Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-01
MAY INDICATE PEACE
Russia's Order for Rails, Cars
and Locomotives.
CONTRABAND OF WAR
MATERIAL TO BE DELIVERED
WITHIN SIX MONTHS.
Believed to Be a Case Where Com
mercialism Will Be More Power
full Than Diplomacy.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

DER WIN the steel trust Iol lOV,VVo 'o'
rails, and has placed with half dozen
different companies in this country ORDERS
for $50 locomotives and 1 600 railway cars
mostly for freight Its agents have been
negotiating with at least two of the trans
continental railroad companies for the
transportation of this material to Vladi-
vostok The contracts provide that all OF
the rails shall be delivered at the latter
port during the coming summer, ana III
frequent instalments.
The locomotive builders are to have
year and a half to complete their con-
tracts, delivering the last installment be-
fore the close of navigation at Vladivostok
In 1906. The cars are to be delivered be-
fore the close of naviga ton in 1905, which
means October next.
Contraband of War.
All of this material is contraband of war
1t Is to be paid for when delivered on
board ship at Pacific ports to be named
hereafter, and after it leaves those ports
it is at the risk of Russia. Where the
ships to carry these cargoes are TO come
from has not been explained, but 1t Is sup
posed that Russia will look after that end
of the business in due time How they are
to be protected from the cruisers or Japan
is also a mystery even more difficult 10
solve. 1t will be impossible to send such
an enormous amount of freight secretly
1t will take more than twenty vessels or
the largest size available on the Pacific to
transport the rails alone, and the locomo-
tves and cars, being exceedingly bulky
freight, will fill not less than twenty-five
or thirty of the largest ships that can De
chartered.
If this material Is to reach Vladivostok
before the close of navigation in October
next, the Russian government must there
fore provide not less than fifty vessels OF
1900 tons or more, and they must De SAIL
ing at the rate of three or four week
from San Francisco or Puget Sound during
the entire summer.
A hundred thousand tons of rails are
equivalent to about 1,00O miles of railway
track, and what does Russia intend to do
with them? On this subject the few people
who are aware of the transaction have no
informa ton. Mr. NIankine has not been
informed of the intentions of his govern
ment but there is plenty of room for spec
ulation.
May Mean Peace.
1t is the prevailing opinion that this
enormous order, the largest ever placed
with any manufacturing company in the
United States from foreign country,
means the early restoration of peace. A
senator from northwestern state. who
was one of the first persons in Washington
to learn the news, predicts that within the
next three months the war will end and
that the Russian government will be busy
restoring the damage that has been done.
The senator said:
This important prediction is made in
high commercial circles and indicates the
advance of commercialsm in these days
over diplomacy. There is nothing on the
horizon, from a diplomatic point of view, to
indicate an early settlement of the conflict.
No negotiations are under way or even
contemplated at this moment, so far as the
Ito of Hot llC p
aware.
Nevertheless, the Russian government,
while dormant automatically, and while
reinforcing its armies In the field and MAX
ing other preparations at an enormous ex
pendture for a renewal of hostilities with
the opening CT spring, is already anticipate
ing, commercially, the restoration of peace,
and is making contracts of unusual char
acter calling for an unprecedented outlay.
These contracts, or at least most of them.
are to be completed within six months and
they contemplate work to be done where
hostile armies are now encamped and in
territory now being bitterly contested by
armed forces.
Commercialism Defeats Diplomacy.
'In making these contracts the Russian
government clearly anticipates the restora-
ton of peace at an early date, and while
automatically it continues to put up bold
front and neither invites nor encourages
peace negotiations 1t is giving orders for
peace supplies and involving an outlay of
millions upon millions of dollars, which
cannot be carried out until peace is re-
stored.
II have it from the very highest authority
that these 100000 tons of rails have been or
dered for delivery at NladivOstok within
the next six months, and it is preposterous
for any one to agree to deliver them at
that port until peace is restored 1 know
from the highest authority that officials of
the transcontinental railroads are now ne
gotiating for the transportation of this ma
terial, which is to be sent through during
the coming summer. A slight calculation
will convince you that it is not an easy task
for our biggest railroads, with all of the
rolling stock at their command, to haul
100000 tons Of rails across this country 1t
is even more than difficult and seems al
most impossible to ship such an enormouS
cargo across this continent and the Pacific
ocean this summer. but it is my under
standing that the Russian government in
tends to do that very thing, and that as
soon as peace is restored, its energies will
be applied to the almost complete recon
struction of the Siberian railroad"
The President Informed.
At the Department of State and at the
Japanese and Chinese legations nothing is
known Of these contracts. President Roose
welt and Secretary Morton were recently
informed of them by the president of one
of the railroads that has been negotiating
with Russian agents for the transportation
of the rails. This gentleman told the Pres
fdent there was no doubt the order had been
accepted. or that 1t came from the Rus
sian government, and to his mind it was
convincing evidence that peace must be re-
stored in a short time.
Other people, however, are inclined to re-
gard the matter from a different view
point They argue that it is a sign of pro-
longed hostilities instead of early peace;
that it is evidently the intention of the
Russian government to improve the condi-
ton and enlarge the capacity of the ST.
berian railroad for the transportation of
troops and supplies.
The road has been subjected to enormous
traffic during the past year. An average of
fifteen Trains a day have passed over it.
and it was not built to stand any such
loads. The rails are light and cannot last
much longer Railway experts who have
ridden over it insist that the track must be
restored from end to end within the next
six months, in order TO make it safe for
ordinary traffic.
The rolling stock Is also run down by
unusual wear and tear in the transporta-
ton of troops and supplies and is already
inadequate for the demands that are made
upon 1t. The locomotives particularly are
unequal to the heavy strain upon them
Russian Mills overtaxed.
The iron mills and shops OF Russia are
not "a ma blo sunnlvipo tho c;l,ax;.