Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-21
TONS OF EXPLOSIVES.
Millions of Pounds of Gunpowder
and Niter Stored in
ONE OF UNCLE SANS BIG DEPOTS.
National Provision for Defense in Case of
Possible War.
The HUGE PICATINNT MAGAZINES
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D1sPArcB. !

DOVER, n. j., June 20.-Everybody
knows of the sad and often ludicrous straits
TO which the government of the late Confed-
eracy was put to provide the necessary gun
powder for carrying on the War Of the Re-
bellion. A very few outside of official
circles ever recognized the sore tax upon our
National Government in the same all-essen-
tial provision. Fewer still ever give
thought to what could be depended upon in
this respect should some sudden outbreak of
q great and prolonged loreign war in an in
slant set us face to face with a test of our
best national resources for defense or ag-
gression.
Because conditions might at any time
arise making the carrying on of a foreign
war impossible from the lack of the one
necessary article of gunpowder, the proper
tion OF its ingredients in Q nited States
military use-76. of inter, IA. of charcoal
and 10. of sulphur, so simple fact that the
ordinary reader smiles wisely at its repeti-
tion-tskes on, refectively, a grave and
serious importance. We could never fall
short of charcoal. There are i1exhaustible
sulphur mines within our own boundaries,
and though one OF the most important ele-
ments of matter, sulphur must ever remain
one of the cheapest and most available. But
while all are accustomed to boast of our
limitless natural resources, inter or saltpeter,
SO far as has been discovered, is not one of
them. To be able to fight, we must have
powder. To have powder, we must have
inter to the extent of 76 per cent of its bulk.
We must therefore have inter or turn
Quaker and refuse to fight. When the
matter is presented Just this way, and just
as il is, every citizen of the United States
must become seriously interested; and it is
gratifying to feel that the military authori-
ties have for some time fully realized the
situation as it exists and have quietly and
effectively instituted measures of provision
against a future fatal weakness in time Of
war.
PRAISE FROM SIR HUBERT.
NV attention was recently directed to the
subject by the remarks of French mill
tary attache in Algiers, who said: "Your
Government is at lost becoming wise and
prudent in proper measures of protection
against future dangerous exigencies. The
very ascendancy and greatness of your coun-
try, with its certain refexive influence
against monarchial institutions, renders it
shining mark for attempted conquest bv I'm
perial powers which see in republican
greatness their own most fatal weakness.
sit is no uncommon confidential discus
sion in European military circles that
American pride might bear humbling. The
entire monarchial system aud the preserva-
ton of titled and military official interests
are in direct and deadly antagonism to
all American progress. England has old
-irb hoAa
you for depicting her population. Spain
is Gvid with rage over the loss of
all her American dependencies, save
Cuba, and the constant menace of
possible annexation OF that island by your
country. And the Russian Gear fairly
writhes at the universal public indignation
in the United States over his deviIish treat
- IEent of exiles in Siberia. The tremendous
increase of naval and other armament bv
these powers may mean prolonged European
war. 1t might mean a combined attempt by
European powers, on the slightest pretext of
American ofiense, to simultaneously destroy
every city upon the Atlantic and Pacific
coast.
aside from this possible danger, there
is, and combined with it, a danger nearer
home. The South American republics,
whose progress and material increase have for
the past quarter century been almost as phe-
nomenal as your own, are plainly restive un-
der North American diplomatic dominance.
This was made clear in countless ways dur
ing the Psn-American Congress.
EUROPEAN PEssIMIsM.
1.-THE development of these countries has
been largely due TO English, Dutch, Ger
man and Spanish capital. European state
craft has directed this. 1t has also culti-
waited powerful animosities against the
United States. Once let the latter make
downright quarrel over the Monroe doc
trine, attempt the annexation of Canada or
Cuba, or in any manner become Extensively
involved in South American complications,
and, many European military authorities
believe and secretly prophesy every Amer
ican port would, in - days, be as effectively
closed as though Dramatically sealed!'
Now this is rank European pessimlsm,
though the apparent honest conviction of
nSltarist in the service of a friendly power.
b admitting that along this line of possi-
hi - there is something worthy of rehec-
indeed, supposing that, relying upon
disgraceful condition of our coast
lses, and the ridiculous cipher our
Wy" represents in international infu-
.ce, combined foreign enemies should force
ust this sort of a dilemma. Our ports in
the possession OF invaders, our very integral
cohesiveness endangered, and all recourse
to the remainder of the world destroyed,
how far would our characteristic national
vanity, boasting and assertiveness go
toward mending the fatal folly of supine-
ness concerning sensible preparation against
such snnihilative calamity? We have
patriotism, oceans OF it. We have men,
millions of them. We have foundries, iron,
steel, cannon, small arms; commissaries and
transportation. Certainly, numberless and
incAlculable. But all this would not avail
If we had no powder, or inter for making
powder; and considerations pretty close to
those hinted at above have led our military
authorities through our Ordnance depart
ment, 10 adopt policy Of gradual storage
of both powder and inter on so vast scale,
es will, in itself, carry at all times an excel
lently rounded and most potent argument
against any foreign attempt at invasion.
SOURCE OF THE INTER- SUPPLY.
Previous 10 the discovery of the vast inter
beds in Peru, our chief source of supply
was in Germany, where the substance was
extensively manufactured from various
forms of decomposiug organic matter, from
offal and urine, and also in an Indifferent
degree, through the lixiviation of fltering OF
certain soils. Such earth is found to some
extent in Limestone caves in this country,
notably in Mammoth Cave, KY, and Big
Bone Cave in Tennessee But this indiffer-
ent supply, which at times has forced the
value of powder to outrageous prices, has
been totally lost sight of since the South
American nitrate beds were discovered, and
the era of nitrate kings" one of whom is
now building q wonderful palace in En-
gland, began. Several hundred square
miles of pure mineral saltpeter exist, and
have for a few years been mined, in the