The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-08-31
AMERICAN RAILS
IN THE ARCTIC
A Line That Will Open European
Russia to the Allies
COMMITTEE on Public information

COMMITTEE on Public Information)
The Allies are now marching into
Russia from the north. They are al
ready far south of Archangel, where
our marines joined them. The Ger
mans have again called upon Finland
to move against them. Presumably,
in any case the Germans themselves
will try to attack. And, from the map,
the new Murmansk railroad, parallel
ing the Finnish border as it does for
almost it's entire length, seems to of
fer the most vulnerable of open
fianks
But the Germans themselves know
better than that. The Murmansk rail-
road is about as far as possible from
being an open flank. And just now
ther is at least one man in America
who is in position to tell why That
is Vladimir Goriachlovsky, the big
Russian engineer who built it. 1t was
built in less than eighteen months
when, after nearly two years of war,
Russia found the absolute need of
having an ice-free port on the Arctic.
Goriachkovsky was chosen for the
job because he was an engineer who
had already solved many problems
his last work had been railroad
along the foot of the Altai noun.
tains and it was known that the
Murmansk would be a road of many
problems. And when it was planned
and located never for a moment was
it forgotten than it was a railroad
which sooner or later might be a
would-be object of attack.
Deliveries ON Schedule Time
But, first, to look at it only as a
railroad. 1t runs from Svanka, the
main line junction east of Petrograd,
six hundred miles north to Kola. It's
last two hundred miles is within the
Arctic Circle. and Kola is the world s
only Arctic railroad terminus. To
build the Murmansk in a year and a
half-it was finished in November,
1917 -1OO, 900 men and $4,000 horses
were put to work. And in one sense
it is an American railroad. For it
was built with American materials.
Three years before the marines
reached the White Sea, our ships and
our freight-handlers were going there
with rails and construction machine
ry. When no pick would open the
frozen ground, great fires were built
to thaw it for brigades of American
steam shovels. When it was found
impossible to get supplies through
from the south for the construction
camps, America was drawn upon for
the needed flour and bacon. And,
from first to last. it was found possi-
BILE to let everything rest and depend
upon American business system. In
this way:
When a railroad is to built in record
time, work must begin simultaneous
ly along almost the whole line. And
the tools and rails, the bridge work
| and supplies must be delivered as
near as is in any wise possible to the
particular section for which they are
designed. Well, when the right-of-
way was located, it was found that at
various points on the road there were
| adjacent points on the coast of Kola
Bay and the White Sea where il
might be possible for ships to make
a landing. If they could do it, and
make their deliveries exactly as per a
previously arranged schedule, whole
months could be saved. And our ships
did it. Despite German submarines
| waiting for them outside, and ice
bergs impeding traffic within, they
made their deliveries as per schedule
| Not day was lost, nor a meal. The
bacon and the steel arrived together