YOUNG RUSSIA 



471 



declared that the time had arrived for 

 throwing off the crushing economic bur- 

 dens entailed by the armed peace of Eu- 

 rope, and that the way to do so seemed 

 to be through a conference of all the 

 peace-loving States and the focusing of 

 all their efforts in behalf of the noble 

 idea of the triumph of universal peace 

 over the elements of trouble and discord. 

 His call resulted in the Hague peace con- 

 ference of 1899, with 26 governments 

 represented, and that of 1907, with 44 

 nations participating. Most of the Pow- 

 ers regarded the plan as altogether vision- 

 ary, but the present permanent Court of 

 Arbitration is largely the result of the 

 Tsar's initiative. Of all the Great Pow- 

 ers, the United States was the only one 

 unreservedly in favor of disarmament. 



It is the irony of fate that the ruler 

 who called the conference has had to 

 participate in two of the bloodiest wars 

 of all history in the sixteen short years 

 that have elapsed since the issuance of his 

 call in behalf of the world's peace. 



The government of Russia is a limited 

 monarchy under an autocratic Tsar, 

 whose official title is "Emperor and Auto- 

 crat of all the Russias." The Tsar's au- 

 tocratic power was theoretically surren- 

 dered in 1905 and 1906, when he created 

 the Duma and the Council of State, cor- 

 responding in a measure to our own 

 House of Representatives and Senate, 

 without whose sanction no law shall go 

 into effect. The Duma is made up of 

 elected members who are chosen by elec- 

 toral colleges instead of direct votes, and 

 the peasants have scant representation in 

 these electoral bodies. The Council of 

 State is composed of representatives of 

 the Tsar, of the provinces, of the church, 

 of the educational institutions, of indus- 

 try and commerce, and of the nobility. 

 One-half of its members are appointees 

 of the Tsar. 



the; GERMANS CONTROLLED THE GREATEST 



SHARE OF Russia's foreign business 



Before the outbreak of the present war 

 Germany was walking away with the 

 lion's share of Russia's foreign business. 

 Many English statesmen had noted this 

 and had commented upon it. At Chely- 

 abinsk and Vladivostok Great Britain 



was getting a bad third, with Germany 

 first and America second. One writer 

 declares that the only thing he noticed 

 in which Great Britain was ahead was 

 sauce, and complained that the British 

 sought to capture Russian trade with 

 catalogues printed in English. Moscow 

 merchants frequently asserted that Eng- 

 land would not trade in as sensible a 

 manner as the Germans, because they 

 expected everybody to read and speak 

 English, because they quoted all prices 

 in pounds and shillings, because they 

 never knew a freight rate, and because 

 they always had to "consult the firm." 

 On the other hand, these merchants de- 

 clared, "the Germans know everything, 

 solve every problem, and meet every 

 emergency." Germany established branch 

 banks in Russia, and could give from 12 

 to 18 months' credit to Russian firms, and 

 credit the Russian tradesman always asks. 



German, until the war, was a much 

 more necessary language for a traveler 

 in Russia than French or English. There 

 were many German shop-keepers, and 

 the chambermaids and waiters of the big 

 hotels all spoke German. 



While Russia's foreign trade has been 

 regarded as full of potentialities, meas- 

 ured by population standards it is ex- 

 ceedingly small. With a population 70 

 per cent larger than that of the United 

 States, its imports were less than 40 per 

 cent as great as those of the United 

 States in 1913, and its exports were only 

 a little more than a third as great. 



The imports through the port of New 

 York alone are one and a half times as 

 great as those of the entire Russian Em- 

 pire, while New York exports commodi- 

 ties of a hundred million dollars greater 

 value than the whole of Russia sends into 

 the channels of international trade. 



Anyone who has seen Russia's leading 

 seaport, Petrograd. marvels that Russia 

 has been able to export as much as she 

 has done. The city is built on a marsh 

 as far north as the southern tip of Green- 

 land. Its waters freeze hard before 

 Thanksgiving and do not melt before the 

 end of April, and all its commerce must 

 pass in or out by a canal from Kronstadt, 

 23 feet deep and 17^ miles long (see 

 also pages 424, 484, and 507). 



