The Washington herald., 1915-05-09

| population. even IN tho coDbled square o
the Winter Palace. were readily sho
| down and trampled beneath the hoors o
| the Cossack cavalry. The millions o
| discontinued peasants, however, coult
not be repressed. and the autocracy cap
| itulated with the promise of a free pres!
and the pledge that the Russian people
should at last be admitted TO the coun
| ellis Of the nation
| A Duma was established and, in 1903
| the voice of the people was heard fo
| the first time in Petrograd. Naturally
| it grated on the ears of the old ruling
! caste. and naturally. too. after centurie:
Of repression il produced a confusion o.
| ture. and when the people elected an
| other radical Duma the government re
| taliated by curtailing the liberty of the
press and by circumventing the virtua
! manhood suffrage that the constitution
| had guaranteed. By dividing the people
| into classes and by the jugglery of in
| direct elections a safe working maiorit,
| in the Duma was assured to the aristoc
racy.
Moreover. the things that the revolu
tionists most desired TO change. tho
| Duma is forbidden to touch. Only the
| Ear may propose any alteration In the
| fundamental law. the legislative body
being restricted to financial and indus
| trial matters and commanded to lei
| politics alone AS for the press. it is
still free to print what 1t pleases. but
! II. in the opinion of the provincial gov
ernor. a paper abuses" the government
or prints false news 1t lays itself liable
| to a fine of $50
Thus the premise made to the ear OF
/ the r"volltionists has been broken tc
| their hope But what Is written Is writ
| ten. and sooner or later. perhaps wher
this war is over. the Car Will have &c
meet his pledge and keep IT; For the old
| order is plainly doomed. May the tran.
sition TO the new nc effected by evolu'
| tion rather than by revolution, for a
Russian revolution we'll might cause tho
intellectual fires Of the French to pale.
Great Democracy.
Russia has been experimenting with
representative government too long t.
aha ndon 1t now. When serfdom was
abolished in 1863 and 100000 serfs sud.
denly were freed from their obligations
to labor for their landlords. they were
not cast adrift as the black freedmen OF
the southern states were. On the con
trarH. the Russian government Dough,
outright and for cash so. 0oo.0Oo acres and
sold tn" land to tn" cmancipated- serfs
on the inStalment plan.
The government did not attempt to
deal with all those millions OF men indi-
vidually, hut by villages or communcs
The peasants of each community receiv-
ed the land in common. paid for II I'm
common. and. for working purposes. di-
vided it among themselves. the lease 10
each man ranging in different regions
from five to nineteen acres. The great
est autocrat I'm the world thus institute
ed the greatest system of communism
in the world.
Each commune has its own peasant
government, with ballot for every man.
There is a village assembly or mir to
govern the village and divide its land.
and there is district assembly, or
volost, to govern each group of villages.
And only the peasant has voice or vote
in either of those ruling bodies. Above
them Is district Zemstvo. a kind of
county hoard, and above that zemstvo.
or legislature. for the province as a
whole In each of these higher assem-
blies the peasants have their represen-
tatives, although the mobiles are In ma
jority.
While all those liberal institutions are
influential and useful, while they are
giving the people an excellent political
education, like the Duma they are free
only on paper. Everywhere the long arm
of Petrograd fnterferes and rules. Every
where the agents of the Car have the
directing power, and by simple edict,
with which the people are only too IA
miliar. all guarantees or popular rishts
and liberties may be suspended.
II is not necessary to say that an or
binary Car is unequal to the tremen-
dous power ccntered in him. Such a
man as Nicholas ii, for example, hard
ly more than reigns and Is only less a
crowned figurehaed than his first cousin.
the King of England. 49,:
The Russian bureaucracy is political
economic, religious. social and military
machine Whether the Gar Is the boss
or the tool Of the machine depends upon
the iron in his nature. just as with a
MAYOR in the machine politics Of an
American city. Unless Car can fill
the breasts Of the palace mob with the
terror that an Ivan Nv or Peter in