The Nome nugget., 1902-02-19

Tn any future complications with
 England 1t could hardly expect this
 country to be always as blind q, it had heen on the termination of the Crimean
 war, when England could have g0bbled
 up Alaska without anybody's protest, lassia could not afford to Jet England.
 it main competitor in Eastern Asia,
 have Alaska. for the third reason was that it was already becoming aware that some day il might need base of tsupplics nearer than Europe for it's operation against China.
 The successful issue of the ci:il war
 had just clearly demonstrated to the
 world the permanencv of the American institutions, and the United States had
 herewith unequiy6cally entered the arena as one of the great powers of the
 world. The completion of the first
 transcOntinental railroad had opened out a new. era of railroad building and
 the strategic value of railroads. more particularly in connection with the future of the Pacific. was for the first
 time understood by the world. The intercontinenlal telegraph scheme, pushed by the American Western Union Telegraph Company had focused at the tune the eyes of the thinking world on the Bering straits, and the world had got some inkiing of the future value of Alaska. 50 Russia gave to the United States. the new and friendly power, that which it would then have been powerless to protect from English ggressiveness.
 For the last twenty years all Russian military maps of railroads and projected railroads have shown d projected road extending to the Bering straits. Russia needs such road in its operations in Eastern Asia and against China. It is easy enough for Russia to assemble a large army on the Chinese frontier, but to maintain such an army and to keep it well supplied with provisions, munitions, etc, the European base is too distant and too easily interrupted. To carry supplies across the Pacific. especially in time of war with either England or Japan, which would un- doubtedly be the result of Russia's open aggression of China, would be an i'm possibility with the powerful fleets of these two countries patroling the ocean and blockading the Russian ports. The United States Ina, no interest in China or Asia, except aS a market. Our lately acquired island possessions are logical simply as a protection to our commerce. The phlanthropic theory and the sentimental ditty of the in- ,tegrity of China, as sung by the Euro pean concert so prOfusely last Summer, Is all rot China will have to give way. and Russia. itself of Tartar origin <" ee.st G'.ad to modernize and to de- velop on civilized principles this rich empire. That China is bound to be- come sooner or later a Russian de- pendency appears today q forgone and logical conclusion. Russia is slow but sure and powerful in all it's methods. The United States commercial inl erests demand today an open support of Russia in its Asiatic aspirations. Alaska should be made the needed slorchouse. from which Russia could draw as required all the supplies needed to carry on it's aggressive policy. The railroad to the Bering straits will be shortly an absolute necessity. The United States Is today the largest manufacturing country in the world, the Russian empire the smallest. The balance of trade will be therefore for many years to come in our favor II is over the great northern trade route. via Bering straits. that our goods will soon flow now in large and ever- increasing stream into tn .S vast Asiatic empire. CONRAD SEEM.