Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-12-09
PREDICTS WAR IN SKIES.
Fleet OF Aircrafts Armed with Guns
to Aca as Scouts. 3.

Hudson Maxim, the famous inven-
tor, has just worked out the plans
for a new submarine motor boat,
says the New York American, which
will act itself, as a monstrous tor
pedo, and, after blowing up the war
ship 1t has chased, safely escapes on
the wave caused by the explosion. 1t
Will be driven by a couple Of men,
travel at terrific speed, have a
steaming radius Of several hours,
be practically inYulnerable and carry
in its deadly nose ton of high ex-
plosives, which it can place with
surety wherever the other fellow
least wants to have 1t.
Pressed for details of this remark
able new engine of destruction, which
1t is believed, will create new era
in naval warfare, Mr.. Maxim refused
to talk. 81 am saving them for my
lecture tomorrow evening before the
American Chemical Society and am
sorry that anything about it has
leaked out beforehand. / had hoped
to have kept it secret altogether"
The representative of the Ameri-
can asked If he did not think these
deadly Instruments would put an end
to war by making it impossible.
Quite the reverse" Mr.. Maxim
replied. 80 far from war in the
world being any where near its end,
1T is, as war, only just commencing
its scientific period.
1.-THE idea about the zone of
death, that two armies would reach
a point where neither could attempt
to cross the interval without facing
certain annihilation, Is q fallacy. 1t
is all right in theory. But in prac-
tice 1T only discloses q need which
science at once sets about providing
for. / have now many ways for en-
abling an army to cross that zone Of
death. The simplest buries the enc
my in cloud of dust or smoke. An
other still better, is used at night,
and so lights them up that while they
can be plainly seen, they are too daZ-
zled to see anything themselves.
I'm the warfare Of the future, ar
mics Will line up on opposing sky
lines and fire at each other over the
enormous arena in between them.
They will have their scouts and rifle
men armed with silent guns and the
sky will be clouded with fleets of
scouting aircraft. There will be
many a tilt between aerial pickets,
end shrapnel and canister will be di-
rccted toward the sky as we'll as
so"oiuo ehS ShSHlS llue.
But 1t Is mistake to suppose
that flying machines will play havoc
by dropping high explosives. Ex-
plosives SO used would do very little
damage in the horizontal plane, and
Kill very few men in an army.
by that time army generals will
be expert scientific engineers, and
explosives Will be used in machines
that will annihilate thousands of
men In few seconds.
-. But as a political factor, war may
be kept out OF account II one keeps
prepared. In war dollars fly more
quickly than bullets. The only way
to keep off war is to let the promot-
ers Of war see that the plunder won't
repay them for the money outlay.
What Russia may do in the pres
ent war cloud in Europe, at the back
of which she no doubt is, cannot be
forecast from her defeat by Japan. /
should not be surprised If this time
she obtained for long sought for goal
-Constantinop,C aUd water outlet
by way Of the Dardanelles. England
Will hardly face another war. If
France Joined her, Germany would
rush in-and in the end all Europe
would be at the mercy of the yellow
peril"