Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-09-09

(Associated Press Correspondence
Paris. Aug. Ex-senator Charles
Humbert, one of the leading members
of the Senate Committee on Military
Affairs, has written for The Associ-
ated Press the subioined article on the
relation of industry to the war. Sena-
tor Humbert has been conducting the
successful campaign for the high pres
sure production by the whole indus
trial resources of France of the shells
and guns which he and his colleagues
consider essential to victory. He is
the new proprietor Of LIE Journal with
a circulation of about one million. Sem
ator Humbert writes:
The important part played by in
dustry in the present war is due, not
only to the power and the perfection
of firearms, but even more to the i'm
mense number of men in line. These
millions of combatantS would be Moth
ing more than a mob predestined to
massacre without the tools of combat
which must necessarily be supplied
and renewed, and which, for their
manufacture in sufficient quantities,
factories provided with the means Of
turning out the most modern instru-
ments of war.
Long before the war it could be
seen what character the hostiities
would take on. Personally, l predicted
it. The Germans, especially, were very
we'll aware of it, and it is only neces-
sary to think for a moment Of the
formidable preparations they had
made to realize that they could put
at the service of their warlike inten-
lions military machinery ready to its
last detail. The work they have done
t.Of recent years to renew their artil-
slery and to supply their armies with
heavy, long range guns, sufficiently
Yieldy to be able to follow the move
ments of their troops, was most sig
t,nificant. l regret very deeply that my
own country, in spite of oft repeated
warnings, did not follow their example.
And yet. it ought to have been pretty
evident that in this century of scien-
tific progress. of machinery to the linn
it. supplies would play in war a part
as important as they play in the econ
omic life of every day
but tne ACTUAL VI "dI
has gone far beyond any foresight for
it. The destructive power of the fire
armS-rif1es machine-gunS. rapid fire
guns of all calibres-has been SO re-
vealed on the field of battle that the
comha tantS have had to renOunce COM
pletely the system of manoeuvring in
| open country. Every troop which at
! tempts to advance in the open against
well-armed enemy awaiting the at
tack, is doomed fatally to disaster: in
an instant the fire of machine guns
moWs down the ranks like a blade OF
steel moving down grain; and the vol
leys of artillery methodically annihi
! lates them, letting nothing escape.
That is the reason for the necessi
/ ~ for seeking protection. as much as
may be. against these storms of steel
and explosives; it is the reason for the
/ enormous development Of field fortifi
cations. trenches. underground cham
hers rcdoubtS, concealed shelters and
so on. The old Notifications of other
times, fixed. standing out, marked in
/ advance for the fire of the enemys
artillery. cannot hold out against the
projectiles of giant cannon. But the
plain ditch, scarcely a yard or two
wide easily dug. completed with invis-
ible arrangements, the approach &c
/ which is made impracticable by means
of harbed wire entanglements-tha