The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-14
wAR HORRORS PREDICTED.


 We are told that recent experiments and developments in Germany and France indicate that within very few years aerial warships will be used. Tn other words, instead of great arr mics fighting on land or water they will do their fighting in the air. h. stead of the fleets of battleships ana trains of artillery we will have aerial navies, so to speak. loaded with the hishest and most dangerous explosives that science can devise.
 In contemplating this possible out come of human skill and inventiveness there is much of grotesque horror that presents itself. War in any shape Is pretty much what General Sherman called it. It is cruel. horrible. inhu- man, but on land or water those wnv fight have some show. If a soldier IS shot down he has the solid earth to lie on and a chance to De carried away. If a sailor is wounded he has his ship under him. and even if the vessel Is wrecked he has q chance of rescue. but what chance would fellow have if he should fall or bw knocked out of one of these flyersr He would prob ably hit the ground in some high place and be scattered over an acre or two of soil. And if one of those airships shouidt be knocked cut down 1t would come and It's contents. animate and in animate. would destroy the landscape all over township. Readers of Para disc Lostr will remember Miiton's de- scription of the war between Michael and his angels and Lucifer and his angels. when the hosts fought in mid- air. and in reading the poets descrip- ton of the battles one can almost imagine that he foresaw what the scientists are now predicting.
 ' Aside from the horrible certainties and uncertainties of such a conflict there would be one feature of it caicu- lated to cause much confusion and complication. That would be in the, total wiping out of State and national boundary lines. At the Hague confer ence in 1898 one of the items agreed on among the powers participating was a section providing that the contracting powers agree to prohibit, for term of five years, the launching of pro3ectiles and explosives from balloons or by oth- CT new methods of a similar nature"
 The limit of this agreement has ex> pired and it has not been renewed or extended. In case of war between two great powers every city and conn munity in each country would be abso- lutely at the mercy of the enemy properly equipped arship could de- stroy New York at sunrise, Chicago at noon and San Francisco next morning, blowing all the intermediate towns tn- to kindling wood in the Heantime. No nation could proclaim a boundary or establish a line of defence against an enemy. In short, the wings of destruc- tion would be spread and the angel of death would be leosed to prey upon humanity everywhere. But The Springfield Union feresees something good, after all. It says:
 From one point of view, the situa- tion is not to be deplored. It has could only be brought about through the perfection of aerial machines capa- frem 9e or the earths esurface i into the aip above. The theory followed in sucn specuiatiops is that dirigible airships carrying high explosives oo1,d cSmnnea n1aea armies, forts, cities. frontiers. fleets Tn a wholly defenseless position. Allow ing the use in war Of such machines, derbolts by man in the heavens above ak nnf iV1 h. able that they would cause a revolu- ton in warfare unparalleled since the, introduction of gunpowder. And the further conception that war would be made impossible through the very help lessness of the earth against mobill- zation and scientific direction of thun- derbolts by man in the heavens above does not seem illogical or fantastic. When the time comes. if 1t ever does. that great navies may soar in the upper skies, or. with their searchlights aglew reaches of the heavens in theN darkest nights. then 1t may be believed man kind out of necessity would proclaim
 Let them ceme-the warships of>the air. Ultimately they may accomplish at a stroke what arbitration treaties and peace congresses would be long in doing. if dependent upon the perfection of the moral nature of man.
 It might be possible that if tho dreams of the experts are ever realized the new method will make war so un- utterably horrible that nations will cease to declare war and the people re- fuse to go to war. If that should hap pen the new warfare. with all its hor- TOTS, would prove a blessing. There is never a misunderstanding between nations that might not be amicably and honorably adjusted if each. side would be just and fair. Maybe this plan of air fighting may hasten the time pre- dcted by the inspired prophets when nation shall not lift up sword against nation. neither shall they learn war any more" That would be a blessing to our common humanity, and so far as all civilized countries are concerned we believe such consummation would not only be human but profitable to all people of the earth.
 
 An article in recent issue of Spare Moments" on the subject The Log