Nor was it necessary,--I liked the people as genuinely as I
believe they respected me. I learned their hunger for land by going
around; and it was on that account that I projected and completed our
Siberian Railways so as to give our people the coveted opportunity
and an outlet to the markets of the world. Given an opportunity to
accumulate and prosper, men will hesitate about going to war unless
THEY ARE MISLED. I saw such an opportunity in international trade. I
visited the Orient, extensively investigating the commercial field
in that direction. It was a mighty task, necessitating a reference to
others who should have been as much interested in the accomplishment
as I was myself. Their mistakes have made me quite unhappy and there
has always been CONTENTION between my Ministers and myself. If Witte
had kept his hands off when Count Solsky got after the plotting school
teachers and rebellious students, the propaganda against my reign
which has honeycombed the Empire with sedition might have been
checked in time to prevent this dissolution,--for it is more than a
"revolution." It is idealism run amuck. France, England, the people of
America, have been duped by the intelligentia--the Kadets--who never
seemed to realize that in order to hold this Empire together not
only FORCE but SUPERSTITION was required,--'_si mundus vult decipi
decipiatur_,' it is the only principle that will hold unorganized
ignorance in disciplinary subjection to orderly and regulated
progress; and without this discipline the ARMY, or the power that
holds this incongruous Nation together, will dissolve, as you may now
see, while the whole Empire will fly to pieces.
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