The San Francisco call., 1898-06-19
EXPLOSIVE BULLETS
 BARRED IN WAR

other excuse ready for being
 X crushingly defeated, the Span
 iards whine about unfair fighting.
 They bombarded us with petroleum
 bombs.' said the Spanish dispatches 1 from Manila to Madrid. What pe-
 troleum bombs are the dispatches do l not explain, but the beaten dons seek l to convey the impression that foul | fighting beat them. AS a matter Of ] fact, afl the world knows that they were beaten fairly and squarely, put l even if new and terrible munitions or | war had been introduced by the Amerl- 1 cans, the dons would have to bear in mind that "all's fair in love and war, l and the yanQuished ones do not arouse any sentiment but contempt by squeai- l ing after the blow. However, there are no such things as petroleum bombs used by our navy.
 All war is barbarous, but the civil 1 lized nations have not yet found any other way of settling their differences. l The powers of Europe, in their keen rivalry, agree not to use explosive bull lets; they are interdicted. With the adoption by the British Government of the dunn dunn bullet an interesting question has arisen whether the new bullet is an explosive bullet.
 In the House of Commons recently the Secretary of State for India was quite indignant because the dum-dum bullet was referred to as an explosive bullet. Strictly speaking, this bullet may not come under the ban of inter national law and the customs of war, but the line of demarkation is more academic than real If the dum-dum bullet is permissible, why should we raise our hands in holy horror at the suggestion of an explosive bullet or petroleum bomb?
 An explosive bullet explodes. A dunn dunn bullet consists of solid lead in cased in a cup of nickel. The differ ence between it and the Lee -Metford bullet is that that bullet is incased all over with the nickel, while the dum- dunn bullet has the lead uncovered at the point It is common knowledge that the Lee Metford weapon often punctures men without disabling them; at any rate, at the time. The bullet has been found to pass through an enemy and leave him to all intents and purposes little the worse, unless a vital part has been hit.
 The dum-dum bullet, on the other hand, punctures the flesh, and imme- diately the lead tip mushrooms, mak- ing nasty, jagged wound, which is far more effective than the mere daylight" hole occasioned by a Lee Metford bull let. In attenuation of the injury done by this new dum-dum bullet-named, by the way, after the town of India where it was first made by Captain Bertie Clay-it is claimed that it is not so barbarous as the bullet that was used with the old Snider rifle, which was hollow, and therefore spread and made a ghastly wound.
 Only a trained casuist could see the difference between an explosive bullet and this new dum-dum bullet, which the British troops belch forth from their rifles while yet a great distance from the enemy. An explosive bullet would certainly carry as far, and would almost certainly kill on striking body.
 The dum-dum bullet strikes an en- emy, mushrooms out in his body, and inflicts a horrible wound, which proba- bly, means a lingering death instead of a quick dispatch. The distinction be- tween these two bullets appears small matter Yet the refinement which ve neers civilized nations sanctions the dum-dum bullet, while it refuses to permit the use of it's explosive rival.
 But, after all, is not this discussion of the relative killing merits of these bullets uncalled for, and is there any Justification for the armed nations of Europe objecting to the use of explo- sive projectiles? The object of war is to kill, and the more effectual the means the more pleased are those who have direction of the operations. In- ventive genius has provided the navy with the torpedo and submerged mines. Such an explosion as wrecked the Maine may, in time of war, be caused by a torpedo or by submerged mine. By the use of these agencies hundreds of officers and men and a vessel worth. it may be. as much as $5,000,000, would in the twinkling of an eye be sent to the bottom of the sea. This method of warfare has received the sanction of all the nations of the world; it has been reduced to a more or less exact sci ence.
 It is difficult to see where the diff ference lies between killing a single man with an explosive bullet and slaughtering whole ships company by submerged mines. As a matter of fact, in the consideration of methods of war fare, there is no room for sentiment. Any soldier who uses a bayonet mere ly to pierce an anta gonist. and does not drive home his weapon by twisting and twirling the weapon, would prob ably not live to tell the tale to human ity. It is when we carefully examine the methods of warfare that logic tot ters, and we find it impossible to draw the line between one method and an- other-to label one as humane and the other as not in keeping with the tradt- tionS of civilized nations.