The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1915-01-13

Had these been needed at home Ger
man strategy would have scored. But
England could well afford to spare
battleships and battle cruisers when
their absence meant the recovery OF
I her South American trade. the net re-
suit Of the victory off the Falkland is
lands on Dec. =, victory which hum
bed the German flag on the high seas
Phenomenal Battle Losses.
Trustworthy data as to the relative
destructiveness % modern weapons
will not be available until revised otii
ciai reports are at hand 1t Is not
/ shown by the history of the evolution
Of weapons that increased destructive
ness follows Increased efficiency. Rea-
| tive Increase Or decrease can be proved
only by percentages Of the number hit
In the number engaged. The percent
age in recent wars has run as high as
! 80 per cent for small units and ~ to 10
| for divisions OF G,UOO to 1890 men il
single engagements.
In the European war there have been
slaughters In spots The civil war had
them at Antietam. Gettysburg. Chicka
manga and Petersburg. general
should get adequate returns for his in
vestment of lives; failure to do that
makes war a slaughter and not a
science.
Progress in contriving new ways TO
kill in recent years has led to new
ways of protecting soldiers 1t has even
been argued that advance in protection
has sped beyond advance in danger,
that wars will now he decided by long
range guns demoliShing innnimate mat
ter. with minimum exposure OF human
lives: "A crash of metal rather than OF
flesh and bone.
I.itied cannon, shrapnel and grape
and canister were the nineteenth cen
fury answer to the bayonet, which had
doubled or trebled the death dealing
power OF the man behind the muSket
The repeating rifle gave the individual
man long range canister to answer the
short range artillery canister. Later
repeating rifle answered repeating rifle,
then came the machine gun TO drown
both repeater and canister fire.
Modern Tactics Safer.
Increased deadineSs of firing does
not Imply that the 'windrowS OF
dead" known in the days of spear ana
battIeax must return to the modern
battlefield In field artillery alone the
bullet proof shield for sunnrrs inhi
Gates the protective side IN modern
equipment In the civil war when the
infantryman's bayonet was outtought
by canister from field battery hr
took to cover and shot down the en
emy's glInners and battery horses IN
the sixties the log rampant ana sinai
low trench behind were the answer
to shrapnel and hurting shell In pro
tracted fight like the Aisne- User line
Of 1914 A modern concealed trench is
far ahead Of logs and dirt rampant to
protect men. Not alone devices for
covering fighting men tend to mini
the same end Rushes Of dozens led
by sergeant carry forward under fire
the thousands which formerly charged
en- maSse
Secretary Of War Garrison says that
It is much more difficult to Kill men In
battle nowadays than is generally sup
posed Medical reports of the Russo
Japanese war, he says. show that out
Of every hundred casualties 50 per
cent were caused by bullets; also that
in that war it took 10000 bullets to
kill one man. Another authority says
that 1t took l.053 rife shots to put one
Japanese out OF the fight In 1904.
whereas in the Franco-Prussian war
in 1870 one bullet in every 375 found
its mark.
Next to bullets come artillery shots
In effectiveness In 1870 1t required
eighty French shots, weight ego
pounds. to disable one German, but In
1904 $50 shots. weight nearly one ton
were fired to disable one Russian.
Appalling accounts Of slaughter. es-
pecially Of Germans. have been given |
but at their worst Geok.Tepe In the |
Russo Turkish war Of 1881 leads in
carnage. With breechloaders 1000
Russians slew 5000 Turks In one
hour. Dead battle lines have been re-
ported In the western zone. The writ
er saw one such at Antietam In 1862
when General HOoker's guns to the
number Of thirty swept with canister
a thirty acre field of standing corn
Confederate line OF battle
In his official report Hooker said. "ln
the time | am writing every stalk of
corn in the northern and greater part
Of the field was cut as closely as could
be done with a knife" Along the
northern fence OF that field lay. well
aligned. over a thousand dead In gray
Prisoners Counted In Losses.
1t appears from analysis Of reports
" losses in Europe that when given In
yross for any battle or campaign the
prisoners are included among the
Where the classes are sep
,rated. as In the English and German
reports. the ratio Of killed to wounded
loes not suggest carnivals OF slaughter.
n the Belgium to Paris campaign In
August and September the total for the