Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1904-02-19
PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY BY THE
GAZETTE PUBLISHING COMPANY.
O. A. DEARING, EDITOR AND BUSINESS MANAGER
EDITORIAL COMMENT.

Marcus A. Hanna is dead, and by his death the
country loses one of its grandest public AS
senator from the state of Ohio, and chairman of
mighty, potent political force, and his loss will be
keenly felt. He made Mckinley President, and
sacrificed his own ambitions to advance the inter-
ests of Theodore Roosevelt In his private charac-
ter he was mau of amiable disposition, of kindly
heart kind husband and father, and loyal
friend. One of the most noted men of the present
generation has passed to his rest.
One of the most celebrated cases in the annals
of criminal jurisprudence in England is about
drawing to close. Mrs MAVERICK is at liberty
after long imprisonment. Her case has been a
remarkable one. Charged with poisoning her hus-
band she convicted and sentenced to death. her
sentence being subsequently commuted to life i'm
prisonment Ever since her incarceration efforts
have been making to her release and at last
they have been successful. Doubt to her inno-
cence guilt has always prevailed and the release
OF Mrs. Maybrlck does not solve the mystery. 1t
is one of those cases that admits of no solution,
for long she maintains her innocence, her guilt
cannot be established beyond doubt. The we-
of America have been her active advocates,
and they will rejoice that she has last gained her
freedom.
While dispatches from the seat of war in the
Far East have dealt mainly with the doings of the
Navy, it is not right that should forget that Ja
pan has army WELL from which she has
right to expect grand and decisive results The
best estimates concede that the forting of the
Japanese exceeds 500, 900 men, and there is no
doubt that she make good her oft-made boast
of landing army of 10000 in Corea in
three weeks. The distance is Short she has the
transports and the troops, what is there to hinder?
There is no Russian navy of any account to inter.
he safe tran nj he md
supplies. The Russian troops already in the coun-
try probably number many Japan will put on
the field. The success of either army depends up
On their strategy, skill, bravery and equipment.
May the best win
The most prominent factor in army's might
is not much in the number of in the
amount of SUPPLIES. The army that eats is the
army that wins If Japan destroys the Russian
navy then the Trans-Sberian railway is the key to
the situation, and the military staff is afraid the
railway will prove wholly unable to carry from
Russia the amount of food and ammunition that will
be needed during the In this the sa-
gacity OF the japanese course in precipitating the
hostilites while the and ice of Siberia would
prove their most effective allies.
The Siberian railway is cut in two by the frozen
lake Baikal which is crossed by ferry. 1t is i'm
possible to build a railway the ice. It will
not be open till April and till then the transporta
ton of supplies is practically stopped, and greatly
retarded. So it will be seen that the strategical
Importance of the Trans Siberian Railway is great
ly Overated. No trains allowed to faster
than twenty miles hour, and if the Japanese re-
fraln from blowing up the railroad in dozens Of
places, where the most difficulty will be experience
ed in repairing it, miss guess of the ef6ca-
cy of Japanese strategy.
To the unbiased observer of events in Man
churia it looks as if history to have repeti-
ton of the Dewey victory in Manila Bay When
Admiral Toga, the japanese Dewey, on that men,
orable Sunday night steamed with his fleet in
silence and darkness to Port Arthur, they found
the Russian fleet driven out of the protected inner
harbor, unaware of their peril and the torpedo fo-
ta dashed in and hurled into the huls of three of
the Cars finest vessels the terribly effective white
headed torpedoes and fifteen million dollars worth
of battleships were retired from furthur service
in this war. The next morning the japanese ma
val vessels advanced and opened fire on the navy
and the fort, and two more battleships and three
cruisers were damaged, all below the water line.
On the next day two more of the Russian feet were
totally destroyed three transports captured with
1000 troops. On the same day at least nine more
Russian steamers and sailing vessels were captured
by Admiral Togos feet. -Four days of war and
many Rnssiau vessels are badly damaged and des-
treyed. Four days of war, and forty million dol
lars worth of Russian ships are rendered useless.