688 



RUSSIA. 



the autumn of 1898 the completed part had a length 

 of 3,230 miles. Before the end of the year the rails 

 were laid 40 miles further to the west shore of Lake 

 Baikal at Lisvenitchaia, whence the cars will have 

 to be transported by boat about 40 miles to the 

 other side of the lake. The chief engineering diffi- 

 culties were found east of Irkutsk, where there were 

 still 1,600 miles to be built before reaching the Pa- 

 cific. The work was carried on from both ends. 

 On the Siberian line only Russian materials and 

 native laborers were employed. The journey from 

 Irkutsk to Moscow now occupies nearly twelve days. 

 The traffic over the completed parts of the line has 

 been much greater than was anticipated. The Si- 

 berian Railroad, though the journey begins at Mos- 

 cow, starts from Cheliabinsk, 160 miles east of the 

 frontier between Siberia and Russia proper. The 

 original route from Cheliabinsk to Vladivostok was 

 4,740 miles, but the short cut through Manchuria 

 has greatly reduced the distance. Throughout the 

 summer and autumn of 1898 the rails were put 

 down at the rate of 4 miles a day. The railroad is 

 a single track with a siding every 4 miles and one at 

 each of the stations, leaving the main line always free 

 for through traffic. The stations, which are 15 or 20 

 miles apart, are well built of brick or stone and well 

 equipped. The railroad that is being built through 

 Manchuria to Port Arthur (see CHINA) will make 

 this port on the China Sea the earliest and the 

 principal eastern terminus of the line, rather than 

 Vladivostok. As a consequence the original plan 

 was changed, even the second plan was amended, 

 and the new scheme is being reconsidered in favor 

 of a more direct route to Port Arthur. 



Posts and Telegraphs. The post office in 1896 

 carried 242.306,000 internal and 31.684.000 foreign 

 letters, 47,376,000 internal and . 6,535,000 external 

 postal cards, 221.842,000 internal and 22,619,000 

 external newspapers and circulars, and 17,052,000 

 internal money letters of the declared value of 20,- 

 119,269,000 francs and 521,000 foreign ones of the 

 value of 390,468,000 francs. The telegraphs had in 

 1896 a total length of 83,386 miles, with 168,068 

 miles of wire. There were 12,364,338 internal mes- 

 sages in 1896, 1,012,449 sent abroad, 1,030,595 

 received from abroad, 185,247 in transit, and 1,000,- 

 129 connected with the service ; total, 15,592,758. 

 The receipts were 56,903,224 francs ; the expenses 

 of posts and telegraphs together, 121,945,008 francs ; 

 receipts of the post office, 169,825,304 francs. 



The Spirit Monopoly. The Government mon- 

 opoly of the liquor trade, which was introduced first 

 in 1895 into the provinces of Perm, Ufa, Orenberg, 

 and Samara, in the following year into nine more 

 provinces, and in 1897 into seven more, was on Jan. 

 1, 1898, extended to Poland and five more provinces, 

 including St. Petersburg, so that it is now in opera- 

 tion in about half of European Russia. The primary 

 object was to put an end to the grievous influence 

 of the retailers of spirits on the moral or economic 

 condition of the people. No compensation was 

 given to the retailers who were not employed under 

 the new system, but some was given to communities 

 and municipalities whose revenues suffered. The 

 Government expected no increase of revenue except 

 such as might result from the cessation of abuses 

 and the improvement in the general economic con- 

 dition of the people. Spirits of a deleterious char- 

 acter are not sold at all. The manufacture still 

 remains in the hands of private persons, but no 

 distillery is allowed to produce more than its 

 greatest production during one of the three years 

 preceding the establishment of the monopoly in 

 the district, and no new distillery is to be erected 

 nor any old one reopened without the consent of the 

 Government. It was expected that the system 

 would aid the small agricultural distiller and place 



him on an equal footing with the great industrial 

 distiller. The monopoly does not extend to beer or 

 wine. The amount of spirits required in each district 

 is fixed by the Minister of Finance, and two thirds of 

 this quantity is furnished by local distilleries at a 

 fixed price, while the remaining third is acquired 

 by contract. Spirits required by manufacturers of 

 liquors must be purchased from the Government, 

 which makes itself responsible for proper rectifica- 

 tion and permits no sales of unrectified spirits. The 

 rectification is done in Government establishments, 

 whence the spirits are issued for sale to the dealers. 

 They are issued in bottles of different sizes, with 

 the quantity, strength, and price marked on the 

 labels. The prices must not be increased, the only 

 interest of the seller being a small commission that 

 he receives from the Government. With few ex- 

 ceptions, the bottles must not be opened on the 

 premises. The reports from the provinces where 

 the system was first tried were satisfactory. There 

 has been a marked decrease of drunkenness, and 

 the Government incidentally made considerable 

 profits. In St. Petersburg the system has encoun- 

 tered much opposition on account of the large 

 number of persons thrown out of employment. 



Proposal for the Reduction of Armaments. 

 On Aug. 24 the Minister of Foreign Affairs, by 

 order of the Emperor, communicated to the for- 

 eign ambassadors a proposal for an international 

 conference on the preservation of peace and partial 

 disarmament in the following document : 



" The maintenance of universal peace and a pos- 

 sible reduction of the excessive armaments which 

 weigh upon all nations in the present condition of 

 affairs all over the world represent the ideal aims 

 toward which the efforts of all governments 

 should be directed. 



" This is the view which fully corresponds with 

 the humanitarian and magnanimous intentions of 

 his Majesty the Emperor, my august master. 



" Being convinced that this high aim agrees with 

 the most essential interests and legitimate require- 

 ments of all the powers, the Imperial Government 

 considers the present moment a very favorable one 

 for seeking by way of international discussion the 

 most effective means of assuring for all peoples the 

 blessings of real and lasting peace, and above all 

 things for fixing a limit to the progressive develop- 

 ment of present armaments. 



" During the last twenty years aspirations toward 

 general pacification have grown particularly strong 

 in. the consciences of civilized nations. The pres- 

 ervation of peace has been made the aim of inter- 

 national policy ; for the sake of peace the great 

 powers have, formed powerful alliances, and for 

 the purpose of establishing a better guarantee of 

 peace they have developed their military forces in 

 an unprecedented degree and continue to develop 

 them in spite of every sacrifice. 



" All these efforts, however, have not yet led to 

 the beneficent results of the desired pacification. 

 The ever-increasing financial burdens attack pub- 

 lic prosperity at its very roots. The physical and 

 intellectual strength of the people, labor and capital. 

 are diverted for the greater part from their natural 

 application and wasted unproductively. Hundreds 

 of millions are spent to obtain frightful weapons of 

 destruction which, while being regarded to-day as 

 the latest inventions of science, are destined to- 

 morrow to be rendered obsolete by some new dis- 

 covery. National culture, economical progress, and 

 the production of wealth are either paralyzed or 

 turned into false channels of development. 



"Therefore, the more the armaments of wli 

 power increase the less they answer to the purposes 

 and intentions of the governments. Economic dis- 

 turbances are caused in great measure by this sys- 



