The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1915-08-12

From the London Man.

Val sc fANAH wall
Before this war most people! Imagined
that cotton was used principally for the
manufacture OF calico and cotton fabrics
IN Lancashire or for the b~andaging OF
wounds In hospitals. They are gradually
cSIat 70 undersaana that cotton y the 2
and the substance with which men are
killed In the war OF today. The explosive
which propels the bullet from the rifle and
the high explosive shell from the field
U Is not, as in Napoleon's time. made
OF charcoal, saltpetre, n sulphur. II IL
made chiefly of cotton. .
To convert cotton into an explosive Il
Is dipped In nitric acid. washed, and dried.
The resultant In guncotton. Unless ex-
treme care Is taken In its manufacture
and unless the cotton Is pure and clean.
factory and all employed In IL. When
properly made. however, IL Is stable and
trustworthy. The British powder. cor
ton and the other third OF various i'm
gradients. The German and Austrian
powders are much the same, Without
guncotton the German guns and rifles
supply OF cotton there could be no Ger
man guncotton. -
The consumption of cotton in modern
weighing 400 pounds, or about a NTH Of
a ton, Is needed to make the powder for
one shot from one OF the Queen Eliza
beth's ls-inch guns or from one Of the
WI -AAAN A ~ Viii
quantity OF cotton would provide ammu-
milton for 400 shots from a field gun or
$1,000 rounds from a rife. The lowest caF
culation places the quantity OF cotton
daily fired by Germany and Austria at
800 tons; the highest at something over
1000 tons.
cannon be manufactured chemically there.
Every ounce that she fires away In killing
or maiming the British troops and their
allies has to reach her by sea. II her
supply of cotton were cut off she would
be most gravely embarrassed. Even sup
posing she could devise q new powder,
to change explosives in the midst of a
great war Is matter OF tremendous diff
Now the amazing fact Is that Great
Britain has not stopped Germany from
getting cotton abroad. There Is one sure
way Of cutting off her supply. IL is 70
seizure by the British and allied cruisers.
We nave not done that, though II ought
TO have been done In the first week OF
the war. We proclaimed wool, copper,
everything but the one indispensable food
for the German guns. c~ontraband. For
many months we ever allowed cotton to
be exported in great quantities from this
country to various neutral ports, whence
1t was VIGOROUSLY dispatched to Ger
many. We have only recently stopped
this trade by an embargo, or prohibition,
on the export of cotton from Great Brit
ain. We have not cut off the export of
cotton from the United States, where
most OF II Is grown, in neutral ships to
neutral ports, and most of the cotton gets
70 Germany In this manner.
II we proclaimed cotton c~ontraband we
could stop this traffic by Selling the ships
with cotton cargoes and calling on the
neutrals to show that the cotton was not
intended TO reach the enemy We could
do this under principles which the United
States clearly asserted In the civil war
with the c~onfederacy and which Mr..
Bryan reiterated in his letter to Mr.. Stone
five months ago.
Why do we not issue the proclamation
and cut off the raw material OF Germany's
powder? Are there not widows and or
phans enough In Europe7