Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-09-14
THE RIGHTS OF THE COSSACKS-By Frederic J. iaskin.

WY ASHINGTON, D. c., Sept. 1O-The news
wv that the Russian government has attacked
the traditional privileges of the Cossacks
is causing great deal Of apprehension among those
who anxious to see the new government succeed.
Russia needs all of it's fighting force at present IL
it is to check the advance of the Germans, and the
Cossacks number 200 900 in the army, represent
ing the very pick of the fighters. 1t was said OF
the Germans at the beginning OF the war that the
only enemy they actually feared was the Cossacks'
For it is practically certain that the Cossacks
will relinquish their peculiar rights under the
Russian government without a fight These rights
date back to the seventeenth century when the
Cossacks were the terror Of Europe and Asia so
that the people of the other provinces have
come to regard them as sacred.
One Of the rights is the land which the Cos
sacks own. This amounts to 146,5OO,OOO acres
in southwest Russia, which was given to the or
ganization by the government many years ago.
Then, most of it was uncultivated forest, but
today it is extremely fertile farmland. In addl-
tion to this gift of land the Russian government
also has been in the habit of paying a certain
small subsidy to the colony every year to cover
various costs of administration.
Moreover, the Cossacks are permitted to have
their own form of government which consists OF
an assembly to which are elected delegates from all
the Cossack villages scattered along the south
western frontier of Russia.
In return for these rights, the Cossacks give
their military service. Every male Cossack is
bound to serve twenty years in the army, begin
ming at the age Of eighteen.
During these twenty years the Cossack is prac
tically sold to the government. 1nasmuch as most
of the governments fights in recent years were
with it's citizens, who demanded certain
reforms, the Cossacks became exceedingly popular.
The Russian people like them about as much as
the trade unions like the national guard in this
country which may explain Kerenskys hasty am
bition to abolish the whole institution.
Nevertheless a rebellion against that very sys-
tenn brought them into existence In the sixteenth
century Russia, following the example of the rest
of Europe, began to develop a large number OIL
mobiles who owned nearly all the tillable land The
land was not subject to taxation by the govern
ment, but the mobiles laborers, or henchmen, were
Thus the word "ploughman meant lone who Is
taxed" So great the oppression OF the no
bles that occasionally the ploughman rebelled
which kept the country in constant state or strIe
and gave the Turks excellent opportunity TO
sweep across the southwest border This lower sec
ton of the country captured first by the Poles
then by the Tartars, then by some other country
so often that it finally came to be treated as dis
tant state known Little Russia.
Into this country, split by the river Dnelper
into green fields full of wild grain and game fed
the oppressed Of Russia, as we'll as those OF other
countries and set up a government of their OWL
Some were Tartars, some adventures from
Spain and England, some even we're Italians, Dut
the majority were Russians, which is shown by the
fact that the language of the colony was Russian
and the religious creed that of the Russian Ortho-
dox church Their sole object in life was to be
free their cause was everybodys their sole hatred
was the nobles-not only the mobiles of Russia, but
those of Poland, Turkey, England and every coun-
try They called themselves 'Kossacks, which In
English means "adventurers' or ''freebooters."
In order to be "free" in the feudal days, how
ever 1t was necessary to be stronger than every
body else, for might ruled the world. Thus the
Cossacks gave all their attention to making them
selves mighty. They robbed Turkish caravans I'M
til thew got enough money to buy weapons, ana
these thew kept in perfect condition, shining them
daily with almost religious enthusiasm
The Kossatchestovo, the organization was