The Revolution in Russia 



313 



gage of a traveler was closely examined 

 and usuall}' seized, in the effort to prevent 

 the dissemination of revolutionary litera- 

 ture. Nowadays manuscripts, books, and 

 pamphlets are passed without question. 

 You can buy revolutionary music, photo- 

 graphs, and post-cards on the streets and 

 at the news-stands. You can find all 

 kinds of newspapers, including the most 

 radical organs of the socialists, upon the 

 files in the reading-rooms of the hotels. 

 and cartoonists are taking amazing liber- 

 ties with public men and public questions 

 in the comic papers. If such caricatures 

 had been printed two years ago both the 

 artist and the publisher would have gone 

 to a dungeon. Boys on the street are 

 selling photographs of "Martyrs for 

 Liberty" — Polish Jews who have thrown 

 bombs and assassinated officials, revolu- 

 tionists who have been killed by the 

 police or executed for political offenses, 

 and the leaders of the mutinies at Cron- 

 stadt, Helsingfors, and Sevastopol. One 

 of the most popular and profitable photo- 

 graphs represents William Jennings 

 Bryan sitting in the center of a group of 

 the reddest socialists and anarchists in 

 Russia. It was taken on the steps of 

 Tauride Palace during a session of the 

 douma and has done incalculable harm, 

 because it has convinced many honest 

 workingmen that Mr Bryan and the peo- 

 ple of the United States sympathize with 

 the bomb-throwers and anarchists. 



The mails are no longer interfered 

 with ; the censors have been discharged. 

 Foreign newspaper correspondents can 

 criticise the government as much as they 

 like and send their dispatches over the 

 official telegraph lines. 



PREMIER STOLYPIN IS ABLE AND BRAVE 



Russia has been more tranquil dtiring 

 the last three months than for three 

 years previous. The great strike that 

 was arranged by the socialists as a pro- 

 test against the dissolution of the douma 

 did not come oft', because the working- 

 men would not obey the instructions of 

 the politicians. The uprising of the peas- 

 ants which was to occur after the crops 

 had been gathered was indefinitely post- 



poned and few estates have been de- 

 stroyed recently. No more massacres will 

 be permitted, because Mr Stolypin knows 

 how to prevent them and is determined to 

 do so. There was no unfriendly demon- 

 stration toward the government on Octo- 

 ber 30, the first anniversary of the mani- 

 festo which offered liberty to the people 

 and promised many blessings that have 

 not been bestowed. Robberies and mur- 

 ders in Poland have not been so frequent 

 of late. Mr Stolypin has introduced more 

 reforms during the last three months than 

 were ever known in any previous admin- 

 istration. He has taken a sensible view 

 of the situation. He recognizes that the 

 people have been wronged and have 

 grievances that should be redressed. He 

 has tried to see both sides of the situation,, 

 and not long ago declared the opinior* 

 that "men who are compelled to live on 

 one herring and three potatoes a day can- 

 not be expected to understand the bene- 

 fits of an autocracy or the obligations of 

 citizenship." He referred to the starving 

 Jews, and while he did not feel at liberty 

 to grant them the full rights enjoyed by 

 other subjects without the concurrence 

 of the douma, he has relieved them from 

 the most severe of the restrictions under 

 which they have been suffering, and now 

 they can go about Russia with an ordi- 

 nary passport. They may engage in any 

 business, but are not yet allowed to buy 

 land outside the pale of settlement. Jew- 

 ish children are now admitted to all the 

 schools and universities of Russia with- 

 out condition. The members of that race 

 are now enjoying nearly all the liber- 

 ties of those of other races and religions, 

 except that there has been no change in 

 passport regulations, which has been 

 promised from year to year. Foreign 

 Jeyvs are still compelled to explain the 

 object of their visit before they are per- 

 mitted to pass the boundary. Mr Stoly- 

 pin will undoubtedly remove that humili- 

 ation in due time. 



THE VENGEANCE OE THE JEWS 



Perhaps these reforms are the cause of 

 the present tranquillity, because the revo- 



