Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-19
Military Rifle Destined
For the Scrap Pile

VI lliV wi oH uS
nm HE machine gun Is playing such
an important part IN the war
q that military prophets are say
ing that before long, perhaps in the
closing stages of the present war, and
certainly in the next great war, all in
fantry will be armed with the machine
gun, and that the present magazine
rifle will be looked on something In
the light of fint-lock or match-lock
musket. Infantry in the present war Is
being armed with machine guns as 1as'
as those weapons can be produced, and
the limit of their use Is determined
only by the capacity of machine-gun
makers to produce them.
When the prospect seemed to be that
the muzzle- loader would be supplanteo
by a new tangled gun that could De
loaded at the breech, certain military
men of the so-called conservative class
opposed the innovation on various
grounds, One was that man could
load, fire, reload and fire again so fast
that he would not take deliberate aim
There would be an end to fire dlsci-
pline" and a vast waste OF ammunition
When the prospect was that the single
shot, breech-loading rifle would be dis
placed by the MAGAZINE rep ".a, r., t the
same arguments were set forth by the
same type of conservative military
men. and they also urged that the
magazine rifle was too complicated TO
stand up under the rough usage of
campaigns For number of years
there has been a good deal of talk
about the Introduction of an automatic
rapid-f1re rifle to supplant the ordinary
bolt and clip magazine gun, but the
usual arguments were made against 1t.
The value of the machine gun was
partially recognized in the United
States Army. and a machine-gun COM
pany organized for each infantry regi-
ment The German military establish
ment gripped the machine gun idea
and began the war with perhaps twice
in all the other countries combined.
limiting at this, an English military
writer has said:
I'm this war of surprises nothing Is
things offensive and defensive. Mill
tary science develops SO rapidly in
modern warfare that nothing is SO un-
stable as fixed ideas and nothing so
unreliable as tradition. So far the Ger
mans have been our masters in the art
of making today the weapons of to-
morrow. Instead of seeking to adapt
new circumstances to old theories they
change their theories to meet the cir
cumstances, and that is one of the
such a stubborn fight against world
in arms"
1t has been estimated, but at best it
is only an estimate. that at the out
break of the war there were $4,000
machine guns in the German armies.
1t is a good guess that the number has
been greatly increased during the war,
because the machine gun is one of the
weapons which have proved its effective
ness in battle. German military ex-
perts say that machine guns are cheap,
that the parts are easily duplicated,
that they take up little more room
than a rifle, and they claim that it is
just as easy to make a serviceable ma
chine gun as 1t is to make a good rifle.
The best soldiers in the German army
are placed in charge of machine guns,
but the German shows none of the SEN
tfmental devotion for his fast-shooting
gun that the British soldier has ac-
quired. For a British battalion to lose
a machine gun is a grave calamity and
lives will be sacrificed to regain it. A
German soldier looks upon a machine
gun as personal weapon, it's loss is
personal one and no more affects the
honor of his battalion than does the
loss of rife.
1t is from the German military au-
thorities that one hears most of the
talk that the magazine rifle is doomed
to the scrap heap. They are saying
that just as the muzzle-loading gun
was replaced by the breechloader, so
will the magazine rifle be replaced by
the machine gun, and what the pro-
tor To-
have confirmed. 1t is indicated in the
news from Europe that the Germans
no longer pay much attention to the
cult of the rife. The Germans are
working night and day to turn out a
machine gun no heavier than the old
Brown Bess" and more deadly than the
concentrated fire of an entire company.
The machine gun found" itself at
Neuve Chapelle. at La Bassee and at
the sector Of Ypres.- machine gun is
only an automatic rifle with a water
jacket on 1t to keep down the heating
of the barrel under rapid firing, and It
Is claimed that the soldiers who won
and lost Waterloo carried a weapon
heavier and moro clumsy than the lat
est machine gun. A man who could fire
a Kicking gun OF century ago could
IRE and carry machine gun with less
effort than he could fire and carry the
old smooth-bore musket.
So many traditions hang around the
rue tHdt SoiulerS are as lOath to give
1t up as military archers were to mart
with their bows and arrows a&ter the
introduction of gunpowder in war,
and. as matter of fact, long after
guns were introduced into military
service certain troops continued to
fight with cross-bows and arrows and
there was much debate as to whether
the musket or the bow was the better
weapon.
A German military critic of distinc-
ton has been quoted ~ an English
war correspondent as saying: "The
present war will see the end of many
things, as it has seen the birth Of
many things. and although the rifle
may not disappear before peace is
signed. its doom as the principal arm
of infantry is sounded You NAV
smile-that is one of the faults of you
English. You invariably sect an alb
surdity in a novelty until the novelty
has become an institution. You will
go on improving the magazine rifle
when 1t ought to be scrapped"
Poets Records.
From the Chicago Post