The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-12
ROED WAS CHEAPLY BUILT.
RUssIA's TRANs-SIBERIAN RAIL
WAY WILL PROVE A FAILURE
FROM ALL sTANDPOINTS
DOOMED TO SPEEDY DECAY
The Hope That by It's Help the
Gear Can Flood China With
Soldiers Will Be
Vain.

LONDON, Aug. 1.-Mr. A. ]. Barry, the
expert engineer who was employed on the
construction of the trans-Siberian railway
and who has just returned from China,
via Siberia, vigorously denies the as
sumption that the much talked of road
will so enable Russia to pour troops into
the far East that the balance of power
In the Orient will be completely altered.
In an interview this morning he said
to the Cincinnati Enquirer correspond
ent:
The main ideas that governed the
minds of the Russian engineers In con-
structing the trans-Baikal section Of the
Siberian railway have been cheapness
and rapidity. To get the line built with
the utmost speed and for the lowest cost
they have sacrificed everything. The
single line starting from Lake Baikal
eastward, is so badly laid that it can
accommodate neither fast nor heavy ira
ac. 1t is a series of sharp curves and
steep 81 adients. A rise of one in sixty is
frequent; and even If the line were a
good one, the steep gradients and sharp
curves would prevent anything like
fast service of good trains. While the
line remains in good order, its carrying
capacity is strictly limited. But 1t will
not long remain in good working order.
1t will want continual repairing, and /
would not sleep very sound at nights If
were the traffic manager responsible for
the safety of the trains.
HEAVY TRAFFIC IMPOSSIBLE.
1.-The lire has been laid with 4S-pound
rails, and that alone prevents heavy traf-
to running over it. In India we have
tried as low as 75-pound rails, but found
even them too light; and they are quickly
being replaced by heavier. The Russian
authorities will find that the whole of
their 4S-pound rails must go.
IF you have light rails, the one thing
you must do Is to have very long and
strong sleepers. On the Trans-Baikal
railway it was impossible to import
sleepers on account of cost, and the tim
Der growing along the line of the route
had to be used. This is short, scrubby,
and makes green, sappy sleepers, the
very worst kind.
when your lines are light and your
sleepers are b&N. have a thoroughly well
ballasted road. But this railway is not
balasted at all. II short, you have three
requirements for good track-heavy
rails good sleepers and well ballasted
road. On the Trans-Baikal railway not
one of these requirements is met
''Sut this is not all. The demand for
sconOmy has led to cutting everything to
the finest possible point For instance, we
allow for a line Of rails four feet eight
inches wide, a banked road at least six
teen feet wide at the top. In Siberia for
q five foot line they cut the banked road
down in places to twelve feet. The con-
sequence is that when rains come part
of these banks will be washed down, and
The line in time will give way.
SLOPES TOO STEEP.
"Again, in taking the line through hills,
% sharp cutting has been made along the
Ulope. The slope of these hills is the angle
made by nature toward the bed of the
river. In altering this no attempt has
been made to adjust the slope to the new
cutting. That would often mean tremen-
dous work going far up the hill. But
the slope Will naturally adjust itself by
filing up the cuttings with falling rocks,
and thus continually stopping the line.
MY view is, though 1 know 1 am less
hopeful than many, that 1T will occupy
four and a half years to complete the line,
and will cost at least 500 000, 900 more to
put in a first-class condition. AS for the
Manchurian line, that is infinitely worse.
Much of 1t has to be constructed in
zigzag. And Russia has to settle Man
churia before it can recon on doing any
thing there. Russia has yet to find that
in Manchuria 1t has bitten off more than
1t can chew.
But after the Trans-Baikal line is fin
ished, what then? VIII Russia find that 1t
has gained great strategic advantages in
consequence? 1t is impossible, l believe,
to carry more than 1900 men q day over
the line. There are not enough transport
steamers on Lake Baikal to do more, and
there is not enough rolling stock on the
other side of the lake to convey them on.
Rem -mber, it IS a single line only, and
EnnTa n i'm ~ r~,f1 Ill.
the empty carriages can easily and I'M
interruptedly come back
DIFFICULTIES ONLY BEGUN.
when the army Is conveyed to the Pa
cific Coast Russia's diculties have only
begun. The great problem of maintenance
has to faced. The provisions for this army
cannot be had from Siberia itself, for
Siberia produces barely enough for its
own population, although the population
averages only about one for ten square
miles. At present food can be had from
Japan and by sea. But to do this means
friendship with England which still has
command of the seas, and with Japan. If
England and Japan were hostile the only
way to feed thu Russian army would be
by the railway from the productive bases
OF Russia in Europe, on the other side of
the Ural mountains. 1t would be impossi-
BILE to maintain an army Of any size by
such means.
''The truth is that England is really
much stronger in the far East than Rus
STA is. Russia would find 1T most diff
cult to keep an army of 10000 men long
in the field. when dependent on a base
many thousands of miles away and con-
nected with that base only by a single
line Of rails. England could draw an al
most unlimited supply of splendid fighting
men from India. and could maintain them
with ease. Nothing would be more prac-
hcable than to plant down 10000 Indian
soldiers in Wei-Hal-Wei, to the great
benefit of English prestige throughout the
far East.
China would prefer to work with Eng
land than with Russia, If Britain onIy
would take a firm stand. But the British
allow Russia to bluff them, time after
TIME. The Russians know the truth about
the comparative strength of the two ma
lions. They know that their one hope is
to bluff, and they have bluffed with mag
ntfcent success. From their point of view,
I do not blame them
A Strong Plea.
indianapolis Sun.
"Clarissa," said Mr. Blank. bending