The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-06-16
A NEW DEATH RADIUS
THE COMING DESTROYER OF THE
WORLDS ARMIES AND NAvIEs.
Ironclads but Junlx-Wnr Will Re No
More Because Men Dare Not he :
Massed-A Coming Revolution.

AHS uioCONciy VI SuHpOWuer ulu not
change a motive. it only revolutionized
method. Prior to the chemical combina-
ton discovered by the German chemist
Schwartz, the very noble art of legally
killing people in the adjustment of dis
putes. was prosecuted with clubs, sings,
arrows, spears, swords, etc.
With the chemical combination pre-
sented by this iconoclastic German, came
the dawn of the explosive art in san
culinary contests. The metallic tubes
that hurled projectiles with ear-splitting
detonations, inspired the Asiatic mind
with terror and the art of destruction
took on dignity, that it had never be-
fore possessed. Evolving man, tattooed
from head to heel with paleolithic i'm
prints, now appeared with a clanking
sword and cooked hat and sat as an ar
bitter OH the destines of the earth.
1t was in accordance with the concep-
tons of his slowly changing intellect.
that he should first use this explosive
force TO hurl some sort Of missile, rather
than attempt the too far-reaching adj
vance of destroying his enemy by direct
conclusion. He would rather nit and
felt better in hitting his enemy as a tar
get. He was not intellectually advanced
enough to surround his antagonists with
death area, making them the victims
of a finer intellectual subtlety.
Napoleon became the great apostle of
tubular warfare and declared in one of
his apothegms, that providence is al
ways on the side of the heaviest artil-
nd 10 vi n
rageous, yet withal reckless, he was a
vexation TO Asia, a menace to Africa and
nightmare Of terror on the brain of
Europe.
But explosive warfare, even in its
crude and undeveloped application of
merely hurting missile, changed every
thing. War now ceased TO be a hand-tO-
hand encounter. 1t was a knock-down
argument at longer range. 1t equalized
the combatants. The Goliaths and the
Davids stood on equal footing in their
relationship TO the trigger, with even
an advantage to the smaller soldier, as
the lesser target.
In destructive science as represented
in all gunnery, chemical expansion is
subordinated to merely hurting projec-
tiles with great velocity. The heavier
the projectile, or the higher the velocity
required as when the object is to Sc
cure greater penetration, the greater
which the force is generated Thus,
weight of missile and degree of velocity
have been on a see-saw with weight of
gun and defensive armor, the advance
in the one necessitatipg an advance ia
| the other until the direst execution is IN
the treasury that foots the bills
WARS APPALLING COST.
The cost of war to Christendom DUR
ing the eighteenth and nineteenth CEN
turtles in life, limb and treasure. in wild
ows, in orphans, in tears and sorrow, on
the crude lines indicated, is most appall-
ing. To-day this wretched and utterly
unscientific method is 50 expensive that
the demand of the war budget is the
potent factor in the taxation of all
Europe. This gives all the odds to the
most powerful government in revenues
and obliges all the weaker ones TO cling
to the ragged edge of perpetual bank
ruptcy. 1t is this barbarously clumsy
method that demands 100000 armed
men TO maintain European peace in time
of peace and that has transformed that
division of the earth into an armed
camp.
There must be and there will be rad
zeal and absolute revolution in human
destruction. There must be such a
pacity of both the Oriental and Occiden-
| tai governments all on an equally mex
pensiye and defensive footing, regard
| less of what are now considered re-
| scources, just as Schwartz's combination
| of saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal, put
| the individual soldiers on an equality,
regardless of muscular development or
| avoirdupois
The most grotesque figure that now
| looms above the horizon of our civili-
| cation is the gentleman with his cooked
| hat and defiant air, and when 1t is con-
| sidered that under his tubular regime
| il costs $50 pounds of metal, hurled at a
| cost of about SS9. 900 to destroy common
| soldier in the ranks Of the enemy, the
| situation assumes the character Of a
| huge farce and borders on the sardonic
| Whether on sea or land this is about
the ratio Of the cause to the effect.
The marine warrior now proposes to
hurl missile over trajectory of twelve
| miles at a cost of 81 200 for each dis
| charge, with about one chance in fifty oil
inf1icting any damage whatever on his
| adversary. His effort is altogether fu.
tile unless he hits his target. In other
words. his death radius bears a most
| pitifully small relationship to his tx.
pendture of means. To do even this
he constructs top-heavy and unwieldy
man-traps dignified by the term iron.
clads, at a cost of millions of dollars
and in which, so far as yet heard from
his own situation might evoke the pray.
| ers of his foe for his own safety.
The fate of the fine English war vessel
| Victoria, when accidentally struck by the
ram Camperdown in the summer of 1898
| while maneuvering off the coast of Trip.
oil, and the recent behavior of the Brit
| ish ironclad Resolution, in a storm Oh
the Bay of Biscay, are Illustrations in
point. Many OF these might be given
but this branch of the subject does no,
| come within the scope of the presen,
| purpose.
| DESTRUCTION ENMASSE.
In the higher science of destruction
it is proposed 20 do away with all in
termediation of modern ordnance and
armament and to smite the enemy into
undstinguishable disintegration. 1t is
| proposed TO destroy him enmasse. by
! setting into motion, over. around and
| underneath him series of atmospheric
vibrations of such appalling suddenness