The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-12-06

| This was the case with the Uganda Rail
way. which runs from Mombasa.. on the
coast little bit above Zanzibar. into the
interior as far as Lake Victoria Nyanza
That road is now completed. and 1t has
twenty-seven American bridges upon it.
1t took the British contractors two years
to put up eight bridges. and the company
was in despair as to the twenty-seven re-
naming. They asked the American Bridge
Company to bid upon it.
1t did so. offering to complete the whole
within seven months after the foundations
were ready.
The contract was accepted and the job
was done on time.
The bridges were built in Philadelphia
and shipped in tramp steamers 20 Nom
hasa. American engineers superintended
the work and East Indian coolies per
formed the hard labor.
The Uganda Railroad Is partially OPP
Grated by American locomotives.
EGYPTIAN RAILWAY
EXTENDED FROM KHARToUM.
A number of railroads are to be built in
the Soudan. that wide strip of country
which runs across Africa between the Sa-
hara and the Congo Valley.
The Egyptian Railway is to be extended
south from Khartoum, and English and
American capitalists are now having a
railway surveyed from khartoum to Ads
Ababa. the capital of Abyssina.
If this road is built 1t will be followed
by a road connecting it with the French
line at Harar, making a continuous road
from Khartoum to Jibouti ON the Red Sea.
Other sections have been planned along
the Cape TO Cairo road. and the Germans
are building line from the coast oppo-
site Zanzibar which will connect with that
road somewhere in the vicinity of Lake
TanganXtka.
The French propose to continue the line
which now runs from Algiers and Con-
stantinople to the oasis of Biskra. south to
Lake Tschad or TimbuNtu across the
Desert of Sahara, and there are several
lines either planned or in construction
from the Gulf Of Guinea into the interior.
The Belgians have some new railroad
projects along the Congo, the road which
has been built to Stanley Pool having been
a great success. Indeed, Africa offers n
promising field for the sale of American
railway materials. and the Steel Trust and
our bridge companies should keep their
eyes on II.
We sell comparatively few goods in
West Africa, owing to the fact that we
have no direct steamship connection.
The southern and central parts of that
continent are as near the United States
as Europe, and steamers from New York
and our Southern ports should make regu-
lar sailings to Cape Town, the Congo and
the Gulf of Guinea. At present most of
the shipping is done by the English and
Germans.
The Belgians have lines from Antwerp
to the mouth Of the Congo. and the Dutch
also take a share Of the trade.
The chief English shippers are Elder,
Dempster Co.
This firm sends steamers to most Of the
ports on the west coast. and 1t is trying
10 develop the trade of the British colonies
there In every possible way. It has re-
Gently opened up cotton plantations in La
COS, and has brought cotton experts from
America to oversee them.
The same has been done by the Ger
mans, the latter having taken negroes
from Booker 7. Washington's school at
Tuskegee to teach the people how to han
die the cotton.
SAME EXPERIMENT TRIED
DURING CIVIL WAR.
This experiment. as far az the English
colonies are concerned. is not new.
It was tried during our Civil War; when
prices went skyward
The result was a shipment Of l. 200 bales
in 1854 and OF 1900 bales in 1863. Shortly
Il fell to 574 bales in 1880 rose to 1000 bales
In lSs0. and dropped to one bale only In
1851. Since then but a few hundred bales
have been annually exported.
The cotton from West Africa Il Of the |
short staple variety. It has poor color |
and It does not bring as much as mid
ding American cotton.
The British ship owners claim that they |
can carry It to Liverpool as cheaply as |
cotton can be brought from America, for |
the reason that they can take back full |
,argoes of manufactures to Africa. where /
as the return cargoes to the United States |
ire light.
One would think that the United States