Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-10-15
Reflections About Heavy Ordnance.

Ed. STANDARD:
A few weeks ago, saw some state
ments in the Boston Journal in respect
to heavy ordnance to be contracted
for by the Government. The Journals
estimates seemed to agree as to the
weight and cost per ton of the several
steel guns. l find by computation
that to contain the amount of metal
set forth in the schedule the largest
steel gun would be equal to hundred
feet in length and twenty feet diane
ter. The weight of the largest gun,
ten thousand tons, at a cost of eight
hundred dollars per ton, was estimated
to figure eight millions of dollars. Now
this might seem to call for something
like protest from some source. No
nation ought to set an example that
never before in the worlds history can
be matched for extravaganza.
No one need question or doubt the
ability of the United States, with her
resources and virgin soil to draw upon,
provided the frowns of Providence do
| not intervene, that she can in the fu-
ture even surpass most other nations
i'll these warlike instruments of waste
and human destruction; but, would it
not be quite as well, if limit were
agreed upon between the great powers
OF earth, in respect to these very mat
ters, and would not all nations of earth
stand relatively just as we'll if they
even did away entirely with the use of
such costly and destructive non-essen-
tials?
Verify, these great ironclads and steel
guns seem to have been the invention
of the Devil in our times for the de-
Tense Of slavery, and must we still en-
dure them, as rods of correction for
the errors of mankind when the cost
OF curing these errors is so little in
comparison to the cost Of Furnishing
them? History tells us that ever
since the world began, all the surplus
wealth of nations has been spent in
war, and the thralldom of the people
from one war to another, has been
such as to bend their forms until their
noses were quite near the grindstone.
If in the scramble for power and privi-
leges of being first-class, the strength
of nations may seem to depend on the
number and size of their great steel
guns and steelclad ships it may be
also conjectured that these great mon
archs of power might become more
dangerous to their owners at times
than to foreign foe. What will be-
come of second and tlird-class nations
who may fall behind and are not able
to build floating hells upon the ocean?
40, let every one look out for himself"
said the Donkey, when dancing among
the chickens, and so says Tyranny.
The poor nations may be made subject
to the regulations of trade and be
opened to the commodities of first-class
nations, rum, opium, tobacco and re-
ligion. l mean no disrespect, but l
believe that there are millions worth
of whisky, bonded in the warehouses,
waiting it may be to find an outlet at
the cannon's mouth.
If these great steel guns and steel
clad ships are to be the emblems of
our civilization, we also make them
the example, and the choice instru-
ments of our humiliation and chastise-
ment, instead of enlightenment, and
as like begets its like, other modes of
human obstruction and punishment,
many times more terrible in effects
than all other elements combined,
may be brought forward in the same
train of evil, and perhaps through rev.
olution, to kill and destroy. l sup
pose we ought to consider the present
enlightened prospect a little more
hopeful in some respects; that after
1900 years, to see diplomacy at work
against scheming outlaws from justice
and the things that are Caesars are to
be given up to Cesar; that by mutual
agreement, the criminals of both Eng
land and America are no longer to be
screened behind ramparts, but are to
be given up. Now, why cannot the
great powers of earth also mutually
agree to limit the caliber and length
of these great guns, for the chief point
involved in the building of these is to
outdo each other in the instruments
of their own poverty and destruction.
But the limiting Of them to within the
bounds of reason would prove for
once there may be some well grounded
hope for reform among the ruling
powers of earth, for such an act would
be in the true spirit of reform and
serve to enlighten, instead of brutaliz-
ing the whole human family. ~hen
the cowardly manner of hiding behind
breastworks, peeping over to shoot at
long range and screening ourselves
from justice would be done away with,
and the errors of mankind, like weeds
in a garden, would begin to be rooted
out. On the other hand, the casual
observer, or man of business, must be
blind indeed, who cannot see the dan
ger to the United States in case of a
maritime war at the present time. In
the next struggle for supremacy, the