Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1918 — UKRAINE Land of Promise [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

UKRAINE Land of Promise

UKRAINE, the part of Russia which has set up an independent government and made a separate peace with the central powers, is a country rich In natural resources that need only systematic development. Ukraine covers 860,000 square kilometers, an area greater than that of France and only a little less than that of Italy, Spain and ’‘Portugal together, George Raffalovich, a Ukrainian by birth and an authoritative historian, writes in the New York Sun. Taking the figures usually given by European writers of repute, there are today 29,000,000 Ukrainians in the southwestern provinces of Russia, between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 in Siberia, where they have, especially in the Amur region, extensive settlements; 3,500,000 in Eastern Galicia. 40,000 in northern Bukowina, and perhaps 500,000 in northern Hungary on the southern slopes of the Carpathian mountains. The bulk of the Ukrainians consists, therefore, of those in Ukrainian Rus-

sla, in Galicia and in Bukowina, for they inhabit the compact territory which is only artificially—or shall we say politically?—divided between Russia, Austria and Hungary. Leaving out the Rusniaks, or Ukrainians of Hungary, who express no desire to work politically with the other members of their nation, and who insist, even in America, upon societies of their own, we have a population of over 33,000.000 stretched between the Caucasus, the Black sea, the Carpathian mountains and the San river, The Ukrainian Governments. The purely Ukrainian governments of Russia are: 1. Ukraine of the right bank (of the Dnieper), Podolia, Volhynia, Kief and Kholm. 2. Ukraine of the left bank (of the Dnieper), Tchernihov, Poltava, Kharkov, southwest Khursk, Voronezh and the region of the Don Cossacks to the Sea of Azov. 3. On both sides of the Dnieper lies the Steppe Ukraine, comprising Ekaterinoslav, Kherson and the eastern parts of Bessarabia and Tauris. 4. North Caucasus, adjacent to the region of the Don Cossacks, compris-

lag Kuban and the eastern parts of the Stavropolskol and Therska governments. In all these districts the Ukrainians form from 76 to 99 per cent of the total population, the rest; being Jews, Poles and, lastly, Russians. The Rurlk dynasty founded Ukraine When it disappeared, as all monarchies must, the next organization that kept the Ukraine lands together was the republic of the Cossacks, whose domain overlapped Lithuania and Poland, who occupied much of the Ukraine soil. The Cossacks were organized something on the lines of the chivalry of western Europe. Their precepts were obedience, piety, chastity and equality. The assembly was the only authority they recognized. The hetman (headman) was elected by and was respon-

sible to the assembly for his 4' ‘tions. If he offended he was incontinent ly deprived of his office. The assembly, called rada, was periodical and comprised representatives of all classes of the community, who often criticized freely the policy of the hetman. In the interval between radas the hetman ruled the country by a series of decrees. When any Section of the Ukrainian community was dissatisfied with the person or the policy of the hetman it was entitled to call together a rada, w'hich In such cases was called a black rada. If the black rada happened to be representative enough, and the complaint met with the approval of the majority, the hetman might be compelled to resign. While the Muscovites lived under an absolute monarchy, while the Poles were ruled by a haughty and exclusive aristocracy, in Ukraine all were free pnder the Lithuanian kings, and republican institutions were gradually taking root. Many people would leave the surrounding country and go to settle In Ukraine. Such names preserved

in the Ukraine as O’Brien and O’Rourke tend to prove that people came from much farther to settle in the happy land. Great Cereal Country. The famous black solL of Ukraine covers three-quarters of the country. To the north as well as in the Carpathian mountains are some 110,000 square kilometers of forest. The agricultural soil covers 53 per cent of the aggregate territory of Ukraine and 32 per cent, if we take in the whole of European Russia, which is, however, six times greater than Ukraine itself. The annual production of cereals in Ukraine is two-thirds of the whole production in the recent Russian empire. It is greater than thut of Germany or France. The exportatioh of grains from Ukraine amounts to 27 per cent of the production,,and of all the wheat exported from Russia nine-tenths comes from Ukrainian lands. As a matter of fact, the trade of Ukraine is mord developed than that of any part of all Russia. Ukraine ranks highest among all the countries that gompose the vast Russian empire as to the annual agricultural production. Wheat, barley and

rye are the staple crops of Russian agriculture, and the annual production In Ukraine of these grains amounts to one-third, of Russia’s output As to other farm products, Ukraine’s position is also conspicuous. Beet root, for Instance, is especially cultivated In the Ukrainian provinces of Podolia, sVolhynia, Kielf and Kherson; those provinces together yield five-sixths of the sugar beet production of all Russia. Ukraine produces almost ail the tobacco of the old empire, and she has the largest and finest orchards and vineyards of Russia. The immense natural resources of Ukraine furnish splendid opportunity for the development of manufacturing industries. As a matter of fact, 62 per cent of Russia’s annual production of pig iron and 58 per cent of Buss!*'® production of steel come from Ukraine.

Views of Kharkov and Ekaterinoslav.

Farm in Ukraine.