The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-23
ONE OF RussfA,s PROBLEMS.

A great difficulty with which Russia
viii have to contend in her war with
Japan is in getting troops and NUM-
lions to Manchuria, the scene Of hos
tilities. According to reports she has
there now about 100000 soldiers, but
she will need many more, and, be-
sides, there will be a constant demand
for war supplies of all kinds. Her de-
pendence, of course, is the Trans-Si-
berian Railroad, an interesting account
of which appears in the current num-
Der of Golfers. 1t was written by
Charles s. Osborn, for many years
commissioner of railroad of Michigan.
He has just returned from an extern
sive trip through Siberia.
1t seems from his account that this
railroad has now much more business
than it can handle. Last year the
very best 1t could do was to move / 900, =
COO tons of freight. That was under
commercial pressure. Mr.. Osborn
thinks that under war pressure it
might move 1900. 600 a year, though it
is evident from what he says that he
isn't confident it could. The poverty
of the roads equipment is apparent
when it is stated that last year the
Pennsylvania Railroad, which has
about the same amount of mileage as
that of the Trans Siberian, moved be-
tween 75.OOO,e00 and $1,000, 600 tons.
And there is no way in which the
means for increasing the transporta-
ton capacity can be obtained at once,
for the reason the gauge of the road
is of a standard peculiarly Russian.
Therefore neither motive power nor
rolling stock can be obtained from sup
plies on hand in other countries. 1t
seems the locomotives are out of date,
and the results obtained from them are
far from satisfactory. The fuel used
on some sections of the road is oil and
on others wood. An average train load
is $50 tons, while in this country it
is 1,5O0
The time made by the fast passenger
trains indicates the condition of the
road pretty clearly. The distance from
Moscow to Vladivostok is $500 miles,
and the time occupied in traversing it
is from sixteen to twenty days. No
time is given for the slow trains,
though it is estimated they occupy
about a month in making the distance.
A great obstruction to rapid transit is
Lake Baikal, which, with one excep-
ton, is the largest sheet of fresh water
in the Old World. The road strikes
the lake at its southern end, where
the distance across ds forty miles.
This gap is covered by ferries, but
they are useless for the greater part
of the winter, because no ferry boat
yet built has proven strong enough to
break the ice, which freezes to the
thickness of nine and half feet. Even
sledges cannot be used with success
for the reason that the ice breaks, and
is piled up in high and practically
impossible windows. Indeed ii is said
to be difficult even to march troops
across the lake.
1t is the plan to bu''d the road around
the southern end of the lake, but to
do this will require two or three years,
as number of tunnels will have to
be constructed. It is evident from this
brief statement that Russia has no
easy task in moving troops and war
supplies to the Manchurian and Korean
frontiers. She will hardly encourage
vigorous prosecution of the war be-
fore the coming of warmer weather,
when the transportation problem will
not present SO many difficulties