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Show ELECTIONS FARCE If! ' DARKEST RUSSIA Workmen Are Afraid to Express Ex-press Their Will by Means . . of Ballot...', j. i . - . ST. PETERSBURG. April 2. Thf elections of workmen within the limit of St. Petersburg proper were held yesterday, yes-terday, preceding the olections to the municipal convention, which in turn will elect six members to the lower house of Parliament. The balloting of the workmen, however, was almost a complete farce, ax were the elections a fortnight ago in the larger factories outside the city. "Workmen Boycott. Out of sixty-seven establishments the workmen of twenty-nine boycotted tho elections and of the remainder only the minority voted, and of those elected about one-half wero constitutional Democrats and the other half Conservatives Conserva-tives or members of the "Black Hundred," Hun-dred," as they are now popularly termed. One man elected Is now in prison, and another declined to accept election for fear that it would subject him to persecution. per-secution. M. Oushakoff, one of the delegates chosen, is superintendent of the State printing office, and chief of the Inde- j pendent Workmen's party, which, like the famous Subatoff organization, is considered to be a creature of the Ministry Min-istry of the Interior. Only a Form. The delegates o' the workmen outside the city, who had previously been elected, elect-ed, nimplv went through the form of selecting se-lecting candidates for the provincial convention. A number of them had been arrested since the elections and only seventy-two appeared at the meeting. meet-ing. They chose four Progressives and four Conservatives. |