Pioneer press. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1882-19??, 1916-03-04
GAR ALEXANDER GAVE SERFS
LIBERTY o5 YEARS AGO TO-DAY

Car Alexander of Russia on March
., 1861, freed more than 10000 900
human beings. His reforms made
him hated, and a few years later he
was aSsassinated.
"Ehe mobiles sell their peasants and
domestic servants like cattle" saws
= hussian official report, and Ingram
declares:
LANDED prOprietOrs could trans
port their unruly serfS to Siberia with
ont trial or send them to the mines
iOr lie, and those who presented com
PAINTS against their masters were
punished with the. knout."
All this was not in the medieval
days, but. at the middle Of the nine.
lecnth century. People Shudder al
ihe suffering of the French peasant
under the old monarchy. yet thc
i rrencA :pcaSantS at their worst were
not slaves. tO'"be bought and sold ik G
horses, or to be sent to life torture.
iil&Sia,S land TO Il great extent was
,ulVlded into huge estates. And the
.i"en. and women, and children who
"QrhGd lAcse estates for the prOprie-
jorS. a$ Vel as those who tOiled on
state lands were known as serfs.
Their condition ranged from lowest
slavery VI to form Of servitude that
was easier, put quite as.'helpless.
All Europe Protests.
All Europe was protesting fercely
against the serf custom. Turgenief
and other Russian writer's were urg-
lng-in their books and pamphlets that
1T be abolished. And when Alexan-
.der II came to the throne as car. in
1900. he, vowed to right the ancient
wrong and set his people free
Alexander was the Abraham Lin
coin OF Russia. He hated the Ivrarl-
ny and oppression which gripped his
country. From the beginning of his
reign up to the very day his loving
and grateful subjects murdered him
he was forever working for tlfeir bet
tcrment. incidentally he was the on
~ powerful foreign ruler who offered
help to the United States in the civil
war.
Chlef among Alexander's countless
reforms was his. freeing of the serfs.
AS soo'l- as his purpose was known
bis advisers gravely told him that if
the serfs were liberated the mobiles
would start a revolution. He answer
ed that if a revolution had to come
1T were better for it to- start at the
top OF the social world than at the
bottom, as had the French revolu-
ion.
Sets 100000 Free.
Ihen committee wrote him 2
warning that the infuriated mobiles.
robbed of their serfs, would kill him.
Inc car replied that in such a case
ne would die doing his duty. Mean.
Whlle, he sought for good excuse
10 issue the emancipation proclama-
tlOn. And the chance came in an odd
way.
a body of Lithuanian landowners
had mad trouble with their sers. They
petltloned the car to frame some
measure that would adjust the rela-
tlons OF noble and peasant. Their
intention was to get a law. passed
giving them even more power over
thelr serfs. Alexander asked if 9th
er landlords did not care to ioin in
the petition. From all over Russia
came assent
This was what the car had been
waiting for. He pretended to take
@this widespread request as wish on
the part Of the landowners that the
serfs might be free. And on March
3, 1861, csiXth anniversary Of his com.
ing 10 the throne) he freed them. Bv
one pen scratch he released more
than 4O,OOO,000 human beings from
servitude.