Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 30, 1903, Page 31

Czar and His People Capturing Asia WITH THE CZAR'S BOLDIERS IN MANCHURIA. (Copyright, 1903, by FKrank G. Carpenter.) T. PETERSBURG, Aug. 17.—(Spe- clal Correspondence of The Bee.) —I want to tell you what ths Russians are doing in Asla. Your papers are full of Manchuria, but they say nothing of the Russian advance- ment in the south and the west. The czar is pushing hls cmpire in every direction. He practically controls Persia. Prince Hile koff, the minlster of ways and communica« tions, tells me that the railroads will be extended on through Afg: an to India, and that the SBamarkand line, which 1s now far on its way through Turkistan, wiil eventually penetrate China, and be a part of a great rallroad system connecting the western part of that empire with European Russla. Bome colonizing is being done along the Mongolian frontier, and the trans-8i- berian railrond going a few miles north of it will eventually bring all the country be- yond the great wall into the hands of the czar, 4 Have you noticed how fast the Russians are swallowing up Asia? Manchuria is one-tenth as !argv as our country, includ- ing Alaska and our island possessions, but it 18 only one-twentiéth of Russian Aslay By far more than a third of that continent belongs to the czar. Asla has 17,000,000 square miles ,and Russia has almost 7,000,« 000. It has more than 6,500,000 without Man- churia, and it practically controls almost one-half of the continent. Figures are prosy, but these figures mean much, In central Asia alonc the Russians have a territory half as large as the whole United States. In Siberia they have enough land to cover the face of Eu:ope, with 1,500,- 000 square miles to spare, and eastern Si- beria alone is larger thun the United Btates without its outlylng colonies. Their total Asiatic dominlons are about twice the size of our country without the islands, and they have one-fourth as great a population. Just over the mountains about the Cas- plan sea Russla has a province known as North Caucasia, which is bigger than Kan- sas. It has a population of 4,00),000. Trans- Caucas!a is larger than Kansas and Massa- chusetts, with a population of 5,500,000, and western Siberia is about one-fourth as big as our country. There are many big towns In these Asi- atic dominions. Take Tiflis, in the Ciu- casus. It lies just over the border from Russia in Europe, but its people are Asi- atics, although iis governors are Russian. It has 160,000 and is a great cen er of trade. Baku, in the oil fields in the Casplan sea, has 112,000, while Tashkend ha: 136,00), Have you ever heard of Kokand? It is near the end of the Transcaspian road, north of India and not far from China. It i1s a great trading center and is growing like a green bay tree, It has$! 000, Samar- kand, a little farther west on the same line, has 064,000, and Namangan, beyond Kokand, has 21,0000 One of the projected raillroads will run north from Tashkend to connect with the Transsiberian, and this will greatly increase the size of that city. The road has already been built from Sa- mara to Orenburg, and it will join the Transsiberian at Cheliabinsk. There are a number of good sized towns in S8iberia, which are grow!nz rapidly. Tomsk has 32,000; Blagovesscensk, on the Amoor, is of about the same size, while Irkutsk, on the Transsiberian road, not far from Lake Baikal, has §1,000, There are a number of other citles of from 25,000 to 80,000, and the new city of Dalny, at the end of the Chinese Eastern railroad, has something like 50,000, and it is as yet hardly opened to settlement, Asiatic Russia is an enormous empire of undeveloped resources, It can only be compared to the United States. The wheat fields of Siberia and Manchuria could prob- ably feed Europe were they developed and fitted with means of transportation. The gouthern provinces have large cotton plan- tations, set out within the last few years, and over the Caucasus they are raising wine by the millions of gallons and to- bacco by the millions of pounds. In sev- eral provinces there the output of wine RUSSIANS OF TURKESTAN. ENOCH EMERY, THE GREAT SIBERIAN MERCHANT. amournts to 17,000,000 gallons a year. In two,districts alone they are annually rais- ing 31,000,000 pounds of tobacco, and in a third they have set out 200,000 acres of cot- ton, They have also mulberry plantations, and are now ralsing cocoon silk by the hundreds of millions of pounds, They are planting tea and expect to compete with the Chinese in the Russian markets. Russian Asia has excellent pastures and parts of it are already well stocked. I have the figures from the government. There are 6,000,000 horses, 5,000,000 cattle and about 20,000,000 sheep. An enormous dairying interest is growing up in western Siberia, yd tons of butter are shipped across European Russia to the Baltic and thence sent to London. Tt will be the same with cheese and poultry, so that Siberia may some dav be the chicken and dairy farm for the capitals of Europe, As to timber Asiastic Russia has not been prospected, although about 837,000,000 acres have been reported upon. Northern Siberia has some of the finest trees of the world, and along the Yenesel river there are vast areas of magnificent forest. The czar is now annually getting about §25,000,- 000 out of his timber lands, and this is just the beginning. In mines Asiastle Russia has every kind, from gold to iron, copper and lead. It has coal in the north and south, and its Asiatic oll flelds are now competing with ours in the Chinese and Indian markets, The Russians are pushing their oil trade in Manchuria to such an extent that our ex- ports have dropped more than 600,500 gal- lons during the past year. T displaced by Russian kerosent Indeed, the United States will have to push if it wants to hold its Manchurian trade. That country is growing fast in population and imports Its business has doubled In the last five years and at times within the last ten years it has increased from 100 to 500 per cent. At present a large part of the trade is American, and our trade grows, notwithstanding Russia's ad- vances. s has been B e R On some things, however, we are losing our Manchurian trade. We lost about 200,000 pieces in our exports of American drills in 1902 ‘over 1901, They were displaced by Russian cottons and by Chinese cloth inade on hand looms. The Russian cotton goods are excellent, but so far they not so well known as the American cottons. "The same is true of flour, but local milis are now being established along the trans- Siberian road, and its Chines2 eastern con- nection and Siberian wheat will compete with American wheat. The Russians will make very low freight rates for such things and sooner or later the czar will give a bounty to such goods as need it, and in this way will give his people the monopoly of the trade. After competition has been crowded out the bounty will be withdrawn and the prices raised. This has been the Russian policy in other Asiatic countries and it will probably be so in Manechuria and also later on in China. The Russian exporter and manufacturer has in fact the czar as his business partner. The whole empire is controlled by one man, and that combination to buck up against. Speaking of our trade with Russia, I met a8 Yankee in Moscow who has made $1,000,- 000 by selling American goods in Siberia, The man is Enoch Emery, and he comes from Cape Cod. His parents lived in Yar- mouth, Mass.,, and Enoch began life by going to Siberia as a clerk for Freeman Smith & Co., of San Francisco, who had a branch establishment at the mouth of the Amoor river, and shipped goods there for eale, This was thirty or forty years ago. Mr, Emery saw that there was money in the importation of American goods. He in- creased the trade, and was soon given charge of the business. Later on he saved enough so that he was able to buy out the American owners. He then established branches all along the river and in differ- ent parts of Siberia, and gradually became the largest merchant of that country. He has today more business than any Euro- pean in Sibeila, and carries on an lmmense trade in all sorts of wares. He sells vast quantities of American machinery and hardware, handles cottons and dry goods and does a big business in groceries and drugs. He trades with the government as well as with the farmers, and during the Chinese war he sold his river steamers to the czar at a good, round profit. He armed his own men then with American Winchesters and supplicd the troops with American hatchets and axes. He has, all told, brought sixty shiploads of American goods across the Pacific to Siberia, has becn around the world sixteen times during his trading ex- periences there, going over Asia on h-rse- back and in sledges, until he knows it Let- ter perhaps than any American now living. Mr. Emery told me that there is a big demand for American machinery in Si- beria. The people like our farm tools and will readily pay good prices for them. He said that he had himself introduced enougn American machinery to equal the labor of 100,000 men, and that the country was just beginning to be. He says the Russians are establishing settlements everywhere alonz the line of the railroad. They are building towns and villages and growing rich. The eastern part of the country is es- pecially adapted for the American marke and the trade between it and our Pacil slope will steadily increase. Mr. Emery says that our exporters should send their agents to Siberia and supply them with large stocks of goods, as the people wisnh to see what they are buying when they buy it. They do not like catalogues and want to handle the goods. I asked Mr. Emery about Manchuria. He said: ‘““There is no doubt but that Russia in- tends to keep it. It has sent 150,000 soldiers into the country, and many of these have their families with them., It is sending thousands of emigrants every year to Si- beria and Manchuria. The emigrants are given land and tools on long-time pay- ments. They hold the land as villages and not as individuals, although they can buy land as individuals if they wish. They are more free in Siberia than in Russia, and it may be in time that the empire will split and Siberia will have an independent government of its own.” The conversation turned to the trans- Siberian Tailroad and Mr. Emery said ‘“The success of the road is extraordinary It was prophesied that it would have ro business and on the supposition that the trafic would be light only light-weight rails were used. The traffic is enormously heavy and the result is that the rails are bending under the trains. It is indeed only a matter of time when the whole road have to be relaid at the cost of so like $25,000,000 or more. The old rails wiil be used for switches and short Lranca roads and the new ones, almost twice us heavy, will take their places.” Mr. Emery tells me that Russia i= havineg hard times and just at present there is prospect of better ones. The Chinese cost the country about $400,000,000, great public improvements which arc row under way have been heavy drains. Stochs have been falling for some time and miny of the banks are not in the best condit This is so all over Russia. I met the director of one of the big Rus- slan banks during a visit to the Moscow Stock exchange and had a chat with him about our trade prospects in Siberia ind Russia. He says that the openings good, but that the business should be ne with a blg capital and on a big scale and with agents who understand the country and the languages. *“A large part of the trade here,” sald the banker, “is with the governmment and your agents should be dip- lomats as well as financiers They need money to spend and should dress and en- tertain In good style. At present the Kng- lish and Germans are doing what they can to capture the trade, but the Englishman is behind the times and he will not change, the German is ready to change and does so to suit every demand, but he is too tricky re (Coutinued on Page Fifteen.) p—