The progressive farmer. [volume], September 06, 1904, Page 8, Image 8

About The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904

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EDITORIAL
CURRENT EVENTS: THE DRIFT OF THINGS AS
x WE SEE IT.
We who.lived through last week lived through a
history-making periodj day after day our news
papers brought us news of a battle which will be
read about through generations yet unborn. For
the struggle between Japanese and Russians at
Xiao Yang cannot fail to become historic. Prac
tically a half million men. it is said, were engaged
in the terrible conflict, while at Waterloo the com
bined forces numbered only 200,000, and at Getts
burg only 188,000.
"'.
'The Fateful Struggle at Liao Yang.
For quite, awhile it has been expected that at
Liao Yang about 400 miles north of Port Arthur
the most momentous battle of the war would be
fought. To this point the Russians had been
forced by the advancing Japanese armies from
three points of the compass; and here, encircled
with bristling fortifications for fifteen miles about
him, and, with most of Kuropatkin's stores and
supplies to fall back upon, the Russian paused and
awaited confidently the attack of the yellow man.
And not long did he wait. After fighting in the
vicinity for nearly a week, the Japanese forces
last Tuesday found themselves near enough to be
gin the real attack on the Russian garrison.
"Like the great Northern hurricane
That sweeps his great plateau,
Flushed with the triumph yet to gain,
Came down the serried foe."
And then began the battle of the giants 200,000
Russians pitted against 1'00,000 Japanese. No
form of land fighting is there that did not here
play its part. " There was cannonading at long
range, shaking the earth and sickening the men
with its deafening crashes; then infantry and
cavalry charges with the two armies facing each
other in battle array the dead and the dying
borne off by hundreds and lastly, the hand-to-hand
conflicts, when, with bayonets as weapons,
individual Japanese struggled with individual
Russians, the lives of the duelists trembling in
the balance.
The Desperate Valor of the Opposing Forces.
The following dispatch from St. Petersburg last
Friday presents a rather vivid picture of the
struggle:
"The fighting at Liao, Yang has beaten all rec
ords for desperate valor of the assailants and
the individual stubbornness of defenders. The
whole history of warfare tells of no such bombard
ments, no such carnage and no such persistency.
Day after day the fight has been resumed at day
break and kept up with hardly a moment's inter
mission until after nightfall. War-scarred vet
erans scarce believe the stories which come from
the seat of war and declare it is beyond human
endurance for an army to fight without respite
for a whole week, each day of which has exceeded
its predecessor in the intensity of the struggle.
Day after day the thousands of dead bestrewing
the battlefield have to be removed. The Japanese
have invented new methods to incinerate the heap3
of dead comrades, removing the ashes for the hon
ors of burial in Japan. The wounded present a
most serious problem as they tax the transport
capacity on both sides to the uttermost. The
m most difficult problem, however, is the bringing. up
of supplies of food and ammunition to every
point of the fighting line, which extends from ten
-to twenty miles. Never has such a bombardment
been known. An eye-witness of the battle of
Yafangow told the Associated Press correspond
ent that many officers suffered nervous prostra
tion owing to the terribVroar of the artillery and
one military attache had. to be taken home for
the same reason. Yet the artillery fire at Yafan
gow was far inferior in intensity to that at
Liao Yang." t
. -
The Japanese Again Victorious.
We had felt that at Liao Yang, sheer luck, if
nothing else, might bring victory to the Russian
arms; but again the Czar's telegram to Kuropat
kin must read, "Congratulations on your gallant
flight." For while the Russian government an
nounced that "General Kuropatkin's move is not
to be considered as a retreat, but rather as the
carrying out of a well-defined idea," the aforesaid
well-defined idea seems to have been nothing
more nor less than a desire to get out of reach of
the terrible little yellow men. The magazines at
Liao Yang were blown up, the enormous quanti
ties of army stores and provisions were fired, and
the Japanese flag now flies over the former cit
adel of the Russians. Meanwhile Kuropatkin's
fleeing army has been divided thus lessening the
chances of his relieving Port Arthur. The Jap
anese estimate their own losses since August 23
at 25,000, and the Russian losses at 30,000.
.
At Port Arthur.
The eyes of the world were turned to Liao Yang
last week, and in the excitement Port Arthur was
almost forgotten. In fact, there seems -to have
been but little action of importance in the neigh
borhood of the beleaguered city. "The siege," as
the Country Gentleman of September 3rd ob
serves, "has already gone on long enough to be
reckoned one of the most important in history,
both in length of, time and in loss of life. Having
begun May 13, it has lasted a full three months,
and a half; and General Stoessel undoubtedly in
tends to hold out to the last possible moment. He
is said to have telegraphed to a friend, 'Farewell
forever; Port Arthur will be my tomb.' This is
no vaudeville affair of Spain or Ghina, but the
grapple of strong nations in deadly earnest, striv
ing to the uttermost limit of their powers. And
it is the first siege of a great fortress equipped
with modern armament. The strongholds of the
Boer war, Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley,
were not as strong topographically as Port Arthur,
and all were relieved by forces fighting under the
same flag. Sir George White held Ladysmith 118
days before the English came to his rescue; Kim
berley stood out 123 days, and Baden-Powell held
Mafeking for an even longer time. But these
towns had no such force or such a number of
guns against them, as the Japanese are now using
in their offensive operations."
In this connection it should be said that the
Russian navy in the Far East has now been re
duced to a mere remnant of its former strength.
Only four important Japanese vessels have been
lost, while we could fill half a column with a mere
statement of the Russian disaster, the value of
the Czar's vessels damaged and sunk being esti
mated at more than $76,000,000.
Lease of the A. & W. C. Railway.
The A. & N. C.v Railway, the only line now op
erated by the State of North Carolina, and which
has been a storm center of agitation for nearly a
year, was leased last week to the Richard S. How
land Improvement Company, of Asheville, for a
term of ninety-one yeary and four months. The
lease was decided on at a called meeting of the
stockholders held ir New Bern Thursday. The
following was the stock vote for the resolution:
By J. A. Bryan, 147; Craven County stock, 135;
Lenoir -County, 56; Denisey Wood, 310; C. M. Bus
bee, 8; by H. R. Bryan, Jr., 37; by E. C. Duncan.
208; T. J. Jarvis, 8; total private stock, 908; State
proxy, 350; total for lease, 1,258. Against lease:
by J. A. Bryan, 2; Pamlico County, 26; by Demsey
Wood,, 15; by C. E. Foy, 51; L. G. Daniels, 3:
tota.:97. As chairman of the State Board of In
ternal Improvements, Governor Aycock was pres
ent and with Mr. B. W. Ballard out-voted the
tHrd member of the board (Mr. B. C. Beckwith),
thus throwing the State's 350 votes in favor of the
lease.
"The proposition of the Howland Improvement
Company, which has been accepted, is for ninety
one years and four months. The rental is 3 per
cent on the capital stock for the first ten years,
3 ner cent f or the second ten years, SV2 for the
third ten years, 4 for fourth ten years, 4 for the
fifth ten years, 5 for the sixth ten years, and 6
per cent for the balance of the term. The How
land Company assumes and pays the bonded in
debtedness of the road as it falls due, and if the
debt is refunded it shall be at the lowest possible
rate of interest, and in no case shall Howland pay
more than 6 per cent on these bonds. Howland
also agrees to pay all taxes, all expense of keeping
alive the corporate existence of the company and
for experts to make inspection of the same, not
to exceed over $1,200. a year. Howland takes the
supplies on hand at their market value and pays
cash. He. is to keep, the road in good condition
and pay off the notes amounting to $12,000 for the
Atlantic Hotel as they fall due. Within the next
three years he promises to spend $250,000 in per
manent improvements. For the faithful perf orm
aice of the lease he will deposit $100,000 in North
Carolina or United States bonds with the State
Treasurer."
Political Notes. .
The most interesting bit of political news last
week was David B. Hill's announcement on the
celebration of his sixty-first birthday that he
would retire from politics after January 1st. The
announcement came as a great surprise. After a
period of innocuous desuetude, Hijl emerged into
political prominence again last year as the man
ager of tKe Parker campaign, and in, this work he
has been so eminently successful that many people
have expected Parker to feward him with a Cabi
net position, in case of a Democratic victory this
fall. In fact, it has been generally said in New
York that Hill would be Parker's Secretary of
State, and this statement owing to Hill's un
popularity was probably damaging Parker's
chances. Hill is a man to whom politics has been
food and drink, wife and child.. He has played
it as a great game." In 1892 he hoped to win the.
Democratic nomination for the Presidency, and if
Cleveland had been re-elected in 1888, thus barring
him from the field in 1892, Hill might have reach
ed the White House. He did not take an active
part in thecampaign of 1896. As he said in a now
famous letter to a political friend, "I am a Demo
cratic still very still. In 1900 he supported
Bryan, but without much enthusiasm. Returning
from the convention which nominated the Ne
braskan, he declared that "Presidents are like
sausages: you like them better if you don't see
tnem made. lwa years ago JudgeJfarker was
prominently mentioned as the Democratic for
Governor of New York, and it has been charged
ever since that Hill forced the nomination of
Coler, a weaker candidate, on account of jealousy
of Parker. ; Hill, it is said, feared that Parker
would be elected Governor and thus gain such
prominence as to capture the Democratic Presi
dential nomination this year a prize which Hill
himself still had lingering hopes of obtaining.
When no Hill sentiment developed, however, he
took charge of the Parker campaign and carried
it to, a successful issue. It may not appear on the
surface, but it must be true that the great -New
York politician quits his career a disappointed
man.
On page 5 we are printing sketches and pictures
of the Presidential possibilities. It is interesting
to note that of the four men, three Parker, Fair
banks, and Davis were reared on the farm.
I do not remember a book in alPthe depths of v
learning, nor a scrap in literature, nor a mark in
all the schools of art, from which its author has
derived a permanent renown that' is not known to
have been long and patiently elaborated. Beech-