EDITOR'S TABLE. 



4*3 



tion, they will find the amplest evi- 

 dence of the frightful havoc wrought 

 hy the abridgment of individual free- 

 dom and the seizure of private prop- 

 erty in the form of taxes for public 

 purposes. If it be said that Russia is 

 an autocracy, and can not therefore 

 furnish instruction to a democracy 

 like the United States, the answer is 

 easy, if not obvious. Despotism, like 

 gravitation, is the same all over the 

 world. It makes no difference in the 

 long run whether a law abridging 

 freedom issues from the palace of a 

 czar or from the legislative halls of 

 a popular assembly. The individual 

 objecting to it is obliged to regulate 

 his life, not in accordance with his 

 own notions, but in accordance with 

 the notions of some one el se. It makes 

 no difference, either, whether taxa- 

 tion is imposed by an imperial edict 

 or by a legislative vote. The citizens 

 that have to bear it against their will 

 contribute money for purposes that 

 some one else only approves of. The 

 only difference between Russia and 

 the United States is that this kind of 

 despotism has been carried to much 

 gi'eater lengths in one country than 

 in the other. If, therefore, we can 

 find out what the effect has been in 

 Russia, we will be able to predict 

 what the effect will be in the United 

 States. 



As every person familiar with 

 Russia knows, the black-earth region 

 is one of the richest and most pro- 

 ductive in the world. It ought to be 

 inhabited by one of the wealthiest 

 and happiest of peoples. Yet such 

 is not the case. According to Count 

 Tolstoi, who contributed recently a 

 letter to the London Times on the 

 subject, the inhabitants are among 

 the poorest and most miserable in 

 the world. They are in a state of 

 chronic starvation. They are obliged 

 to content themselves with nearly a 

 third less food than is sufficient to 

 maintain normal health. The phys- 



ical effect of this insufficiency of food 

 is a decrease in vitality, a diminished 

 stature, and a check to the growth of 

 population. It is proved, first, by the 

 failure of the peasants of the region 

 to meet the requirements for mili- 

 tary service, and, second, by the sta- 

 tistics of population, which show that 

 the increase of births over deaths has 

 fallen from the maximum reached 

 twenty years ago to zero. 



But the mental effects of the des- 

 titution wrought by the robberies of 

 the Government are more distressing 

 even than the physical. It gives birth 

 to a stolidity and despair that tend to 

 paralyze all effort toward betterment. 

 The people subjected to it come to 

 feel that there is no use of making 

 any struggle beyond the mainte- 

 nance of mere existence. Whatever 

 they get in excess of this require- 

 ment will be taken from them. " A 

 peasant," says Tolstoi, illustrating 

 this fact, " feels that his position as 

 an agi'iculturalist is bad, but he be- 

 lieves that it can not be improved ; 

 and, consequently, adapting himself 

 to this hopeless position, he no longer 

 fights against it, but lives and acts 

 only in so far as he is stored by the 

 instinct of self-preservation. More-, 

 over, the very wretchedness of his 

 condition increases still more his de- 

 pression of spirit. The lower the 

 economic condition of a population 

 sinks, like a weight on a lever, the 

 more difficult it becomes to raise it 

 again; the peasants feel this, and, as 

 it were, throw away the helve after 

 the hatchet. ' Why should we trou- 

 ble ourselves ? ' they say. ' We sha'n't 

 get fat. If we can only keep alive.' " 



The fruits of this mental state are 

 as palpable as those of the lack of food. 

 They are to be found in every direc- 

 tion. In manners, habits, and customs 

 the peasants are hopelessly conserva- 

 tive. They belong, not to the nine- 

 teenth century, but to the ninth. In- 

 stead of adopting new and improved 



