Show LET RUSSIA BEWARE OF THE DEMAGOGUE russia ia evidently about to discover that political progress la always a matter of slow grobli and that it can never come in any other way the behavior of her eminent men in standing aloof from count watte Is precisely what might be expected from persons entirely unversed in democratic statecraft and accustomed only to deal with an enslaved and servile people however eminent these men may lie in wealth and social position and learning they certainly aro not eminent in the art of government or they would know that to delay and to hold back mean ruin and that ac strong and responsible hands do not grasp the helm at once there are plenty of other hands ready and eager to steer the upon the locks bus sia i eminent men are behaving toward aba situation as children might bo expected to behave toward a com machine hut S v either te managed or became aei they are not necessarily unpatriotic they are merely displaying tho natural ignorance 0 total inexperience they fail to realize that boccal russia is cow on onease east powder magazine into chich hundreds of torched are being thrown certainly there will tie so ack or leaders when the douma meets and before that time father capon Is already hurrying back from exile maxim gorky is certain to make himself beard and there will be dozens ot others whose incendiary and poetic eloquence and very genuine love for their people will assuredly be mistaken for statecraft it has always been so in the french revolution there were no other passports to power than a flowery eloquence a capacity to win resonant and high flown phrases and to descend into poetry upon small provocation these things appeal tb uneducated masses of men who have no conception or the real attributes of political wisdom the eminent men who are now toying and dallying with immense opportunities will find that these opportunities have passed away when the voice ot the demagogue Is loud in the land there idof course no word or condemnation dem nation to be said about maxim gorky nor such as he gorky is an friend of tolstoy To latoy he was tor many years an outcast and a tramp and the reputation that he has won tor himself by his great literary powers he has been ever ready to cast away for the good of the people that he loves the same commendation may be due to father capon and to many others but these things do not constitute statesmanship and they never will to call such men into places of political prominence would be as intelligent as to ask an attorney to prescribe medicines for a sick man or to expect a minister of religion to build a locomotive these russian patriots have deserved well of their country they have awakened unquenchable fires of freedom and of independence they havo given hope where was no hope and they have planted high ideals and aspirations they have done more than this they have made of themselves the mouthpieces for the dumb trodden human herds around them and by their eloquence they have gained the sympathetic ear of the world but once moie these are not statecraft and to confuse them will be calamitous none the less is what will certainly be done if the vacancy of high government positions is allowed to exercise its inevitable temptation the real power togo vein is not A showy one it need have none of the attributes that usually dazzle an ignorant electorate it is not necessarily accompanied with eloquence nor with poetry and it usually counsels patience rather than revenge statesmanship paint sno lurid pictures of injustice it does not torture ancient wounds and it esever more ready to build up than to tear down great constructive capacities do not appeal to mobs nor to revolutionists but it is to these capacities that all nations must eventually appeal it will be well for russia it she makes this appeal in the beginning before the demagogue has been allowed to ruin what ho does not understand by applying the tools and the skill of one trade to that of another and for this reason it is to be hoped that rus sias eminent men will no longer trifle with their day of grace and 0 opportunity nor write for themselves their own political epitaph of too late |