The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-05-20

| lneE walk unarmSd, by Two ana lnfecS,
| inviting the living to school.
Nothing in history-not even in the his
| tory of the United States, or in the ex-
ploitation of the gold bearing parts of
| acknowledgements the amazing develop
| ment of Manchuria since 1900.
| During one month of the summer of
| that year Russia, in putting down the
Boxer uprising, ruthlessly swept the land
| with fire and sword, her five armies
| crowding a year of war into space Of
| thirty days. The massacre of the Chinese
| at Blagoveschensk and the destruction Of
! the population of Aigun in the flames of
| their own houses were but typical of the
| Russian method Of warfare.
Then. all suddenly, when the Boxer
| armies had been annhilated. and the be-
| sieged Russian railroads rescued, peace
officially rcigned over the land Critics
of Russian methods might have said,
They made wilderness and called it
peace" and there would have been truth
| in the accusation. But almost before the
| smoke Of the guns had rolled away and
the ashes OF burned villages had grown
cold, Russia set to work with feverish en-
| ergy to repeople the desert and create
cities where hamlcts once had been and
| towns where the wolf had roamed un-
| checked.
The weak point in the business. as in
the whole scheme of Russian administra-
ton and colonization in the cast, is that
1t is art,ficially stimulated. The govern
mont does everything, or is at the back of
everything. Most business enterprises are
subsidized, directly or indirectly, by the
government The government goes ahead
of the people all the time There is no
restless impulse driving the Russian peas
ant to reach out to the uttarmost ends of
4 g md 70 nd , va
for himself as American pioneers did by
slow degrees until they reached the Pa
cifc coast.
AT the end of the campaign Russia had
nearly 200 coo troops in Manchulia and the
adjacent Russian provinces. Strong de-
tachmcnts, mostly Cossacks, We're posted
at short intervals ali along the lines of
railway construction: small but strong
forts We're built for them; and the work
interrupted by the Boxer outbreak was re-
sumed with redoublcG energy long before
the fighting was over.
Russian victories and Russian massa-
ores drove tho remnant of the Boxer
hordcS and the Chinese regular troops to
seek safety in the wild rccesscs of the
noun tains and forests. They We're Joined
by large numbers OF peaceful peasants
whose families had been cxtirpat ted and
whose farms had been laid waste by the
Russians. Thus il was that Il consider
Manchura We're transformed by Russian
policy into desperate brigands and have
been hunted down ever since like wild
dogs.
Under these circumstances the develop
ment of ManChura had to be ompha teal
~ a military development The towns,
which sprang up We're in reality huge mil
itary posts Take the case of Khaba-
rovslI. When the Russians went TO Man
| churia t was only a small village. AT
the beginning OF 1901 T.: was Furnishing
town Of 1900 people; hut nearly every
body in the place WAS either govern
mcnt official of some kind or q soldier
"Whcn l passed through the town in
1901" Su|l Archibald Colquhoun, the Well
knowN English traveller, there were no
, fawe; than twenty-ninc generals there.
The whole place simply bristled with UNI
forms, the officers We're qaartered in ev-
cry house, and We're sleeping in every cor
ncr of the military club, some six or seven
, in the billiard ROOM
, Still more wonderful was the rapid
growth of Hardin a tiny fishing village
, before the Russian advent, It was selected
as the headquarters of the railway con-
struction work. One contractor alone
built over 500 houses for military officers
and civilian officials within the space of
, two or three months. STILL there was not
enough accommodation for the swarm of
them, ana hotel with 100 rooms was rap
idly run up. Streets and boulevards were
laid out, thcatcrs, restaurants govern
, ment buildings and churches erected-in
brief, fully equipped modern city was
erected as If by the waving of a magi-
, clans wand
Russians took hold of 1lr~, built river
J docks and shipbuilding yards there and
made the place an important town with
in q few months. Russian tax collectors
took their posts along the frontier: Rus
| 81 iraf ,nl to lott
the vast mineral wealth of the country
Russian steamers and barges ran the old
junk traffic off the Manchurian rivers, and
in every direction the outstanding of
Manchuria went forward by leaps and
bounds.
Enormous numbers OF immigrants in
crcasing month by month and year by
year, were brought from Russia along
! the trans Siberian railroad and down the
Amur river 70 be settled on large farms
very much larger than they could cult
vate-in the vast regions newly opened tc
colonization by the proves of Russian
arms. The land was given to the colo
nists for nothng-it is cheap to give away
! other peoples land-but the Russian gov
eminent also gave them agricultural i'm
. plemcnts, cattle and advances of money
the latter nominally repayable within d
term of years but in reality never ex-
pected to be repaid.
d
lance from each other" said a European
traveller who went through the country
two years ago. Frequently there is nc
school within reach, for these are only
, found in the larger and older settlements
and the people, thus left without educa
ton or cnnobing influences of any kind
|, | relapse into a state OF standardization
Many Of the farms are inland, but the ma
jorty of the settlers live in the little loe
villages clustered along the banks of the
rivers, OF which one passes twenty OF
thirty day. On Russian maps these vii
E lagos make an imposing show. but II
reality, compared to the vast area avail
able for colonizatio they are but drop:
In the ocean,.
After the building and guarding of the
railways, the chief energies Of the au
thorities were APPLIED to the fortificatior
of Port Arthur and the building of tn,
brand new city of Dalny, or Talenwan
Millions of dollars were spent on the forts
and docks at Port Arthur, and millions
more were being spent when the wa
broke out
4 The building of Dalny as terminus
for the Siberian railway astounded tn,
, world, SO colossal was the scheme and 81
i rapid Its execution. In 1901 Dalny wa
! simply small collection of godowns
Z huts and rough workshops. In 1902 NOR,
than s50GO.0o0 had been spent upon thu
, work, on which 10000 coolies were thel
| engaged, and twice as much money la,
/ ready TO be expended for the completion
y of the scheme. Five piers, two docks
theatnrs, churches, bouevards, marb
4 palaces for the high officials, thousand
: of houses and innumerable huts for tn
natives were being built--all destined 70
4 the population which was to be importe,
= later OH, which, indeed, had already be
z gun tc settle in the place when war brok
out.
4 3 -
Nothing seemed to be left undone, moth