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Show THE RUSSIAN SITUA-0n " I To the student of hlstor r,ie situ I atlon in Russia today is ai merest I i ing as it is momentous. N()! , raore" Hi than a century has tho world wit- W nossed so titanic a struggle in Christ' I endom between tho genius of dark- I' ness and brutal despotism nui that 11 of light and tho free aspirations of If mighty peoples. The revolutions of i forty-eight wero sporadic and insg. I niflcant in comparison with tli silent I struggle now going on In thr Russian I Empire. This struggle is in nssonce I tho same conflict that is over where I throughout Western civilization belne II more or less strenuously waged be- tween tho friends of freedom and pop. I ular government and thoso of reac- I tion, despotism and class-rulo. nut 9 Russia today is pre-eminently the storm-center in tho civilization-wide conflict; hence a glance at conditions there will be helpful to friends of dom- M ocracy everywhere, for wo must re- I member that Russia's conflict is ours i that democracy is vitally concerned m in tho advance of tho millions uf Rus- sia toward the light of freedom. I As times of prosperity and tran- quility aro not unfrequently periods of supreme peril to free institutions, as 9 they afford opportunities for despot- M ism, reaction and corruption to ad- I vanco in government oDportunlties M for dangerous precedents to be estau- m Hshod, for official classes and special m interests to .make aggressive forward I movements, and for graft, corruption M and venality to silently but rapidly I permeate tho body-politic; so periods I of commercial depression, or of na- I tlonal stress and strain at a timo I when foreign wars demand tho tools I of despots and tyrants to l o largely I engaged beyond the nation's borders, I afford tho supremo opportunity for I friends of free institutions and liberal I government to press for vantage upon I tho citldels of governmental oppres- I slon and reaction. I That tho Russian people mcasur- I ably appreciate this vital fact is in- I dicated by the great activity being I manifested throughout the empire. I Tho students and educators aro alert I and active. Tho landed heads of the I communes nro displaying a greater I degreo of moral courage than men of I property aro wont to exhibit where j bold or outspoken demands aro liable I to lead to confiscation of property and I Imprisonment, oxllo or death for the I patriots. Tho peasants aro every- I whero giving evidences of unrest and I showing that tho long and systematic I oppression of tho bureaucracy has I driven them well-nigh to despair; I while tho worklngmen in tho cities aro on all sides showing a growing and II settled determination to havo a day of reckoning with the criminally cruel II oppressors if no reasonable reforms I or concessions aro granted to the peo- I- Moreover, tho foreign groups of K Russian patriots men whoso lovo for H freedom and tho Idoals of democracy and justice has been so groat that It has led to enforced or voluntary exile 1 from their fatherland are busy with I tho underground railroad by which H Russia is being sown with the litera- turo of revolt, freedom and democracy W much as was Franco In tho time of II Louis XVI , ,. II Tho action of tho zemstvos in bom- 1! ly petitioning for a constitutional gov- ernment and other liberal and progres- sivo reforms, the growing restlessness g of tho people and tho rising spirit of insubordination in tho presence oi brutal treatment that has long been tho rule in Russia, aro enraging ana alarming tho autocrats and bureau- crats. Somo, It is true, merely ex- press indignant contempt at the pre- sumption of tho people in assuming g I that they exist for any other purpose I an to minister to the pleasure and I in Ificat on of a few moro or less dis-fj dis-fj members of a so-called doya II f,iv and the subservient tools of f Kot'sm that constitute the bureau-V bureau-V rniv This sentiment found expres-1 expres-1 inn in the recent characteristic roll ro-ll Znrk of the Grand Duke Sergius, the 1 uncle of the Czar, the Govornor-Gcr, I ni of Moscow and ono of the load-I load-I inc spirits among the reactionaries, I "lion In speaking of the demand of I iim enistvos and tho mutterings of I o Sr of Russia ho said: "These I peasants think, I suppose, that litis-I litis-I !.a oxists for them as a dog docs for I fleas." I While somo of tho autocrats, how- II ever are affecting contempt for tho LI nrotcsts and menacing unrest of tho ncople others are displaying tliolr J,larm by their almost frantic defences of the autocracy and by their stronu- ous efforts to prove that a const:tu- 8 tlonal government could not exist in Russia because of the Ignorance of tho people an ignorance, by f'o way, 1 for which tho church and the bureau-I bureau-I I cracy are chiefly responsible. Tims wo find Prince Mestchorsky, who Is probably tho ablest as ho is tho most I reactionary of the defenders of tho I autocracy, industriously circulating throughout Western civilization tho old, threadbare cry that the people I are too Ignorant for solf-govcrnmont; m that tho concession to tho dennnd of tho zeinstvos would merely mean tho 9 autocracy of a class, and that tho pres- cnt despotism is tho only kind of gov-H gov-H ernment that could successfully carry H forward tho best Interests of Russia. H This Is tho old, old cry of tyrants nnd despots that has ever rung forth when tho people have demanded justice and a wider measure of freedom. It was the cry of King Georgo and tho reactionaries reac-tionaries that brought on tho American Ameri-can Revolution. It is tho false shibboleth shib-boleth cf tho enemies of democracy and freedom tho world over, by wnlch they seek to justify reactionary innovations in-novations and the maintenance of tho terrorism that flourishes In nations whero a brutal bureaucracy such as exists In Russia obtains. Tho most shameful feature of the present propaganda of despotism is tho spectacle of American, English and Continental journalists and other reactionaries taking up and echoing thoso catch-phrases and falso pleas of tho special-pleaders for tyranny. Perhaps there is no Russian thinker think-er and export better able to utter an authentic word in answer to the sophistical soph-istical cries of seflish upholders of autocracy in Russia than Professor Paul Mtlyoukov, tho eminent economist, econo-mist, historian and educator, who was Imprisoned in 1901 for presiding over a meeting of students and wno naa recently delivered a brilliant course of lectures In Boston on present conditions condi-tions in Russia. This eminent and careful thinker, before tho Twentieth-Century Twentieth-Century Club, on December 17, 1904, exposed tho hollowness of tho cry that tho Russians woro not prepared ' for self-government. Ho spoko as an expert, having, as he stated, conducted conduct-ed a special inquiry to determine that I very question, and in tho courso of Us remarks ho pointed out tho fact thnt twenty-five years ago the Czar or Russia granted the Bulgarians a constitution patterned after that of "o Belgians. "Tho only changes introduced in-troduced made it oven moro democrat demo-crat c than tho Belgian constitution, or t no Bulgarians got a ono-chambor oglslaturo and universal Instead of limited suffrage." And Professor Mil-joukoy Mil-joukoy continued: "I am qulto sure , "ie Dlsarlans aro not a people higher Intelligence than tho Itus-sians; Itus-sians; yet experience has shown that fiif O0.so tnolr representatives very nto llgently and in a way qulto up ,levo1 of thelr wn interests as PotvnF ?; Mreovor tho Bulgarians received re-ceived their constitution after being In serfdom under tho Turkish rule. Their constitution has proved a sort of school of political life among them, nnd enormous changes havo taken place in Bulgaria altogether owing to tho constant practice of political rights which has been given to Bulgaria Bul-garia by the working of that constitution; consti-tution; and If I wore to he asked, hero or in Russia, whether the vote should bo given in my country generally gen-erally to tho people, I should answer in tho affirmative." Tho claim of tho interested reactionaries reac-tionaries in Russia is precisely analogous an-alogous to tho positive assertions of thoso In our own country who wore interested in sugar monopolies and other privileges a short time since, when tho independence of Cuba was up for consideration. TI1030 would-be fosterers of despotism declared that tho claim that tho Cubans could be entrusted with self-government was preposterous. They Insisted that our government ought not to entertain the idea for a moment; yet Cuba Is getting get-ting along incomparably better than Russia under autocracy. Moreover, In Russia tho peoplo would bo led. aided and educated by tho educators of Russia and tho ablest and most enlightened en-lightened mcmbors of tho zomstvos men in many instances of tho widest learning nnd of tho noblest purposes. Tho Arena. |