The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-14
AERIAL oPrrsrIsT.

Atmy, 8tvcs lt as ms Oplnioh tuet within the next twelve years the su- premacy of nations win be decided in the air." If he means by this to pre- dict that the fighting will he done in airships, we are inclined to think he Is unreasonably optimistic. Really. we don't know whether 1t would be pos- sibIe to muster armies to fight in the air hundreds or thousands of feet above the earth. War is bad enough. at best, when soldiers have the solid earth under their feet, but it would be far different if fought in the upper re- gions. When a ship loaded with sol- diers Is disabled there Is always a chance to escape. A train of cars may be attacked and the engine put out of business. but the men are still on the earth. Not so in this air-fighting prop osition. If the elevating, propeiling or steaming machinery should be disabled the entire company or regiment of sol- diers would come down like ripe nuts and be scattered all over the neighbor- hood. Let one read the poetic account in Milton's Paradise Lost of the terri ble battles between the opposing an- gelic armies in mid-air to get an idea of what kind of picnic would follow a fight in the air. We don't want any of 1t.
 And yet it must be admitted that thoroughly reliable airship would be of vast benefit to an army, not the least important of its uses being that of post of observation. With a vessel that could be managed without acci- dent or failure a spy would sail above an enemy's army, at a height entirely out of reach, and make an accurate troops, as we'll as getting a fair idea of it's numbers and equipments. It would be difficult to over-estimate the importance of the information that could be acquired in this manner, pro- vided the machine could be managed as one can manage a horse or boat in quiet water.
 But a dirigible airship, thoroughly under control. would be as useful as destroyer of armies as it would as death dealing explosives has reached such perfection that all that is needed to destroy a ship or an army Is to get the missile to the right place. That would be the advantage of the air vessel. It would not require large ship to carry enough high class ex- plosives to destroy an army. and if these could be transported at a height which would carry them out of reach of the enemy's guns and dropped where they would do most good-or most harm the whole science and conduct of war would be destroyed, or put out of bus mess without getting in sight of each other. Instead of two great armies marching up and fighting to the death they could lie quietly, miles apart, and insignificant flying machines. In the two ways we have mentioned wars would be decided without coming into contact. As observers or as destroyers. airships which will be completely un- der control will reform or stop the art of war.
 But when is all this to be expected? Colonel Copper declares that the whole problem of aerial navigation has al- ready been successfully solved, and nothing more remains but to work out by experiment the details of lifting and
 
 the Colonel, his remarks involve a con- tradiction of terms or of meaning. If the whole problem has been success fully solved there is nothing lacking, and if the methods of lifting and drlv- ing are yet imperfect then the whole thing is still practical failure. Until certain and practicable method of lifting and driving the machine is dis covered and proven, we insist that the navigation of the air Is but a dream as yet.
 Colonel Copper makes another unfor- tur ate admission in his paper He says the British Government has commits stoned one Dr. Barton to build and test an airship which shall carry three men, with necessary fuel and provis- ions, and which he guarantees shall remain in the air twenty-four hours, have a speed of thirteen miles an hour in calm, turn in a circle of a hundred yards and finally ascend and descend without apparatus working from the ground"
 Those two words, "ln calm," nullify the entire claim, for there is just where the great difficulty lies. Of what use in war would be en airship which will only travel and be controlled in a calm? One might as well talk of a success full steamship which will sail across the ocean in a calm. Airships have been raised and propelled. but none has yet been found that can overcome the winds. and we doubt if the dozen years mentioned by Colonel Copper will see the problem much nearer a solution than it now Is.
 HE WANTS NO PITY.
 Now that the election ia over and