| Show philosophical thic THE russian government has baa taken steps to prevent an investigating committee of rich moscow merchants from visiting the famine stricken districts district a of the empire with a view to distributing relief to the starving populace thesis this is an exercise of preventive power that a citizen of a free country can scarcely arcely ec comprehend it naturally fills him with disgust not only because the amelioration of the condition of the people to is thus arbitrarily prevented but also because those to whom the restriction is applied are deprived of the right to ta expend own money as they please however the conditions existing under an absolute form of government cannot be measured from the standpoint of those who breathe the free air of a republic the russian government is despotic and the measures employed in relation to the people are of the same character there Is ie besides the nature of the government which ought to be abolished as soon as an possible a hue bue of philosophy in the preventive measure referred to the inferential basis of the action of the government as aa indicated in the dispatches is that the distribution trib ution of charity without the recipe enta being required to give an ade for the benefits derived would lead to popular demoralization they would prefer to live in idleness it if supported in this way rather than labor on the relief railroads and other public works they would even neglect to plow and sow for the production of a harvest for next neit year the latter result would the very condition from which the people are now suffering it would atwould perpetuate the famine it would also tend to obliterate what little of self pelf de pen dence and manly dignity there may be in the russian peasantry if the moscow merchants had bad devised a plan for providing employment for the peopled people the carrying out of their charitable project would have been philosophically benevolent the views of the late president young on the subject of assisting poor people was highly practical and sensible one of his mottoes was w the best beet way to help hello needy people is to put them in the way of helping he ping them selves 11 II he was a strict adherent of his bis own theory and there are few men who in a lifetime give practical assistance si to as many people as he be did during his bis career |
