Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-05-19
A VAST EMPIRE
:Naa.ANcHURlA SCENE OF EASTERN
WAR, HAsSHAD WONDERFUL
DEVELOPMENT.
Most Unprecedented Growth Has TAX
en- Place In Last Four Years In Land
Now in Dispute Between Russia ana
Japan-Towns Grew in Night.

The wonderful development when
has taken place in Manchuria since
that country fell into the clutches OF
Russia has in some respects been the
most wonderful recorded in the his
tory OF the world Not even the amaz-
ing development Of our own country
has been accomplished with such
lightning like celebrity as has that
which characterized this supposedly
benighted part of the world.
Nothing in history not even in
the history of the United States, or
the exploitation Of the gold bearing
parts of Australia equals the amaz-
ing development 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 ar
mics crowding year Of war into
space of thirty days. The massacre
of the Chinese at Blagoveschensk and
the destruction Of the population in
Aigun in the flames of their own
houses were but typical Of the Russi-
an method of warfare.
Then, all suddenly, when the Box
er armies had been annihilated and
the besieged Russian railroads res
cued, peace officially reigned over the
land. Critics of Russian methods
;,t,+ ,yi1-
derness 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 the burned villages
had grown cold. Russia set to work
with feverish energy to replete the
desert and create cities where ham,
lets once had been and towns where
the wolf had roamed unchecked
The Weak Point.
The weak point in the business as
in the whole scheme of Russian ad-
ministration ard colonization in the
east, is that it is artificially stimulat-
ed. The government does everything
or is at the back of everything. Most
business enterprises are subsidized di-
rectly or Indirectly by the govern
ment. The government goes ahead OF
the people all the time. There is no
restless impulse driving the Russian
| peasant to reach out to the uttermost
ends Of Asia and carve out home and
! fortune for himself as American pi
oneers did by slow degrees until they
reached the Pacific coast.
At the end of the campaign Russia
had nearly 100000 troops in Manchuria
and the adjacent Russian provinces
Strong detachments, mostly Cossacks
were posted at short intervals all along
I the lines of railway construction; small
| but strong forts were built for them ;
and the work interrupted by the Boxer
| outbreak was resumed with redoubled
energy long before the fighting was
over
Russian victories and Russian mas
sacres drove the remnant of the Boxer
hordes and the Chinese regular troops
to seek safety in the wild recesses o.
/ the mountains and forests. They were
joined by large numbers of peaceful
peasants whose families had been ex
tirpated and whose farms had been lai6
waste by the Russians. Thus it wa!
! that a considerable proportion of thu
inhabitants Of Manchuria were trans
formed by Russian policy into desper
ate prigands and have been hunted
down ever since like wild dogs.
A Military Development.
4 Under thse circumstances the devel
opment of Manchuria had to be EN-
phatically a military developm ent. Th'
towns, which sprang up were in realit.
huge military posts. Take the case o
Khabarovsk. When the Russians wen
to Manchuria it was only small vii
lage. AT the beginning of 1901 it wa
fourishing town of $4,000 people
but nearly everybody in the place wa
either a government official OF som
kind or a soldier.
when passed through the town il
a 1901 said Archibald Colquhoun, tn
well known English traveller, "ther
, were no fewer than Twenty-Five genel
ais there. The whole place simpl
bristled with uniforms, the officer
: were quartered in every house, an
l were sleeping in every corner of tn
military club, some six or seven in tn
billiard room"
! Still more wonderful was the rapi
growth of Hardin. A tiny fishing vi
: lage before the Russian advent, it wa
9 selected as the headquarters of tn
y railway construction work One col
& tractor alone built over 500 houses fc
; military officers and civilian official
n within the space Of two or thre
u months. Still, there was not enoug
/ accommodation for the swarm of then
L and hotel with 400 rooms was rapid
run Up. Streets and boulevards wei
S laid out, theatres, restaurants, govern
S ment buildings and churches erecte
e in brief, a fully equipped modern cit
n was erected as if by the waving OF
q magician's wand.
S Russians took hold of Kirin, bui
e river docks and shipbuilding yard
e there, and made the place an impo
d tant town within a few months. Ru
d sian tax collectors took their post
e along the frontier; Russian syndicate
h. We're formed to exploit the vast mi
n eral wealth of the country; Russia
" steamers and barges ran the old jun
/. traffic off the Manchurian rivers, an
# in every direction the Russianizing I
"a Manchuria went forward by leaps ar
is bounds.