ATURALLY, Russia's political and industrial crisis occupies the leading place in most of the current American and European reviews and general periodicals. Perhaps the most vivid, graphic recital of the events themselves is Dr. E. J. Dillon's monthly round up" in the December Contemporary Review. It is an impressive picture of the lurid scenes which are passing in Russia before the eyes of the skilled observer. His article is really a summary of events leading up to the present situation. When, on October 30, "the curtain was rung up on the last scene of the autocracy," even the severest critic must admit that the Czar played a most difficult part with dignity.

Dr. Dillon remarks that the manifesto granting a Finnish constitution is a curious instance of how things were done "constitutionally." Had the Czar done less, he hints, the people might have believed in their rulers more,-too good to be true, in fact. Here was an important

document, affecting not only Finnish privileges, but the rights and interests of Russians, promul gated as autocratically as ever, the cabinet be ing ignored. And the essence of the Czar's manifesto had been that henceforth no measure should become law without the sanction of the legislative chamber, a decision which had actually been pleaded by Witte as a reason for not granting concessions such as universal suffrage. That is an instance of what Dr. Dillon calls "hindrances from above."

But the hindrances from below were worse still. Demands, such as for an eight-hour day, were formulated which no government could entertain. And in the provinces the partisans of the old régime went on organizing "roughs and hooligans" into anti-reform brigades to intimidate the Liberals and decimate the Jews, with the result that, according to Dr. Dillon, in Odessa in a single week there were more men, women, and children slain than in all France

during the Revolution. Dr. Dillon's view of the situation is sufficiently grave. The massacres are but one phase of the "counter-revolution."

There are others more dangerous which have not yet assumed definite shape. The most appalling of them all is the indignation of the inarticulate scores of millions of Russians whose name is being freely used by both reactionaries and revolutionaries, but whose wishes, strivings, traditions, and prejudices have been systematically ignored by all. If now they arise in their frenzy they may be expected to do deeds which will in sober truth stagger humanity and make the name of revolution hateful for generations.

THE AGRARIAN DEVASTATIONS.

To arouse these millions from their torpor, the revolutionists have offered them free land for their political support. The peasants' land hunger is such that this bribe is enough to make them ready to enter into an alliance with any group or faction, and agrarian disorders have become accordingly frequent. This is the explanation of the immense destruction of property, cutting down of forests, and gutting of manors. In Chernigov province alone, one hundred and thirty-nine estates have thus suffered. It is not a question of hatred or vengeance; personal feelings count for little, and the most popular man in the province is treated as badly as the most unpopular, except that in one case the destroyers are sorry that they have to do it," in the other they are not.

THE FINANCIAL PERIL.

Financially, the panic has been such that men have been ready to lose 20 or 25 per cent. of their capital to save the rest. The official value of the ruble is no longer the same as its real value, and the treasury loses heavily, while the number of paper notes has increased till it is not very far from the limit allowed by law. Moreover, the debt to the Mendelssohns of Berlin fell due in December. The revolutionists have been in such a hurry that they have done serious harm by wounding the sensibilities of large and stolid masses of the population-a blunder for which Dr. Dillon prophesies all parties may have to pay dearly.

THE RELIGIOUS RESENTMENT.

As illustrating this he quotes conversations held quite recently between the president and Committee of the Municipality at St. Petersburg and a number of illiterate butchers, draymen, etc., stalwart supporters of the old order of things. They were ripe for revolt against the "intelligents," and had to be hastily pacified.

"What have you to say against the intelligents?" "They crowd the streets and carry red flags and cry,

A COLD REJECTION.

CZAR NICHOLAS (offering a constitution-Alkotmany, in Hungarian): "Here, Bebuska (darling)- here is my tribute to your loveliness!"

RUSSIA: "Too late, Batuska (Little Father); I prefer my good stout peasant husband to you."

From Borsszem Jankó (Budapest).

'Down with the Czar."" "Well, but they don't harm you, eh?" "They do." "How so? Do they fire on you?" "No." "Do you object to red flags?" "We don't care anything about their flags, whether they are red, or green, or black." "Then what do you object to?" "We can't bear to have them shout out 'Down with the Czar,' and we won't stand it. That's all." "Anything else?" "Yes. Why do they scoff and jeer at us for going to church, and why call us men of the Black Hundred because we pray to God? Our fathers went to church and prayed to God, and we do as they. Why must these fellows come and abuse us for it? We do no harm to them. We didn't go about shouting anything against their people. Why do they insult the Czar and make fun of religion? That's why we are against them."

These men are types of scores of millions whom the revolutionary party cannot offend with impunity, yet evidently has offended.

The Counter-Revolution.

The special commissioner of the National Review sends to that magazine a much-needed warning as to the existence of forces in Russia of which the revolutionaries and their Liberal friends take too little account. He says that the October strike nearly ruined the peasants, and added unspeakably to the misery of the famine-stricken districts. He thus summarizes

the substance of what the great mass of the inarticulate Russian nation is saying and thinking just now about the cosmopolitan surface layers which are at present carrying all before them. He says that he has collected these views from a great number of peasants in different provinces. of the empire.

Together with the Little and White Russians we form about 75 per cent. of the entire population of the empire. The only other nationalities who come into consideration are the Poles, who constitute about 6 per cent., and the Jews, who are about 2 per cent. Consequently, we are Russia, and our voice should be decisive as to the general lines of the government. The details, no doubt, must be left to others who understand such matters, but the direction ought to be imparted by us. Our views, beliefs, strivings, and even our prejudices, ought to be taken into consideration. You may say that we are ignorant people. Well, we are. But such as we are we have built up an empire, and it is only meet that we should say on what lines it is to run. And now it appears that we are not to be consulted in the matter at all. Strangers -Jews, Poles, Finns, Germans, Armenians, Europeanized Russians-are now in power or are influencing those who are. They are speaking in our name, insulting our Czar, blaspheming our God, forcing the government to act in our name but against our wishes and our interests. Now, with all this we are resolved to finish once for all. The men who shout and make speeches and carry red flags at processions may be polished and well taught, whereas we are rough and illiterate, but they

THE NEW LIGHT FROM THE NORTH. From Borsszem Jankó (Budapest).

are not the nation and have no right to speak in its name. This is true, not only because they are Jews or Germans, Poles or Finns, but because they have nothing in common with us, neither religious nor political principles, traditions or strivings-nothing. And there are thousands of Russians in whose blood there is no more trace of foreign strain than in our own about whom the some thing may be truly said,-tested by the standard which we, the people, recognize as correct, they are foreigners. They despise our religion, they sneer at our superstitions, they condemn our patriotism as narrow-mindedness or fanaticism. The stuff of which the cement is made that binds the elements of political communities together is not book learning, nor the gift of talking, nor even the talent for organizing. It is character. Learning and its products are the property of all humanity,-they are cosmopolitan; character is the possession of the race, the force that molds its religion, inspires its poetry, preserves its social fabric. The men who are snatching at the reins of government to-day have none of that stuff.

That, says the National Review commissioner, is the credo of the Russian people.

Prince Kropotkin's Hope,

In the Nineteenth Century, Prince Kropotkin reviews the revolution, and does not hesitate to

with reference to specific plays which have not yet had time enough to be evolved by the children themselves. The object of the control is to let the children play freely. The method is the control of those elements in the environment which are new and too complex and difficult to be handled by the children themselves.

The principle obtains wherever the conditions under which people play become rapidly changed. For example, the present situation with reference to college athletics in general and college football in particular shows the inadequacy of the uncontrolled free-play idea as applied to college students under the present conditions of intercollegiate athletics. There is a general and very old feeling among educational authorities that the recreation of all college students is much better when directed by the students themselves, that this direction is in itself a part of the play, that it affords useful training in various directions, to all of which I most willingly assent, but during the past few years new elements have been introduced into the college athletic situation which make the college student almost as unable to have general free play in his athletics as the city pupil is to have free play on his uncontrolled and limited city playground. The amounts of money involved are very great. The games have acquired a commercial significance which is altogether new in college sport. funds available which were never dreamed of in the earlier and more simple days of college sport. The intense rivalry between institutions is only one of a number of factors which has tended to change the notion of sport for the fun of it to sport for the sake of victory,-victory being thus augmented from a very desirable incident to an end in itself. This case, then, like that of the city school child, demands trained technical control. The problems are too difficult of solution by the men themselves; their life in college is too brief to permit of these large questions being worked out satisfactorily during the experience of any student.

There are

If we grant the principle, the application will be that this control must be of such a nature, and to such an extent, as will most truly give that freedom in athletics that will most truly restore sport as a means of recreation and health to its natural place. This control must be, as in the case of the city pupil, to restore freedom in play rather than to take it away. The elements which are to be controlled and managed are the new ones rather than the old ones.

We are at present undergoing a storm of discussion as to the changes in the rules that will cure the present football disease. We are not in a position to pass upon cures at the present time. What we need is to establish the principle and the nature of control. The changing of rules will not alter ethical relations. The chief needs at present, with reference to athletics, are ethical rather than physiological.

To reduce this discussion to a definite proposition, let me say that I believe the athletics of educational institutions should be under the absolute control of a man whose relation to the faculty is the same as that of any other head of a department whose training for his work, both in practical knowledge and scholastic attainment, is as extended and technical as is demanded of a professor in any other branch, and whose tenure of office is as certain as that of other college professorships. The primary qualifications of this man, so far as practical work is concerned, must be the ability to get a very large number of the students actually engaged, voluntarily, in wholesome out-of-door athletics rather than to defeat other collegiate teams upon the gridiron or the cinder path.

College football needs to be controlled and remodeled, but this can only be wisely done by men who continuously administer the college sports; who administer the games as a means to exercise rather than as an intercollegiate means of contest. We need continuous trained control of the situation by high-grade men whose positions are not dependent upon victory.

IN N the realm of international politics the conflict which the Sultan has been waging against the six European powers for the past weeks has been second in importance only to the historical events now occurring in the Russian Empire, a conflict not without its serious dangers. It may seem paradoxical that with Turkey on the one side, England, France, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy on the other, even a merely formal resort to arms could not be prevented. This is subject to but one interpretation, that the Sultan did not believe in the unity of these powers until the very last moment; that he left nothing untried to draw them into conflicting interests, hoping that his old Oriental political method of postponement, of half-hearted concessions, of shamefaced and shameful threats, would again prove successful.

During the conferences held several years ago in Vienna and at Muerzsteg between the Austrian Emperor, Francis Joseph, and the Russian Emperor, Nicholas, to which the two ministers for foreign affairs, Count Goluchowski and Count Lamsdorff, were summoned, a mutually agreeable regulation of affairs in the Balkans was arrived at, and many important resolutions were adopted, referring particularly to the bettering of conditions in Macedonia. Macedonia, with its predominantly Christian population, has for many years been the center of serious revolu tions and revolts, each one threatening the infinitely greater danger of a general rebellion on the part of all the European possessions of the Sultan. This would mean the downfall of Turkey, an event which all the powers are at present anxious to prevent. In order to fully compre. hend the true state of affairs, we must, first of all, remember that in the past few years all the joint actions of the powers have been devoted to a common purpose,—namely, the preservation of Turkish territory and the pacification, by the introduction of expedient reforms, of the suppressed and constantly revolting elements.

The Muerzsteg programme was devoted to the same cause. It demanded the nomination of a special governor-general to be appointed by Turkey. In addition to this, Austria-Hungary and Russia were each entitled to a civil commissioner delegated to exercise a certain control over the government of the country. Further

more, it demanded a reorganization of the military forces throughout the entire country, to be placed under the supervision of an Italian officer as commander-in-chief and sixty officers chosen from the armies of the great powers. The main purposes of this reorganization were, primarily, to be able in due time to suppress the many smaller revolts which arise in Macedonia almost throughout the entire year, and, furthermore, to insure the Christian population against Mohammedan despotism. After the usual delay, Turkey consented that these measures be carried out. This was done for two years, for a period expiring March, 1906. The agreement had already been made in the Muerzsteg programme that the contracting powers have the right to decide upon the prolongation of this term and then merely to inform Turkey of this fact. Therefore, when, in the course of the transactions of the past weeks, the Sultan offered such a prolongation beyond March, 1906, as a concession on his part, it was merely one of the many maneuvers by which he believed he could preserve his authority.

In the course of these two years it had become evident that the attempts to maintain peace in Macedonia were unsuccessful and would remain so unless a regulation of financial matters could be accomplished. Every tax and duty in the land had thus far been collected by the Turkish pashas, and had been utilized in the well-known Turkish way, the greater portion being added to the private property of these dig nitaries, the smaller portion reaching the Padishah, whereas the taxpayers derived no appre ciable benefits whatsoever from these burdens. Not only the Christian, but also the Mohammedan, population of Macedonia became thoroughly tired of this robbery. The latter, therefore, sanctions and supports the demand of the pow. ers that these duties and taxes be controlled and used for the general good of Macedonia by a European finance commission consisting of six members. The members of this commission,—one for each of the six powers,-received their appointments many weeks ago, and have already arrived at their posts. However, following the injunction of the Sultan, the governorgeneral has refused his sanction to their official activity. The opposition against their activity