Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1917 — CZAR’S RICHES TO FINANCE THE WAR [ARTICLE]

CZAR’S RICHES TO FINANCE THE WAR

Russian People May Seize Enormous Wealth of Their Former Ruler. RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD Private Fortune of Nicholas Romanoff Estimated at Not Less Than $2,000, 000,000 —Owns 70 Per Cent of Russian Land,

New ,York.—Nicholas n, deposed czar of Russia. Is the richest man In tse world. His private wealth Is not less than $2,000,000,000. In many quarters here It Is believed a large part of this will be seized by the Russian people to finance the war. Nicholas Romanoffs wealth is largely Invested in foreign bonds and stocks. His American holdings are said to be extensive. It Is understood thax he owns $50,000,000 worth of the Pennsylvania railroad’s stocks. His name does not appear in the list of that corporation’s stockholders for obvious reasons. Instead, some nominal owners appear.

The deposed czar also owns about 680,000,000 acres of land in Russia. Most of Russia’s mineral resources are his private property. Into the czar’s private treasury, according to the%Russian law, one-third of Russia’s gold and silver output is annually contributed. Since the treaty of Portsmouth the Russian empire has occupied 8,647,657 square miles, or one-seventh of the land surface of the globe. It has a population of about 200,000,000, or fewer than twenty-five square mile. Owns 70 Per Cent of Land. Nominally the autocrat “owns” both land and people, but he and his family out of the immense total of 948,063,763 acres actually own and receive the revenue from 680,938,927 acres, about 70 per cent of the whole land area of Russia —one-tenth that of the world. The balance, or 207,124,836 acres, Is distributed as follows, according to the 1910 report of the department of agriculture, the latest:

Acres. Nobility 181,006,519 Merchants - 36,321,303 Peasants 35.141,886 Landed proprietors 8,381,839 Other classes 5,673,289 Total 267.124,836 The nobility number about 1,400,000, the agricultural classes (peasants and landed proprietors), 110,000,000. Thus the tiller of the soil and the taxpayer “possess on the average about one-third of an acre; the Russian nobleman, who does not pay taxes, possesses on an ffverage some 128. To put the case in another form: From every 384„ loaves of bread produced by the Russian agriculturist the noble land owner alone takes away some 383 loaves for himself, leaving one loaf for the producer, from which the latter has yet to devote a part to satisfy the state or autocratic tax collector.

income Is Enormous. ~ Nobody knows exactly the amount of the czar’s enormous income. The expenditure of some of it is traceable to certain public works whose budgets are matters of public record, and .a large part Is known to be absorbed by his family and their dependents, who number about 3.000, and are entlrely apart from the noble dlass, which has no Romanoff affiliations. The czar had an annual salary of $12,500.000. Besides this enormous revenue he derives yet another annual Income from his private estates and mines, the latter being worked by common and political convicts. According to the Almnnach Hachette the czar enjoys an annual Income of $42,500,000. or SBS per minute. -All. this Is in addition to the income from the Romanoff property of 680,938,927 acres, 82,000,000 acres of which are'at present productive. This yields an annual revenue of $10,000,000. This sum goes for the support of the grand dukes and duchesses, who number 46. many of whom draw yet other incomes from private sources, or from various ’posts occupied in the army and navy, or in tjie general administration of the bureaucracy. The Russian autocracy has been, therefore, not only a political-701™ of government, bat a tremendously pay ing business for the autocrat himself and all hit relations, near and remote.