The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1915-05-12
GAS BON BIS.

| IN the controversy ONcI lHC t,'t
bombs the Germans say that thu
FRENCH have been using them and hat
been warned that the practice woui'
| get them into trouble. The German
chemist would make rcprisals posi-
| Bile, and the German chemist being
superior to the French chemist, ht
| would devise superlatively nasty
gas bomb.
The French say that they have not
been using gas bombs and that wfeI
they were accused of doing so they
did not need their Latin clearne$s
of perception to know that later thew
would be pelted with the things and
then be confronted with a piece OF
glorious Teutonic injustice. They
say they knew that as soon as the Ger
mans began making the charges they
we're making the bombs.
There the matter rests for neutrals
so far as the controversy concerns re-
sponsibility for the initiative. But
the New York Sun calls attention to
the fact that when the question OF
agreeing not to use such instruments
OF warfare was up for consideration
at The Hague, when the nations were
considering the fine distinctions which
make some methods Of slaughter hui.
name and some barbarous, the United
States; it's commissioners guided by
Alfred r. Mahan, then captain and
later rear admiral in the American
navy, did not subscribe and this nation
did not sign or adhere to the stipula-
ton that asphyXiating bombs should
not be used.
Mahan'S reasoning was simply cool
logic in a world OF conventionality.
He said that such bombs had not been
made, that they were not in use and
no one knew what the results OF their
use, when they We're made, might be.
1t was conceivable that they would be
found to be more humane than many
other methods Of disp0Sing OF an en-
envy.
rs between the disturbance OF the
membranes by, vapors and the tearing
OF the limbs by shrapncl a
might have a prefer
cnce for the former, and even INNER
sion in choking, poisonous gases
might seem but little more terrible
than elevation by means OF an eXplod-
ed mine under the trench.
There is o confusion in the reports
as to what the gas does aud how it is
used. but one dispatch from the front
in the unconscious humor OF
saying that the victims are liable to
contract bronchitis.
Every nation engaged in this war
signed or adhered to the agreement
not to use such means of overcoming
an enemy and it is not known who
started to break the agreements.
Neither does ii matter. Agreements
represent last years state of mind,
lot this years. But the affair does
1ot stand out clearly as indicating
he human habit to get mode fixed
il its thought and experience as pro-
lcr and to resent, without any at |
empt at reason, Il departure from
What it considers conventional. Even !
n war when mental processes are dis
ordered the habit OF conventionality
stands like Gibralter in swamp of
shaking reeds.
Music Festival at Iowa State College.
The New York Symphony orchestra,
Walter Damrosch, conductor, and Da-
lid Bispham. baritone, will be two i'm
,ortant features Of the annual May |
Iusic Festival at Iowa State College, |
Hay and s. Prof. j. C. Harris OF the
music department. is also training a
horus OF 200 voices to present The
lose Maiden" by Sir Frederick FL.
'ohen.