The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-01-06
Fall of Port Arthur,

Fall of Port Arthur.
What has been from one point of
view the greatest siege in history has
come to a close, says The Pioneer Press.
The significance of the event is not to
be measured at this time or perhaps
for many years. While it is probable
that the gun-crowned hills of the Lao
swept away will allow the current of
events to enter broader and mighties
channels, it would be rash to assert that
there have not been sieges whose i'm
portance as historical events were great
er than that of Port Arthur. Nor is it
improbable, in spite of the fact that
the details of the siege have yet to be
graphically told, that there are score
of sieges in the pages of history marked
by deeds as daring and picturesque, in
spired by patriotism as lofty as any
that have marked the determined on
slaught of the japanese or the obsti-
nate resistance of the Russian garrisons.
But there have been few sieges in which
there has been so great an expenditure
of human life. there have been none
in which the opposing forces-leaving
out of account numerical strength-have
been so great. No previous siege, from
that of Troy to that of Ladysmith, in
volved such stupendous physical factors.
On the one hand was a series of for
tresses browning encircling hills for
miles, affording easy and safe commun-
ication with each other, all embodying
in their location, their construction and
their internal arrangement the acme of
the art of military engineering. If ever
a fortress deserved to be considered i'm
pregnable Port Arthur was that fortress.
Long after the siege opened, after the
temper and possibilities of the japanese
soldier We're clearly revealed more than
of the character of the Russian defenses
pronounced the reduction of Port Arthur
almost impossible. But against this all
but immovable object was pitted an all
but irresistible force, the force of the
human will, armed with the best weap-
ons of modern warfare, equipped with a
thorough knowledge of the work to be
done gained by years of preparation, en-
dowed with rare discrimination in the
adoption of means to ends and abso-
lutely reckless in the expenditure of
lives when by that expenditure a point
was to be gained 1t is doubtful if any
nation but the Japanese, even if like
them it was fighting for its natural ex-
istence would have brought the siege to
a successful end except by the slow pro-
cess of starvation, of which the exig-
encies of the naval station did not ad-
nit. Officers would have hesitated be-
fore the inevitable slaughter and there
would not have been that eager devo-
ton pervading the entire army which
sustained Gen. Nogi in his assaults.
1t is from this standpoint-the
strength of the fortress, the power of
the guns used, the skill of the Japanese
approach, the answering determination
of the besiegers almost equaled by the
steadfastness of the besieged-that the
siege of Port Arthur may be called the
greatest in history. There have been
sieges where the spirit of the contest
ants was as determined, and sieges
where the skill displayed was even
farther in advance of the developments
of military practice at the time, but
because they were conducted without
modern arms, modern explosives and the
accumulated inheritance of military
knowledge adapted by the best minds Of
the age to the requirements of modern
warfare they cannot hold the absolute
rank as military achievement that is
held by the Port Arthur affair.