Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-05-02
Some Manchurian Facts.

lare glad to get a little information
about that remote section of the world
where it is possible that some impor-
tant history will be made in the near
future. Manchuria is the name APP
piled to the northeastern part of
China. and through it passes the great
railroad line which Russia has built
) iron St. Petersburg through lower
+ Siberia to the Pacific ocean. AS the
Terminus of the road is in Manchuria,
f it is easy to see why Russia has so
much interest there. 1t has maintained
"a large force there and has been very
Unwilling to put an end to it's temper
larry occupation of the region. The
mowers which stand for the territorial
Ian open door" and no favor there
this country being prominent among
lthem-are not blind to the aggressive
Ipolicy of the Car and are wondering
lust what it means.
An American Mr.. Friede of New
York. has just returned from Man.
churia after an absence of several
years. He was the first pioneer of
American commerce in that part of
the world. 1t was he who secured con-
tracts for most of the material used in
constructing the eastern part of Rus
sias great railway system. He has,
therefore. seen Manchuria transformed
from wild country. ravaged by bar
barous tribes. where life and property
We're never safe, and the only vehicle
cart, into a well-ordered empire,
traversed in all directions by modern
railroads and redeemed in every way
to civilization. When he first pene-
trated to the interior he employed the
methods of travel known to the primi-
tive savages On his return to New
York he rode through Eastern Asia in
comfortable cars over steel rails made
in Pittsburg and laid on ties cut in
Oregon. American locomotives draw
magnificent trains along the thousands
of miles of track which Russia has con-
structed The stations are equipped
with electric light plans shipped from
American shops. The rivers are
spanned by steel bridges made in the
United States. Mr.. Friede, moreover,
| 60
challenged that our exports to Man
churia on Russian orders now exceed
in value our total commerce with
China under British influence, and
adds that these imports have been Gre
atcd out of nothing by Russia's opera
lions in that once desolate and savage
tland. In his statement to the New
York Sun. published April 26, Mr.
, Friede says:
Il look upon this matter purely from
an American point of view not through
the eyes of British correspondents at
Shanghai and Hongkong. Russia has
poured hundreds of millions into Man
churia; in six years she has built
, thousands of miles of railway through
a country into which nothing larger
than small native cart had ever be-
; fore penetra ted. She has done what nc
other country of the world has ever at
tempted Twenty million dollars have
been spent within a couple of years IL
the building of a single city, now ready
l for occupancy and an open port to tho
: world Nor is DaIny the only city Rus
Icio hoe h,Ii in
the Sungar river, where the railroads
meet. was founded in 1899, and is now
' a city of finely paved streets, electric
5 lights. business houses, and machine
, shops that employ foreign and native
help by the thousands. Everywhere
along the line of railway new towns
1 and cities are springing up, rushing
l civilization forward in Asia with the
speed of lightning express train. Nc
. other country has done, no other coun-
try can do for China what Russia cal
= and is doing. Why, after she has
t spent her treasures creating new
, market for the worlds products
should we insist that she get out and
l leave her vast interests unprotected
L What has any other nation done in
, China comparable to Russias work il
|
lShould be dealt with commercially
not automatically. Every one is free
to do business in any part of Manchurla
S at present which would not be so If II
were controlled from Pekin. Russia
: has not built her great railway to stltit
trade. Naturally, however, she OBJ
jects to having England or any Other
e country given concessions, coal mln-
2 ing concessions, for instance, along the
, line of her railway she has spent sc
much 10 complete. Russian enterprise
AMI Russian money have bought Rus
STA a right to gather some of the fruit
!, of the development of Manchuria
: America is nearer than any European
country, and will always continue tC
be the chief source of Russian sup
plies in the far East, so that it is tt
f our interest to let her spend in Man
- churia all the money she will, building
. with American material new railroads
cities. and machine shops, without en-
e1 fturaging any. diplomat to- make OF
81 himself a cat's-paw to draw our oWr
+ lchestnuts out of the fire for the manu-