The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-20
Opening New Regions.

% closely mas steam ana electricity
brought into touch the relations of
commerce in every part of the inhab-
tied globe that no event affecting it's
processes can take place anywhere
without it's effect being felt every
where. What the nerves are to the
human body these lines of communica-
ton are to the economic cosmos. When
the Suez canal pierced the isthmus and
cut in half the distance between the
Orient and the Occident it's effect was
felt at every table where tea is a bever-
age, and by every cotton-clad native
of the tropics. The completion of one
line and the approaching completion
Of another. the one in the continent
into whose darkness civilization is
pouring it's light. and the other on a
portion of another hitherto associated
in the general mind with the horrors
of a penal colony will produce results
that will be felt wherever men produce
and exchange.
Russia is pushing the Siberian rail-
way across the continent with all the
energy her immense resources permit
While the larger purpose is to con-
summate the policy steadily pursued for
more than two centuries of getting &C
cess to oceans. the no less important
purpose of filing the great interior
spaces with producers is not lost sight
of. Hand in hand with railway extern
sion goes land occupation. To over
come the obstacle raised by the poverty
of the peasantry the government has
made extraordinarily cheap rates Of
transport. The migrant is carried
1,2OO miles for $3.50; 1000 miles
for $2.10, and 1000 miles for $780,
His household goods and implements
are carried 1900 miles for % cents q
hundred; 1000 miles for 43 cents, and
1000 miles for SO cents. In addition
land is given and sustenance granted
until a crop can be raised.
The completion of the railway from
Matadi to N'Dolo, on Stanley pool,
overcomes the obstacles presented by
the falls and rapids of the Congo river
and opens to commerce the $4,000 miles
of navigable water Of that river and
its tributaries, covering the interior Of
Central Africa. Hitherto all the ivory,
rubber, palm oil, coffee and other prod
ucts of the interior have been carried
on the backs Of men over the 260 miles
now covered by this railway. The en-
gineering difficulties, formidable as
they were, were surpassed by the un-
healthfulness of the climate along the
lower reaches of the river the labOrers
engaged in construction dying so rapid
ly that all the colonies of the west
coast were drawn upon to keep up the
working force. while the white en-
cheering force was even more rapidly
depleted. The Belgian company that
built the road has made rates that
will not facilitate the commerce of the
region opened by}it. Passengers who
ride first class" are charged 500,
about 20 cents a mile, for the
round trip, while those who are con-
tent to ride on fiat cars behind
the engine are fairfield $40. Freight
charges are scaled to compare with the
cost Of freighting on manback, 90 H99G
being the tariff for one ten-ton car.
This is 5000 a ton for 26O miles, or II
cents per ton mile. Prohibitive as
the average of less than one cent for
the same service, they are so much
less than the cost Of transportation by
the former method that large Increase
in the exports of the products of in
terror Africa can be looked for. In ten
years the exports from the free state OF
Congo to Belgium have increased, not
withstanding the impeachment Of the
unnavigable portion of the river, from
$4,000 to 81, 800, 900 in 1897. No portions
of the civilized world will be exempt
from the effects of these two railways.