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Show TYRANNY VS. LIBERTY. One hundred years ago Russia was a great empire; one of the chief powers of the earth. With unlimited area to expand upon; with ample resources through which to gather wealth; with ready means to do any needed thing, and limitless credit; the way up to greatness as an empire and the means to make her people great and prosperous pros-perous seemed clear. This was particularly true after the fall of Napoleon ninety years ago. At the same time our country was but a little republic, sparsely settled, even in the thirteen original states, while west of the Alleghanies the settlers were still making an unequal fight against the wildderness and the savage. West of the Mississippi Miss-issippi there were no sounds save of wild beast and bird and the undisturbed roar of waterfallr,. ' Today our republic fills all the space between the seas with the hum of prosperity, the music of peace and progress, while Russia is in the throes of what threatens to be national disintegration. 'What has been the cause? The answer is simple, sim-ple, The blindest can read it as written on the his tory of the ages. Russia has been in form and much in practice an absolute despotism. That despotism extended over both the bodies and souls of men. The only restraint upon the state m was the church, the only restraint upon ther ' church was the state, and both church and' state jl were embodied in one head. The rule of force was the only one appealed to, and men were esti- ''M mated by their fealty to both. The masses out- jH side were not for a moment consulted, and no concernment for them was felt save that they paid their taxes and went obediently into the 'M army and navy to carry on Russian conquests. 'M In the United States the government rested upon 'fl the people and to them the opportunities of the new land, without restraint, were open; the op- portunities for acquiring fortune, for making for themselves undying fame. Behold the result! Of the presidents only four had names that had any national significance, while of the others two at least were born in squalor and raised in ob- scurity, and it may be said that every distin- guished name in our country's history for ninety years is a name forged out of nothing by its pos- In Russia men were nothing, one man was everything; in America the people were and' are jH everything, and their minds have been as free to jH work as have been their arms. Behold, on the one hand, an unwieldy, mighty empire, the masses of the people ignorant and Jh savage and filled now with a desire for rapine jH and murder, the government swiftly disintegrat- jH ing, the army and navy in open rebellion, and the whole air -filled with echoes of violence. jH Turn to our country: From sea to sea the millions talking the same language, warmed with the same hopes, cheered by the same prosperity, the little red school houses on every corner, con-tentment con-tentment everywhere, and everywhere peace and hope and a full realization of the blessings of or-der or-der and of freedom. The world should mark the object lessons presented by the two countries, and should see in them the truth, that only under the banner of equal rights to all the people can a nation really prosper; that the best security any government can have is not in trained armies, but in the good will of the millions who understand so well the fl blessings of free government that to the last man they are ready to defend it. There should be no state but the people, no church rule save through the love which a free people will joy-fully joy-fully submit to and protect. The Russian stock is as brave and true as our own. Save for the op- M pressions that have been heaped upon her people she would today lead our country in wealth and jE power and the contentment of her people. |