The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1869-08-18
DAILY JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY. ............-~AUaUsr j, 1862,
Progress Of Russia.

50 ready TO sell Alaska to the Unltel
States. She had three motives. Sh
could not we'll defend Alaska agains
England in any future contest, IS sh
had few people on the Pacific. Sh
was disposed to strengthen her friend
and allies on the Pacific and build III
a power that could cope with Eng
land. She desired, also, to proyid
funds for railway In Europe Asia.
Ii is now well ascertained that n,
nation can develop its resources with
out the aid of railways; that without
them neither agriculture. commerce
nor manufactures can flourish.
Russia understands and appreciates
this fact. She felt deeply the want Of
railways for the defence Of the Crlmeai
and is now providing them. We have
laid down forty-threc thousand miles
of railway, have fourteen thousand
more In progress, andat least four
thousand more In embryo; but RUSSIA,
although slow in beginning, IS moving
faster than We do, although we are
connecting the two oceans by a second
line of railway. p
For some years past We have aTera-
Ced twenty-five hundred miles Z year,
ana fUNESLEQ yEoA y ia A&AANAJ
red millions, but Russia is IOT invest
ing annually more than two hundred
millions of dollars. In gold values, in
railway. Besides the gold she drew
from Alaska and the money she real
lied at home and the contributions
of her citizens In land and materials,
she sold last year on the Exchange of
London ard Paris bonds and stock
guaranteed to ray five per cent, to the
amount 81 two hundred millions Of
dollars, for railway construction.
She has bought in Belgium more than
forty thousand tons of rails, and large
quantities of iron rails and engines IN
England.
Her first line from Ct. Petersburg
to Moscow, built by Wynrus, East.
wick & Harrison, under Major Whist
Ter, was an extensive one, having cost
from eighty to ninety thousand dollars
per mile. Her second great line from
st. Petersburg to Warsaw cost nearly
as much, but her new lines are cost
ing like ours, less than forty thousand
a mile on the average, and she is fast
laying down the rails from the Baltic
to TIE Black Seat Caspian and Sea
of Azof, and her line from Moscow to
China is now crossing the Ural Mount
aims, while we cross the Sierra New
ada; and Russia will soon have more
miles of railway than either France,
or England, which together have but
half the miles of track laid down Ia
this country. OF the four cheapest
lines In Russia one was built by the
Don Cossacks, one is Polish, one d
Finnish and one German line.
Russia is now expanding ut least
her two hundred millions annually
upon railways, and her great activity
began with 1861, down to which
period but three thousand miles had
been completed. In 1867 the gross
receipts from three thousand miles
were twenty-five million dollars. In
1868 they were twenty-seyena million
dollars, or at the rate OF nine thou
sand dollars per mile,
The returns show moderate but
steady growth Of income, and an inn
mense preponderance of the returns
from freight over those from passeng-
ers. The income does not vary mat
eriRlly from the average returns on
new American lines, aud will doubt
less expand with the extension of the
lines toward the prolific regions IN
the south of Russia, and doubtless
much of the wheat now shipped from
Odessa, and much from the interior
that d0gs -et now reach the coast,
IL Ind , az o ad61r Cd Il 5be Baltic
lines. except in Poland, is five feet be-
tween the rails; but in Poland our
gauge has been adepted-patterned
On the German lines. The engines
and cars are chiefly imported from
abroad. and. like most new lines, the
tracks already opened are impeFfeetly
stocked and equipped. For some
years to come we may anticipate that
several thousand miles OF track will
be laid yearly in Russia, and q very
active demand arise for equipage and
all other accessories of railways.
Thus, while we cross the Sierra
Nevada, moving westward, Russia is
climbing the Urai chain on her way
east, and while we are directing our
Northern Pacific toward Puget's
Sound, she VIII be on her way across
the River Lena and the plains. of Sib-
eria, toward the mouth OF the AMOR
She will touch China at the inland
city of Kiachta, from which she now
imports her tea, and open with her a
vast internal trade. sl3 sasa
As soon as her rails reach the up.
per waters of the Amoor, steamers
will run between the railway and the
mouth of the river, connecting with
steamers from Puget's Sound and
Sitka, and thus the passengers
from our Pacific coast may reach
Moscow and st. Petersburg in a few
weeks by steam, and Russia and
America establish a new connection
quite independent Of France and Eng
land. esrf l=Fs.39 - -
The Russian and Cainese-telegraphs
may then be revived, and under moro
liberal tariffs we may then build iron
ships and steamers on our Atlantic
front, and devote the pines, spruce
and red wood of Oregon and our Pac-
ific coast TO wooden ships, TO carry
the wheat of our Western coast to
Europe and Asia, paying one fourth
their cost by their fest freight of
breadstuffs. aG
Alaska will be worth more to us
than TO Russia its great forests and
fisheries are all wanted, and the pos.
session Of Alaska insures to US Brit
ish Columbia and VancOuver's Isle,
now paralyzed by British mismanaee-
ment, which, since the peace, have
lost two-t thirds Of their people under q
Wasteful and oppressive administra-
tion.-BOs5on journal.
The ReWItched Clock,