The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-09-06

with this enormous force the Ice has to be
indeed thick to resist 1t. The Ermak is
so shaped at the stern that another YES
sci can be dashed to IT, SO that 1t will
ave the assistance and additional power
Of the vessel behind. It has forty-eight
water-tight compartments, the larger of
which have engines and boiler-rooms. the
capacity of each boiler-room being 1900
TWO HUNDRED MILES IN ICE
The Ermak has been severely tested.
In 1899 1t made a journey of 200 miles
through solid ice. all Of 1t being at least
five feet thick. and fifty miles OF it about
ten feet in thickness. In blowing through
this It hurled the ice aside as a lsoomo-
tive plow throws snow. outing its way
right into the harbor Of KIonstadt
Such ice-breakers will make vladivos-
tok an open port during the winter. fur
nishing a new outlet for war supplies via
the Transsiberian road. There are ice
breakers on Lake Baikal. which keep the
Tra~nssiberian road open, although in case
of trouble tracks can be laid on the ice
and communication thus be kept up. With
Lake Baikal open, 1t 10 now only seven-
teen or eighteen days from Moscow to
Port Arthur. where the harbor IL free
from ice the year round, and Where ships
drawing thirty feet can enter without diff
iculty.
The Russians ave built up q great
naval station at Port Arthur. This is only
a few miles from Dalny, the commercial
port, at the n Of the Transsiberian
road. They AVE an enormous amount OF
naval supplies there. and they are. I am
told, now ready for war II Japan L. anx-
tous to fight
The navy Of Japan is q greater wonder
than that of Russia. The Russians have
had q avy since the lays Of Peter the
Great. The Japanese Navy has been built
UP within the present generation. During
our Civil Wa tho japanese knew nothing
of naval affairs outside their war 1unks.
and for ten years thereafter they had no
merchant vessels to speak Of. When they
fought the Chinese in 1894 their navy con-
sisted of sixteen steel men-of-war, seven
teen gunboats of wood and steel and about
~twenty-six torpedo-boats. They had good
guns, and the fired them well. They
showed that they knew how to shoot and
proved themselves the equals Of n naval
troops upon earth. The story of that wal
was much the same as that of our war
with Spain. The japanese gained their
victory by courage and skill, rather than
by better ships or better guns. They de-
stroyed the heavier vessels Of their enemy
and practically annihilated the Chinese as
a sea power.
HUNDRED MILLION FOR NAVY.
At the close Of the war h Japanese
took the money they received from China
and put It into new b~attleships. cruisers
and gunboats. They bought new arms.
and a v been adding to their navy from
that day to this. During the present year
they will spend about $o.ooo,oos for war
ships and war material, and they v
spent about q hundred million since the
Close of their war with China. In addition
to this, they have set aside another hun
dred million dollars to be- spent in the
future. This vast sum IL to be spread
over eleven years, beginning with March
next, making an average Of more h
100000 q year.
As q result Of such expenditures, the
Japanese Navy Is now one Of the best Of
the world. and in some respects II ID
already ronge than that Of Russia
During my last visit to Japan. about two
years ago. I visited some Of the new ship
building yardA The japanese are now
making their own protected cruisers and
destruyers, and are founding srmer fac
tories. with which they win be able to
eoustTuct batteshipA There u no doubt