Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1900 — TWO REMARKABLE MEN. [ARTICLE]

TWO REMARKABLE MEN.

Are Connected with the Great Railroad Progress of Russia. In the awakening throughout Russia some very remarkable men have come to the front. One of them has a history which reads like a romance. He was born in 1859 and was of the peasant class. To-day he is in all renext to the czar himself in power; in many respects greater than the czar. This young peasant had a position in the railway service. He gave his thought to the great problems of transportation which he saw would come up in the development of his country. The war with Bulgaria broke out and the getting of the troops to the front was the all-impor-tant problem. The usual official orders were issued. He was assistant station master and his chief was away. ' He disregarded the orders and he was

at once scheduled for Siberia, but the investigation of his insubordination did not proceed very far before it broke upon his judges that his genius had saved the czar’s troops from destruction. The work was promptly recognized and he was made a director in the Imperial railway. Then step by step be became the minister who has not only reformed Russia’s finances so that they command the respect and tlie confidence of the world, but lias made possible the vast schemes of railway construction which are one of the marvels of the closing century. The peasant boy’s name was Sergius Witte. He is now the great M. de Witte, with the title of count and the admiration cf the world.

Even more important than the rail- , road development which M. de Witte j has aided in Russia is his complete reform of the financial systems of the I 1 country. With a revenue of considerably over a billion dollars a year, Rusj sia was falling behind several millions i annually with nothing specially to . show for it. No better indication of I the cliange could be found than the J fact that American bankers recently loaned to the Russian government the extraordinary sum of $25,000,000. This, though a fine sign of confidence, was at the same time a good stroke of . business on the part of Americans, for as Russia is purchasing about a mili lion dollars* worth of American, manufacturesevery month the money will, ' after all, be kept near home.

The working man of Russia’s railway development is Prince Hilkoff, | who took the regular course in prac- 1 tical railroading, and who traveled around the world .studying all sides of the transportation question before becoming the practical head of Russia’s railway system. And it is he who expectsthisyear to make a trip around the world in 40 days, going by way of the route he has built across Siberia. These men are strong in experience, and they have brought a new,element ' of strength to the power of Russia by . rigid integrity in official work. Their -examples will naturally be followed ' by many strong men in Russia, and I the development will doubtless be fol- ■ lowed by large results,—Saturday ! Evening Post.