312 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Labor Reformers 167 



Total against government 1)823 



Total for government 317 



In some of the universities the students 

 are unanimous against the government. 

 Every one of them is a revolutionist, and 

 because they insist upon holding revolu- 

 tionary meetings, making revolutionary 

 speeches, and singing revolutionary songs 

 in the buildings and on the campus, the 

 government has closed all of the nine 

 universities in Russia and scattered be- 

 tween fifteen and twenty thousand agita- 

 tors throughout the land, when it might 

 have kept them segregated, where they 

 would do no harm. 



Although the October manifesto of the 

 Emperor and the constitution of Russia 

 guarantee free speech, free press, and 

 the right to hold political meetings, the 

 government has suppressed a large num- 

 ber of newspapers and has compelled the 

 publishers of those which are allowed to 

 exist to sign an agreement not to advo- 

 cate revolutionary doctrines, nor excite 

 the people by attacking the arrangements 

 for the approaching elections, or criticis- 

 ing the acts of the ministry. Mr Stoly- 

 pin considers it his duty to preserve the 

 peace and suppress opinions and utter- 

 ances that are likely to cause disturb- 

 ances. He has announced that the gov- 

 ernment will not hesitate "to demand that 

 its officials employ all legal measures to 

 prevent the transformation of instru- 

 ments of progress and peace into instru- 

 ments of violence and destruction." He 

 has adopted the same restrictive meas- 

 ures toward the reactionaries and is quite 

 as unpopular with them as with the 

 revolutionists. He treats both alike. All 

 extreme opinions or measures are offen- 

 sive to him. When "The League of Rus- 

 sian Men," an organization supporting 

 the autocracy, asked him for 100,000 

 roubles to pay the expense of carrying on 

 a propaganda in support of the Czar and 

 the ministry, he refused to give them a 

 kopeck; whereupon they passed a series 

 of resolutions denouncing him as a 

 usurper of authority, as a traitor to his 

 sovereign, and declared that his program 



of reforms was treasonable and an in- 

 fraction of the divine right of the auto- 

 crat. Apparently the Czar, to whom 

 these resolutions were addressed, has- 

 taken no notice of them. 



Mr Stolypin justifies his vigorous cam- 

 paign of restriction, in suppressing rev- 

 olutionar}' newspapers and shipping rev- 

 olutionists to Siberia by regiments, on 

 the ground that all enemies of the state 

 should be prevented from accomplishing 

 their designs by any measures that may 

 prove effective; that the revolutionary 

 organizations, by inciting mutinies in the 

 army and navy and disturbances among 

 the peasants; by robbery, assassination,, 

 and other crimes and violence, have 

 placed themselves beyond the protection 

 of the constitution and the October mani- 

 festo, and are ordinary criminals ; that as 

 long as revolutionary leaders are ad- 

 mitted to the douma they will destroy the 

 usefulness of that body. Therefore it is 

 his duty to keep them out and secure the 

 election of practical, honest, and patriotic 

 men. He contends that there can be no 

 genuine reforms so long as the revolu- 

 tionary element are allowed a free hand in 

 politics. They are responsible for the in- 

 dustrial and financial depression in the 

 Empire by disturbing public tranquillity. 

 They desire to destroy. They do not 

 want to build up. They are men of no 

 character, no property, no interest at 

 stake ; the enemies of society, anarchists,, 

 adventurers, fanatics, without the slight- 

 est comprehension of the science of gov- 

 ernment or the meaning of the word 

 "liberty." 



THE PUBLICATION OF REVOLUTIONARY 



BOOKS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NO LONGER 



INTERFERED WITH 



Although public meetings are broken 

 up by the police every day, newspapers 

 are suppressed, and innocent people as 

 well as wicked conspirators are arrested 

 for political reasons, there has been a re- 

 markable change in Russia, and espe- 

 cially in Saint Petersburg, within the 

 last few months. Formerly every printed 

 book and manuscript found in the bag- 



