Los Angeles herald., 1905-08-13

of appending to their acquisitions for
supplies the urgent request that they
be sent via Whites road. His efficiency
might have received no further atten-
ton but for a controversy in which
the rising young railroad man became
engaged. Indeed, it has been said of
Witte that every step in advance he
has made is the result of a personal
controversy fought out to a successful
finish. Whether this be true or not, 1t
is certain that the man who holds the
destines of Russia in his hands today
is a fighter, and not a colorless COM
promiser who has attained power by
making concessions to those who could
hasten or retard his advancement.
Entering the Service
The story of how at last he entered
the government service and got in
the running" as it were, is illustra-
tive of the man and of the adverse
conditions against which he has sue
cessfully contended. 1t chanced that
during the critical days before Plevna,
Russians to a standstil and appar-
emily checkmated their march upon the
Bosphorus, two trains claimed the
right of way over that vital section of
the railway where Witte was in con-
trol-one train carried provisions and
munitions of war for the front, where
they We're greatly needed, the other a
certain magnificent but useless person.
age, who was anxious to get as near
to the front as he could without en-
dangering his precious person Witte
never hesitated for a moment He
gave the provision train the right of
way and sidetracked the train carrying
the illustrious parsonage in swampy
siding, which was unfortunately in
tested by mosquitoes. Whites official
head was Immediately demanded and
readily given. The directors of the
private railway We're thunderstruck at
their subordinate's audacity and gave
him a curt dismissal. but Witte was
not a man to be dismayed or to lose
courage in the face of highly placed
enemies. He determined to carry the
matter before the czar, and, wonder
full to relate, he succeeded in doing so.
Fortunately for the young railroad
man the Czar Alexander had been in
the trenches before Plevna himself. He
knew that provisions were needed
there and not gaudily uniformed per-
sonages. He summoned Witte to his
presence and at the end of the au-
dience handed him his commission as
a high official in the railway ministry.
From that red letter day to this
Whites career has not been plain sail
ing. In real life it probably never is. 1t
is certain that he has been buffeted by
many storms and survived many cum
ningly laid plan to wreck his ship of
state. He has often been defeated, but
he has never despaired Witte is
rugged, many cornered personality. He
has not supple tact nor does he COM
mand any of the arts and graces which
help to carry diplomats of the older
hereditary school over rough places.
His offences against Russian conserva-
tism have been many but the greatest
and the most unpardonable of these is
one for which he should In no wise be
held responsible. The anti-German
feeling which has grown so strong In
Russia during the last generation would
seem to have centered upon his devoted
head. The justification is that Whites
father was a Dutchman and store
keeper of Tihis, in Transcaucasia, where
the boy Serge was born in 1849, the heir
to no very brilliant prospects. Super
serviceable friends have traced the
great statesman's family tree back to
the Whites of Halland, who were dis
tingushed In the wars and the state
craft of the Low Countries in the days
of Charles V and Philip II, but this
pedigree, whether spurious or auther-
tic. was of little use to Witte in his
early days. He was the son OF man
who was considered German and was
undoubtedly a storekeeper and not
rich one. In spite of these handicaps he
became in 1888 head of the railway de-
partment, shortly afterward minister OF
railways then in succession chairman
Of the tariff commission, which tried to
build a protective wall around the in
fant industries of the great agricultural
empire; then minister of finance. and at
last the highest rung of the ladder
imperial chancellor From first to last,
from porter to prime minister, he never
received a promotion because people