Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1905-07-28
The New Power In the Orient.

As might be expected In Il Pacific
coast paper, the Argonaut OF San Fran.
cisco sees II menace for the civilized
world in the triumph of Japan over
Russia In recent editorial on the
subject the Argonaut says:
The humiliation of the Russian fleet
Ray well cause Chrstendom to pause.
tnce we might have said 'all Europe"
But now the United States is world
power and must be reckoned with the
world. No graver event has happened
tince Charles Murtel checked the Saracen
flood at the battle OF Tours.
This naval battle is more than a blow
to the prestige of Russia. 1t is a menace
to the entire white race. 1t is a warning
to all the western world. What is to save
the twentieth century from seeing another
Monaghan war lord, new Gcnghis
Khan? Certainly not the prowess Of
occidental armies or navies. Would any
occidental power today enter the field
against Japan single handed without a
Qualm? If so, what power?
European powers for selfish rea-
sons have been egging on the war, the
Argonaut declares, and betray their
fears over the crushing defeats sus-
tanned by Russia. To quote further:
And they have reason for their alarm.
Americans are brave; Britons are brave;
Germans French, Spanish. Italians. Aus
trians-all Of these white soldiers are
| brave. But so are the Russians brave.
! No one can deny their courage In the
| face of their history Where was ever
drawer or bloodier fighting done than that
| through the Balkan peninsula and In the
| Shipka pass? Yet what occidental brav-
cry can withstand the fatalism and fanat-
icism of the Shintoist, of the Buddhist, of
! the Mohammedan? Do western soldiers
/ fight on equal ground with the fatalists
of the east? History does not seem to
say SO. There is something In the fatal
| istic spirit of the oriental which in battle
is akin to madness.
In the machine gun the white man
believed that he had found an effective
weapon against fanatical valor of bar
barrie races, but this weapon and
other modern war appliances the Japa-
nese have turned against the invent
ors. Says the Argonaut:
They are meeting the west with western
weapons arid the west must have care.
We have trained them to war. We have
| taught them tactics. We have shown
| them how to build battleships. They are
docile pupils; they have studied the art
of war; they seem to have acquired 1t
quite well; they do honor to their In
structors; they build very practical bat
tleships. When they lack the time to
build more, they capture a few. We have
sown the wind. Are we to reap the
whirlwind?
From an industrial point Of view the
Argonaut thinks that the supremacy
of Japan is menace to the United
States. 1t says:
The Japanese are distinctly n manufac-
turing people. Already they are selling
| limitations of American goods under forg-
| ed brands in China and Korea In not
| many years they will cease selling the
| goods under forged American brands and
| will have replaced them with genuine
| Japanese brands through all of eastern
Asia, and the United States will lose en-
tirely the "open door and the "open
| market
Russia, the editor thinks, could never
become a manufacturing nation. Had
she seized all Korea, as well as Man
churia, she would have made a market
instead Of menace for the western
| world