Evening star., 1915-01-24
GunpoWder and War.
BY Webster.

A RE gunpowder and other high c.
"a plosives greater blessing or
curse" Would the world D. better g..
had they never been invented"
These questions were recently :,
bated in all seriousness ut a conve
tion in New York for the purpose "a.
settling finally the great problems that
perplex mankind. TIE delegates show
ed how. through the agency of ".
gunpowder had since the days of crecy
caused the deaths of millions of the
worlds best men-the very seed corn
of the human race, as one of them po
etically expressed il. had been eaten
up by gunpowdcr.
A veteran officer of the army when
asked for an opinion on this subject
thus expressed himself:
1T is remarkable that men individu-
ally rational should when assembled
give serious attention to such ques-
tion. Wars existed for ages before
guhpowder was ever dreamed of. In
deed. the bloodiest battles of history
were fought hundreds of years before
II was invented-in the days when men
always fought hand-to-h hand. Modern
warfare shows no such slaughter a.
occurred in the conflicts of the Romans
with the narnarians. as for instance.
the Romans under Narrus and the
Germans under Arminius 100000 men
were siain-slain, please note, not
merely wounded. And all these were
killed by sword or spear or arrow
The introduction of gunpowder ItIto
warfare has made battles less bloody
ana more humane, because. owing TO
the long range at which men who u'.
firearms are compelled to fight there
is a much better opportunity afforded
la h.l
more. when men fought hand-to-hand
the actual contact of foe with foe
aroused passion and bloodthirstilesS
that are unknown nov, when men COM
monty fight at distance. There If
far greater chance now of saving tn
wounded also.
That the Introduction of gunpowder
has made wars more frequent is un-
true: in proportion to the population
of the earth. wars are, today. less fire.
quent by many fold than they were a
few centuries ago. In tho i,alnicSt
days of the Roman republic the
Temple Of Janus. which was tcpt
open in time of warfare. remained open
for several hundred years without orc.
being closed. And 1T that time En5rs.
was a little state not as big as SwItz'I-
land.
Furthermore, il is unreasonable TO
put the blame for bIoodshed and war
fare upon gunpoWder rather thau Oh a
number of other materials of war. Ger
tainly no one viii seriously rontetl
that the introduction of iron and steel
is "A greater curse than blessing, ard
yet these arc, II anything. NOR" essen
tial to modern warfare than gunpoW-
der. One might. with equal reason,
blame war on the horse or tb: ;"ro-
plane or any other engine Or mate-
rial used in warfare.
But. as a matter of fact. only a sur
prisinSly small percentage of I'll" gun
powder manufa ctured is used in war
fare. 1t has been figured that in IN"
last hundred years but per cent of
the gunpowder manufactured has h"'lI
put to military use, and this included
such peaceful uses as target practice.
The rest has been used in the advance
ment of civilization, and certainly no
agency has been greater to this end
than gunpoWder. Without il the build
ing of railroads or waterways would
he economically impossible. The stone
work now so common. would lac
limited only to costly public build
ings There would be no Panama
canal, nor even the wagon roads that
traverse the Alps and the Rocky
mountains Hell Gate could never
have been removed but for 2unDow'i"r.
I'm conclusion. the cessation OF the
ma nufacture and use of gunpowdcr
would certainly bring to standstill
much of the great work of world inl-
provement-but, with equal certainty.
it would not bring single day nearer
the a abolition of war.