River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-10-29

issEsysssTsssM far as ] can see. it's prac-
Gl teal" he announced. Its
wonderful, of course, but no more so
in it's way than other things we now
use daily were at the time of their in
vention. On the whole. it strikes me
as what we need
Maybe" rejoined ]. c., except for
the prohibitive cost of production
you mean the radium plates?"
Meade cut in instantly.
Precisely"
"That Is something which | believe
could be arranged" said the youth
''Yoa sse, nay father and want the
country to have this ship. We are Of
fering it to you without any price for
the ship itself. All we would ask is
that we be allowed to furnish the
radio active plates to equip the vessels
at a reasonable profit over the cost Of
production"
I'm other words" drawled j. c.,
your idea is to create a market by
getting us to take up the ship and then
supply the demand yourselves? Well
that's business"
Stillman flushed. "Our idea was to
make our country unassailable." he re-
tOrted quickly.
Again Gethe1ds raped for order.
After ALL he remarked, this is in
the nature Of a preliminary examina-
ton of the device. Doubtless Mr.. Still
man came prepared to furnish esti-
mates as to the probable cost of build
ing his invention. l would like to ask
him to give us such figures as he may
have ready"
"The estimated total would be APP
proximately $2O,OOO,OOO per vessel"
Meade replied at once.
Seaton frowned. "As much as sew
eral Dreadnoughts or small feet of
cruisers" he remarked.
Stillman FASTENED to retort, "But one
ship will be worth more than dozen
Dreadnoughts in effectiveness"
Fright you are, son." agreed Gotz,
provided always that your ship will
do what you claim. But you've got to
hit your navy with your bombs to hurt
EN-, / take it. So far bomb droppin'
from aeroplanes hasn't done much
damage"
"Ours WILL Stillman flashed, with
smile. They're magnetic. Each con-
tains an electro magnet activated by a
small cell. If one of them comes with
in a thousand feet of anything made
of iron or steel it will be drawn against
it and exploded"
Good Lordr' gasped Seaton, who
bent and whispered to Harter. Monsel
merely nodded and smiled to himself
in satisfied way.
you seem to have looked after the
details pretty well, young man, said
Gotz. But there's arguments on the
other side still. Without trying to in
any way criticise the merits Of your
accomplishment. I'd like to call your
attention to the fact that you're plan
ming to gain a monopoly of the war
game.
IT'D cause an awful howl, and it
would put most Of the arms houses and
for commercial purposes. Dye think
they'd stand Tor 1t! Not for molly
minute. They'd find way to get you.
son. Without sayin' anything about
the right or wrong of the thing, lot
of people make money out OF wars.
Sometimes a war is the best thing for
a country. There's always armies to
be equipped and supplies to be fur
nished"
Stillman Strengthened and turned to-
ward the speaker. Surely. sir. you
don't mean that you approve Of war;"
he cried. aghast. merely for the sake
Of a few commercisS interests and the
putting of blood soaked money in their
pockets!'
"Y0u said something about shedding
blood. about annihilating an army or