The Wrangell sentinel., 1920-07-29

to 42 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 1So to 25O 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 a quicksand-the harder they worked and struggled the deeper into debt they fell. Increasing arrears have driven one-ffth of the inhabit- ants from their houses. Every year more than half the adult males Gin 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
 
 more than rhetoric in Russla-it was part of the chains, 1t handcuffed des- tiny, bolted the door of opportunity. The great mass of the people, S1.6 per cent peasants; 10 per cent made up the nobility; 9 per cent the clergy; 9.3 per cent the burghers and merchants; 61 per cent the mili- tary; thus 147,0OO,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 were given al. lotments of arable 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 whole for the payment of allotments. It was a sort of land communism, except that the title did not pass even to the Mfrs. The enormous charge against the land made them tenant serfs. The Mir was a 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 achievement of the peasant was rec ognized in the Act which pretended emancipation.
 Peasants Systematically Cheated.
 Many proprietors of land saw to 1t that the allotments did not give the peasants the needed pasture lands around their homes. This craftily cal culated 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 peas ant. Even this law was winked at and the practice of treating human slaves as brutes treat tired domestic animals, continued. The peasant was a chattel and the cheapest farm fix lure. There were plenty of peasants. Notwithstanding the barbaric life in Russia, the population continued to grow.
 The peasants only participation in government was in the assembly called the Mir. With its quaint GUS toms, 1t is of immemorial antiquity. The assembly of the Mir consisted of all the peasant householders of the vil- lage. These elected a head man and collector of local taxes. It was the near est Russian peasants ever got to free dom. It was the clearing house for the troubles, a socialism of sorrows, a touch of local self government which gave no rights; 1t simply provided a means of cooperating in burden bearing.
 (copyrig ht. 1920. Western Newspaper Union)