The evening times., 1899-12-06

While the British and the Beers are fight
ing with modern field guns. firing high ex-
plosive shells. the American forces in the
Philippines have been fighting for more
than year without a single piece OF the
new artillery and without a single pound
Of high explosive. Were the rebels Of Lu-
zon armed. as are the Beers. with rapid
fire artillery from the continental gun fac
tories, It would hardly be possible to put
the insurrection down without terrible
losses of life. Fortunately for General Otis.
Aguinaldo's army is even worse on than
our own. and the vigilance Of the blockade
Of Philippine ports precludes the possibil-
ity OF the rebels strengthening their ar
tillery. On the other hand. the new Sec
retary of War intends to provide General
Otis with an adequate artillery, and he
already has on the Pacific Coast bound for
Manila the first shipment Of new field guns
and tfgh explosives.
When Secretary Root entered the War
Department there were seventeen batteries
of artillery in the Philippines, but Of these
seventeen all but five were fighting as in
fantry with small arms. Only five batteries
had field artillery. Four Of
these five had the heavy old
o.S-lucu siOW-uIlnS guns. WHICH,
in the opinion of artillerists, ARE as infer
ior to the new rapid fire guns as are flint
lock muskets to Krag- -Jorgensens." The
remaining battery had Hotchkiss guns
given to the Government by John Jacob
Astor. General Otis himself, who, the
artillery officers say, went to Manila be-
lieving that the infantry was little in need
Of a heavy support Of artillery. cabled TO
Washington that the heavy old field guns
were inadequate. The exact condition of
the artillery in the Philippines was made
the subject Of a special report to the new
Secretary of War when he began his work.
He assured army officers. who pointed out
to him the weakness Of the artillery equip
ment, that the President wanted to put
down the insurrection speedily and that the
artillery would be strengthened at once.
Within a month of the day he became
Secretary of War Mr.. Root came up from
Washington with General Miles to witness
some tests OF new ordnance at Sandy Hook.
A few days before this Lieutenant Buckley,
OF the Third Artillery. who had been or
dered to the Philippines. was directed TO
60 TO Woolwich Arsenal and from there
to Paris and Amsterdam to investigate the
use of mountain batteries in India and Al
rica. One Of the guns tested at Sandy Hook
was a new Vickers- Maxim mountain gun
III I<nkiduu ts Tue DodIu VI oIu-.
nance and Fertilization. In the opinion Of
the ordnance experts at the proving ground
this was just the gun needed in the Philip
pines, and Secretary Root accepted their
verdict. Red tape Was slashed. cable
gram was sent that nigh, to Lieutenant
Buckley, WHO had just. arrived in England,
telling him to buy a dozen Of the mountain
guns at once. Mr.. Root saw the guns were
needed and the first thing to do was TO buy
them.
The two batteries of English mountain
guns will be at Hongkong in q few days.
American artillerymen who have seen this
type of gun fred at Sandy Hook say that
II Is one of the most perfect pieces OF ord
nance ever mounted at the proving ground.
The English. French. German. and Russian
armies have been equipped with this new
rapid-fre artillery for several years. while
our own army has been at standstill in
this respect. American artillerists and
gun makers have pleaded for the artillery.
asserting. what nobody denies. that this
country could lead in gunmaking IL il had
a fair chance 10 go ahead. But obstructions
have been placed In the way of the develop
ment of American ordnance. Secretary
Root. 1T is Known n Washington. has
quickly grasped the situation and, a civ
ilian. he is in position to deal with the
question without prejudice. Artillerymen
believe that the new head OF the War De-
partment will speedily remove some Of the
chief obstructions to ordnance progress
This English mountain gun is only one OF
the many types Of the new artillery, but
comparison of it with the corresponding
American gun will show how far this coun-
try is behind. The other day it was an
nounced in Washington that the Ordnance
Bureau would ship to Manila twenty one
12-pounder mountain guns. This is the
12-pounder Hotchkiss fine gun in its
day but now a back number. 1t is the
best gun of its kind in our army. however.
The imported mountain gun fires twelve
and half pound shell. but its bore is the
same as that of the Hotchkiss-three inch
es. The Hotchkiss uses a fourteen ounce
charge Of brown powder; the Vickers-
Maxim, sixteen ounces of smokeless pow
der. Consequently. while the muzzle ve-
locity of the old gun is $40 foot-seconds,
the smokeless powder gun develops LOO
foot-secouds, nearly twice as great. A
OF velocity means a tremendous
increase in eN.rgy. The American gun,
at its best, develops a muzzle energy Of SO
energy is 250-4 foot-tons, nearly as great
as that developed by the heavy field gun
now in the Philippines.
Rapidly Of fire is one Of the great fea-
lures of the new artillery. This is at
tained by the use of fixed ammunition, a
quick acting breech mechanism, and spe-
cial devices for taking up the
recoil. The Hotchkiss mountain gun uses
fixed ammunition. but it's breech is an old
one and it kicks back like an old blunder-
buss. The vickers- Maxim gun sent to the
has all of the new devices for
increasing the speed Of fire. and 1t is pos
sible to deliver with 1t twenty high-explo-
sive shells a minute. Ten shells minute
is its normal capacity on the field of bat
tie, The old Hotchkiss does well to fire
one aimed shell a minute, for it has to
be brought back into battery and reaimed
after each firing.
General OTIS as has been said, has four
of the 3.2-inch guns and nine
more batteries are being shipped to him.
Brigadier General Flagler, in his last re-
port as Chief of Ordnance, said of this
piece:
"At the time the present 3.2-inch field
gun was designed and introduced into SER
vice, some fifteen years ago, 1t was thought
to meet all essential requirements and was
proved to be. in fact. fully equal to the best
field gun extant at that period. Since that
time, however, the Introduction Of smoke
less powder and some improvements in the
construction of the gun and its carriage,
have made it practicable to increase the
power and efficiency Of this piece without
requisite mobility
Ever since the European armies began
discarding their old fieldpieces our Ord
nance Bureau has been trying to make
modern gun out Of the old s.2-inch gun,