The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-03-22

to AZ acres Therefore the peasants
were compelled to rent land from the
landlords at fabulous prices. The
aggregate value of The redemption and
land taxes often reached 1S5 TO go
per cent of the normal value of the
allotment. not to speak of the taxes
for recruiting, the churches, roads and
local administration, chiefly levied
from the peasants. The peasants have
sunk deeper into debt every year. The
scheme was Quicksand-the harder
they worked and struggled the deeper
into debt they fell. Increasing arrears
have driven one-fifth of the inhabit- /
ants from their houses. Every year |
more than half the adult males Tin |
some districts three-quarters of the |
men and one-third of the women) are |
forced to quit their homes and wan
der throughout Russia in search of
work. In the governments of the
black earth region the state of mat
ters is hardly better.
The phrase "class distinction" was
more than rhetoric in Russia--it was
part of the chains, it handcuffed des
tiny, bolted the door of opportunity.
The great mass of the people, SIG
per cent peasants; 10 per cent made
up the nobility; 8 per cent the
clergy; 9.3 per cent the burghers
and merchants; 81 per cent the mill
tary; thus 147,0O0,000 of the Russians
! were peasants.
The slavery in Russia consecrated
by law in 1909 was partly abolished
in 1861. The Act only pretended to
| liberate the serfs. Even under the
best landlords conditions continued to
{. be terrible. Household servants or de-
! pendents attached to the personal serv-
ice of their masters were re-
| leased They joined the town pro-
letariat. The peasants We're given al
lotments of arabic land. These al
lotments were not given to the indi-
| viduals, they were given over to the
rural commune called the Mir, which
was made responsible as a whole for
the payment of allotmentS. Il was
sort of land communism, except that
the title did not pass even to the Mrs.
The enormous charge against the land
made them tenant serfs. The Mir
was mortgaged community. The re-
demption charge was not calculated
on the value of the land, but was con-
sidered as payment for the loss of the
compulsory labor of the serfs. The
enSlavement of the peasant was rec
ognized in the Act which pretended
emancipation.
Peasants Systematically Cheated.
Many proprietors of land saw to it
that the allotments did not give the
peasants the needed pasture lands
around their homes This craftily cal
cuated scheme compelled the peasants
to rent pasture land from the land
. lords at any price. The landlords
held them up.
, It was only as late as 1904 that the
landlord was forbidden by law TO in
flict corporal punishment on the pens
; | ant. Even this law was winked at
and the practice of treating human
slaves as brutes treat tired domestic
: | animals, continued. The peasant was
4 chattel and the cheapest farm fix
Notwithstanding the barbaric life il
Russia, the population continued L
: grow.
i The peasants only participation il
e | government was in the assembl.
= called the Mir. With its quaint Gus
y toms, it is OF immemorial antiquity
+; The assembly of the Mir consisted o
: all the peasant householders of the vii
5. lage These elected head man an
collector of local taxes It was the neal
# est Russian peasants ever got TO free
II dom. 1t was the clearing house fo
: the troubles. a socialism of sorrows
n Il touch of local self government whic
Is gave no rights; it simply provided
"a means of cooperating in burde
bearing.
q Copyright. 1920. Western Newspaper Unior
- HARD At W0pK I'M Ri Glllf