The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-05-05
The Frightful Cost.

- NOCGH has happened already
=. { % make 1t pretty clear that
this country's war with Spain
can be short. sharp and decisive. Every
financial consideration makes this
course imperative. Recently many
figures relative to the cost Of wal have
been put into print. They seem an
ex~aggeration, yet IL Is shown by esti-
mates that can be accepted as trust
worthy that modern warfare is ire
mendously high-priced business.
The cost of a first-class modern war
vessel is 1900, 900 in round numbers.
but the cost of equipping and using
such a vessel in warfare surpasses all
general calculations. A single twelve
inch gun costs about $50. 900 when
placed on the ship ready for action.
The maximum capacity of this i'm
mem war engine is eighty shots; the
minimum thirty. 1t is not safe to
count on these guns firing more than
fifty rounds. The intense lei and
strain are likely to make the gun use
less any time after thirty to eighty
rounds are fired from IL, after which 1t
is valuable only as old steel. The cost
in wear and tear in firing these guns
may be safely estimated at 81, 900 for
every discharge.
In addition to the cost of 81. 900 for
every round fired from these guns in
wear and tear. the powder and steel
pointed missile with which the gun is
loaded. cost the government 81. 200
every time the gun is fired. 1t is a
safe estimate 70 say that every time a
twelve-inch gun is fired in war. the
cost is about So, 500.
Our war vessels and cruisers are
each supplied with torpedoes and pneu-
matte tubes from which to discharge
them against an enemy They are
effective at about 500 yards. and the
torpedo with which the air gun is
charged is one of the most delicate
and complicated machines of modern
times. II is constructed with a re-
volving attachment at the rear, not
through the water. but to accelerate
it's movement, and it Is exploded by
conclusion. One of these torpedoes
striking the biggest ship in any navy
would entirely destroy the vessel.
These torpedoes cost $500 each.
The cost of ammunition for our land
forces has also been increased prob
ably tenfold. One pound of lead, cost
ing only a few cents. would make six
teen cartridges for the rife used in our
civil war. To-day the cartridges used
by our infantry cost little IL any less
than ten cents each. With a modern
gun these little missiles carry three
miles. and at a range of a mile they
will go clear through, three men. and
probably more IL they are not too
greatly o~bstructed by boring clean
holes through bones of the human
anatomy. They are much lighter tina
the old cartridge. m the soldier will
carry one hundred rounds with the
same ease that the soldier OF our civil
war carried forty. The cost of cart
ridges for an efficient rifeman in action
now would be about 81 per minute.
The figures just given are quoted
largely from carefully prepared statis-
tics printed in a recent issue of the
Philadelphia Times. Large as the
cost will be. il is no match for the ex-
pense to which Spain will be put. since
that country's credit is at a sorry dis
count. Spanish bonds go-when they
can be sold at all-at a little more
than one-hslf of their face value:
the shrinkage means vast sums of
money; IL makes every Spanish shot
cost far more than the cost to this
country Of it's firing.