The National tribune., 1903-07-16
JAPAN VS.. RUSSIA,

Every day IT looks Il little more prop
able that Japan and Russia may come to
blows. and it becomes II matter OF deep
interest as to the probable outcome. We
are all strongly impressed with Russia :
great territorial magnitude and the I'M
mensity Of her population. and consequent
ly prone to think that small nation Ike
Japan will be ut great disadvantage in .
conflict with her. RusSia's fighting power,
however. can not be mt all measured by
her 110.G00,000 Of population in the same
way that we can measure the h.hting
strength Of Germany. France. italy or
Austria In those countries every man is
potentially good soldier, and can ue
made to bear his share Of the conflict.
They are all bright, alert men who can
be readily disciplined and organized. and
thus brought into action. Those who are
not in the army will do their share to-
ward feeding and clothing the army AMI
supplying it with sinews of war Very
little of this is true with regard to Russia.
Only n small portion of her population can
be said to be really civilized. Much the
in fact shading down to actual barbariSni.
The Nomads in the southern part of her
empire which she has recently incnr-
porated are as nearly worthless as posi-
BILE in civilized warfare. They are like our
InGians-great on raids and incursions
upon peaceful communities. but practical
ly useless in downright fighting. except on
the defensive. Even the civilized people
who are manufacturers ana farmers, the
same as in Western Europe. are much
duller heavier, and less capable than the
French, Germans or Italians. 1t requires
of work, military or civil, and they die off
with frightful rapidity when taken out of
the country. But the worst feature of all
is the G,000 miles of sparsely-inlIabitcI
territory which intervenes between Eu-
ropean Russia and the Pacific Coast. This
is traversed by a single track railroad late
ly constructed, not at all well built, and
liable to all the accidents and interrupt
ions of a new railroad through a wild
country. 1t will be exceedingly difficult
for Russia to mass an army of 100000
men or more ON her Pacific frontier and to
maintain and supply them when they are
there.
They must be supplied from this road,
because it is so far by sea from Western
Russia round to her eastern coast as to
make the transportation practically i'm
possible, and would become actually so in
the face Of an alert, active navy which
the japanese have in their own waters.
On the other hand, while the japanese
have not nearly so many people as the
Russians, they are an alert, Industrious,
civilized race, occupying compact coun-
try, which is capable of producing every
thing that their army needs and can sup
ply it at close reach. Japan has COM
pact population of over 40,000,O0O peo-
pie, within a day or two's sail of the
probable seat Of war, while Russia has less
than that number of really civilized popu-
lation, more than G,000 miles away, and
connected by n single line of railroad
What brown men may be able to do in
the field against white men remains to be
demonstrated, but it certainly looks as if
Japan would enter the war with much
more hopefulness than Russia can.