Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 174, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1913 — OUR FUTURE RAILWAY RIVAL [ARTICLE]

OUR FUTURE RAILWAY RIVAL

H Will Be Russia, Whleh Now Is Second to Us In Mileage. If it Is a question merely of bigness the Russian railway system is far and away the first in Europe. There are already many more miles of railway in this vast empire than in any other country in the world excepting the United States, and Russian railways are still only in their infancy. It Is of course quite true that there are now In the United States more miles of railway than in all Europe and almost as many as in all tho fest of tho world put together, and that our territory is so large and as yet se Bar from complete development that wo shall probably keep tho lead as tar aa railway enterprise is concerned fer a long time to come. But in taking these largo views, says Moody's Msgazin,, we have forgotten that Russia is two and a hall times as large as all tho United States put together with a population more than half as largo again as our own; that in territorial extent it is moro than twice as large as all Europe; that it stretches across tho world for 170 degrees of longitude—nearly half way around the globe—and that it includes one-sixth of the land surface of the planet .. _ It is not surprising that in such a country railways should have had a largo development, that already there is a oonsidorable mileage and that tho prospects in this direction seem to have no limit. In tho future Russia and the United States are likely to di* vide the railway empire of tho world between them.