Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1902 — A Russian Juggle of Words. [ARTICLE]

A Russian Juggle of Words.

You do not change a man’s state by calling him another name. The liberation of the serfs was merely a juggling of words. The Russian peasant is not and never has been free. England paid its colonists millions ami set their negro slaves free. Russia liberated the serfs by ordering them to pay to the state an amount equal to the capitalization of the dues their landlords extorted, plus the cost of collection. The contention of tho peasants was that they were unable to pay tho sums the landlords demanded, as being beyond the yield of the land occupied. The annual levies are more than tho dues used to Iml The tenants got into arrears. The fortynine yearly payments which were to bring about the “redemption of tho land” will not balance the outlay, and to all intents and purposes the payments are imperial taxes and permanent. —Outlook.

Our Great Desert. The population of the Great American desert, us shown by the late census, is alxnit IAOOJXH), or one and a half persona to the square mile. This was made possible by the building of railways across it. There are now I>oo miles of railway In the region, including the part of the desert which lies in Mexico. Tlie grout desert must, however, remain almost entirely unproductive, for all the water that fulls upon it and the mountains adjacent would, if gathered, be sufficient to sustain vegetation on but 5 ]>cr cent of its surface. Tho rainfall on twentyfive acres is but enough to irrigate ona.