Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1869-03-22
RAILROAD INFLUENCES.

If there is any truth in the report that
the Car of Russia has sent civil eugi-
uccrs to this country to inspect the Pa
cifc railroads, both as to their endow-
ment aud completion, we may look out
for similar arteries OF trade in Asia. No
two countries are more similarly stu
ated than the United States and Russia.
Both have a vigorous home nucleus,
perfect as near rs may be in all the APP
planes Of commerce, both are enter
prising to a fault, and both possess i'm
meuse uncultivated and almost uuin-
habited territories, which are soon to
become the abiding places OF millions.
With US the trans-continental railroads
are actual commercial feeders; they
open up new fields of production ; they
develop wealth. Fortunately, their ad-
yantages are il the line Of trade re-
motely they are in that of civilization.
True, a nation ofsavaSes will be pushed
aside, but it never yet offered a formid-
able obstacle to progress. The Indian
would pass away with or without rail-
roads. Our Territories would become
American without railroads ; that is,
without those grand modern conceptions
which have startled the engineering
world as if from II reverie. The whole
work of the law, the Gospel, and of our
institutions, would have spread over the
sierras and the parks. Perfect nssimi-
latiou would have come about.
Russia, however, must invoke the
powers Of civilization in her projects,
and that specially. Her territories are
contiguous, but separated by the walls
of barbarism. Tartaric insolence is q
different element from Indian trsachery.
determination will not follow the iron
rail and the engine. The hands of capital
might spin from the distaf ofintelligence
u web long enough and strong enough 10
connect Moscow with the Amoor. The
aims Of empire might be fully met by
the completion of such q project as that
which this year will witness in America.
But at every turn n Russian gives the
wheel Of calculation, the thought OF
ciyilizing processes m uppermost.
And, finally, the questions resolve
themselves into these /: Will or will not
u railroad across these contiguous ter
ritorieS be the most potent instrument
for conveying to them the home civili-
zatiou? Can every station be made a
mission? Will not every locomotive
be a medium Of conversion? Will not
every mile Of track be n link to bind a
clan to our customs and our faith?
To state %succinctly, then, the differ
cuce between the great railroad con-
ceptious Of America and Russia, here
| commerce moves and civilization reaps
there civilization moves and commerce
rsaps. In the end it is the m And
the adoption is complete, for in a ro'
public every capitalist is n king, and
commerce is the harder and the bes,
pioneer. In empires the converse is
true. The scope Of u railroad enter
prises widens rs they are studied
They are no longer machines in the
hands Of capitalists. They are nc
longer means Of development. They
are all these, but they are instruments
of civilization-mediums for making
faithful subjects. Russia will not
count per cents. and dividends when
she throws out her iron arms. England
will not cipher money returns when she
brings in India. Both will calculate
how far and how perfectly institutions
can be carried and how many subjects
can be secured. Upon results OF this
kind will all the count Of dividends be
founded.