The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1917-03-18
THE SWORD OF FREEDOM.

mankind. Evil the sword has wrought,
but fits courageous use has cloven the
way through oppression and injustice
up TO many a free and sunlit path in
the steady wayfaring of the race Of
men, says the Macon Telegraph. AS
1t has been 1t still is. and for every
singing moujik who has marched with
head held high into the shambles
from Riga to the Caucasus 10 fall like
blades OF grass before the mowers
scythe as the German machine guns
have poured their leaden torrent into
the ever oncoming legions, there has
been a candle lighted to point Russia,
dark and gloomy, medieval and cruel
TO her common people, to the noon
time ways, to the clear and open
spaces. Until this day when over
night, In a matter OF hours, what has
been the worlds only great, absolute
monarchy goes into light travail and
comes out with Q representative form
OF government.
II is so big, SO astounding, so UNI
expected in the swiftness OF its &C
ton and the incredible ease with
which the surface transfer Of power
was made from the house OF Roman
off to the hitherto inconsequential
and lightly regarded Duma. that the
western mind, sohooled to view Rus
STA as hopeless of transition into a
democracy OF even limited sort ex-
cept through long, tedious and pain
full processes, is scarcely able to
grasp 1t.
The fact that this or that Grand
Duke succeeds the abdicating Car Is
not important. The vital thing Is
that the only medium through which
the people of Russia had even the
faintest voice in their own govern
ment has asserted itself and seized
the reins OF administration. Men OF
the people, elected by the people,
responsible to the people OF Russia.
are now In absolute control OF that
vast and portentous empire that Is
neither east nor west. The last great,
forbidding, seemingly impregnable
stronghold of autocracy and the 'di-
vine right" claim of title to authority
has been taken In the winking of an
eye--in a bloodless uprising.
II these men who have reached and
grasped the scepter Of democratic
control can hold and develop 1t from
this day on, and with the army back
sf them. they cannot fail If they have
the courage and the vision, where
will not Russia go. what can she not
do, what can she not become in the
world within the next fifty years?
hTe vista fascinates the mind. The
common school. the free school on ey-
cry commons, the naturally kindly
human Russian character nurtured to
its full development and usefulness In
the world and to Russia by free insti-
tutions, to liberty and inalienable
rights for the individual. the concur
rent vast industrial. economic and
nationally conscious life that will ac-
company the betterment-a these
lie before the Holy Empire and her
many, varied and peculiar, but strict
iy loyal peoples.
Nowhere has the flames of liberty
burned with more enduring, n more
unquenchahle fire than in Russia.
Russia In fact has given to Europe
, nearly all the cosmopolitan dreamers
and passionate lovers of the utmost
in liberty of institution and right OF
the individual that have for nearly a
century leavened and bettered the
varying degrees of democracy that
exist on the continent. Oppression
terrible punishment, the certainty oil
| death have had no effect on the men
| and women who have striven and la
bored and suffered to make Russia
free. Rather, the sterner the heel the
| more and more came TO the service,
vnd at last, without the bloody strug'
| gle. without embattleu peasants ris'
| -. -, ,,.assn uithont the pahylonic