The mirror., 1915-04-01

who made complaints against tier
masters were punished with the
knot. Even the moral welfare of
the serfs were under the control of
the Russian proprietor as is shown
by the arbitrary arrangement of mar
riages between boys of eighteen and
girls of sixteen. No wonder we
read of the terrible truth in Gogol's
realistic novel Dead Souls" and
Furgenief's, "Fatherland Sons" "
This slow intellectual an d
ethical development has undoubted-
ly been due also, to the remote
ness of the country from the main
current of European travel, as to
Asia on the east. One still hears
the saying Scratch a Russian and
you find a Tartar" For many
centuries the onslaught of the Asia
tees was severe while the influence
from the west was imperceptable.
Italy, Spain, Holland and England
with the great trade routes by their
doors and surrounded by more mel
low influences, made great progress
during the same period of time.
Another reason for Russias slow
development is the immense size of
Its plains, as compared with it's
sparce population. Russia is twenty
times less densely populated than
England, fifteen times less than Ger
many and ten times less than France.
Only fourteen percent of the pop
ulatiOn live in towns or near enough
to be influenced by their civilization
At least four fifths of Russia is un-
touched by the two great forces of
civilization, the public schools and
the press; in fact the restrictions
placed around both would hardly en-
title them to the place of public
agencies, as we understand it in our
country. What this means to the
people during the long dreary win
ters is hard to imagine. Another
cause for the con nservatism of the
Russians is the fact that the predom-
mating occupation is agriculture.
Business and the Professions here
in the past, and still are to large
extent, carried on by the Jews and
foreigners. No countries show much
advancement in civilization until it
begins to establish instructional and
commercial relation and becomes
acquainted with the rest of the
world. Lack Of initiative has
always been the Russians weak
ness in warfare as in peace. On
defensive, however, il has been in
vincible, as Napolian. Fredrick the
Great and Charles XII of Sweden
learned.
Their notable failure in handling
their government owned railway
systems in an efficient manner. is
often comented upon by travellers.
While at the present time one hun
dred and twenty five million of it's
one hundred and seventy five mil
lion are pesants engaged in tilling
soil, the opening of trade relations
and the establishment of manu-
ufacturing industries will soon bring
great changes. Up to the present
time machinery and other products
of the factory have been imported.
The country is practically self sup.
porting, it offers a great variety of
climate and soil and it is rich in
minerals oil and timber. Since the
world is approaching a scarcity of
lumber, meats and bread stuff and
Russia can produce all these to an
unlimited extent, it will become the
great exporting country of the fut-
ure. Russia has the longest river
of Europe and a large number of
other navigable streams, which on
account of the level nature of the
country, are easily connected by
canals. The time will come when
commerce will be carried on in
this country hitherto undreamed of