The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-03-13
RUSSIA'S SIBERIAN ROAD
voNEY SHE IS RAISING TO BEGIN
THE GREAT PROJECT.

Or PETERSBURG, FeD. O.-EVeryDouy
,os heard. of course, about the enormous
Loan negotiated by the Russian government
- France and covered by subscriptions in
.bot country four times over. That was
dome at the opening of the present white T;
int 40 Americans even now realize how
hat successful financial transaction of Rus
- NAV react on American intereSts-on
.ho American grain market? Do they know
tbot GOOD part of tho new loan is to be
.nnIied forthwith to the construction of
p,,ssien Pacific railroad which is to connect
London with Shanghai, making it possible
N leave the former and to reach the latter
yitbin twenty-one or at most twenty-five
days!
such is the fact. The question as to the
building of the road has already been settled
in the affirmative by the council of state,
nrasided over by the Grand Duke Michel,
a pyncIe TO the car The idea is an Old Que;
Siberian Pacific road is vital necessity
H for the empire of the czarS, and as such
n has been talked of more or less for the last
Fl 9fteen years or so. Russian engineers
have been busy during all that time making
Investigations of the technical difficulties
presented by the most divergent localities
4 through which the proposed road is to pass.
4 II is the government that builds and con-
trolls railroads in Russia. 1t cannot be
n painsaid that as the system works there
h are good points to be noted in it. But, be-
ing first of all q military country, Russia
4 has railroads built on different plan from
\ that adopted in America. 1t is military
exigencies that have the utmost weight in
the selection of the direction to be given to
A new road The shortest cut is generally
\ considered the best, since the shortest rail-
h road affords the speediest means for the
4 mobilization of troops.
When asked which direction would be
sanctioned for the first Russian railroad
that had to be built from st. Petersburg
to Moscow in 1856 matter-of-fact Emperor
4 Nicholas took ruler, and drawing a strait
line from the new Russian capital to the an
Gent one, simply said: THUS must the
/ road GO" and so it went, notwithstanding
the enormous difficulties presented by the
4 marshes on the direct line, and, when fin
4 ished. the road failed to connect the most
important commercial points of the locality
H though they are often only few miles dis
n tant from the railroad track. OF course,
the recently completed Trans Caucasian
n railroad, though strictly military line,
could not be built on the same principle,
n running, as it does, through shifting sands
N and desert, the question being not how to
make the line direct. but whether there
was possibility of building any railroad
h at all.
In the construction of the Pacific railroad
started by no means for military purposes
other things have to be taken into consid-
Grafton besides the question of speed. The
line will chiefly serve for the transporta-
ton of convicts to Siberia as well as of
4 merchandise, and then for the transporta-
ton of Siberian produce into Russia and
further on. Now, in such sparsely -popu
lated country as Siberia-0.4 man to the
square verst, verst being 0.663 of mile
would be quite consideration to carry
cOnvictS so as to reach all the prisons along
the way, and such are of course situated in
the largest cities of Siberia, which IN their
turn are the points to which all the natural
products are shipped by producers.
The line most in favor among those in
consideration at the present time would, If
constructed, run thus: Beginning at st.
Petersburg it would go via Moscow, Nijny
Novgorod, Kazan, Perm, Ekaterinburg,
Tiumen, Tomsk, Krasnojarsk, Irkutsk, Bo-
jarskoye, Verkhneudinsk, Tchita, Ner-
chinsk, Streteusk, Shilkovo, Blagovest-
cheusk, Khabarovka, Kamen-Ribolov to
Vladivostok, the Russian military and
naval station on the Pacific ocean. This
enormous road will cover a distance of TO-
900 versus, of which !, roo versts are built
already, comprising the railroad from
Moscow to Nijny Novgorod and another
from Perm to Tiumen.
1t is impossible at a cursory glance to es-
innate the enormous outlay Of money nec-
eSsary for such an undertaking; evel now
the official estimates put it at 500 900, 900
rubles, but prominent engineers say that
this figure will be doubled before the enor-
nous technical difficulties presented by the
road are fully conquered.
The chief difficulty will lie-as far as can
be seen now-in the construction of bridges
over the large and swift-running Siberian
rivers. Then the line from Tiumen to
IOmSE vi ia tO NV Of tho Rara
bin Steppe, covered by innumerable little
lakes. In the rainy season that steppe is
converted INTO an impossible marsh; there
are no woods in the locality except a little
brentwood that the inhabitants use for the
construction of their huts. 1t will be hard
task to construct railroad in those marshes
where sand and stone sink to depth of full
ly ~ feet. There, also, it will be necessary
10 build bridges over the Tobol, the Ishim,
the Irish, aud the Oh, all of which have to
be protected by dams. Still more difficult
Will be the building of the bridge over the
1enlsel, which is very swift-howing and
deep river; over the River Selenga, the
eniKa, and the Amoor, as we'll as over eight
OF Its tributaries near Vladivostok. All the
material for these works have to be
brought over by waterways There would
De much difficulty, also in feeding the work
men.
Apart from the5iRportance of the Rus
saa Faclhc road, in a military way-the
facilities it VIII afford in massing Russian
troops In the far east of Asia-it is hardly
possible to overestimate its immense bearing
On the commerce of Russia and that Of the
resi- OF the world. Americans must not
forget that Siberia is by no means the arc
NC wilderness it is often depicted. AS q
Eralu producing country fully two-thirds of
us Immense area Of 3,017 ,2S7 square versts
vonies up to tie standard of the great
american northwest. AS yet the labor is
SsGcklne there, the entire population Of
ploerla numbering only 4313, $50 people,
Sut there is steady outflow of peasants
rom Treat Russia into the wheat-growng
region OF Siberia. All that this immigra-
So9 needs in order to oe successful and
ulshly productive is some enlightened as
issuance from the government.
- AS II Is now, however, the chief products
:. siberia are going to be gold, silver, and
..ulS, tnen there will be large transit of
YEA over the Pacific railroad the Siberian
soyyeITnment Of Tobolsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk.
a.l eniseisk will supply enormous guam
Gi ,v9 r pI wheat. rye, and barley. Besides
;us, IomSk, IN connection with the prov
ICES Oh Akmolinsk and Senupalatinsk, will
btu,nlSh large herds of cattle, sheep, and
u1I fes The Siberian rivers SO rich in fish,
=, w vs. send out large quantities Of frozen fish
W. W. w eStern Europe-European Russia being
well supplied at home
Iue Pacific lima will ha a,,nnIar,antod NV