The Grit-advocate., 1906-05-11
ALAsKA-SIBERIA RAILROAD.
Difnculties in the Way of a Ecr.ng
Strait Line Are Nu-
marcus.

, The scheme of railroad from the
United States to Russia by way of Ber
ing straits is TO the fore again in
Paris. ST. Petersburg and elsewhere.
and We are told that the czar. Count
Witte and Others have been enlisted
in The project" says the New York
, Tribune The present argument is
that such a road would greatly
| strengthen the friendly relations be-
tween America and Russia and make
America Russia's ally in the far east.
Ii may be said frankly that America
is not seeking alliances in that sense
in which this one appears to be meant.
so Tar as the increase of intimate rela-
tions with Russia-as also with every
| well-disposed nation-is concerned,
that is commendable and desirable, so
much so, indeed, that We must hops
it depends upon something less vision
ary than this AlaskanS Siberian rail-
road scheme. For as visionary and
mistaken in an extreme degree we
must regard it.
Let us assume that the cOnstruc-
ton of such road is possible. 1t
mus. still be borne in mind that it
would no. directly connect the United
States with Russia, for the reason
that Alaska is not contiguous to the
United States. Hence the American
terminus of the road would be acces-
sible from the United States only by
a long voyage on the high seas or
along the waters of an alien coast, or
by land travel across more than 500
miles OF British territory either of
which courses would be quite fatal to
Baron Loicq de Loubel's iridescent
dream of through trains from New
York to St. Petersburg over purely
American and Russian railroad. This
break of more than 500 miles in the
continuity Of the line is something
which neither engineering enterprise
nor diplomatic ingenuity can over
come.
Moreover. the distance to be trav
ersed in Alaska from Point Tongass to
Cape Prince of Wales, is about 1,5O0
miles. the greater part of which is
through country entirely untitled for
civilized habitation; nearly every mile
is through country probably the
most difficult in the world to build a
railroad, and not One-ffth, If even
One-tenth, of 1t is through a country
that would ever afford profitable
local traffic. Practically the same is
to be said of the 1000 miles in Siberia
from East cape of Albasin. on the
Stanovol mountains. In brief. there
would be $500 miles of railroad
through the most barren and inhos-
pitable regions on the globe, compared
with which the worst country trav-
ersed by the Siberian railroad is
Garden of Eden. And then at the end
of that there would be nearly the
whole Of the Siberian railroad to be
traversed before Europe was reached,
and in the other direction. 500 miles
of sea voyage before the United States
was reached.
Forty years ago the Western Union
Telegraph company started to build an
overland telegraph line from the
United States to Europe by this very
Alaska Siberian route. 1t spent vast
sum of money In the enterprise, and
then abandoned it in favor of trans
atlantic cable, and the only good that
came of the ill-starred venture was
perhaps to expedite the sale OF Alaska
to the United States, and certainly to
set George Kennan to investigating the
Siberian convict system. If the tele-
graph company preferred transat-
lantic route Of only $500 miles to an
overland route Of $4,000 miles, we are
inclined TO think SO travellers in 100
would prefer getting to Europe by a
weeks trip across the ocean rather
than by three weeks trip by rail
chiefly through sub-arctic deserts.