The Alaska daily empire., 1915-09-02
Q Q Q Q q. [. q. e e q 9 Q 4 q c e g. @ ECONOMIC CONDITION OF @ RUSSIA @

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 With the grcatest wholesale destruc- ton of treasure in all history taking place, with wnr-wrought losses piling lup in such stupendous ageregates as. no panic ever caused, the question as to how long each of Che belligerents can stand the fearful strain upon it's resources is becoming as important and fully as interesting as are any of those stirring questions growing out or the purely military phase of the world war. In a bulletin just issued the National Geographical society sketches the pre-war economic condi- tion of Russia, which, having ex- pended $S ,5OO,OOO,OOO having lost hun dreds of millions more, is facing an indefinite future of warfare undis- mayed, confident. The bulletin reads as follows:
 Before the War
 Commercial and industrial revolu- tions were stirring in Russia before the warl the work of opening up its magnificent domain was being rapid ly carried forward! plans for devel- oping it's almost unlimited resources were in process of confident organiza- ton; modern cities were springing up like mushrooms in rich Siberia; tex tile, metal and other industries were laying firm foundations, and foreign trades had been brought up to about $1, 800. .00O ,000. What has been called the most powerful country of the fu- ture' was finding itself, was preparing to enter upon the centuries of expan- sion that 1t will need to exhaust the possibilities of its boundless natural wealth.
 About two and one-half timse lar ger than the United States, with an area of S.650.000 square miles and @ population of 17OOO0,O0O, which is in- creasing at the rate Of 8,OOO.0OO year. ly, Russia's natural resources resem- ble those of this country, and are pro- portionate. It has nearly 900.OOO,O0O acres of forests-compared with the 544, 100000 acres of the United States much of it which, even now, is care fully administered. and which. one day, will be the worlds first source of timber. It has 25O.O0OO00 acres of land under cultivation, while this country has Q cultivated area about twice as great; but Russia can ex- pand her farm lands twenty-fold and stil leave virgin land to the future. It can become the granary of the world. While its mineral wealth has not been carefully surveyed, known supplies of petroleum, metals and fuel abound. Russia is continent in its- self. and likely, the richest of them all.
 Scarcely two score af years have passed since Russia began with ser ious purpose the task of her internal development. Progress, during the first 30 years of this period, was hesi- tant. In the last decade, however, 1t has doubled it's foreign trade, of which 56 per cent. is exports, still this foreign commerce is less than half that of the United States. But Russia before the war had scarcely begun to gather to gather steam for the prosecution of her tasks There remain hundreds of millions of acres of fat lands to be brought under the plow; tens of thousands of factory plants to build; rich mines to be op- ened; great railway and canal sys- tems to be built; millions of home builders to be moved into Siberia, the silver east of the Cars empire, and many millions of nliterates to be educated to a higher standard Of life and of efficiency.
 Russia is a vast storehouse of raw materials. and must for many years remain a purchaser of machinery and manufactured goods in increasing quantities Yet the mills of Russia consume S13O.OOOOOO worth of raw cotton annually. and Russian iron and steel rails have found their way into competition in the markets of the many bought more from Russia than any other three countries and sold to the Russians about half of all their imports. These two countries did a tremendous. thriving business with one another before the war and an im- mense stream of German capital was flowing into the northern empire for investment. England, Holland, Aus tralia, Hungary and Italy, in the or der named, followed Germany in bus mess with the Russians. German trade promotion was thoroughly or ganized throughout the land. and in Riga, Petrograd and Moscow names of thousands of German firms could be seen.
 'Foodstuffs formed about 65 per cent. of Russia's total export trade; raw materials and partly manufac- tured goods about 30 per cent and manufactures about per cent. Rus sia imports all those things that high ly developed and specialized coun- tries have for sale Therefore, Rus sian trade has been most valuable one for the older nations
 Russia, as are but few other great nations, is self-sustaining in the mat ter of raw materials, but the Musco- vite empire is dependent upon the factories of other lands for every step that it may take in the upward scale; it is even dependent upon for eign manufactures to maintain stand ards in its wide-sweeping territory as high as they are today. There are fa- bulous riches awaiting transmutation by Russian industry. but Russian in- dustry has hardly passed the birth.
 A Means Of Measurement
 "A platform is a very important