Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-17

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rendering no essential at
tribute of the Russian power IN
the northern two-thirds of the
country. The potential factor in
maintaining Russian Influence and su-
premacy in northern Manchuria Is,
of course, the Manchurian and Trans
Siberian railway system. Hardin, on
the great Sungari river, is the key TO
the railroad situation of all Eastern
Asia. It is the junction of the Trans
Siberian line from Europe with the
line eastward toward Vladivostok
and Khabarovsk, and the line south
ward to Japanese Manchuria, Korea
and China or itself Harbin is a Chi
cago, a Minneapolis and an Okla
homa City-the most wonderful city
in Asia in its capacity for surprising
the wayfarer.
It's magnificent railway station, done
in Fart nouveau, is a worthy, If incon-
gruous. center for the greatest system
of railway sidetracks possessed by
any junction on the Eurasian con-
tinent-suggestin the comparison to
Chicago Its red brick flour mills
which made bread for the Russian mil
lions during the Russian war are not
busy now-American flour can compete
with them right in Manchuria-but
they tell tale of a glorious past ana
augur a splendid future. They make
Harbin the Minneapolis of the Old
World. And when one reflects that
there was not one stick or stone to be
called a human habitation in the great
tract now covered by New Harbin
when the Russian railroad pioneers
came here in 1897, one cannot but be
reminded of our great American mir
acle of Oklahoma City. Old Harbin
hundred people, and 1t now has a pop
ulation of thousands. But 1t Is the
Russian city of New Hardin which Is
the subject of discussion, both political
and industrial.
Harbin is as wonderful as the Okla
homa metropolis in growth, but 1t is
much wilder and wickeder than even
the more ancient boom towns of the
American west. Immense buildings and
broad streets of noble dimensions,
parks and squares, churches and the
aters. make 1t almost impossible to be-
lieve that this was nothing more than
a bare prairie twelve years ago. But
when one remembers that this was not
done under the favorable circum-
stances which surrounded the building
of Oklahoma, but in spite of the op-
position of the Chinese who rightly
owned the territory, in spite of 6O0O
miles separation from the base of sup
plies. and In spite of the greatest war
of the history of mankind ending in a
defeat of the Russians; then the stu
pendous power of Muscovy may be
realized. Corruption in official life, So
cial and moral rottenness, military IN
eptitude, criminal carelessness, archalc
bureauracy-not any Of these Internal
Affections of the Russian nation, nor
a combination of all of them, has been
sufficient to check the numbering on
ward movement of the cars empire.
The visitor in Harbin is warned
AGAINST pickpockets and confidence
men, and is advised not to wander
about alone after dark. The riffraff
and offscourings of twenty nations
were cast up here after the war and
the last of them and the most degraded
have not yet entirely disappeared.
Here in the cafes where the Russian
midnight appetite is appeased with
caviar and champagne taken in the
society of gay women, the reason why
the Russian armies we're defeated is
plainly to be seen. Whatever betides,
the Russian still will toast Vein, Webb
und Gesang.
The war period, when the cafe keep
ers and the women adventurers reaped
q rich harvest Of gold, has passed
away, but Hardin has not yet lost all
of It's gayety; and It's Wtckedness has
not decreased in degree, even If the
quantity has fallen off. The combina-
ten of cafe keepers, cab drivers and fe-
male adVenturers in Harbin Is said to
be one of the closest corporations In
the world.
1t was over the right to rule this
city, splendid public buildings, huge
flour mills, magnificent shops and all
the rest that the issue between China
According to the treaty of Portsmouth,
the Russians have the right to hold
the railroad and to use it for CONNER
cial and industrial development, but
not for strategic purposes. AS is usual
ly the case, the Interpretation of the
treaty led to dispute. The Russians
set up the claim in the NORTH as did
the Japanese In the south, that the
control Of the railroad carried with it
the entire and sovereign control over
al; connections and appurtenances OF
the system. AS the city Of Hardin was
laid out by the railroad surveyors, was
built by the railroad and did not exist
until the railroad came, and never
would have been built without the rail-
road, Russia continued after the mill
tary evacuation to govern the city.
The Chinese protest against this ac-
tion was prompt. The administration
Of justice and government In the coun-