Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1918 — Siberia Has Vast Resources. [ARTICLE]

Siberia Has Vast Resources.

The common notion of Siberia Is based on latitude and climate. Because part of it is In the arctic circle the whole vast region has been assumed to be almost beyond the pale of civilized occupancy. Notwithstanding that much has been written describing Siberia as it is, the common notion is still that it is fit only for penal settlements and that the nihilists and other political exiles were'sent to these settlements as a living death. This is not far from the truth. But the inhospitable regions in which the penal settlements were placed are far from being all Siberia, and even some of these districts are capable of sustaining the vigorous inhabitants of northern climates. Siberia, in the economic sense, has all the resources which go to make a vast stretch of territory self-sustaining as an independent nation. It has forests, mines and great agricultural regions wherkvcvm'y product of the temperate climate is capable of cultivation. The timber is in the north and west. The mines are in widely scattered districts.