The Bismarck tribune., 1919-04-10
SIBERIA LAND
OF DISTANCES
ANDTARDINESS
Vast Territory to Be Covered
and Poor Service Make
Travel a Gamble
SEEK AMERICAN ENERGY
Would Have Capital and Men
From United States De-
velOp Great Country
SEEK AMERICAN ENERGY

Omsk, Siberia, Feb. 11.-(Corres-
pondence of The Associated Press. j.
Before the war the Siberian ex-
press trains made the journey from
Vladivos'ok to Paris in thirteen days,
and from VladivoJosk to Omsk, the
seat of the Ail.Russian government,
in six days. Recently special Ameri-
can Red Cross trains, Young Mems
Christian Association trains alt, =. "a
trains required from 20 to 25 days to
cover the distance from Vladivostok
to the temporary seat of the provi-
sional government.
General disorganization, lack of To-
comotives and rundown passenger
and freight cars were the great
causes Of this me-consuming trip.
The slow travelling cars had, however,
one advantage; among a long list of
Inconvenience, "discomforts and even
some danger, and that was that it af-
forded Americans an opportunity to
CLEAN some conception of the vastness
Of Siberia and learn something of the
ways of the Russian people. .
In Russia "Sei tschass" (immedi-
ately) does not always mean immedi
ately. Very often it signifies tomor-
row, or the next day after that. The
lack of steady and regular application
Of the Russian workmen in his labor
and what is called the "silent resis-
tance" to foreign ideas as to how
things should be done, is believed to
be one of the chief difficulties to be
Lo rf
the railroads as arranged for by, an
international commission under the
technical direction of the American
Stevens commission. ,, .....s.
The popular way of explaining the
vastness of Siberia is to say that it
would contain all Of Europe and the
United States and then Germany and
Austria over again. Siberia is equiva-
lent to one-thirteenth of the continen-
tai surface of the terrestrial globe. 1t
is q l-2 times bigger than European
Russia and 25 times as big as, the re-
cent German Empire.
The PROVINCE. or. government OF
Yenesei through which the great
Yenesei river flows majestically, con-
'tains nearly 47,OO0 square miles of
land, and the district of Tobolsk,
which is bounded on the west by the
Ural mountains and extends northerly
to the Gulf of Obi and the Arctic re-
gions, is an immense district estimated
to be about $4,000 square miles. ST.
IBERIA, in its entirety, measures 246 900
geographical square miles" While it
has been very generally Travelled over
by Russian explorers and scientists it
might still be called, like Mongolia,
the "land of the unknown"
Certainly, it is entirely undeveloped:
It's mineral wealth is prodigiors and
only awaits the coming, when peace
has come, of the man with capital,
brains, and some aptitude in knowing
the character and ways of the people.
Gold, silver, platinum and copper
mines are plentiful In the south to-
wards the Caucasus, petroleum oil is
so abundant that fires may be lighted
with the oil as it oOzes from the rocky
surface.
One hears on all sides the desire ex-
pressed that American business men
come to Siberia and develop the cour-
try. The industrial and civic pros
perity of the United States is regarded
longingly by the people Of Russia
They compare the natural richness of
Siberia to that of the United States
and are convinced that with American
enterprise Siberia may some day at
tain something of the same stage of
development, bringing with it, per-
haps, some measure of that national
comfort. and happiness of which the
Russian peOple dream, Il