Siberia 



323 



RUSSIAN POWER 



The Russian Empire is the largest 

 economic unit in the world, and disposes 

 of a larger capital than any other cor- 

 poration, all under the impulse of a sin- 

 gle will. In Siberia more than one-third 

 of the land — that is, more than i ,700,000 

 square miles — is the property of the gov- 

 ernment. To open up the fields, and 

 utilize the rivers, and work the mines, 

 and push the industries, and swell the 

 armies, only men are needed, and we 

 have seen how every possible facility 

 and encouragement is afforded by the 

 government to the desirable colonist. 

 The supremacy of mind over the ob- 

 stacles of nature is as yet far from com- 

 plete. Though man can resist heat 

 and cold better than any other animal, 

 he is still profoundly affected b^^ its ex- 

 tremes. Science, at the rate of five or 

 six miles an hour, can drive the ironclad 

 of 2,000 or even 10,000 tons through 

 ice 8, 10, and 12 feet in thickness, and 

 between the piled-up frozen walls open 

 a path for commerce to follow in its 

 wake. Each coming year is to see, as 

 each recent year has seen, some new ad- 

 vance over barriers once deemed impass- 

 able, some new victory over obstacles 

 once deemed invincible. What may not 

 limitless resources effect when put at the 

 disposal of profound sagacity and of 

 absolute will ! 



Material advancement is by no means 

 all nor is it the chief consideration. The 

 whole Russian political system has been 

 built upon the broad substructure of 

 Slavic nature as that nature has been 

 shaped by its geographic environment. 

 However repugnant to every instinct of 

 our American life that system may be, 

 it is no creation of accident or arbitrary 

 caprice, but of the inflexible circum- 

 stances that determined its form. In 

 new conditions in the larger area and on 

 an even vaster scale, it is again to be 

 adjusted in the manner most congenial 

 and most beneficial to the Slav. 



A RUSSIAN MONROE DOCTRINE 



In America we still cherish the Mon- 

 roe Doctrine and regard it as an essential 

 part of our international law. Russia's 

 boundaries in Asia stretch for more than 

 4,000 miles along the frontiers of Asiatic 

 states, and she is vitally affected by the 

 conditions, by the disturbances and dis- 

 orders existing in those states. In com- 

 parison, no other European nation is 

 affected by them. By what might be 

 called a Russian Monroe Doctrine, which 

 would be as justifiable and as logical as 

 our own, Russia might claim to be the 

 sole guardian, and, in necessit}^, the 

 sole arbiter of her Asiatic neighbors. 

 Siberia and the Trans-Siberian Railway 

 are in time to render such procedure a 

 fact. Russia, not so much pursuing a 

 definite Eastern policy as fitting in to 

 the exigencies of her Eastern situation, 

 has acted and still acts in the old hemi- 

 sphere exactl}^ as the United States have 

 acted and still act in the new. She has 

 simply conformed to the law of her be- 

 ing and to the logic of events. The 

 ' ' rectification of frontiers ' ' to the ad- 

 vantage of the more powerful has been 

 the course which the greater states 

 without exception have followed from 

 the beginning and will probably follow 

 to the end of time. The continuous 

 history of the United States and of 

 Great Britain in particular debar those 

 nations from drawing up indictment 

 against Russian aggression in Manchu- 

 ria or anj^where else. Maladministered 

 by the Chinese as far as it has been ad- 

 ministered at all, never an integral part 

 of China proper, the already virtually 

 accomplished absorption of Manchuria 

 b}^ Russia furthers the welfare and 

 prosperity of that province and of the 

 Eastern world. 



RUSSIA AND THE EAST 



The recent troubles in China present 

 only an acute but temporary phase of the 



