New-York tribune., 1918-01-20

by such figures as these: This year
the United States will produce roughly
$50, 900, 900 tons Of coal, 0O,0o0,00o bar
rcls Of petroleum, 100000 tons Of
iron ore, and over 5000, 100000 bushels
of corn, an increase Of over 600,000,000
bushels over last year.
But the making Of war to-day is far
more than test of primal resources;
it tests the full powers of the nation
in every resource and capacity, and
especially along lines of scientific
knowledge. And here again we find
that the ways Of peace have given
something in the way Of preparation
for war. The scientific bureaus Of the
government found themselves convert
ed over night into adjuncts and auxil-
iaries in the great international con-
test. Men who had regarded them
selves as modestly useful only in the
discovering and revealing of new
sources Of material strength found that
their years of experience in the noun
tains and on the desert, in laboratories
and in mines, called them at once
into the thick Of the European strug-
gle
When the Bureau Of Mines was Gre
ated by Congress, five years ago, it was
hardly to have been imagined that the
methods used for the saving of life in
the coal mines Of the United States
would become vital in the problem of
saving lives and destroying lives in a
world war; yet this is just what has
happened. Germany, which has been
foremost for some years in the science
of chemistry. out of its extensive eX
perience has developed form Of war
fare which had not before been known,
modern expression Of those diaboli-
cal inventions such as the cervi stimuli
which made Cesar's campaign in Gaul
to be characterized as war of science.
To meet this new method Of attack by
deadly gases, the Western powers
promptly provided gas masks which
contained chemical absorbents or other
agents that would negative the effects
of the gases sent adrift by their enc
mics. The soldiers kit, which was so
simple thing in other wars, had to be
increased by gas mask not unlike the
helmet of deep-sea diver, with box
of chemicals adapted for offsetting the
effect Of the various kinds Of gas the
enemy was known to use; and for spe-
clal use in dugouts and saps filled with
concentrated gas, an oxygen supply
was furnished. These outfits were not
new to the world. For some years there
has been keen rivalry between the great
nations as to the one which |
provided the best. They were put on by
those who went into the mine where
poisonous gases from explosions or
fires were known or supposed to exist.
Every rescue gang wore them. This
country claimed that it had improved
upon the English. German and French
in the mask it provided.
At any rate when we came into the
war we found ourselves prepared with
the knowledge, the machinery and the
men to promptly meet the need of gas
masks in great quantity and of su-
perior type. Thus the men who had
been on this work of meeting the gases
compounded in natures laboratory
were found to have reserve of knowl-
edge as to what gases will kill and
what will choke and what will burn !
and what will hasten disease, which in
a nf wi g.
would make the United States mod
estly distinguished if it wished to so
shine.
America has been wholesaler in |
raw materials. Our boast has been in
The millions Of tons Of steel or coal or
barrels Of oil or of feet of lumber that
We could produce. We dealt in things
II magnitude, that we took greatly as
hey came out Of natures storehouse,
Tot thinking or not caring how much
II any mysterious value they concealed.
The chemist finds that nothing is SIM
'le. He tears all things apart to find
hings that are not patent to the eve
md out of the infinitely little and OBJ
cure creates q new world Of things
Useful and beautiful.
Modern Industrialism
This is the conversion that is going
N in America in all fields. We are
ntering upon the quest for the minor
metals, or rarer woods, in our select
laces Of beauty and Of exceptional
Innate Or fertility. In all the domain
+ this great country extending from
he semi-tropics across the desert and
he most forbidding wastes into tho far
Arctic we have come to believe that
mere is no land that is entirely value
ass.
War forces nation to an intensive
'uoy OF what 1t can do. Thought and
'ork-these are the answers to the
roblems OF material insufficiency. We
America have had no little to boast
through the quick century Of our
larch across continent. And without
ouot our ability to stand alone, de- ;
ending on ourselves for the THINGS
nat make modern industrial nation
something of which we NAV he I
round, not so much because we have S
lls land as because we have found out .
$ worth and made it ours by putting y,