The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-18
RUSSIA'S LIFE LINE
TRANs-sIBERIAN AND MAN.
 CHURIAN RAILWAYS.
Distance from St. Petersburg to Port Arthur 5,913 Miles, or Twice from New York to San
 Francisco.

Washington. April i7.-The total dis
 tance from St. Petersburg to Port Arthur by the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway
 and the Russian linesS in Manchurfa is
 5.s13 miles. or practically twice the dis
 tance from New York to San Francisco ! This Is one of the numerous interesting facts about Russia and her railway and
 commercial systems presented in a mon ograph just issued by the Department of Commerce and Labor through its Bureau | of Statistics. entitled Commercial Russia
 in 1904" The publication, which occu- pies moro than 100 large pages, dicusses
 in detail present commercial and fnan- | cial conditions in Russia and other sub Jects closely allied herewith. Area, pop 1 ulation. railways, water transportation.
 methods of communication. agriculture. manufactures. commerce, and many oth- CT subjects of this character are among those discussed. Agricultural conditions, and especially Russia as a rival of the United States in wheat production; min ing conditions. and especially Russia as a rival Of the United States in mineral oil production; manufacturing conditions. and Russia as a possible competitor of the United States in the markets of the Orient for manufactures are discussed | in detail.
 a subject of especially interest at the pres
 ent time, in view of present conditions
 in Russia and the Orient, the report says:
 The importance of railways as a means 1 of communication is now greater than | that of the rivers and other water
 routes, as is shwon by accompanying 1 tables. The building of the trunk lines
 with the exception of the St. Petersburg Warsaw-yienna, built during the years 1s45-1S4S and 1s53-1S62, respectively, and the St. Petersburg Moscow (Nicolas line). constructed between 1sf5 and 1851, dates
 back to the decade between lsep and 1870 These years witnessed the construction of the entire group of railways. with Moscow as their common starting point viz Moscow w-Nijni-Novorgod 1ssf- -62).
 Moscow-voronezh CSe2-1s69l. Moscow Volodga dss2-1s72), Moscow Kharkov
 dss6-t6s with It's branch to Kief usss-
 1S70, and Moscow-Warsaw {is66-1s7D.
 Next in point of time comes the con struction of roads connecting the black
 soil region with it's natural outlets. the
 ports of the Baltic and Black seas: Riga
 Tsaritsyn Qs61-1s7D. Kief-Konigsberg
 s7o-1s70.. Libau- -Rommy Qsn-1s74). and
 Samara-vias1naa uss6-1s7D. all of which
 lead to the Baltic. Simultaneously lines
 were built connecting each one of the
 more important southern seaports with
 the agricultural provinces. Chief among
 them are: The Odessa line, with its
 branch to Yelisavetgrad qs67-1ses). and
 it's Bessarabian branch Qs71-1s7D. Khar-
 kov-Nikoliaev Qs69 9-1s73), Kharkov-Tag- ansog uses, voronezh-Roctov us6l-is7s),
 and, finally, Kharkov-Sevastopol 1S69- 1s75).
 The Russo-Turkish war of 1S7S-79 caused an almost entire suspension of railway building. It was only during the decade tbeginning with 1880 that activity in this field was again re- stunned, but the character and method of construction of the newly built roads changed abruptly. In place of the former trunk lines, connecting either the black-soil area with the seaboards of the Baltic, Azov. and Black seas, or with the central indus trial region around Moscow, these years witnessed the construction of great strategic railroads, such as the trans Caspian, the Polessie system, be- sides roads primarily destined for the service of relatively small though i'm portant industrial regions (Catherire line. Ivangorod- -Dombrovo). Moreover. the system of granting franchises (concessions) was superseded by the building and working of roads direct ly by and on account of the State. At the same time the redemption by the government of great railway systems was going on, so that for some time it seemed as if all private roads were going to be acquired by the State. AL 1 though of late greater latitude has been given to private initiative, by far the greater part of Russian railways is in the hands of the government. Out of ss.673 miles under the control of the ministry of communication on January l, 1904, 24,436 are worked by the State. and 12,237 miles only by private companies.
 The adverse years, 1891 and 1892. | gave a new impetus to railway: Tn | order to give employment to the starv- | ing peasantry" the government under l took and encouraged the construction | of new roads. A new era of railway building began with these years, which. in its vigor, soon surpassed anything seen nots only in Russia it. self. but anywhere else in Europe. Thus, while during the above years the number of versts opened for traffic was but 123 and 419, respectively, the succeeding years mark the beginning Of an exceedingly energetic expansion of the railway system, whose termina- tion does not seem to be at hand even in the near future. According to off. cial hgures there were opened for traf- fic during the year.