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Show What Will the Greater Russia Be? O the above text Peter Struvo in his Russian Rus-sian paper Russkaya Mysi (Russian Thought), discourses loarnodly. Struvo believes the future fu-ture of Russia depends upon a closer walk be-'"lAveen be-'"lAveen the rulers and tho people, which we think is true, but that soerns a great way tf. K Russia Rus-sia would improve her schools, make attendance upon her primary schools compulsory, then offer prizes and rewards and finally promotions for those who made the best records in the schools; in a single decade a change would comq to the unwieldy empire that would be notice to the world what the greater Russia was to be. The Russian people are naturally most loyal, and they have within them all the elements of a great race. But the iron rule which has been upon that land 'since before the days of Peter, has given to the nobility an arrogance and an indifference to the rights of the masses and a disti'ust on, the part of the masses for those in high stations that in any other country would shatter the empire in a bloody upheaval which would be to the empire what an earthquake is to a disjointed formation of nature. The character of the high and low was exemplified ex-emplified in the Japanese-Russian war. Division and corps commanders would not obey their chief, and the men in the ranks were careless, but they would fight. The stolid pluck never once failed. Could a better faith grow up between be-tween the high and low and education be generally gener-ally disseminated, the Russians would be a great people. And they will come to that by and by. The great bane of the empire is strong drink. It permeates every class. It absorbs the earnings earn-ings of thel poor and takes from them half their strength. It makes the higher classes revolt at discipline and causes them to often perpetrate cruelties which are foreign to their better natures. na-tures. Whether they are strong enough to work out the problems that confront them in peace, or whether the reforms will have to come through the waste and suffering of internal strife cannot be seen from a distance. But the right will prevail after a while, and when those millions get to working together, hoping together, to-gether, all with a mighty faith and pride in native na-tive land, the great empire will gravitate to the forefront of nations, for the material is there, tho strength, the power, the endurance, the intellect. in-tellect. There never was better material in the raw state than there Is in Russia. If those in power would fully recognize the inherent rights of men and begin to work along those lines, and next realize that tho best work comes only from the highest enlightenment, the problem prob-lem would be as good as solved In a day, and Russia would emerge from the shadows ana begin be-gin to come Into her own. |