The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-04-28
SIBERIA GREAT STOREHOUSE OF
 LATENT RICHES

OMSK, Siberia, April 8.-A. F Correspondence.-Before the war the trans-Siberian express trains made the journey from Vladivostok to Paris in thirteen days, and from vladivostok to Omsk, the seat of the All-Russian government. in six days Recently special American Red Cross trains, Young Mems Christian As sociation trains and troop trains re Quired from twenty to twenty-five days to cover the distance from Vladivostok to the temporary seat of the provisional government.
 General disorganization, lack of To. comotives and rundown passenger and freight cars were the great causes of this time-consuming trip The slow travelling cars had, how ever, one advantage, among long list of inconveniences, discomforts and even some danger, and that was that it afforded Americans an oppor tunity to glean some conception of the vastness of Siberia and learn something of the ways of the Russian people.
 In Russia "Sei tschass" Gimme diately) does not always mean i'm mediately. Very often 1t signifies tomorrow or the next day after that The lack of steady and regular ap plication of the Russian workmen in his labor and what is called the "silent resistance" to foreign ideas as to how things should be done, is be. lieved to be one of the chief diff culties to be encountered in the re. organization of the railroads as ar. ranged for by an international com. mission under the technical direction of the American Stevens commission.
 The popular way of explaining the vastness of Siberia is to say that il would contain all of Europe and the United States and then Germany and Austria over again. Siberia is equivalent to one-thirteenth of the continental surface of the terrestial globe. It is two and one-half times bigger than European Russia and twenty-five times as big as the re- cent German empire.
 The province of government of Yenesei, thru which the great Yene. sci river flows majestically, contains nearly 47,000 square miles of land The district of Tobolsk. which is bounded on the west by the Ural mountains and extends northerly tt the Gulf of Obi and the Arctic re gions, Is an immense district esti mated to be about 27.0O0 square miles. Siberia, in its entirety. meas ures 24S.000 geographical square miles. While 1t has been very gen erally travelled over by Rus sian explorers and scientists 1t might still be called. like Mongolia the Hand of the unknown"
 Certainly. it is entirely undevelop ed. It's mineral wealth IS prodiglous and only awaits the coming, when peace has come, of the man with the capital, brains and some aptitude ir knowing the character and ways O. the people. Gold, silver, platinum and copper mines are plentiful. II the south towards the Caucasus pc troleum oil Is so abundant that fires may be lighted with the oil as 1 oozes from the rocky surface.
 One hears on all sides the desire expressed that American business men come to Siberia and develop tho country. The industrial and civil prosperity of the United States is regarded longingly by the people ol Russia. They compare the natura richness of Siberia to that of the CnIte.: States and arc convinced tha, with American enterprise Siberis may some day attain something o1 the same stage of development bringing with it, perhaps. some meas ure of that national comfort ant happiness of which the Russian peo pie dream,