy German neighbor. whose friendliness with Russia has been a tradition since the time of the Napoleonic wars. Why does not Ger many, on her part seek to acquire the profit and political influence that always follow on the advance of im- portant sums of money to foreign nation? In modern times a large body of cash deposited with a foreign people Is about the most serviceable corps diplomatique imaginable; its presence Is always felt for the promotion of the lenders interest: Its integrity Is re- garded by international consent as something sacred and inyiolable; and. far from requiring remuneration for its services. 1t pays its employer for the honor of being allowed to work for him, and that. too. at a handsome rate of interest. Can Germany be blind to this. while France is so clear sighted?
 The truth Is that Germany has satis- fled herself that she Is obtaining a far more real and tangible hold on Russia by actual occupation of Rus- sian territory and the centres of Rus
 
 [by holding any amount of the scrip is- sued by the Imperial Bank at St. Petersburg. It Is easy to see this from the tone of the German financial press, which does not think much of the credit of the Russian government but is fully awake to the resources of the Russian nation. and these it knows Germany holds in the hollow of her hand. The "Frankfurter Gazette" for aY a m wi ha nf ha immediate issue of Russian railway bonds. the security for which 1t con-
 siders reducible to the security of the
 government. into whose mouth it puts
 the cynical utterance of the reaction 1 ary old Austrian states, and: We are still endured!" But in the "Frankfur- ter's" view. the revolutionary move ment in Russia has only called tenn porary halt in its progress. and the 1 time cannot be far off when the trau- tional vested interests will be endured no longer. and then who will guaran tee the value of the paper? But land, l and trade. and factories and house property. and acquired social position are always worth having. for they sink beneath their face value, and all these Germany has in Russia.
 For The Russians.
 There are certain facts little talked of which have been brought to light
 recently through the activity of the 1 leaders Of the Panslavist movement.
 and which should be kept well In mind | by students of the Near East problem of today For readers of Russian they
 are well summed up by the editor of | the "Slavenskji Vjek." M D. N. Yer l gun. and may here be stated In brief as follows: First, the fact as to popu- | lation. The last government census.
 made as far back as 1897, sets down 1 the German residents in Russia as l. | 7SS000, to which number must be | added 5,11O,000 Jews whose language Is a German dialect intermixej with little Hebrew and whose racial ties and traditions are German and not Russian. This makes close on 7000.
 900 Germans of a total population of 104 900, 900 In European Russia at that time The proportion is not appreciat ed in its true significance till 1t is re- ,nembered that the towns and cities of Russia only contain some 13,000,000 in- ha bitants and that the German and Jewish elements are concentrated al most entirely In the towns and cities. They are thus seen to constitute about one-half their entire population,
 The position held by German trades
 men in St Petersburg, Moscow. Odessa, Lodz, and the other great commercial cities Is paramount. Tn less known districts 1t amounts almost to autono- my This Is particularly the case along the Lower Volga, where the Ger man residents elect civil magistrates who scarcely ever speak a word of Russian in the exercise of their func
 tions It is very note worthy how the various German colonies are kept at tached by political ties and and or ganiZations to their country of origin. In the Vistula and Baltic Provinces, entire German villages have been re- ceIyed as immigrants en masse; the site of their new home is always some point of strategic importance on Rus sian territory. and they are generally financed for the enterprise by certain of the Berlin banks. Along the Nis- tuIa German social and socio- political institutions have flourished for years
 rvmnastic clubs, cycling clubs. p1nsr,,p clubs even rifle clubs exist tha members of which are uflIieu to the use of the service weapon anu regularly inspected by German or ficers This all takes place on Rus star territory and under the tuiI op- servatton of the impasslVe Russlah authorities, who seem to attach no signtficance to the fact that whole regiments of German riflemen mafeh unrestrictedly through the villages or Russian Poland, courting public sym pathy and enthusiasm with their stir ring chorus of the "Wacht am RheIn.
 What is plainer than that Russia is being Germanized by people Of superior intelligence, thrift and in- genuity? To use scant phrase. the