Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-09-02

iOtuib $ofo~oS ~ SoosI-U- w ~Jct, WI ~
Thus the grand total for one hours
firing for these sixteen ships is $685.
1920. And this with their main
batteries alone! An authority in the
New York navy yard in Brooklyn, to
whom these figures were submitted,
said: "They are about right. When
one dwells upon the multiplication
table of war times it is to wonder how
long a great drain of this character
could appeal to the resources of a
country, no matter how wealthy. 1t
is small wonder that the cry, Let us
have peace! should lie popular one.
Some OF the Spanish officers from the
ships beached outside Santiago, when
taken to Portsmouth, where surprised
to learn that we were in the habit of
serving our guns with full charge of
powder and projectile in target
practice. But they needn't have been
surprised had they thought for Sec
ond how handily our ships struck
their craft, and how poorly was the
execution of their gunners. Target
practice with full charges and under
regular conditions of battle is, of
couse, an expensive luxury, and may
be considered by some of the European
nations as highly extravagant. But
the end justifies the means, as the
destruction of Cervera's fleet shows.
Only the rich nations can afford to in
dulge in gun practice of this kind, and,
for that matter, only the rich nations
can afford to pay the bills of inferior
gunners. Were gunners in battle to
fire Off their weapons as rapidly as
they could without hitting anything,
other than by accident, the nation em-
ploying them would soon find itself on
the road to a bankruptcy, and that
too, without doing any material harm
to the enemy. Gun practice, with all
the art OF war thrown in, costs heap
OF money, but see the deplorable condi-
ton of Spain, whose gunners did not
practice that way, and wonder not
that we are whipping her with every
hour of the sum-"
1t must not be supposed that in or
der to make large figures the cost of
firing the 13inch guns is quoted in
particular. The weapons of smaller
caliber are proportionately expensive.
The projectile for 12-inch gun costs
$377.65. This gun, too, can be fred
every two minutes. An 8-inch gun
can be discharged once minute and
a finch as many rs 420 times an
hour. The 8 inch guns cost about $95
for each discharge, or something like
$500 per piece for each hour. Each
round from 5-inch rapid-firing gun
costs about $33, of which $15 is for the
metallic cartridge case. The projec-
tile for a 6-inch breech-loading rifle
costs 1923, the powder about $l4, and
with the other additions the total
cost of firing this gun per round is
about $40. Coming down to the
smaller guns the cost is likewise enor-
nous. Take a Hotchkiss 6-pounder,
of which the Indiana has twenty. 1t
is possible to fire each of these guns
over 500 times an hour, and estimat-
ing the cost for each round at 1910,
the cost per gun each hour is $3.50,
or total of $57, 600 for the twenty
guns for the same period of fire. A
l-pounder costs SLIP per charge, and
one OF this character can be discharged
over 700 times in the hour. Added
to this enormous sum the cost OF tor
pedoes, which are not, however, in
cluded in the table given above, for
the reason that no torpedoes have
been discharged by the American