Evening star., 1899-06-24
The War Department Considering the
Best Kind to Send.
MAKING A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS
Trying to Ascertain the Most
Effective Weapons.
WHAT THE NATIVES DREAD

With the progress of fighting in the Phil
ippfnes the War Department has become
impressed with the necessity of Increasing
the efhc1ency Of the artillery force on duty
there- There are already many batteries
In the archipelago doing duty as infantry
but there is a quiet movement on foot 10
furnish them with guns adapted to use in
that country, and the War Department Is
now engaged in a series of experiments to
determine the most effective form of light
gun for use against the insurgents.
Gen. Otis recommendations so far have
been principally for light. quick-firing field
guns and for mountain batteries; that is
guns of the mountain howitzer type. that
can be transported on muleback 1t has
been demonstrated that artillery for use
even in the dry season in the Philippines
must be very light and easily handled. ow-
ing to the exceedingly bad roads and the
large amount Of cross-country work
Considering Machine Guns.
Therefore. the department is turning its
attention to light automatic or machine
guns, which are quite a different matter
from the quick-firing field batteries which
take horses to draw them. Guns of the
automatic type take the regular rifle am
muntlon. and are so light that they can
pe transported at need by their own crew
of three men.
This was demonstrated in the recent sery-
Ice ashore of Ensign Cleland Davis of the
navy. who has been recommended for ad-
Fancement ten numbers for his work with
one of the Helena's automatic guns in field
operations around Manila and Caloocan
The work of this guns crew showed that
the natives dread the deadly little auto
mauc gun quite as much they do the
larger shrapnel battery, and much more
than the rifle fire of a whole company of
infantry. In addition. the automatic gun
fps4 hsA troy
for a field battery. and can be worked ef-
fectively under cover where a larger gun
would be badly exposed. The work of En-
sign Davis around Manila was quite paral-
leled by the achievements of Lieut. Parker
and his Calling battery at Santiago
The Gatling is the standard machine gun
or the army today, and while il has proved
an effective weapon, 1t is heavier than Is
desired for the present class of work II is
understood that Gen. Miles regards the
Gatling favcrably and also agrees with
Ger. ots' desire for mule mountain bat
teries. He is also favorably impressed with
the work OF the Hotchkiss revolving can
non, which has been brought UP to a high
point of efficiency in the English service.
Trying Various Types.
An effort is being made however. TO give
a fair trial to all the other types of lighter
guns now in the field. Tests are being made
now at Sandy Hook with the new Maxim
gun and the Colt automatic the chief trou-
Is an excellent light gun for boat work in
the navy, II has not usually proved reliable
under service conditions on shore.
There has been some talk of sending to
Manila the battery of Sims-Dudley dyna-
mite guns recently stationed at Fort Myer
but the doubtful factor in these guns is the
accuracy of their fire at ranges over a
mile. The manufacturers asked permission
TO take them back to the factory to make
some improvements in this respect and
they are now being remodeled.
Throwing Explosives.
1t is understood also that the department
has on hand scheme by which it is hoped
soon to be able to throw the highest ex-
plosives from any field gun, but the work In
that direction has not gone far enough to
admit of much discussion.
1t is reasonably certain. however, that it
will not be long before the army has taken
some decided step in the reformation of the
field artillery service, and when the exact
nature of the change has been determined
there will be a prompt shipment of effective
field guns to Manila, possibly in time for
I he OneOinV ha all GA