Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-16


making of profits possible.
EDUCATION OF THIRD ESTATE
The ten years following the Russo-Japa-
nese war and tho two and half years
of the present conflict have convinced the
Third Estate that the fufillment of It's
destiny lay In its cooperation with the
progressive forces Of the workers, the peas
antry and the "intelligentzia." For the
years between 1905 and 1914 have been
years of expansion of German trade and
commerce in Russia. Under the stress of
the Russo-Japanese War the junkers of East
Prussia and the iron and steel barons of
tho Rhine succeeded in imposing upon Rus
sia a most onerous tariff system, one which
made the Russian merchant and manufac-
turer agents for German corporations and
nut the Russian landowner and peasant at
the mercy of the German Harvester Trust.
Russia became, for all intents and pur-
poses a dumping ground for German goods
n colony for the sale of German surplus
products. And all this was accomplished
without a murmur of protest on the part
Of the Government in Petrograd. For the
powers of absolutism in Petrograd consist
ing, in a large measure, of Russians of
German birth, received their support and
inspiration from Berlin Not in vain. as
was charged in the first Duma, did william
II offer to send an army into Russia to
stranglc the revolution OF 1905 IL the Rus
sian army proved dislOyal.
did not Nicholas l save the throne of
the late Francis Joseph of Austria by
similar favor in 1882
The force that drove the Slavophile ele-
ment into war with Germany on the side of
the Allies was Germany's policy in Turkey
and the Near East. The certainty of Ger
man control of Constantinople-the Gar
grad of Slavophile territorial Imperialism
a..1 H. +. -
which was becoming well nigh uibearable
to the Russian industrial, commercial and
agricultural classes, were the prime factors
in the apparently incongruous alliance of
Russia and Great Britain Small wonder
II was then that the aforementioned classes
threw themselves into the war, when 1t
came with enthusiasm and determination
to win.
GERMAN INTRIGUES IN WAR
German intrigue however, continued to
find eager auditors in Petrograd.
The inner reaction was more interested
In preserving its power by separate peace,
If need be, even though 1t may forever have
had to surrender all dreams of Constanti-
nople and loose Poland to complete the
bargain. What to It were the growth and
development of Russia? Privately, in
dividual members of the reaction were
specializing on the Berlin, Paris and London
stock exchanges. but their souls were in
medieval monasteries and their boots in the
bowels of the Russian people. And so
we have heard, on very good authority
of the various attempts at a separate peace
between Russia and Germany the last Of
which was frustrated by the assassination
of Rasputin and the resignation of Sturmer
Despite the efforts of the reaction during
the war to keep the Duma where Stolipn
had left it-bound hand and foot-the ma.
tional assembly, through its own determine
ton, energy and patriotism. assumed most
threatening attitude so far as the govern
ment was concerned. At last the Third
Estate began to realize, amid the graft,
inefiicency and treachery of the government
that it was being deceived. And so the re-
dictionary Purishkevitches. the patriotic
Rodziankos, the efficient Gutchkovs and the
honest, learned and cautious Miliukoys of
1905, carried forward upon the wave of
popular revolt, became the revolutionary
fathers of 1917.
Apparently they have won. Evidently
they have the people and the army behind
them. At last they are In a position to es-
tablsh true constitutional government in
Russia. At last they will throw off German
economic tyranny, gain an outlet for their
own products through the probable neutral
ization of the Dardanelles and lead an in
dependent economic life. At last Russia
will take her place among the nations of
the West while the industrial and agri-
cultural proletariat of the empire will join
hands with the proletariat of the rest of
Europe for driving the chariot of progress
still farther. For II is we'll to remember
that in epochs of revolution-and this war
has certainly created the soil for a great
social ansformaton-national boundaries
become but imaginary lines and Moscow
and Berlin are on the same parallel.