The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1898-10-30
From It's ErstwhIIe Sleepy Con-
dItIOn, Country lsAwskeningE
10 It's Necessities.
CHANCES FOR AMERICANS
Railway and Other Enterprises Offer
a SplsndId Field for Inyesimeht-
View OF William T. Stead.

tho capital Of Russia. he remarked on
his arrivals II have come from coun.
Try which lives In tho past. to a c0un-
tfy which lives In the future.
since then many years have gone BY.
Spain has almost used w ~ past In a
vain offort 10 contend with the forces
of the present, while Russia II exhaust
lng ihe resources OF the present IN or
der TO be able 90 cope with the immense
possibilities Of the future. Russia In the
greatest aggregate Of white men ever
compucied into state unit since the
world began. The EnRJsh speaking
fairly alone exceeds In numbers the RUS
sian but they know no one political al.
leglance such as that which binds all
the Russians 10 the throne Of CEAr
Nicholas II.
"oEs hundred and twenty millions Of
men constitute world In themselves
large enough 10 absorb their snerEiss
and monopollEs their attention. The In
difference OF the Russians TO what passes
beyond their frontiers IL phenomenal
Fifteen years ago one OF the AIDES De
camp Of the then emperor. falling into
conversation with an American. asked
hlm 60 what country he belonged and
was told America. America, America
said the aide dc camp. where 10 Amer
leaf
"An American traveller recently re-
turned from Siberia gravcly assured me
that all the war news he could md In
tho OrcrbefK papers we're brief reprints
of lelograms describing tho war which
Was racing between Spain and England
The Russian pessnntry are not apt TO
make nns distinctions Mankind. for
them Il has often been said. consists
only OF two great dlyisions--tho Rus.
SLAMS. or speaking men. and the non
Russians. or those who cannot speak.
The small but highly cultivated min
ority which lormu Russian society. the
iaryer group which forms tao aaminis.
traliohH. and the officers OF the army and
Of the navy are. Of course, kecnly alive
to the evolution OF events In America.
There Is ~ Pobyedonostron. who Is
universally regarded RH kind OF lay.
pope and 'perseculor general through
out Russia. No mllder hammered man
ever doomed a Hchlsmatic TO exile. lie
Is kcenly alive 10 tho American evolution.
or, ~ he thinks It, degradation. To him
Boss Croker Ia a kind OF uombre portcnt
OF the doom that awaits parllamentarlan
or r'nrcecntatlye government. In his
Reflections OF Russian Statesman.
which has Just made It's appearance In
English, no expresses profound alarm
at the nrobable triumph Of the Roman
Catholic religion In the United States.
Prince khIlhofi. minister OF war and
communicating. Is known as the 'Ameri.
can lie served some years in American
railway shops; he wears his beard In the
traditional American fashion: his letters
are written on a typewriter and he is
simply burning with a desire TO repeat
in Siberia the grand Industrial develop
men,S that the Americans have achieved
In the last 20 years west OF the Mlssls-
sipnl
At the foreign once, Count Muravief.
~, cynical. Bismarcklan In his ambi.
iIons, though not In his capacity. has
ken, careful eye upon the development
OF American Institutions. while scrupu-
lously preserving the most rigid neu-
irallly during the war. he had a bias In
sentiment toward tho United States.
Great and growing powers have not
much sympathy with states that are
moribund. and Spain had few sympa-
ihiSers among the ministers OF the czar
But tho Spanish war interested them
but little. II was wagod. as II were. In
q distant planet Astronomers might
watch II, but II was not the business OF
the average man.
Americans are cominv we'll to the
front In Russia, az they are discovering
more and more what an immense and un-
developed field the lands OF the czar Of
fer to western enterprise Russia is but
at tho beginning OF u new epoch OF in
dustrIal development. Before the next
century closes she hopes to have achieved
u progress as great as that which the
United States has accomplished In the
closing century, No one adequately re-
alizes the immense agricultural resources
Of the immense prairie through which
the czar and Prince KhllkofI are run
ming an iron highway 5000 miles long.
Americans are supplying many OF the
rails, American engineers are every
where, One American is superlntendlng
the construction OF new steel works near
ST. Petersburg, Bates dreOgcs are TO
deepen the Volga, the Dneiper, the Don,
and know not how many Russian rivers
besides The representatives OF Messrs.
is laying AVN 200 miles OF
elght-nch piping In the trans-C Caspian
region, through which the Rothschilds
oil combination will pump petroleum by
means OF four pumping stations, all of
which will be supplied with the latest
pumps.
"The other day met an American ge-
ologist and engineer, who having quit the
post of engineer in great American
city has been spending the summer ex-
aminIng the gold mines of northern ST.
berla, and before the day was over
stumbled on another who has been re-
porting ON copper mines In the khirgi
steppes. The testimony OF these Amer
leans was favorable to the labor value
OF the Siberian workman
"The Russian Is docile, quick to learn
and does quite as good work as the
skilled laborer in the states. AS crafts
man he is past master with his only
tool, the axe, and my American friends
seemed TO think he would be equa..y deft
With other tools II he had the training
OF the skilled artisan,
ION the other hand, another Ameri-
can declared quite as positively that the
RussNns employed In his works work
as mechanically as the machines they
tend, They never make suggestion or
propose an Improvement, Inelr minds
are sluggish and they are the most con-
servative Of men.
There Is manifest in certain quarters
a suspicion that after a time the cordi-
atty OF Russian and American friend
ship may undergo some little change.
The American element in the country Is
a little yeast leavenlng the Russian mass
with American ideas, Russian workmen
here and there have heard to observe
n a. -