Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-12-05
j. S. A. AUTHORITIES
REJECT THE WORLDS
BEST MACHINE GUN
Instead of Buying Gun Invent
ed by American and Used in
European War, They Buy
English Gun

You certainly do! You have said so
enough times.
Well, then. are prejudice. stubborn
ness. incompetence or hoary tradition,
or all Of them together. to keep the
country from having the most impor-
tant of those tools?
That is the way IL looks now, as you
may gather from the following facts:
The biggest thing in modern infantry
operations Is the machine gun; you
might almost say, the only big thing.
For years the only kind of a machine
gun was mounted on wheels and must
be dragged around.
Hence, the machine gun was used
chiefly in defensive operations. You
couldn't move il fast enough for any
thing else, if there were any rapid
movements of troops.
Then an American. Colonel Lewis, OF
the United States army, invented ma
chine gun that a man could carry with
him anywhere, like an ordinary service
rifle.
Many others had tried to invent such
a gun. The Lewis gun was the only
one that would work.
The gun came before band OF orig
inaI and genuine dodos called the Unit
ed States board of ordnance and FORTH
cation. This board is dominated by
brated Crozier disappearing gun car
rage upon which this nation has vast
ed much time and money.
The peculiar operations of General
Crozier's mind 1 have already described
i'm this paper. 1t seems to be hopeless
Iy barred against any idea born since
the Crimean war, unless ii is one OF his
own devising.
DOOMED FROM START.
Apparently, General Crozier made up
his mind at the start that the Lewis
gun should be turned down The board
turned. il down accordingly.
I know Of not the slightest objection
to General Crozier personally. but the
question is whether at a time so criti-
cal. a mind like his is the best Kind OF
a mind to keep us up with the worlds
procession in military development.
In this case the inventor took to Eu-
rope the gun his own country would
have none of. Teh British and French
fell upon it with joy. hailing it as one
OF the few really great inventions Of
the war.
MANY thousand Lewis guns are now
in use by the allies on the western
front. They are shooting 100000 &c
is. OOO. 600 rounds OF ammunition week.
Allied officers say the Lewis gun is in
valuable
The last session of congress au-
thorized S1O,000.0O0 10 be spent for ma
chine guns.
Another board was then created tC
consider how the money should be spent.
1t met under the shadow and tradi
lions of antiquity, and in the most
amazing way threw aside all this proved
experience. all Of these demonstrations
and all these facts.
Then it decided to spend the 10000
600 for old-fashioned, obsolete patterI
machine guns of the kind that must be
pulled about on wheels and to postpone
for a year any consideration of light
weight, portable, modern machine guns.
BY that time. Il is to be supposed, an
other appropriation will be necessary,
and when we get il. we can't get an
guns with ii until 1913, no matter how
badly we may need them.
The gun the board selected for the
$4,000, 900 expenditure is an English
gun. the VicHers, not by any means new,
and now relegated to the second line
by the British army itself.
Incredible as il may seem, this Eng
Iish gun was selected without any test
OF any specimen OF il manufactured in
this country
Furthermore, the board never saw,
much less tested the gun it adopted.
Is called water cooled" which is de-
feet in a machine gun inasmuch as it is
a hindrance TO quick action. The Ameri-
can gun is air cooled.
When the decision OF the BOARD was
announced, patriotic Americans induced
Secretary of War Baker to order the
case reopened. So the board reconvened
November "a and heard arguments in
favor OF the methods Of today as OPP
posed 10 the methods Of the War of 1912.
II was then, of course. too late. Pro-
fessional pride and other considerations
equally worthy prevented any righting
/ OF the terrible blunder already conf
mitted, and the English antiques are 70
Z be cinched upon US, unless something
extraordinary can be done
| don't know the inventor OF the Lewis
gun nor anything about him. ] wouldn
know him from Adam. But what / saw
and heard on the battle front and in the
war zone convinced me that no army is
] equipped for modern warfare that has
! not an abundant supply of lightweight,
7 portable. air-cooled machine guns.
Any layman can see how this is by
| studying for n moment the record OF
what goes on almost daily on the west
/ ern front. In 3 nutshell, il is like this:
The allied artillery blasts hole in the
German trenches, or mine is expoded.
or one OF those great French aerial tor.
/ pedoes" lands on a trench and scoops
\ out a crater 20 feet across and 20 feet
Il deep.
| At once the troops are rushed forward
| to seize that position.
\ The Germans. reinforced, rally to re-
\ take IL.
Suppose, now, the allies were armed
! with nothing except the old-fashioned
/ machine guns, such as this board wants
| to buy for US. The Germans would sweep
them away with overwhelming numbers
| in a bayonet charge. Before the machine
I guns could be dragged up and put into
position, the Germans would be all over
I the place.
But the Lewis gun is Johnny-on-t the
spot. II goes right along with the troops
/ when they advance.
\ The moment the Germans start to
charge. crack-crack-crack-cra go 10p
Lewises, and the German charge melts
away under streams or bullets poured
out like water from a hose
4 What the action of General Crozier
| and the dodo board of ordinance meant
L was that the American army shall be
i deprived of this tremendous weapon
| The board might as we'll advocate q
| return to the fiint-lock, and looking al
/ over I am astonished II doesn't.
Bureaucracy, mOth-eaten and moldy
and at its worst.
SO we come to a few questions, perth
nent to us all:
what's the use of talking about de-