Show IF THE PEOPLE czar nicholas surrenders and count witte becomes head of russian governments Govern mentI autocracy a thing of the past arn people are granted free speech a free press right of assem and habeas corpus am man festo issued st petersburg monday october 0 1905 will be a day to be yen crated for ages to come by all good russian citizens as it was upon thia hate that the autocracy of the roman effs and the old order of things ceased to exist in russia emperor nicholas has surrendered and count witte comes into power as minister hent with an imperial mandate which will enable him to convert the farcical tiati onal assembly into a real alve body elected by gleata extended suffrage and to confer upon the peo pie fundamental cal liberties include ing free speech these welcome tid reached st petersburg shortly before 6 clock monday evening count witte had spent the day with the emperor at peterhof Pe going over the final draft of the manifesto to which he insisted that certain minor modifications be made and before tak ing the train for st petersburg ha telephoned to a friend that the ema geror had affixed his signature and that the imperial mandate comprising the conditions upon which he had agreed to accept office was in his iet these include freedom of the crebs the right of assembly and the immunity of the person including the right of habeas corpus an imperial manifesto has been isa sued appointing count witte prime minister with special authority to ordinate and unify the powers of the different branches of the army civic liberties are granted to the russian people and to the national assembly Is given legislative power while the suffrage is enlarged count witta insisted on a cabinet on the british model with a selected premier responsible to the imperial douma or parliament while the em geror clung to the appointment of the members of the cabinet on the ameri can rl by the emperor as chief of state count witte russia a first premier has sent the following message to the american people I 1 am sure the american people who understand what freedom Is and the american which voices the wishes of ue people will rejoice with the friendly russian nation at this ment when the russian people have received from his imperial majesty the promises and the guarantees of free dom and will join in the hope that the russian people will wisely aid in the realization of those liberties by operating with the government for their peaceful introduction only thus will it be possible to secure the full of the freedom conferred upon the people the effect throughout russia is ex pecked to be instantaneous while the revolutionists threaten an attempt to keep up the present struggle the beat opinion is that the backbone of the strike is broken but in the final abaly els the effect will depend upon how fir count witte will be able to execute the heavy tast which he has as burned some persons high in the govern ment believe it will be necessary to use ball cartridges to suppress the present movement but count witte appears confident he has become the bridge whereby the people are to cross to constitutionalism the count has already tentatively selected the members of his cabinet he will himself hold no portfolio port tolio all the ministers except those of war navy and foreign affairs will be retired prince one of the count s former assistants in the min astry of finance will become minister of interior M romanoff another former assistant to the minister will take the finance portfolio M conf at present a senator and russia s ablest jurist will be minister of jus tice M Kr president of the st petersburg municipal council will tal e the ministry of education and M ziegler von schaffhausen chief of the railroad department of the minis of will become minister of ways and communications |