The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-05-20

~ go --..l T. -,
tors ol 'he oiatea 0'a'es' y !"
ploitation of the GOLD bearing parts Oh
Acknowledgements the amazing ueNelop-
ment of Manchuria since 1870.
During one month OF the sun mer 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 a space OF
thirty days. The massacre of the Chinese
at BlagoNeschensk and the destruction OF
the population of Aigun in the names OF
their own houses We're but typical of the
Russian method of warfare.
Then, all suddenly, when the Boxer
armies had been annihilatcd, and the be-
sieged Russian railroads rescued, peace
officially reigned over the land. Critics
of Russian methods might have said,
''They made a wilderness and called it
peace" and tllcre 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 10 work with feNerish en-
ergy To repeople the desert and create
cities where hamlets once had been and
towns where the wolf had roamed UNI
checked.
The weak point in the business, as in
the whole scheme of Russian administers
ton and colonization in the east, is that
1t is artidcially stimulated. The govern
ment does cverythinE. 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 uttermost ends Of
Asia and TO carve out "a home and fortune
for himself. as American pioneers did by
slow degrees uatil they reached the Pa
cifc coast.
AT the end of the campaign Russia had
nearly 900, o00 troops ia Manchuria and the
adjacent Russian provinces. Strong de-
tachments, mostly Cossacks, were posted
at short intervals ali along the lines Of
railway construction: small but strong
forts were built for tllenn; and the work
Interrupted by the Boxer outbreak was re
sumed with redoubicd energy long before
the fighting was over.
Russian victories and Russian massa-
ores drove the remnant of the Boxer
norles and the Chinese regular troops to
seek safety in the wild recesses of the
mountains and forests. They were joined
l by large numbers of peaceful peasants
whose families had been eNtirpated and
whose farms had been laid waste by the
Russians. Thus 1t was that a consider
4 able proportion of .he Inhabitants OF
7 Manchuria We're transformed by Russian
a policy into desperate brisands and have
been hunted down ever since like wild
d dogs.
e Under these circumstances the develop
hi'ltt VI ~ ~ !AEN. " w mp NAV 'NN"4
{ ly a military development. The towns
which sprang up Were in reality huge mil.
itary posts. Take the case of khaba-
. rovsk. When the Russians went TO Man
churia it was only a small village, A
4 the beginning of 1901 i. was a fourishine
{ town of 1900 people; but nearly every.
d body in the place was either a govern
o ment official of some kind or a soldier.
y when | passed through the town il
4 1901" sa!d Archibald Colquloun, the wei
u known English traveller, there were No
. fewer than t~wenty-nine generals there
Tho whole place simply bristled with un.
forms, the officers We're CHARTERED in ev
> cry house, and We're sleeping in every cor
9 ner OF the military club, some six or sever
Il in the billiard room"
Still more wonderful was the rarit
growth of Hardin. y tiny fishing villag'
= before the Russian advent, 1t was selected
as the headquarters of the railway con
struetion work. one contractor alon'
: built over 500 houses for military officer