Show Commtft Conquest of Tar East Market For Millions of Dollars of Trade Developed in Two YearsEffect on Chinese Partition Par-tition Jtt Sergey Friede Tells How He Introduced American Goods Manchuria Making Completion of TransSiberian Road Possible The TranfcSibemn railroad will be 1 completed within on > yearto all practical prac-tical purposes by the time navigation opens in the spring 6eeral years in advance of the expectation of all Europe save Russia Travelers may take an unbroken railway journey which will be more than twofifths of the distance around the earth Russia will have a line of steel through her vast territories she will hae accomplished accom-plished one of the greatest victories of all time Great are the battles that are fought in time of peace is the keynote key-note of Russian policy as expressed by the czar and this great railroad I I s a double triumph commercial in f which America shares and political in which China is vitally mteresteS Without doubt the much discussed 1 eastern question is twlved The Russian Rus-sian hold the key Her policj in Asia I is distinctly to pieserve the Independence Independ-ence and integrity of China Meantime I Russia helps herself to what she I wishes the gaining of Manchuria now makes her domain exceed in extent that of England The new railroad extending ex-tending as it will soon to the v erj walls of Pekln will make much more possible possi-ble for the northern empire It is a significant fact that wherever Russia I builds a railroad the country surrounding surround-ing becomes Russian I It is to American skill and ingenuity that a large share of credit for this commercial triumph should go Three years ago America was not represented in the Siberian railway construction market she has since displaced all other nations Earl in 97 M Sergey Friede a prominent member of the I Engineers club of New York became I convinced that American implements and railway supplies could be sold in < eastern Siberia He vas thoroughly familiar with conditions there and had as he said perfect confidence in the Twbibilltieb of America The tory o Americas oemmeicial conquest in Manciiuria and Siberia Is one of the most interesting chapters in the history of the railroad When I reached Vladivostok said 1 Mr Tiiede 1 found that the local engineer engi-neer would 110t listen to what they regarded as wild stories of wjiat Amenca could do in the line of manufacture I manu-facture of tools and machinery The great Russian engineer Iugovitch was off in Manchuria on his ay to Sun I gar river So I executed a flank movement ment went to Newchwanf and bj goIng go-ing north intercepted the Russian party near the Sunprari liver I found these men were willing to hear what I had to say At that time everything was being be-ing supplied bj England and German English manufacturers thought Russia had to come to them and that no other country could compete and Russia would have gone to them as she had before if I had not gone there and lold of the possibihiaes of America It is curious to note that before this time America export trade with Russia Rus-sia amounted to a very little I remember when I first told the engineers that America could supply nails cheaper than England could Mr Friede went on they laughed at meAt me-At the present time there are no other nails there except the American Then f there was the question of Englands t supplying the commercial Iron As a matter of fact this iron was ordered bj me in this count afterwards In the case of rails Russia intended to supply these herself but found that her own mills could not turn them out as quickly as they were nee Y1and America came in again The first order or-der was for 30000 tons The joke of it was that the order was placed with t an American firm through an English agency How did you succeed in turning Russian attention our watt wa-tt Well I took with me catalogues of American material in railroad construction I con-struction I first told them what we could do They were not willing to believe be-lieve me They would ask How much is so and so and Can you compete with England They had no idea of America as an exporting nation It was therefore not always a question r of price but Is there such a place asa as-a America here the can really do these things The Russian idea was that Americans were bluffers They thought we bragged a lot but could do little I To a Russian America vvai > known as I f ankeeland Even the word Yankee t Yan-kee is adopted into the Russian language lan-guage and it is the name by which I an enterprising man goes They connected con-nected enterprise with Yankee because they knew of us as > inventors of sewing I sew-ing machines telcphones phonographs and wonders of delicate mechanism In the regular way of industry machinery of heavy and powerful kind they did not think it possible that America knew I an thins about manufacture When I offered them American boilers they laughed at the Idea of Americas making mak-ing boilers They were importing boilers boil-ers from England and thought that boiler made outside of England were not worth anything The English by the way took advantage of this idea by charging a good big price When I came into the market I offered boilers for about half of what the English manufacturers were demanding So strong prejudice did Mr Friede find against American tools and machinery I ma-chinery that when he offered our goods to the engineers he had to duplicate English or German machines In fact much of the machinery was known only as English or German American machines were said to be lightthey 1 looked well and could do strange I tricks but were not massive What better proof said Mr Friede so emphaticallj that one could not help sharing his enthusiasm and conviction what better proof Is there for the superiority of American machinery than the fact that an American machinery ma-chinery plant is now beIng set up with complete equipment in the capital of Germany The facts speak for themselves them-selves Before Mr Friede opened up to our country the vast possibilities of trade In the far east few American machines found their way into Russian territory and these only after being bought for the German market shipped to Germany Ger-many and from there sent along with German goods into Russia America had never directly approached the industrial in-dustrial market m Russia or Siberia before I went to the consumer Mr Friede continued tp the consumer whom I knew would be a big consumer I knew there must be a great demand for railway rail-way construction material and it was only a question of telling the consume that I had a better machine than he was using could deliver it sooner and give it to him for a cheaper price than any other country could In addition to this I told them that we could turn our good out much faster than any foreign manufacturer and no matter how large the order we could take care of it As for transportation ve are further away but we have two ways of getting there while Germany and England have but one We reach from both sides The usual way is of course by ship from New York and through Suez but when we must save time we send overland and snip across the Pacific I am paying hundreds of dollars for freight in order to get train Wads of stuff over to Vancouver Seattle Seat-tle Portland and San Francisco From our Pacific ports the goods are taken to the terminus of the JapanNagasaki line and transshiped right into Siberia Forty locomotives are now on their way and sixty more will soon follow American steel rails to the extent of 50000 tons will be laid in Manchuria and large orders are being filled here for electric supplies and material for equipment of cars and stations Railroad Rail-road cross ties from Oregon tools from Ohio steel rails and locomotives from Pennsylvania will make parts of this great railroad and its furnishings To what extent has America been able to overcome the English and German Ger-man market In everything exclaimed Mr Friede Everything from a nail to anything you can think of in railway construction we have been able to sell in Siberia We have driven all competitors com-petitors from the field Why what else could they do We had the best machinery and building material could sell it cheaper and get it there quicker than any other country Does that not speak well for American skill and industry But I had absolute conii dence in our ability I was confident of success before I started and I was not a bit disappointed A great change oU feeling toward America as an industrial nation took place after the introducton of American Amer-ican tools and methods and not a few odd results When the first rock drill was put nto operation the coolies went on a strike It was an American characteristic which might better have JJr V Hr I not been introduced The natives I thought dynamite a work of the devil The Cossack guard however not belonging I be-longing to the coolie union perhaps refused to join the strike and after tying up the road for three days the frightened natives went back to work It is difficult to estimate even com merciallj the effect of this great railroad rail-road Millions of acres of the most productive wheat land in the world is being opened up foe cultivation The vast territory of Siberia has almost I boundless resources A short time ago Czar Nicholas II announced his plan to abolish the Siberian exile system Australia was once Englands venal colony and great as are the capacities V V ON OP TMe FISS T Atlartttf ¼ p4 V V V LOCOMOTvenuHa V V aN TH J V V sEr 3IacRIAN lOAD f i I I P M rltl t1 1 i M t THROUG Miitfl 1J > 5 V V t I j L j5a JiL V r V 1 JIi Friede and Bussian and Chinese Officials Going Over a New Section of the Trans Siberian Road of Australia they are not to be compared com-pared with those of Siberia Russia builds towns along the line of her great railroad and then populates them I Manchuria is being settled in just this way now The other nations are waking I up to the fact that Russia is the most active power in the world With the aid of American methods and Implements Imple-ments she is completing her road rears ahead of the time estimated by the imperial engineers Great are the battles bat-tles that are fought in time of oeace and Russia is winning great battles nov She is settling the Chinese aues tion in a new and energetic wave She is civilizing China by industries Wherever Wher-ever Russia goes rapid change takes place Manchuria is awakening from asleep a-sleep of centuries and the whistle of steam engines on railways and in shops is a good alarm clock It is plain th it England does not cleanly appreciate how rapidly the Russians are moving As late as August of the present y Ira Ir-a prominent London weekly referring to Manchuria and the transcontinental railway makes this statement Those who knev this corner of Manchuria Man-churia ip the sleepy days when the I mandarins held uncontested sway will probalrty be very much astonished when the curtain is rjung up by the I present acting managers and the world is invited to send its ships and merchandise mer-chandise into the new Russian ports The English evidently believe that they still have font or five years before they need to worry about keeping Russia Rus-sia out of Mongolia and Korea The United States is not striving for a political polit-ical foothold in China but in median1 hail and mercantile affairs our people are gaining a strong place in the far east Less than three years > ago not a single American product was sent direct into Siberia Todav American locomotives I locomo-tives null American cars laden with American machinery V oyer American rails which American V tools have put into place The United States has been far seeing enough through the energy of her industrial forces to get what Lord Curzon calls an intelligent appreciation ap-preciation of ev ents before they occur We have been able to participate in one of th6 big battles of peace 1 What civilizing force can be compared to the railroad And where is civilizatIon more neededthan in the countries now being opened up9 V V V Russia is illd night anl I day to complete the link which will plate her Pacific coast ithm ten lavi of t Petersburg and has been pushing the work with feverish hstr MV ince the ChinaTainn war opposed to the world the internal l weakness of the Chinese eirpir Port Ai thu Was the price of Ru sinninf l ferfnce then It was fie one r > piiz Itusa a wanted Within three weks after Port Arthur was taken bV ti lUu < = an I baa oriara to 5hip hly construction material there faTiia Mr 1rt 11 It was an astonishing tat jnet and l showed clearly It 1l a g attitude Port Arthur vas a point hifi naI to 1e connected with < iili7c utia ll I low or when or where the route should go through was not thought of The circumstance cir-cumstance recalls the old stOry of the first Czar Nicholas Moscow and St Petersburg he wanted joined by rail Engineers went out and after months of labor made a careful survey When the chief engineer came up before Nicholas he began to explain from his diagrams There is a mountain here which we want to go around here is a river to be bridged here rights of way are in question etc Enough of this cried the czar where is the V map V A map was given him and taking a ruler and a iqncilthe I czar drv a straight line betweenthe to cities There build it there and there the road was built V i f tii db l1 The second JXicholas evidently has I some of fe characteristics flltfs famous fa-mous ancestor for todaj he pursuing i i the same policy of doing the important i I thing easilj i perhaps if possible but doing it anyway int spite ot anv obstacle ob-stacle Russia can work wonj rs with Americas help V She hitS discovered that ve can deliver faetteir material at a cheaper price monies before any of the 1 uiopean nations Therein is Amerlcas triumnh and yet what has 1 already teen done Isonhy ajsmali thing compared to what will com when ch6 civilizing forces of factories and mills shall be spread through the V newly opened countries Such avvarcening no one dared dream oC a feV years ago The first railroad built in China vas torn up and destroyed bY the natives Now everything Is ctyinged and progress prog-ress is no longer impeded Thousands of coolies work on the railroads ia China and Manchuria J 2flOoO Work in and about Port Arthur on the farilnca tions while an army of CoSsacks kojeps I guard Commercial progress is the I order of the day But ft few hundred miles of the road remain to be built and 100 miles are bunt every ironth The work goes on from many centers coolies working and Cossacks guaidlng all along the line American machinery is used everywhere Towns are being built trainload after trainload of supplies sup-plies brought into Siberia and Manchuria Man-churia Development cultivation and manufacture go on constantly V By next summer the whole of the country will be open For 100 one will be abl i togo to-go firstclass from St Petersburg to Port Arthur perhaps even > to Pekm Then wIll come a new era for Siberia a new history for Russia and ia wonderful won-derful field for American energy and industry HENRY HERBERT V e < AI > V |