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Show UTAH LABOR NEW'S Page Ten Saturday , Mar. 21, 1917 i!' MOVES ONE STEP FOMWAMB The I'y.iir of Russia has 'abdicated in favor of his brother Michael. Michael declines to assume the prerogatives of czardom without first submitting the matter to a vote of the tut yesterday the proposal people. to submit anj thing to a vole of the abpeople of Russia would have been an heralds one surd. 'ibis proposal would it epoch of pt ogress yesterday, have been ridiculous; today, it is most I propel. w hi id moves! One of the strikas a discernible so far benefits ing of the colossal of the struggle result is the awakening of Kurope peoples No other event now reof Rie-.-icalled poi lends so much of benefit and good fo, the common people as the revolution which caused the czar to abdicate (alwavs quote it). Observers of world events have for years predicted that that country would some day be the scene of a revolt that the world. It was alwould ways the idea that the overturning of darke-- t Russia" would bo one of the most bitter and prolonged struggles the world lias ever witnessed. Now that the event has become a reality, it develops that it was one of the shortest anil easiest accomplished revolutions that has ever changed the government of any of the great powers, proving the aptness of the old saw that it in the unexpected that hapRelatively the bloodshed was pens. The trifling and inconsequential. struggle was so quickly ended that few can even now realize that such a thing The i i I has actually happened. u Two features of the revolt stand out above all others. For sometime past the du mu has been quietly taking unto itself powers not contemplated by the government when consenting to its establishment. That body, in a semi- oHicluT w effect. Some that wo of time ago a committee of its ablest members was sent throughout all the countries allied with Russia in the world war. These intelligent, broadminded men not only visited all the , v far-reachi- ng hut they investigated everywithin those of consequence thing countries tlie conduct of the war, the form and conduct ofthe government, industrial conditions, social relations; in fact, everything from the making of pins lo the making and unmaking What impressed of governments. them most were things totally lacking in their own country. They noted particularly the genuine spirit of democalMes, racy existing between officers and men in the Canadian and French armies, I t for instance; the fact that governments generally were responsive to the thoughts and feelings of the people. The. marveled at and approved the vas'.lv superior conditions of the common people of the countries visited. Tlie visit of this committee was a colossal revelation of new possibilities. Upon their return they reported publicly to the duma, but the attitude of government officials compelled them to trim and modify this report. Even this trimming could not remove from it all traces of the more important things they had witnessed. Then in secret they revealed to their fellow members and trusted friends the deeper and more vital things they observed. The leaven of progress began to work. The duma took on a more attitude. It demanded aggressive changes in government officials, particularly the ministries. It met with some success. Jhis success was irritating to the bureaucrats. Finally the exar was prevailed upon to prorogue the duma. But the duma would not be prorogued. It continued to meet, but more in secret until final plana were completed, when it in turn prothe czar and his bureaus. rogued From a body having little real power and occupjing merely an advisory position, it has suddenly changed into the ruling power of the nation, making and unmaking kings, ministers and governments. 4 j By EFFIE EGHM The other incident that stands out is the fact that when the heretofore hated cossacks were ordered to fire on the populace they did not obey as had They mingled been theh custom. d with the people in a spirit of furfraternity. They went ther they secured machine guns and turned them with deadly effect upon the police who had shortly before mercilessly shot down the populace some 3 00 being thus killed. good-nature- The least ns for the charge in attitude of ttie cossacks and soldiers are n it hacd to find. The great war has removed practically all the professionso al oldior who were wont to barbarous In their execution of orders to fire upon the people. The present armies of that country are composed veiy largely of men who have only recently left the shops and fields, where thev and their friends and relatives were, hut a few short months back, the victims of the ruthless cruelty of czarism. They had not forgotten, but for the time being the magnitude of the military mechanism into which they had been molded compelled at least a semblance of faithful obedience to the juthless tyrants who but yesterday had oppressed and abused them. They still were obsessed of the foolish and erroneous notion that the little father received his position, power, authority and great wisdom direct faom almighty God, though these ideas had been weakened by the contact with other peoples enforced by war. Then they began to see that the source of power was not divinity, but the possession of ordnance big guns and little guns, small arms and rapid-fir- e arms. These oppressed people finally realized that the tyrants had secret- - of their iandg-th-e-. The people, the oppressed, power. downtrodden people were practically all armed. Not only that, but tlie tyrants had taught them organization and the best and most effective methd powods of using their er the rapid-fir- e gun. It makes all the difference in the world who ijolds the gun. The tyrant with the gun in his hand compels his helpless, unarmed victim to acknowledge that the tyrant is kin to God. When the victim has the gun, the situation is reversed, a great light dawns upon the tyrant and he soon learns that the people an armed people in this case are the rightful source of -- -d- newly-acquire- all power. Anil so it was. Necessity compelled the tyrants to place their secret power in the hands of the downtrodden people, and the people used that power for their own liberation. When a rapid-fir- e gun was turned in of the direction the tyrant, it gave him the thrill of many new and novel sensations. Hje decided (because of the will of God. of course) to abdicate. The millennium has not come to The struggle upward has really only begun. The very elements Russia. which made tie laughter and applause which shook that old car from end to end. revolution possible the political prisoners now returning In highest honor from their long exiles and imprisonments will demand so many different varieties of perfection that new revolts may result. Many of the now honored exiles may be again banished or imprisoned. They will be hard to restrain. They will be impatient at the slow plodding of the new government, ignoring the fact that perfection cannot be attained without taking all the necessary intervening steps between darkness and light. Russia is a vast empire, composed of myriads of widely differing nationalities and peoples, Large bodies move slowly. Too much haste will mean civil, social and Industrial violence as well as mental, moral and physical suffering. At the close of the great war Russia has touch to suffer its the process of her own redemption. That these first faint glimmerings of the dawn of freedom to the un- - counted millions of darkest Russia have awakened a responsive chord in every American breast goes without saying. Millions of exiles with their families and friends are rejoicing at this turning of things upside down. It is said the Jews of New York are hilariously intoxicated with ecstatic joy over the fortuitive changes of the past two weeks. Millions of Americans share their rejoicing. A local Inci- dent will illustrate: The Wanda mere . car was crowded with people glumly viewing with disgust the results of the last big snowstorm, apparently all thinking that winter would never end with its miseries and inconveniences, when an old man with limping legs but with lusty lungs painfully ambled up to the front of the car. As the door was opened to permit of his egress, he turned to the motorman and, handing him the morning paper, said in tone' which startled the conductor at the other end of the car, Fred, that feller over in Russia lost a good job. Instantly the gloomy passengers broke into TALKING AT RANDOM BY WILLIAM S. WIER Suffer Little Children. s of Europe are rate in the birth the studying zone tv i th alarm. One of them solemnly asserts that the world must speedily come to a realization of the precious value of children to civilization. Then'with typical The high-brow- war-strick- en telligence he says; The illegitimate child must be no The common exlonger outlawed. of the pression people, it has no famust and every be disalhwed ther, child must be allotted two parents and the state must see to It that it come under the watchcare of its father as well as its mother. In this way only can the stigma of outlawry be lifted from the innocent but unfortunate child. I have always believed the highbrows would arrive in time. They have now came. But why limit the appeal for a new' attitude toward the precious value of children to the little child bojn out of wedlock? Are not all the children precious in the social sense in which the astute savant views the matter? Has not the labor movement preached with all its power of tongue and pen, for half a century, this very preciousness of children? Have we not forced commercialism to put skylights and airshafts in workrooms for the very purpose of conserving childhood and motherhood? Have we not forced greedy landlordism to put up fire escapes in the tenements to give the child and the mother a chance for life 'from fire? Have we not made the lawmakers weary with our eternal pestering for laws that take the children out of the sweatshop, factory and mine and send them to school, to sunshine, fresh air and health? How often, oh, how often, has the captain of industry, the landlord and the commercial king, met us in the high legislative hall and beat down our arguments as impractical and mischlevious; and how often, oh, how been a willoften, has the high-brous in these mating witness against ters lending the prestige of his to confuse us and defeat should be crowned, with social Justice? There is no greater, nobler, sweeter service than the service of motherhood and labor is the ne movement in the world today that grasps the truth in relation to this question. If there were no children with souls to be damned or saved; no hearts to be broken or healed; no lives to be lifted from despair, there would be no labor movement. Labor is big enough and brave enough to say, in the words of the Suffer little children to Nazarene, come unto Me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven. And we do not care a tinker's dam whether the child is legitimate or illegitimate, or has one or two parents. It is enough for us that it is a child. On this high ground we take our stand, for, like Tennyson, we behold visions: t Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new; That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do; For I dipt Into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonders that would be. METAL CRAFTS TAKE NOTICE In the very near future a meeting will be called and held in the Labor Temple to organize a Metal Trades council. Please agitate this among your members and see that your organization is represented. E. A. CARLSON, Cor. Rep. Local No. 251, I. M. U, of N. A, w us? And now he says we must lift the Which is all right, as far as It goes, but why not lift the bar of economic pressure from all of our children and crown motherhood, as' It bar sinister. v I History making changes may yet he expected in other nations now burdened with useless and royal noble families. New hands are at the &elm and new heads are bent in council in the controlling affairs of nations. The professional parasite is In the background. He is not wanted now because virile, active men are abThe professional solutely necessary. soldier is gone or nearly so. He was long ago killed at the front. It is the people who are fighting now, who are w'hging a desperate struggle, not for supremacy, but for existence. They are winning a right to ji controlling voice in the affairs of nations. The mysteries of divine power are now in their hands. The people are armed. They have the guns and the ammunition, the training and the brawn and brain power. The petty tyrants with their parasites will quail at the voice of the people who will likely turn the guns on their oppressors at home. Herein lies food for serious thought on the part of those American workingmen who are prejudiced against universal military service. r O K MF.ATf.KSS DAY. London, March 24. Nearly all the leading London clubs have decided on one meatless day a week and for the sake of convenience Friday has been chosen as the day on which meat will not bo served. In the view of the Roman Catholic church and the Hgh Anglican church Friday is an established day of abstinence from meat. - |