The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-06-13

Policy In Future-A Couple of Stories.
NEW YORK, June II Especial II hav,
Just had n talk with DIR. Richard j. Cat
ling. inventor of the famous multibar
r,led gun which bears his name and who
has been giving good deal of his time re
I Gently 70 the perfection of the new single
piece heavy gun OF which so much has
bcen said i'm the newspapers.
DR.. Calling will be 50 If he lives until
next September, yet he is still hale and
hearty, his hand grasp is firm, his eye
clear his nerve steady and his physical
strength so well conserved that he is
abundantly able TO spend hours each day
at the Office of the Calling Ordnance com.
pany, 80 Broadway
DR.. Calling is one of those who believe
firmly that the United States must either
take complete possession of the Philippines
and Puerto Rico as well as Cuba during
the present war, and must, moreover, hold
them permanently or else step far back in
the procession of the nations.
George Washington was one of the
greatest men who ever lived" said the
doctor today, "and his views as to the
proper policy for the United States were
exactly suited 70 the times in which he
| lived But George Washington never saw
| a locomotive or a steamboat. He died in
| 1899 and the first vessel to be navigated by
steam was not set afloat until 1905. In
Washington's day ocean navigation was
carried on exclusively by sailing vessels
| and separation from Europe by 5000 miles
of water meant practical isolation from
the world. His views were in perfect ac-
cord with existing conditions. We're he
alive today his views and advice would be
in as perfect accord with present condi-
tions.
Plea For National Up to Dateness.
"He would understand what so many
Americans have been unable to see with
out a war-that the policy he outlined, so
well suited TO the infant republic of the
eighteenth century, Is not at all suited TO
the great, progressive nation that domi
mates the western hemisphere in the nine
teenth and that inability or refusal to
change means ruin. He would read Alright
the signs of the times, and he would un
derstand that only by being permanently
prepared for war can the United States
hope TO hold its own with the strong ma
tons of Europe He would see clearly
that in the tremendous evolutionary strug-
giles of the future only the fittest among
nations, as among persons, can survive
and that to be fit n nation must be well
armed with trained soldiers and naval
men, with the best guns that can be made,
with the most perfect ships and with the
strongest forts that can be built
"He would understand-none better
that the views till recently so influential
in the conduct of this governments army
and navy affairs and falsely supposed to
be in harmony with his famous no en-
tangling alliances injunction indefinitely
followed out would lead to national death,
and he would have fought with all his
force against the indifference regarding
coast defcnscs and kindred topics, the re-
suit of which might have resulted in dis
aster had we found it necessary to fight a
first class power instead of Spain
DIR. Calling and the Reporters.
Like most men who have accomplished
things, DIR. Calling talks freely to news
paper men and believes heartily in the
power and usefulness of the press, albeit
he has two or three times suffered from
pens that were unduly exuberant. Here
Is an example:
Once when he was living in a New
England city, where he was well acquaint-
ed with the local journalists, one of them
published big article descriptive of DR..
Gatlings life and inventions.
1.-The article was entirely compliment
tary, said the doctor Indeed it made
me out to be one of the greatest geniuses
of the age. / forget how many successful
inventions the writer placed to my credit,
but the number was unheard of. More
over, he declared that / was constantly
making new ones and that L spent hours
every day experimenting in a little build
ing which he described in detail that stood
back of my house and which he termed a
shop.
1.-The description Of this little structures
exterior was perfectly accurate, but 1T was
used as hcnhouse and not as shop, and,
besides, was not at that time engaged in
pcrfcoting any new invention. However,
shouldn't have minded the article had
its inaccuracies gone no further than l
have indicated. But one of its paragraphs
gravely stated that had Just completed
an ice machine-ice machines were then
in the experimental stage-with which I
could make ice at - cents ton.
Now, as q matter of fact, had never
ven thought to the making of artificial
ice but the article was written with such
ASucii anu sticu All AIR Oh truth UnaU III was
generally taken to be true and accordingly
copied into newspapers all over the coun-
try. Why, 1 believe l received at least goo
letters of inquiry about that imaginary leo
machine, from would be investors, scien-
til. men, hotel keepers and others. And
the worst of 1t was that n lot of these let
tiers contained stamps, which made it nee
essary for me TO answer them"
Practical Jokers Victim.
On another occasion DIR. Calling was
the victim of u practical joke, though it
was intended that certain reporter should
be the only sufferer.
This reporter was possibly little
fresh" at all events the clerks at the ho-
tel at which the doctor was then staying
seem to have thought so, and when he
asked to be directed to "Gatling the gun
man" pointed out some one else. This
individual, who was necessarily in the
ioEp Xvao nm Qntirplv 1iffaropt man IN, nm