The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-03-13
WITTE IS DEAD
Russia's Greatest Statesman
and First Prime Minister.
One of the Delegates to the
Portsmouth Convention.

London, March 13.-Count Sergius
Julovich White, Russia's first prime
minister, died last night, it is said by
a Petrograd dispatch to Reuters
Telegram company.
Count White, who was born June 20,
1S49, at Tiflis, was one of the Rus
sian p1enipotentiaries at Portsmouth,
N. H, in the negotiations for peace
with Japan in 1905. He afterwards
was made count and appointed pres
ident of the new ministry but retired
in 1906 and held no important post
after that time.
| Count White was regarded as in
some respects one of the most re-
markable men his country had pro-
duced, but his reputation was even
greater abroad than at home.
he accomplished much for Russia, he
had many and powerful enemies, al
though his great ability and remark
able capacity for work never were
questioned. Regardless of his work
as a statesman his chief fame in Rus
STA rests upon his development of
manufacturing industries, the expan-
sion of railroads and the placing of
the monetary system upon gold
basis. Although always a firm sup
| porter of the monarchy, he recognized
the power of the people and had demo-
cratic tendencies. On his fathers side
his family was of common origin, but
his mother was a descendant of the
Ruriks, the old rulers of Russia, be-
for the election of the Romanoff
dynasty.
After his graduation from the Uni
versity of Odessa, White entered the
railroad service in the shipping de-
pa rtment. He mastered the question
of tariff rates and his advancement
was rapid. In the meantime he had
married a sister of General Fadieff.
He first attracted attention at the cap
ital during the Russo-Turkish war by
the administrative capacity he dis
played in the movement of army sup
plies. He went to Petrograd in 1873
and was given increasingly RESPONSE
BILE posts in the railroad service.
Minister of Railroads.
Alexander III appointed him minis
ter of railroads and communication in
1892 and soon after minister of fin
ance. 1t was then he began to develop
his great scheme for the creation of
home manufactures and the wide ex-
tension of Russias railroad system
road to the Pacific. In his efforts
along these lines, White used every
power of the state. He gave subven-
tions and government orders until fac
tories and mills were running full
blast. Then he had the state take
over the private railroads the state
treasury guaranteeing the bonds.
To do all this he borrowed immense
sums in France. Under the plea OF
regulating the liquor traffic, he had
the state take over the vodka business
of the empire, thus vastly increasing
the government revenue. His crowning
achievement was regarded, however,
as the establishment of the gold STAN
dard. AS minister of finance, in 1893
he reached the height of his power.
His policy in regard to Manchuria
which he desired to develop only from
a commercial and not from a political
viewpoint, resulted in powerful in
trigues against him, which resulted in
his removal in 1903 as minister of
finance. He went for a time to Paris
but returned to Petrograd when the
Russo-Japan war was in full swing.
He neither offered nor was asked for
advice in regard to the conduct of the
struggle but when Theodore Roosevelt
the president of the United States pre-
vailed upon the emperor to consider
terms of peace, the tide turned and
practically the entire nation united in
demanding the selection of White as
plenipotentiary. At the Portsmouth
conference he succeeded in gaining
terms under which Russia was not
obliged to pay a cash indemnity to
Japan. This was considered a re-
markable achievement and Witte
again became a hero in his own coun-
try