The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-04-28
THE SIBERIAN RAILWAY
ULqY CONSTR UCYION AND TIL
ISEFFtCIENI
Management of Russia's Grsnt High

A converse ton which | nave just nae
with a Russian railway engineer lately
returned from Siberia and Manchuria
seems to furnish, at any rate, partial
explanation of the action of the RUS
sian authorities in establishing a sort
of preliminary close season for foreign
travellers on the Siberian railway, A
remarkable retlcence has for some time
past been displayed in official circles in
Russia in regard to the real position OF
affairs throughout the gigantic railway
system, the construction of which, in
the opinion of very many evel-headed
people in Russia, was too lightly under
taken little over a decade ago. The
reticence has been so strictly observed
since the interchange of congratulatory
kilograms between the Russian minister
of finance NJ. de White, and the ezar last
summer that the statement made few
months back in the Rossiva, by one of
the best known contributors to that
permaturely deceased newspaper, to the
effect that, sif any one in Russia requir-
ed enlightenment as to the real state OF
affairs in regard to the Siberian rail-
way, his best plan was to become forth
with subscriber to newspaper pub
lished anywhere save in Russia, was in
the main perfectly true.
| NV informant AYERS that while the
/ cf L.. III nj
ton of the Siberian railroad leaves very
much to be desired, the Trans Baikal
sections of the line furnish a good eX-
! ample of what well-equipped railway
| line ought not to be. For stretches OF
hundreds of versts the ballastine has
| been performed in manner which IN
vites disaster to any train travelling a
an average speed of over fifteen miles
an hour. During the China troubles
in 1900, when the Siberian railway may
be said to have been put to a really
practical test for the first time, over
forty locomotives of the latest Sormovo
type to say nothing Of scores of trucks
and covered vans for horse and troop
transport, were more or less wrecked
in consequence of bad ballasting and
general Effectiveness of the permanent
way.
For the administrative capacity
shown by many of the more highly
placed of the army Of officials and con-
tractors employed on the line my infor-
mant had little that was laudatory to
say. They were, however, he declared
thoroughly satisfied with the results of
their administra ton, If the authorities
in st. Petersburg were not. My infor-
mant recalled the glowing prophecies
freely INDUCED in in newspaper and
other quarters in Russia during the
earlier stages of the construction of the
line Among other things these au-
thorities professed to see in the ap-
pointment of government-paid officials
guarantee for the creation of an eff
ficient and thoroughly equipped official
railway staff in country which had
fallen behind the rest of Europe in the
technical and constructive arts, a staff
which would hereafter be of invaluable
assistance to the Russian authorities in
the carrying out of their extensive pro-
gramne of railway development in 9TH
err parts of the empire But, as my in
formant pointed out, the recurrence of
scandals in connection with the con-
struction of the Siberian railway has
rather had the fleet of reducing the
number of Russian official railroad
constructors in manner unforeseen
alike by the Russian press and the Rus
sian ministers of ways of communica
ton and finance. AS to the exact where
abouts of certain of these officials, who
found in the Siberian railway system
II, 40 I,
says my informant very much in the
dark. Rumors of official inquiry appear
to have travelled in Siberia with re-
markable dispatch, and more than one
official found it safer to quit Siberia
forthwith than to remain to give an ac-
count of his stewardship of rubles rails
ed by pilgrimages abroad from ST Pet
ersburg.
Asked If 1t was true that many por-
tons of the Siberian railway would
have to be entirely relaid If the line
were ever to serve with adequacy the
purposes Of an extensive development
of traffic, my informant declared that
in his opinion the line in Its present
condition had already furnished indis-
putable evidence of faulty construction;
that for purposes of military ana emil
grant transport in driblets and without |
necessity for particular dispatch it was
passabe but that it was utterly I'M |
equipped to stand the wear and tear in |
separable from even a medium traffic |
without multiplicity of Interruptions |
and the continual outlay of sums of /
money for repairs, which within a COM I
short space of time would /
amount to the cost of reballastiug and |
the more faulty sections of the I
line altogether. 1t was agreed, said my
that the idea of linking I'D I
the shores of the Pacific with those of
the Baltic had been a grand one worthy y
Of an empire second only to the British
in territorial magnitude, but, as it
stood, the line was a monument to Rus
sian officials bungling and laxity Of ad-
The press of the country, he contin.
ued, had at last apparently had borne
in upon it the absurdity or maintaining
4 comparison between the Siberian and
the American transcontinental railway
systems, and the remarkable self-ef-
facement of the Russian minister Of
ways of Communication on the occa-
sion of the interchange of congratula-
.ory kilograms between the Russian