The Cordova daily times., 1916-08-09
.SEC.. LANE SAYS |, ]. LEADS: WORLD

It has become rather the fashion nowadays to discount the scientific achievement of the United States in the light of the marvellous way in which European science has met the emergencies of the war. But Frank. lin K. Lane, secretary of the interior who by virtue of his official position is in more intimate and broader touch with the resources of material and brain of the United States than any other man. believes that no American need concede that the United States takes back seat to any other nation in scientific achievement. MT. Lane's reasons for this belief are set forth in the following article:
 BY FRANKLIN X. LANE,
 Secretary of the Interior.
 No American need feel a sense of dismay at the scientific prowess of Europe in the present war, as an in- dication that it's science is superior to ours. On the other hand, many of the most important weapons and pro- cesses with which Europe as amazing civilization are the products and de- velopments of American invention.
 Take away from Europe today the things that trace to an American ori. gin, and the war would be fought along entirely different lines. Take American inventions away. from Eu- rope in time of peace, and European civilization would go back for genera. tions.
 The rapid fire guns, the armor. tur- rets and other essential features of the dreadnought. the submarine, the flying machine - these are a few of the weapons of modern warfare sun piled by American ingenuity. In our Civil war we were the first to use fixed balloons for military observa. tion. The most remarkable new ap- piiance developed by the European war Is the Lewis gun. an American invention. This weapon shoots 500 times a minute without recoil. and vet It IS so light that man can carry it. It IS used on aeroplanes.
 War Would Challenge inventive SKILL
 There is no estimating what might be produced by our inventors sbouId our country be plunged into war. Any hostile nation would at once chalIenee the inventive skill of the United States which has lain practically dorman, so far as devising engines of war is con. cerned, since our Civil war. If neces. sity spurred us, we. would devise great. CT and more deadly weapons and ex. plosives than the world ever knew. and greater than Europe has pro. duced during this war, because we have resource of inventive genius superior to that of any other people. We know this because when chal. lenged by the competition of peace our inventors have produced more than any other two or three nations.
 According to compilation of pat ents in the United States patent office or the worlds epoch making inyen- tions for the last fifty years, thirty. five are American inventions: four teen are the inventions of the rest of the world.
 The American scientist may not have the plodding mind of the Ger. man. which Is content to experiment tirelessly for years and years in de- veloping some abstruse process, but the American genius lies along me-
 ''hOS' "hdtcNcF tn0 WOFiO wants done in making science serve human need, the American mind finds some way to do it. The American has more skill in applying science and more curiosity of the sort that breeds invention and discovery than any other nationality. AS people we look at things with fresh mind like that of Benjamin Franklin, whose activi- ties ranged from drawing lightning on kite strings to starting universities and libraries and developing modern paving, street lighting and cleaning systems.
 Could Exist if Isolated.
 As result our inventiveness has been at work supplying the deficien- cies revealed to us by the present war. We are developing dye industry. Our industry Is becoming complex; we are no longer content to sell our vast re- sources as raw materials for other nations to perfect for human use. We ara naut haofnufu- tn ptfl;ya .,xw hx,