Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-14

produced the steam engine guns and gun
powder, torpedoes and h gh explosives the
electric telegraph, the telephone and all
the enginery of war with which we have
fitted ourselves; and We have taught the
Japanese the use of these things in their
highest efficiency.
His Size an Advantage.
Now that great physical prowess and
gigantic stature are no longer an advan-
tage to the soldier but enormous dis
advantage, we have placed ourselves to
great disadvantage when we fight with The
little Japanese. Carlyle sad the invention
of gunpowder has made all men equally
tall, and the weak equally mighty with the
strong; but it has done more than that. 1t
has made the short, small man metaphori-
cally bigger than the man actually twice
his size.
If we were to suspend two sheets, one
twice the area OF the other between two
lines Of battle, we should find that the
larger sheet would be struck twice as many
times. Now the Russian soldier presents
target about twice the size of the Jap
anese soldier, consequently he stands twice
the chance of being hit and twice the
chance of being killed.
In modern warfare SO much depends upon
mobility, and the efficiency with which the
soldier can effect his own concealment in
the line Of battle, that difference of 100
exposed Is tremendous handicap. In
other words, company of 100 Russians
would have as many men killed under the
same conditions as would a company of 200
Japanese, because the 100 Russians would
present as much area to the bullets of the
japanese as the 200 Japanese would present
to the bullets Of the Russians.
What have said as to the disadvantage
or the larger man in warfare with firearms
applies equally to naval warfare. Hereto
fore the large fighting craft have enjoyed
an advantage similar to that enjoyed by the
giant man before firearms were introduced.
Guns and Armor.
At one time the ponderous wooden man
of-war's-man commanded the sea- Hhis
was superseded, in our war of the rebel
lion, by the still more ponderous but more
effective ironclad. Since that time there
mas been q race between guns and armor;
between penetration and resistance to pen
etration; between the power to strike and
the power to ward off the blow The battle
snip today has reached the limit of thick
ness OF armor under which it can noat.
nevertheless, the modern high-power gun
can now penetrate this armor; and we in
the United States have produced high ex-
plosive projectiles which are capable of
penetrating the thickest armor of any bat
tie ship ahoat, and which will not explode
until they have passed through the plate
when they explode Immediately behind the
plate and inside of war vessel No bat
tie ship in the world can withstand such
gunfire as this more than for few mo-
mentS.
quote the following from the report of
the United States army ordnance board on
some experiments made at Sandy Hook on
November Is and 16 1901, with a twelve
inch service rifle upon a twelve-inch Krupp-
lied plate supported and backed up in a
manner and with a strength of supports to
resemble the side construction of the latest
type of battleship:
IAN army twelve-inch armor- piercing shot
Weighing 1,006 pounds, incudlngs twenty
three pounds of MaXimite, struck the right
center Of the plate with a velocity of .sO4
feet per second, corresponding to a range
of AGO yards. The striking energy was
%, 5OO-foot tons. The shot detonated in the
plate completely wrecking the right-hand
portion and demoishing the frames behind
the armor and the plates of the cofferdam.
1t is evident that had this shot struck a
battleship it would have wrought serious
injury to the vessel.
Any one of the shots from the
twelve-inch army service rifle would have
wrought serious injury to a modern battle
ship as regards its buoyancy, the interior