568 The National Geographic Magazine 



into zones : Moscow covers particularly 

 textiles, sugar, and beer ; in the Baltic 

 iron, textiles, and ship building flour- 

 ish ; Poland produces textiles and tanned 

 goods ; in southern Russia the coal and 

 iron industries are predominant ; the 

 Ural zone is given over to minerals, 

 without coal ; Baku is well known the 

 world over for its oil productions. 



These industries had a tremendous 

 development, but overproduction and 

 wild speculation induced equally start- 

 ling collapses and bankruptcies. 



Foreign employers " all have a high 

 opinion of the skill and working powers 

 of the mujik (peasant), although in other 

 respects — sobriety, morality, education, 

 and honesty — they regard him as far 

 inferior to the artisan of western Eu- 

 rope." 



Of the workmen Villari says : 

 " They are underpaid, ill-fed, worse 

 housed, and are not cheap. The peas- 

 ant has great industrial possibilities, is 

 docile, quick to learn, but is without 

 initiative, careless, and needs constant 

 supervision." 



The artisan, however, "has a new 

 feeling of human personality and dig- 



THE NEW ERIE CANAL 



THE new Erie Canal, to which New 

 York is committed and which 

 will cost more than $100, coo, 000, is by 

 far the greatest work ever undertaken 

 by any state. The canal is overshad- 

 owed in the public mind by the Panama 

 Canal on account of the international 

 character and the interesting complica- 

 tions that have attended the inaugura- 

 tion of that work by the United States, 

 but in commercial importance the Erie 

 is in many ways the equal of the Panama 

 Canal. The canal is described in the 

 report of the Smithsonian Institution 

 for 1904, just published, by Col. Thomas 

 W. Symons,U. S. A. , who was so largely 

 instrumental in preparing the plans. 

 On the Panama it is hoped some time to 



nity," is inspired with new ideas^and 

 driven to new movements. 



Confirming Wallace's opinion, Villari 

 states that the Eastern Church is an 

 inert body, almost devoid of vitality. It 

 contributes little to the moral and in- 

 tellectual progress of the people, but 

 merely keeps them enslaved and igno- 

 rant. The average priest, his one 

 thought money exaction, is grasping,, 

 avaricious, and callous to the moral con- 

 dition of his flock. While the average 

 Russian is devoted to his faith and most 

 carefully observes its practices, yet ' ' the 

 liberal movement will render the abso- 

 lute domination of the church a thing of 

 the past." 



The elevation of the people is declared 

 essential, as " until the conditions of the 

 mujik are radically altered and improved,. 

 Russia can never hope to be really peace- 

 ful or prosperous." 



Altogether, the volumes of Wallace 

 and Villari are not only of current in- 

 terest and value, but will continue so 

 until the methods of Russian adminis- 

 tration are materially improved and the 

 rights of man are more generally recog- 

 nized and respected. 



reach a tonnage of 10,000,000 ; on the 

 Erie all works, structures, water sup- 

 ply, etc. , are predicted on a tonnage of 

 10,000,000, and provisions are made 

 for accommodating at slight additional 

 expense a tonnage greatly in excess of 

 this. On the upper Great Lakes there 

 is a water-borne commerce of very 

 nearly 90,000.000 tons per year. The 

 Erie Canal will furnish the cheapest 

 route for connecting this vast lake com- 

 merce with the seaboard, and its wide- 

 reaching influence can hardly be con- 

 ceived or appreciated except by those 

 who have given years of study to the 

 problem. 



In magnitude the work that New 

 York has undertaken exceeds the work 

 at Panama. More earth and rock must 

 be excavated, more masonry used, and 



