The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-09-08

fighting around Liao-Yang, and the end is
not yet. The war correspondents in the
East have given their lurid imagination full
sway, and have sent us columns of words,
words pouring out of their superheated i'm
aginations. There have been frenzied sto-
ries of bayonet charges, fierce hand-to-hand
conflicts. and terrible cannonades with ap-
palling loss Of life. all of which must be
very heavily discounted.
To begin with, the accounts assert that
| the japanese have somewhere in excess of
100000 men. while the Russians have near
ly the same. The difficulty, not to- say the
impossiblity. of supplying such a vast
horde at once raises the incredulity of the
veteran. There is but single line of rail
road for each. and we all know how limited
are the abilities of a single-track railroad,
even with the best system, and an inter-
rupted passage of trains in supplying as
many as $4,000 men. While the japanese
| have force of some 100000 or 100000
men which they can send into the PENN
sula, they will not send there more than
they can supply. and We all know how
| wretchedly t1ie Russian commissariat has
worked in supplying even few thousand
men. All the estimates of the men engaged
are mere guesses, depending upon the tenn
permanent of the guesser, and our guess
would bring the number on each side much
nearer 10000 than 100000 men.
| AS to the fierce bayonet charges and
hand-to-hand conflicts, that is the veriest
| bosh. The paucity of the prisoners taken
demonstrates this. When great bodies of
men come close enough for bayonet work,
there must always be n great number of
prisoners taken from the defeated side. So
far the reports of prisoners taken have
shown the numbers to be astonishingly
| few. and in this respect we may expect
both sides to tell something near the truth,
as they will be disposed rather to exagger-
ate the number of prisoners taken than to
minimize them, as they would their losses.
| The next feature upon which the CORE
spondents have lavished words so unstint-
eddy are the terrible cannonades. The plain
mathematics of the thing is that cart
| ridge for, say 12-pound gun, weighs about
| IA pounds. Fourteen pounds is a very pos
| tive quantity, and therefore only certain
number of cartridges can be carried by
| cart. wagon, or other means of conveyance.
An active young battery commander, anx-
| ious to attract attention, will fire away a
carload of ammunition while you wait, I'M
| less he is restrained and the limit closely
kept upon his activity. AS we said before,
| the capacity of a railroad for carrying ra-
| tiOns is quite circumscribed. If the re-
| ports that We have had of the cannonading
be literally true, there has been more cast
iron thrown at one another by the COM
batants in the last few days than big
| fleet could carry across the Pacific, and
many times more than any railroad could
| haul UP to the scene of operations.
| The truth was probably contained in
brief paragraph which said that the Japa-
nese went at their cannonading systemat-
icaly. One after another they took areas
on the Russian line which were defined by
natural objects, and searched them closely
with well-directed artillery fire, and when
| they provoked an answer, silenced the Rus
sian guns by the concentration of their
own fire. This seems entirely in harmony
with the japanese careful system in max
| ing war. 1t was very effective and hus-
banded the stock of ammunition to the ut
| termost. Therefore, there could not have
been anything like such a wild, overwhelm-
ing. continuous bomba rdment as has been
| described.
The infantry attack has probably been
on the same well-regulated, systematic plan.
Field-Marshal Oyama has probably come
| up within range of the Russian fortifica-
tions. united his three armies, thrown up
| Notifications upon the hills capable of pro-
| tecting his men, and then stretched his line
out. feeling the Russian line at every point
with skirmishers, while reaching around
for its TANKS and keeping up demonstra-
tons in the center, to hold the Russians to
their places. Therefore, instead Of this be-
ing great crash of battle like Gettysburg
or the Wilderness, it has been in all like
lihood prolonged series of fankng opera
tions, with more or less constant skirmish-
ing. resembling Sherman's movements
against Johnston in the Atlanta campaign.
| lie result has been similar to the events of
| that campaign. The Russians nave had
| both their TANKS turned, while their center
has been heavily pressed, and Gen. Kuro-
patkin has been compelled to evacuate Lao
Yang and retreat back across the river to-
ward Mukden.
| Here is where the war horrors will he
gin. If kuropatkin has SO many as 100
ooO men. the numbers must be augmented
by the hordes of coolies, camp-followers.
ETC.. such as Russian army gathers about
it. All these will be frantically pressing TO
get across the bridges over the river. and
filling up all the roads leading to the rear.
The scenes there must be of Understandable
misery and horror. 1t will be Napoleon,s
retreat from Moscow over again. Sherman
on the Atlanta campaign put forth all his
efforts to catch Joe Johnston's army in a
demoralized retreat, as it seems that Oyama
has succeeded in catching Kuropatkiu's
army. Joe Johnston, however. was too
skIllful to ever permit this The now all
important question is whether the Japanese
have succeeded in cutting the railroad he
| tween kuropatkin and Mukden. If thev