M. STOLYPIN DEAD.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1237, 20 September 1911, Page 5

M. STOLYPIN DEAD.

SUCCUMBS TO HIS WOUNDS. PlTelcßranh-Prcsa AeEociation—OoDTrißit St. Petersburg, September 18. Jit. s'tolypin, tho Pfaino Minister, who was shot by a student named Dogroff, is dead. The Tsar has left Kieff for Tshernigoff. j The streets of Kieff were patrolled day and night, the authorities fearing a pogrom. FEARFUL PAIN. (Rec. September 19, 11.10 p.m.) St, Petersburg, September 19. The late M. Stolypin, towards the end, suffered fearful paiu. There was a brief improvement when tho bullet was extracted, but the heart which was affected last year, then yielded to tho strain of internal hemorrhage. Tho Tsar returned to KiefF and paid three visits to 11. Stolypin prior to his death. One- hundred and fifty persons have l>jen arrested, most of them being Bogroff's acquaintances.- The prisoners include a number of lawyers and clerks. NEWSPAPER EULOGIES. (Rec. September 19, 11 p.m.) London, September 19. The newspapers published eulogistic notices of the late 51. Stolypin. THE BISMARCK OF RUSSIA. 11. STOLYPIN'S CAREER. Piotr Arcadieyitch Stolypin became Premier of Husi-ia five years ago. When the ship of State was still shaken by the storms of war abroad and revolution at home, tho' then Governor of Saratoff took the holm. He has had his periods of calm weather, he has encountered hurricanes, and he has shown himself a skilful pilot. In March last he resigned the Premiership in consequence of tho Duma's refusal to pass the ftemstvos Bill, establishing provincial assemblies in the western provinces. The resignation was not accepted, the Duma was prorogued, and under the emergency clause in tho Constitution tho Bill was declared law by Imperial ukase. The la-to M. Stolynin had beon'the object of many attacks. When ho became Premier, he took little or no precautionagainst revolutionary foes, and during tho summer lived in a wooden house on the high road from tho heart of St. Petersburg to the Islands. This building, it will be remembered, was wrecked by a bomb thrown by a Maximalist, who was killed, together with his two comrades. Stolypin was unhurt, and rushed into the garden shouting: "Are my children safe?" An instant lafer he saw his little daughter being borne, from the house with her feet half shot from her legs. A week later bombs were liurkd at him as he was driving with his daughter in a carriage. i

M. Stolypin, as statesmen go, was a young man, bein<? oniv forty-eight , years of age at tho time of bis death. Ho was the son of a general, aucl after studying at the universities, where, he showed much promise, ho held a post in the oilioe of tho Minister for tho Interior. In 1918 ho obtained his first important appointment as Governor of Saratoff, and subsequently became Minister for the Interior. On July 22, 1906, M. Stolypin was made Premier just after tho dissolution of tho Duma.

M. Stolvpin's objects, as repeatedly Bet forth by himself in the curly part of his administration, were, first, restoration of' order," and, second, "progressive reform." There can bo no question whatever, says a recent writer, that, so far as revolutionary violence is concerned, the first of these objects has been fully attained. The revolutionary movement lias been thoroughly and effectively crushed, nnd the "order" that was once said to

"roign in Warsaw" now prevails throughout the Empire. This state of tranquillity, however, has been attained at immense cost. The Russian statistician, A. D. Ventin, in 'an article entitled "Five Years' Totals," recently published in tho well-known review "Contemporary World," of St. Petersburg, jet forth the losses of the Russian people in their struggle for freedom as follows:— Killed and wounded in pogroms, punitive expeditions, street fighting, and partisan warfare 58,472 Judicially punished by civil and military courts (including 3015 hanged and 6735 sent into penal ' servitude) 37,620 Banished by the Central Government and still in oxilo in October, 1910 22.553 Total ilß,esi> In a debate in tho Second Duma on military courts and the death penalty, March 13, 1007, one of the Liberal members dramatically accused the Premier of "coming into the Duma with bloody hands. "Yes," replied Stolypin, "but they are the bloody hands of the conscientious surgeon, not of tho executioner." If the second part of M. Stolypin's programme had been executed as vigorously and successfully as the first part, tho world would have reason to regard him as one of tho greatest Ministers who ever served under a Russian Tsar; but, unfortunately, the Premier lacked either the will or tho power to carry out his plans and livo up to his professions. Meanwhile ho continued to govern the country by martial law; began a repressive, campaign against Liberal uewspapers ami societies, which ho said were "the fuses that lighted the Bengal fires of the revolution"; and sanctioned, or condoned, all sorts of illegal invasions of personal and political rights by his governors and chiefs of polios. A writer in tho Is'ew iTork "Outlook" states that never, probably, since tho reign of Nicholas I has Russia been more despotically governed than in the last four years, and never, certainly, has there been more administrative lawlessness on the part of bureaucratic officials of all ranks, from govern-ors-general to zemski nachalnicks. M. Stolypin expressly stated, in the early part of his term, that he was "not an anti-Semite," and tlutt he did not favour anti-Semitic measures; and vet the persecution of the Jews under his administration has been so eavage and ruthless as to attract the attention of tho wholo civilised world.

Nearly five years have now elapsed since Stolypiu became Minister of the Interim , in the Goremykiu Cabinet, and more than four years since lie was appointed Premier; and yet Russia is still waiting for the freedom of conscience, ! freedom of. speech, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly which were promised in the Tsar's manifesto of October 30, 1905. It would bo unfair to close oven a brief review of Stolypin's Ministerial career without referring to tho great service that he has unquestionably rendered in bringing to light, and partially checking, the financial dishonesty which has so long prevailed in the civil and military administration of the Empire. Tho "revisions," or, as we should call them, investigations, of Senators Garin, Palilen, Ncihart, nnd others, which were made on tho Premier's initiative, have carried consternation into the ranks of the thieves, embezzlers, and grafters of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Warsaw, and other largo Russian cities and have already led to the- arrest and prosecution of many civil and military officials who occupied very high and responsible positions. Sixty-seven officers of the commissary and quartermaster's departments wore recently indicted and held for trial in the Moscow military district olonc. The legislative measure by which Slolypin's name will lx< longest remembered is probably the Agrarian Settlement Act of November 0-22, 1908. This lnw, which has for its object tho breaking up of the Russian peasant commune*, and the transformation of communal tenants into small landed proprietors, or freeholders, is likely to make a momentous change in the economic, status of tho Russian pivisautj population.