The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-13
The United States to Join Her Great
Strategic Line.
ALASKA TO VLADlVOSTOCK
The Cars Mammoth Railroad
to Block Engiand's Ag-
gressive Policy In
Asia.

his point of duty from a visit to his
mother in the gay French capital.
Speaking of this greatest railroad OF
the world. of which ne is chief engineer
of the line from Irkutsch to Vladivo-
stock. he gave these particulars of the
mighty enterprise:
THE total length of the line" he
said, 'is 1854 miles" And then he
paused with a gracious smile for the
reporter to recover his breath. 1T is
going to be built in five divisions. and
each division will be built from both
ends of the line so as to complete II as
early as possible. The distance / have
mentioned is from Vladivostock to the
Ural mountains, and then we have
line of 260 miles over the mountains.
This will run for De Cathinburg as
the point on the Asiatic side to Mich
olasSy on the European side. We cross
the mountain at a height of about H.
500 feet, or a few feet higher or lower.
and we shall have no tunnel. but wind
ing ascents, such as you have at Lead
vile and elsewhere. At Nicholasky we
shall have connections with the pres
ent railroad running to Moscow and st.
Petersburg.
ION the line we cross three rivers,
the Obi, the Genessey and the Lena,
which empty into the Arctic ocean.
and over these we throw suspension
bridges. The other river, the Amoor.
we run alongside for 500 miles. II will
be a great line"
A. GREAT STRATEGIC POINT.
And is there enough business for
such an immense enterprise
What an American idea! This is
built as a great strategic line to bring
Russia near to the center of the Asiatic
powers and right at the doors of India
When the main line is finished we will
hn Ccfn
ment now has an understanding with
the Persian government to run a line
to Herat. We will have another branch
line running into Afghanistan over the
Thibet mountains. A third line will go
into Beloochistan, between Afghanis-
tan and Persia. In short, as / said,
when these are completed we shall be
in the center of these Asiatic domin-
ions and India will be at our mercy"
What is England's attitude toward
this encroachment?
please don't ask me anything poll
teal. / may not answer you. I am an
engineer, the only foreign engineer on
the work, and of that / cannot speak.
The scientific and the more important
work on the line is done by three men
who have been sent especially from
the neighborhood of the Don and the
Dneper, the province of the Don Co
sacks, while the common work is done
by convicts under the guard of soldiers.
We ballast the line partly by wood and
partly by gravel
What is the approximate cost of the
whole scheme?"
COST NO OBJECT.
IT cannot Judge of that. The cost is
no object. The emperor has several
times expressed himself in the most
| emphatic manner that the line is not
/ built for commerce alone; commerce is
| only secondary; the military features
, come first. The object is to check En-
! glish aggression in Asia The whole
| line is being built in the most substan-
tial manner, and is, from point to
| point, practically straight. You know
the incident about the plan of the first
| Russian railroad? Several engineers
laid before Emperor Nicholas l., the
| great great grandfather of the present
car, plans for railroad between these
two points, all of them by different
routes, according to the different ideas
| of the difficulties to be overcome. The
emperor took his pencil and said
Here's Moscow. here's st. Petersburg,
and drawing n straight line from one
| to the other said: Build the line
there Well, the present emperor has
adopted much the same system, run
ming the line practically straight from
one strategic point to another. 1t is q
great line.
TO REACH ALASKA.
You will perhaps be interested I,
know that the Russian government i
building several merchantmen to pl.
between Vladivostock and some port II
| Alaska. We are now building three o
them at Vladivostock and three NOR
are to be built at Cronstadt; they vii
all be finished within a year or so.
1T is not decided which port we Wi
go to; perhaps one will be made, 70
the United states is to build a railroaI
to some point north of Alaska, an
wherever it makes its terminus that w
shall make our port"
But that is simply a proposition
isn't II, to run railroad across tn
islands of Bering sea to connect with
Russian railway"
UNITED STATES AND RUSSIA.
mo; 1t is not simply a proposition
but a part of the grand strategic plaI
and IL is being carried out by an under
, standing between the two countries
The United States will build a lin
north of Sitka, cross the Boring Sc
islands as far as practicable, and froI
that point make some connections wit
these ships Russia is building, maxim
the journey from Alaska to Vladivos
took i'm "a hours.
| This will bring the two countrie
very near together. and being oil
friends, as they are. there might be a
alliance some day against our old en-,
my, England. At least, 1 hope so. 81
/ don't know; and as l before L,
, marked. | don't talk politics"
) Later on IL was ascertained fro
other sources that one of the importaI
r lines described by DIR. Hoenock as fee,
t ers was To be constructed by Seatt
capital. The main line as described,
I being done by the government. but II
branches are being let to contractor
under strict specifications. a syndica
. of business men OF this city has :
. cured one of these, and the syndica
claims to have for its object not on
a the prosecution of the enterprise for a
mere profit in IL, but the more patriot
one of opening up a new market
$4,000 900 consumers for Seattle DIT