Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-13

Whatever may be the outcome Of the
Russo-Japanese war-eyen If 1t finally
were to crown Russia's arms with over
whelming triumph-the light that has
been shed on Russia as an empire build
er has put her into an unenviable place In
history.
The disclosures of the woefully unde-
veloped character of the vast and invalu-
able empire of Siberia. the lack of meth :
DDS Of swift communication. the condi-
ton of the great" Siberian railway it
self. have all fixed Russia's status as be-
ing little better than that of China, so far
as concerns her pretense at being a civil
izing force.
Russia went into Siberia before Amer
lea was discovered. After her first wars
with the Tartars-the worst of which
were ended before Columbus set sail for
his first voyage-Russia had few wars
with the natives. She had no experience
like that which faced the conquerors of
America and the American pioneers until
the beginning of the present generation
In the shape of hostile Indians, who con-
tested every foot of the white mans way
westward and marked his advance with
blood from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
She had no laborious sea voyages to
make to reach her new empire. No in
hospitable mountain ranges blocked her
way eastward
What Has She Done With Itp
What has she done with the land which
she entered before men knew that there
was such thing as the western hemis-
phere: the land that she had conquered
as far as the Obi river before Sir Walter
Raleigh landed his first colony in Roa-
noke; the country that she held In undis-
puted ownership as far as tho Sea of
nh
struggling against the Pequots?
Ioday siberia, practically held ty Russia
Ill the hollow of her hand before An,ali-
can CONQUEST had extended beyond the APP
paiacn.an range: has few large cities
scattered vast distances apart and exist
ing only as outposts of civilization-more
remote from the news of the outside world
than were Boston and New York 80 years
ego; Today the two largest Russian cities
IN Siberia-Tomsk and Irkutsk-are credit
ed by the most optimistic statfsticians with
at most $1,000 habitants EACH
Tihis. Tashend. and other Asiatic cities
OF Russia In Asia. each have three times as
many inhabitants, who are Russian sub
jects. but Asiatic by race and birth. This
state of Affairs Is the same as if there were
Sioux. apache and Iroauois cities in the
United States with more inhabitants than
New York, Boston, San Francisco ST.
Louis or Chicago.
Russia has not the excuse of ignorance.
Her explorers had reached the Lena river
the west, and her sailors had entered the
kamtschatka country from the Pacific be-
fore the colony known the Providence
Plantations had been founded New Hamp-
shire been settled or the Cavaliers began
to flock into Virginia.
In word. before the settlers in America
had even dreamed of entering the forbid
den primeval forest that frnged the At
lantic coast. Russia knew what an empire
she had and Russians had traversed ii
from the Ural to the Pacific.
Pittsburg and 0khotsk.
While tiny garrisons of frondersmen at
Fort Duquesne were holding their precari-
Gus foothold only by bloody fighting, Russia
had 4 port on the Okhotsk sea. That port
Is known to day as Okhotsk, and nobody
knows much else than it's name, for its i'm
portance to the world is diminutive. Where
Fort Duquesne stood Pittsburg stands now.
and probably OkhOtsk couldn't exist today
if 1t were not for the iron made In the place
that was a blockhouSe when Okhotsk was
a port.
When Merwether Lewis and William
Clark made their way to the headwate rs
of the Mississippi and at last reached the
mouth of the Columbia river and looked out
upon the rolling waves Of the Pacific ocean.
they looked upon sea that the Russian
ships had sailed up and down long before,
Selling Alaska. founding a settlement on
the Columbia river and leaving settlements
dotted along the Pacific coast of Siberia.
That was one hundred years ago. Today
one land, explored then for the first time.
primeval wilderness till then, is populous
and great country. filed with industries.
and its Pacific coast is beset with city on