Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1898 — Immigration at Siberia. [ARTICLE]

Immigration at Siberia.

Russia is pushing the Siberian railway across the continent with all the energy her immense resources permit. While the larger purpose is to consummate the policy steadily pursued for more than two centuries of getting access to oceans, the no less important purpose of filling the great interior spaces with products is not lost sight of. Hand in hand with railway extension goes land occupation. To overcome the obstacle raised by the poverty of the peasantry the government has made extraordinarily cheap rates of transport. The migrant is carried 1,200 miles for 1.50, 2,000 miles for $2.10 and 4,000 miles for $3.60. His household goods and implements are carried 1,200, miles for 25 cents a hundred, 2,000 miles for 43 cents and 4,000 miles for 83 cents. In addition land is given and sustenance granted until a crop can be raised. —St. Paul Globe.