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The Reviei^ of Reviews, 



July 1. 1906. 



THE ONE HOPE OF RUSSIA. 



Dr. Dillon on the Duma. 

 In the Contemporary Review for April Dr. Dillon 

 gives a more encouraging account of the elections 

 for the Duma than I ventured to hope for. He does 

 not in the least disguise the difficulties of the situa- 

 tion, but he maintains that, despite the atrocities 

 perpetrated by the Revolutionists- and the Reaction- 

 aries, Russia is moving slowlv and awkwardly to- 

 wards a better day: — 



There is no longer any doubt that the idea of the Duma, 

 together with all that it implies to-day or may involve 

 later on, has aroused the Russian people from their letJi- 

 argy of ages. When the Duma comes together, whatever 

 the political convictions of the bulk of its members, it will 

 render the Autocracy and the whol-a political framework 

 of Russia a thing of the past. The peasants regard the 

 work of voting as an act of grave responsibility. Hence 

 they prepare for it by prayer or by attending divine ser- 

 vice. Thus of peasants in districts situated in the north, 

 south, east and west, we read: "In silence they prayed 

 to God and then proceeded to vote." In the Skaroffsk 

 commune (Province of Vladimir) the peasants. " having 

 offered up prayers to God and chanted psalms, then , re- 

 corded their votes." Before every leap in the dark the 

 Russian mooshik is wont to invoke the assistance of the 

 Father of all men, and now the serious view he takes of 

 the elections is evidenced by his observance of this custom. 

 " Many peasants." we read in another account, when draw- 

 ing near to the urn devoutly made " the sign of the cross." 

 Tlie number of priests who have been chosen to elect 

 deputies is greater than was generally expected. The next 

 act of tlie drama will be the voting in the second degree 

 for deputies. By the middle of May the Duma will meet 

 in the Tavrida Palace, and Russia will then find herself on 

 the threshold of a new era. 



WORK, NOT PREFERENCE. 



Sir W. Van Horne's Recipe for Trade with 

 Canada. 



The World's Work and Play contains an interview 

 by George Turnbull with Sir William Van Home, 

 the soul of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Sir Wil- 

 liam contrasts American energy in pushing trade in 

 Canada with British sloth. He says: — 



There is hardly an American manufacturer who lias not 

 an extensive personal acquaintance with Canada, and who 

 does not keep in touch witli its requirements by occasional 

 — and in some cases frequent — visits. Very few- Englisli 

 merchants and manufacturers ever visit Canada or have 

 any knowledge from personal observation of-the particular 

 requirements there. In short, very few English firms are 

 constantly, actively, untiringly represented in Canada as 

 American firms are. 



Sir William then expresses himself in a way which 

 may be commended to those who tr\' to think Im- 

 perially on questions of trade. He savs ; — 



This I regard as a matter of vastly greater importance 

 than preferential tariffs or anything of that sort. For 

 eight years Great Britain has enjoyed a preferential tariff 

 of 33 per cent, in Canada. This may seem — and rightly 

 seem— a great handicap against the Americans, btit tliey 

 have overcome it. How? Simply bv worli. By work the 

 Americans have secured the greater part of the trade 

 advantaees resultins from the extraordinary development 

 of C.inada — persistent work; scenting the * business and 

 following it un every day and every hour: finding out just 

 what 's wanted, and supplying it. The Americans hardly 

 feel that they are working against a preference of 33 per 

 cent. Which goes to show that a little work is worth a 

 vast ajnonnt of preference. 



THE AMERICAN IXA'ASION. 



Asked about the large number of American immi- 

 grants, Sir William replied: — 



These people make the best settlers we could wish for, 

 having both money and experience, combined with the 

 common-schools education which provides the American 

 with so excellent a grounding. They invariably enter Can- 

 ada with tlie intention of making it their permanent home 

 and becoming Canadians. Danger to the British connec- 

 tion? Xo; the fear that has been expressed in some quar- 

 ters that the influx of Americans would tend to Ameri- 

 canise Western Canada is in that sense quit« groundless. 

 There are a great many .\merioans in Canada, and they 

 are just as loyal to tiie community in which they have 

 cast their lot as those who were born there. I'hey find 

 fully as great freedom as in the country they left, com- 

 bined wiUi a rather better administration of the laws, 

 and cousequentl.y greater security for life and property. 

 They have no desire to change anything. 



Sir William concludes by saying that " we cannot 

 be more American than we are. All of Canada is 

 more or less Americanised already." Of immigrants 

 generally he says: — 



We want anybody who is not a pauper or a criminal. 

 The assimilating power of a new country is so prodigious 

 that by the time the second generation is reached, it 

 matters little cf what nationality or condition were their 

 fathers and mothers. 



THE JEWS AND COUNT WITTE. 



The writer of the Russian letter in the Nort/t 

 American Review for March gives a very interesting 

 account of how it came about that Count Witte 

 failed in his attempt to carry out the Liberal pro- 

 gramme of October 30th. He says: — 



Count Witte was known to be in favour of full enfran- 

 chisement and equal rights, while the workmen, the in- 

 tellectuals, and a very large section of the olficials con- 

 curred in his view. Looking around for support in the 

 country, the Minister President naturally and in the first 

 place relied on the Hebrew elements. If they would not 

 stand bv him from sentiment or political conviction, they 

 certainly would from interest. So he hoped, nay thought. 

 But the Jews were among the first U> abandon Witte. 

 They would enfranchise themselves by their own efforts. 



It was a fatal mistake, a miscalculation which has 

 cost Russia dear, and will cost the Jews dearer 

 still: — 



If Count Witte and his Cabinet, many urge, were truly 

 Liberal, the.y ou^ht never to have abandoned the Jewish 

 cause, however dissatisfied they might have been with the 

 attitude of the Jews. And that is undoubtedly true. If it be 

 ethically wrong, as it certainly is, to treat a cultured 

 people as an inferior race, it is no answer to the charge 

 to plead hostility on the part of their leaders. Two blacks 

 do not vet make a white. But that is not Count Witte's 

 plea. What his few friends advance in his behalf is this; 

 his plan was to grant the Jews a good deal of relief in 

 secondary matters, but not to confer equal rights upon 

 them, because that was beyond bis power. Tlie Kussian 

 people represented bv tlie Duma is alone competent to 

 strike off their fetters once for all. But it was possible, 

 probable — nav, all but certain— that they would have done 

 that if the Eussian Liberal movement had been guided by 

 political common sense. If the Jews, whose influence upon 

 that mbvement was powerful, had held aloof from the 

 armed rising and thus enabled Count Witte to lean upon 

 the Liberals, the Duma would certainly have had a sweep- 

 ing majority of delegates favourable to the enfranchise- 

 ment of the Jews. 



At present, that is but a melancholy chapter of the de- 

 pressing records of things that mieht have been, k heavy 

 wave of reaction had swept over Eussia, and washed away 

 those Liberal impressions before they could serve as 

 moulds for legislation. Witte's views are immaterial to the 

 issue- for. if Witte were as Liberal as Abraham Lincoln, he 

 would still be almost as powerless as a Sioux chief, unless 

 he had a strong Liberal following, and that was denied him 

 chiefly by the Jews. 



