Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1914-09-18
HORRORS OF WAR
DEPICTED BY ONE
Who KNOWS THEM

| AohS ScdIS dSO M DUCT, great
Warsaw banker and political econo-
mist, startled the world by the
declaration that a great war be-
tween European powers was a ply
sicsl impossibility says London Tit
Bits, August l5.
"Such q war; said NJ. Bloch.
has at last become impossible and
those who are preparing for war
and basing all the schemes of life
on the expectation Of war are vis-
ionaries of the worst kind. Science
and invention have made it not
merely impossible, but uuthink-
able"
Without taking quite such an
extreme vie y ss the famous Rus
sian apostle of peace, it is easy to
see that a war between two or more
great European nations, would have
consequences SO terrible that no
nation would ever dare to face
them a second time.
In the past, war has been suffic-
iently prodigal in its squandering
Of life and gold. During the past
century alone it reaped harvest of
$4,000. 900 lives: in ore great
struggle, that between France and
Prussia, the death roll totaled SO0,-
900, on three battleields -Buro-
dino, Moskows and Leipzig-morc
than quarter OF million soldiers
we're either killed or wounded. The
price paid for the Franco-German
war in gold was G516, 100000 in
Guiding Frances indemnity; and
the American civil war is said to
have sacrificed 10000 lives 1T a
rost Of co, 900, 100000.
Such was the price paid for war
in days before the science of death.
dealing was really out of its
cradle. and its rapid progress dur
ing the last generation has advanc-
ed it as far from the day of Sedan
as Sedan was removed from Agin-
} court.
What strides the science has
made is proved by the statement of
an expert that the artillery Of to-.
5 day is at least ll6 times more
) deadly than the batteries which
Slaughtered their thousands at Sedan
and Gravelotte. In 1870 schrapnel-
fire, for example, only scattered
thirty-seven death dealing missiles.
Now it scatters $40. A bomb
weighing about seventy pounds
forty years ago would have burst
into fortv-two fragments. Today,
when II is charged with peroxlenc,
it breaks up into 200 pieces. 1t
is estimated that such bomb
would effectually destroy all life
within a range of 200 yards of the
point of explosion.
So terrible in its powers OF
slaughter is the modem cannon that
If body Of 10000 men advancing
to the attack had to traverse a dis
tance Of mile and a half under
the fire OF a single batterv they
would be exposed to ,d50 rounds
before they could cross the zone of
fire and the bursting shells fired by
that battery would scatter 275,000
bullets (more than tRenty-seycu
for erch mani in fragments over
the mile and half across which
they would have to march. Such
is the perfection which artillery
has attained already, THANKS to the
invention Of the quick-firing guns
to range finders and to the use of
higher explosives. The modern
rifle has range OF Two or three
miles and such q power Of penetra-
tion that it's bullet will easily pass
through dozen ncn before its
force is spent. Such, TOO, is its
speed of flight thst there is no
longer any need to sight the gun so
as to drop your bullet at particu.
lar range. You aim straight at
your man, and the bullet goes
straight to it's mark.
today, too, the soldier can fire
twelve times as many shots per
minute as no VAS able to do a gen.
GRAFTON ago. AS recently, the Rus
so.Turkish war a soldier could only
carry eighty-iour cartridges into
action; he can carry roughly four
times this number without adding
to his burden.