A CEMETERY AMONG NATIONS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1975, 4 February 1914, Page 8

A CEMETERY AMONG NATIONS.

CONDITION OF RUSSIA. SAD PICTURE OF MATERIAL '- POVERTY The condition of Russia is beginning to cause uneasiness to tho staunchest supporters of the present regime, and warnings, even from tho. most conservative, against a continuance of tho present policy are not wanting (says a correspondent of tho "Daily Mail"). A most remarkable warning 'of this kind has been issued by Professor Novotobergski, of Tomsk, ono of the foremost medical authorities in Itussia, a scientist whose works have more than onco been crowned by the Imperial Academy of Science, and a manof very conservative and highly loyal political sympathies.

In a pamphlet which has been read with interest by a wide public, lie says; "The kinematograpjiic record of our legislation swarms with a thousand and one subjects. . . . The greatest of all questions, however, is care of tho body of the nation."

Russia is behind every other civilised State in the proportion of labour power at her disposal. The number of people at working ago,-that is, between 20 and CO, is in Franco 52.4, in England 47.6, in Germany 47.0, and in Russia only 44.8 per ceiit. of the total population. Again, though Russia boasts if her expanse and of the tremendous growth of her population in spite of her heavy mortality; tho number of cripples among Iter population is very large. Thus, of dumb and deaf, Franca has only 51, England 72,' Germany 86, and Russia- ho fewer than 99 per 100,000 inhabitants.' As for tho blind, "Russia may with justice be described as the kingdom of the dark," In Germany the number of these unfortunates is 60, in England 78, in France 34, while in Russia it- reaches 197 per 100,000 inhabitants. .In absolute figures it means that Russia has 315,000 blind persons, that is, 219,000 more than she would have- had under the sanitary and general public health conditions of Germany. Tho general death-rate exhibits tliß same features. The mortality in England is 13.5, in Germany 16.2,~in France 17.9, and in Russia 30.5 per 1000 of the population; In other words, tho number of persons dying in Russia is proportionately twico, as high as .in England, and "out of tho 5,440,164 persons -who died in Russia in 1910 no fewer than 2,277,108 would have survived under the conditions.prevailing in England."' "Russia, says Professor Novombergslfi, "is among civilised' nations a cemetery of unique dimension?. It is a. country of funeral processions and of v funeral dirccs in wmch oiie could almost hear.tlio plaints of.thoso who are buried alive." Ho estimates that tho number of working days lo&t by the population of Russia in 1910 through sickness amounted to 3,339 millions, which at tho low value of one shilling a day involves an economic loss to tho /country of oyer £100,000,000. The State itself has to reckon with this gradual deterioration of the physiquo of the people, since in spite of the constant lowering of the standard of recrmting tho percentage of young people found unsuitable by the military autlioriti.es has risen, from 13.1 in 1874.-1883 to 19.4 in 1894-1901 and 24.2 in 1909,

The author concludes with these words:— "Our State is. governed without any plan or order. The railways aro run at a loss, tho State mines arc in the .sanio condition, our forests and oilfields are plundered, and the 1 'system of taxation has been devised, so it seems, with tho, object of exhausting tho- economic powers of our millions of peasants and other unprivileged classes. Tho State Budget, so justly _ nicknamed tho 'Drunken Budget,' is maintained only bv popular vices and at the cost of thealcoholization of tho-"masses. Our economic lifo drags on with difficulty under the intolerable burden of our systemless public policy and general political ■ conditions. Russian life presents a : sad picture of material poverty, spiritual scantiness, and moral devastation.'''