Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1898-10-07

Why the United States Government Attci;s.
cd h KraE-Jorgensen Pattern-it lat
Its Work Without Mapelinr the victI..
It Strikes.
To the mind of tho layman, who has
gone no further into the art of war than
20 know that nowadays tho side which
Kills the greater number Of men wins ii
almost every fight, humanity as a consid
Grafton in the matter of bullets is an III
omaly, in itself ridiculous. In spite &
this the moral principle cited has played a
very considerable part in the arming OF
our foot soldiers, and, Us said by an arm
officer, has caused much comment thai
has been unfavorable to the United States
Infantry.
No ordnance officer will admit that tho
criticism Is altogether just when applied
70 the arms and bullets authorized for tho
use Of the infantry, and when it comes tG.
other nations having better arms ana
more effective bullets than we have, he
says 'Nor' emphatically.
1T is not a question Of how badly a
bullet mangles the body of a man whom
It kills, - said an officer skilled in the sci.
enco Of bullet making, for one dead mar
70 just as dead as another. The question
10, How far will q bullet go II to what
extent does its course and speed depend
upon It's shapef The power of penetration
comes under the same head, but that is
governed partly by the material of which
Il is made.
"1t took a good many years for us to
discover that q bullet made entirely of lead
was limited in penetrating power. Every
officer in the army and navy knew that
steel would pierce any substance to Is
greater depth than lead, but whoever
thought of using it for small bullets in
preference to the softer metal until the
man who discovered the advantages of q
zifed bore found also that the leadon bull
lets stuck in the barrel and frequently
made the breech Of q gun quito as danger
Gus as the muzzlep The revolution began
then, aud at the present time it has gone
% far that while there are advantages of
. kind on the side Of the explosive bullet
and the mushroom bullet, the United
States government does not like the kind.
"The question has been asked repeated
~ why the United States have not adopted
these more destructive bullets, and upon
this the many adverse criticisms have
been based. Any bullet will kill when it
hits in the right spot, and, that boing &c.
oepted, the only conditions to be met are
those of getting.the bullet that goes tho
,straightest and the greatest distance.
Speed carries q bullet to the greatest dis
tance, and II you have in your bullet a
material which offers the greatest resist
anoe to an opposing foroo the problem is
solved.
sit was found early in the life of the
rifle that lead was necessary to give u bull
let the weight required to mako it effect.
A. - ILL., H. H. ILL., % -x--V
filled with lead became q fact. Tho force
being supplied to carry this bullet two
miles and more when sent at q dead level,
the ingenuity of man found another field.
Inventors We'd with each other in MAX
ing the most destructive bullets; but, aft.
or all, not n has mad Il bullet which
will kill more than one man at q time
unless they happen to be in line, SO that
the bullet having passed through one man
can keep on until it's force is spent. There
you have come to force again, just where
you started. The officers who have had
the small Arearm and it's bullets under
| consideration for years have thought all
this out, and out of tho fifty odd bullets
which have been invented since the war of
the rebellion they have chosen the best.
BY the best I mean the one that will go
the farthest in a straight limo and at the
end of its journey retain tho greatest
penetrative power.
"It is not human to mangle a man just
for the sake Of making the horrors of war
more hideous, but it is human to put him
out of the fight and give him a chance to
live afterward If tt must be done. 1t is
sense, too, for in these times, when nearly
all nations have improved arms at their
disposal, each one may do unto his enemy
rust what his enemy will do unto him"
That is one side of the question, and
when the United States government found
q bullet which would do all that a bullet
ought to in the matter Of speed and accura-
~ 1t accepted it with the riflo for which it
was made. This happened when tho krag-
Jorgensen rifle and bullet were adopted.
All the improvements which have been
made in this gun and projcctile since that
time have been adopted as they have come.
The inventors found early in the prog
ress Of the evolution Of the small projectilo
that q small caliber bullet had many adj
vantages. The recoil resulting from the
use Of the large quantity of powder ncces-
sary to send even the As caliber Springfield
bullet q moderate distance was lessened
by the reduction Of the caliber, and then q
stronger powder was made. Tho surface
against which the powder acted being
smaller, the Ill effects of recoil were then
not to be contended against: AT the same
time the bullet attained a flat trajectory,
giving it killing power at 1900 yards, a
greater accuracy and an increased pene-
trating power. The 80 caliber bullet,
which is acknowledged so be tho most
effective, will go through II inches Of pine
wood at 1900 yards range and when
through that will pierce the bodies of five
men. At the same distance it will bury
itself IA inches deep in sand, which, next
to water, offers q greater resistance to a
bullet than any other substance.
The evolution of the bullet was marked
by one radical change, but since then the
changes lave been of minor Importance.
After the steel jacket had been accepted
for the bullet other nations conceived the
idea Of making the lip of the steel jacket
as thin as paper, SO that the impact be;
tween it and the human body would spread
the lead and have an effect almost equal
30 the explosive bullet. Our government