The Timaru Herald MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1905. RUSSIA AND REVOLUTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12584, 23 January 1905, Page 2

The Timaru Herald MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1905. RUSSIA AND REVOLUTION.

/the .'true meaning of the gigantic labour, troubles irhich have spread with lightning rapidity over the length "'.and ■breadth of Russia during the Jast-few cejs, 'posing., -the factories ind ■ ,par.v|ysii]g the jvijhoie industry of the country- hits now been revealed. It is a-political, rather than an economic,, movement.. The words \m -which 'Count ~von Bulow has described the .German Socialists as contrasted with ttieTrade Unionists oiGreat Britain, apply equally well to the country, whose'.frontier is? coterminous with Germany. But the Gferman Chancellor, and the Russian !bu-j veauerats, who ar* both strongly opposed to; the agitations, of the working classes in the two Kingdoms,, jefufee to" recognise why the stability t>f the British JagifL .remains unshaken by" popular mpve/fjfiieHts' similar in character to, though m-1 finitely less "passionate than* those; wbich ; were to culminate yesterday' in Bfc Petersburg inj a determined effort oft the tSBJ# of, the', strikers to present a- petition embody-1 ing] th'eir grievances, to the. Czar himself, i the Britjsh workman is in enjoyment of all the ■ privileges Jor which his Unfortunate: confrere in Russia is anxiously clamouring. He: has his own representatives, like Mr John Burns,. Mr Keir Hardie, and otiwrs" in tjie- House of Commons. He has the same rights, in the Courts of' Law, as the richest peer' of the realm. He, has a free Press,' ,and the free and unrestricted right bf'meeting. With all these safety valves,; Popular discontent in a British community r^e/ver ''endangers the foundations of the.j Stats!, partly because »=. great deal of poll-] ticalf discontent is harmless"/when freely; expressed, and dangerous <roly when sup--pressed,' and partly because, even whem tb'e feelirig is not harmless, the Government is forewarned «f its existence. Germany, has made .some progress ak»g the road which Britain "traversed centuries ag«, | ["because the TMchstag is open to represen-, tatives vt the people, and the -Social Demo- j crats, despite the opposition ,?f -the ruling , caste, form a strong party, able to make' their numbers felt m the national assembly. sut the champion <pi popular

Russia has to take~hislife in his hand, and; like Gapon, who was.to head the procession in St. Petersburg, he must face the possibility" that he will be the first to fall before a volley from a military force with which the bureaucrats have, for so long, buttressed their, tyranny over the lower orders. In the present movement, the troops appear to' be in sympathy with the strikers, and if class arid family ties can rise superior to discipline, bloodshed may possibly be averted. But the chance of the wholesale disaffection of the army is a s'ender thread en which to hang hopes 9i a peaceful revolution, and if Gapon's statement is a true index of the determine' tion of the Russian people, there are terrible doings to come. The London." Spectator" recalls that in the early, seventies, there was an exiled Russian professor- "ivhp used to shock or amuse his hosts at London dinner-parties with the assurance; that by the side of the Russjan Reign of LTerrdr,;; the French Reign of Terror "will seeffi.tts 1noting—as noting." Those when the Nihilist movement showed [that the .professprls.''• views were shared "by 'a large section of his c and for a. long time the R-tfiLsiair revolutionist was, .as might be expec.ted: fiom; the treatment meted out to him, the- most resolute and l dangerous of his class. In. recent years,', anore "paoific'mea.ris r 'liave be'err adopted, and in the words of .the spokesman whev is quoted, in the cable messages-.to-day, the reformers are; seeking _to ha've" their grievances redressed through peaceful .channels. A British subject would say that they-are.; adopting constitutional methods,'- but the constitutional methods which excite no-' comment with us, are anathema to the "Russian bureaucrats whose power : rests on their arbitrary authority. ..'The'distrust ,and hatred :which the people entertain towards ■•: their tyrannical 'ruler's, ;are shown by their refusal to transmit a petition to' the Czar through official -. channels, and their demand that their supreme head Shall meet them, and receive it with his own hands. We shall soon know whether the Czar has: decided to ;be wise in.tune.