MEN NOW LIVING FOR THE SAKE OF AN IDEA.
Expressions of Devotion to the Revolutionary
Cause Compared With Czar's
Address to the Duma.
Gorky, Narodny, Maxime, and other Russian revolutionists who have lately visited the United States to further their propaganda are men who are living for an idea.
Read Narodny's rhapsody on Russian freedom, as written for the May American Magazine by Leroy Scott:
I am nothing. Personal success, happiness—they are nothing. Burning of home, prison, the Czar's bullet, Siberia—they are nothing. There is only one thing—only one thing—that Russia shall be free!...
I have been in this America one week, and already do I not speak the English language fluently! But I shall it learn! Then to American peoples will I speak the sufferings of Russian peoples. I will say, "Help us be free!" and they will help; they are rich—their hearts are great.
Then—oh, my Russia!—freedom!
"I have come from below," Maxim Gorky has written, "from the very depths of life." And again: "Slowly have I climbed from the bottom of life to its surface, and on my way I have watched everything with the greedy eyes of a scout going to the promised land." This is the man who said at a dinner in New York:
I come to America expecting to find true and warm sympathizers among the American people for my suffering countrymen, who are fighting so hard and bearing so bravely their martyrdom for freedom. Now is the time for the revolution. Now is the time for the overthrow of Czardom. Now! Now! Now! But we need the sinews of war; the blood we will give ourselves. We need money, money, money. I come to you as a beggar, that Russia may be free.
By ignoring social conventions Gorky has unwittingly injured his cause. It may be said of him, however, that he is to-day one of the foremost literary figures of the world, and is so regarded in Europe. He has abandoned literary ambition and the easy life of a fêted idol to serve an idea—the idea of full Russian freedom.
With these words of men whose passion is liberty for their country may be compared the speech of the Czar at the opening of the new Russian Duma. The occasion and the utterance are already historical.
The Supreme Providence which gave me the care of our fatherland moved me to call to my assistance in legislative work elected representatives of the people. In the expectation of a brilliant future for Russia, I greet in your persons the best men from the empire, whom I ordered my beloved subjects to choose from among themselves.
A difficult work lies before you. I trust that love for your fatherland and your earnest desire to serve it will inspire and unite you. I shall keep inviolate the institutions which I have granted, with the firm assurance that you will devote all your strength to the service of your country, and especially to the needs of the peasantry, which are so close to my heart, and to the education of the people and their economical welfare, remembering that to the dignity and prosperity of the state not only freedom but order founded upon justice is necessary.
I desire from my heart to see my people happy, and hand down to my son an empire secure, well organized, and enlightened. May God bless the work that lies before me in unity with the Council of the Empire and the Imperial Duma. May this day be the day of the moral revival of Russia and the day for the renewal of its highest forces. Approach with solemnity the labors for which I call you, and be worthy of the responsibilities put upon you by the emperor and people. May God assist us!
Students the world over are now recalling dubiously the fateful French States-General of 1789.