Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/351

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OUNTLESS questions arise at the very mention of the name of Russia. Many of these questions are of vital interest and interwoven with the crisis in the Far East. Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to push all other issues aside and devote myself entirely to the single subject — The Evolution of Russian Government.

At the beginning I am confronted by one peculiar difficulty. It is that I am an American and that the great majority of my hearers are of the same nationality. I know, indeed, that in no other country under the sun is there so large an acquaintance with foreign matters as in the United States. In no other is there so large an ability to judge of foreign questions, of their causes and ultimate solution. But this advantage is more than counterbalanced by the difficulty created in our minds through the rapid progress of our political life. We have not yet attained, nor are we altogether perfect. Sometimes things are done in this our boasted country which cause us shame. Nevertheless, we have represented during the last 125 years the foremost constitutional, self-governing experiment of mankind. Only a little more than a century ago did our fathers draw up that Constitution which is still our organic law. There did not then exist a single other written constitution, defining civil functions and regulating the relations of different departments of state. We were the first who ever em- barked upon the sea of national self- government under the aegis of a consti- tution formed by the people. Hence it is difficult or impossible for us Ameri- cans to fully realize how rapidly we have advanced under the guidance of a brief but an enlightened experience. The rapidity with which we have rushed for- ward since astounds the beholder, but is barely perceived by ourselves. For we are in the very midst of the progress, and meanwhile receive and share all that is being achieved. The fleet-footed are not tolerant of the slow. Scant pa- tience have we for the tardier progress made by nations in less favorable con- ditions than our own. The same step