Evening star., 1915-06-27
RESOURCES OF THIS COUNTRY
Record in Invention and Manufact-
uring. Past and Present.

From the New York Commercial
Submarines and dreadnaught. in the
Hudson river stimulate the inagina-
ton and revive memories of the past
More than a century ago Robert Full.
ton. inventor and builder of the frs,
steamboat. laid befor" Congress and
the federal government his plans for
building submarines Copies OF the
pamphlet he prepared are stiu in ex-
istence and the argum ents he used ~
favor of building submarines for de
fensive purposes are exactly tn. same.
as those heard TODAY The sailing yes
sells of his day would have been ,ti7-
nerahle to submarine attack He he'd
previously submitted his pIans for
steamers TO transport troops across HE
English channel to Napoleon In his
Ideas about naval warfare Fulton VA
hftN to one hundred wears ahead of his
day.
American ships Of war were the first
to carry long-ranged guns our 'lois
fomS that figured in the war of f>ro
Iar outranEed any guns mounted or
srltish or French ships. and small
American vessels were able to DESTROY
rigging and check pursuit while keen
ing OUT of range Of their adversaries'
guns. The most Notah hle change in ma
val construction recorded in history
followed the launching, of the, Monitor
which showed the way TO the heavily
armored dreadnoueht with its hig gun
turrets as we see il today
on land American soldiers proved tn.
superiority of the rife over the smooth
bore musket and Americans invented
the hreech loader and the repeatfnR
fifIe with fixed ammunition under the
spur or our civil war. Army officers
were SLOW 10 recognize the advantages
or the repeating rifle and il had to walt
thirty years before 1t became the
standard military arm. Inventors and
sportsmen were far ahead of the MILL
tary experts in the use of small arms
Down to the time of our lfttLa war with
Spain many army officers of high rank
insisted that soldiers would waste TOO
much ammunition If armed with re-
peating rifles II was easier to keen
down the consumption of ammunition
by handicapping the soldiers with in
ferior weapons than to apply them
selves to the problem of keeping the
men on the firing line supplied with
cartridges Time and the present war
nave proved the ineficiency of the past
generation of military experts.
These "reminiscences show how re-
sourceIul the American people have al
WAYS been and how successfully thew
nave risen to emergencies. They hava
not changed. The inventors of TODAY
are the greatest who have ever lived
ana they are reaping more generous
rewards than any who preceded them.
hen orders for shrapnel. rifles and
cannon We're offered in this country
nine months ago those military experts
who had been saying we were unpre
pared found that every up-to-date ma
chlne shop In the country could turn
out military supplies almost at a mo-
ments notice. We have the men. the
money and the machinery to eauip an
army OF million men faster than IL
can De enrolled and put in shape to use
ir rms, A single shop is said to be max
ing a million rifles for a foreign gov
ernment. A single steel plant in the
east has greater capacity th:n the
hrupp works at Essen, and this mer-
class in this country.