HOPE FOR TEE RUSSIAN PEASANTRY 60 1 



itself with the masses. It seeks to lift them from poverty into compara- 

 tive well-being. It is theirs to seize the opportunities offered them. As 

 they do so they will enter upon a new life. 



There are those in Russia who point to the many mistakes made by 

 officials and surveyors in the execution of this land reform. It is true 

 that in the beginning the work was pushed so rapidly that it was not 

 always well done. There was a dearth of good surveyors and the gov- 

 ernment was often obliged to make use of those inadequately prepared. 

 Roads were not always well placed, possibilities of obtaining good drink- 

 ing water were not everywhere thoroughly investigated and peasants 

 withdrawing from the mir were allowed to retain meadow and pasture 

 land in common. The mistakes of the first years are certainly to be 

 deplored, but it must be recognized that they were almost inevitable in 

 so vast an enterprise. Now, however, the various district and provincial 

 commissions have profited by their experiences and are directing opera- 

 tions more wisely. Certainly there is in the higher commission to which 

 they are responsible one man fitted in every possible way to inspire and 

 direct the great undertaking. I refer to Mr. A. A. Koefoed. He was 

 connected for many years with the Peasants' Bank. He traveled widely 

 in Eussia studying at first hand the question of land tenure and the 

 prevalent methods of cultivation and has become the most eminent au- 

 thority on this subject. Moreover, he understands the mujiks and 

 knows how to meet them and is heartily desirous of furthering their 

 best interests. 



Again there are those who say that this policy of the government 

 will bring only temporary well-being. In less than a century the peas- 

 antry will be as badly off as ever. The family provided with land 

 enough to yield it a livelihood now will divide this land among its chil- 

 dren and so rapidly do the mujiks increase in numbers that it will not 

 be long before their farms will be so small as to throw them back into 

 indigence. This assumes that the children of all those now tilling the 

 Boil will also till the soil, a supposition which is scarcely tenable con- 

 sidering the ever-increasing demand for laborers in industry. It would 

 be well, however, to take some precautionary measures against the con- 

 tingency of redividing the land into small parcels. Denmark has enacted 

 an inheritance law which fixes a minimum size for farms. If Russia 

 were to do the same no peasant could divide his freehold between two 

 heirs unless it were at least twice the size of the minimum. The farm 

 incapable of division could be left to one of the children, this one to 

 make good the shares of the others by money payments, a practise which 

 prevails in Norway and in certain parts of Germany. There is, how- 

 ever, very little occasion to fear that the sizable freeholds of to-day will 

 in the future be divided into minute parcels. Rather it may be confi- 

 dently expected that the number of small freeholds will steadily de- 

 void lixxv. — 41. 



