The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-22
Gen. Sibert Describes Great Achievements
 of Chemical Section
Alabama Man Says United States Had Begun Production of Such Deadly Gas Such Mammoth Scale That
 Huns Could Have Been Annihilated

commenced this type of warfare. The American idea of yuantity was func-
 tioning with relation to gas
 While a part of the gun and ma-
 chine gun equipment of our armies In
 Europe was produced in France and England, at the time the armistice was signed our soldiers in Europe were wearing gas masks of our making
 This mask gave as complete protection as any mask in Europe.
 Tt was, however, recognized that the soldier must do a large part Of his fighting in gas mask, if this type Iof warfare was to prevail, and that a fighting gas mask must be developed, one without a mouthpiece or nose clip. and one in which the eye pieces would not dim. This type of mask was just coming into production and about 400.- 600 of them had been made when hos
 tilities ceased.
 This record and the gas production
 record made by nation that had not devoted it's attention to chemical mat
 ters in the past is something to be
 proud of, and something indicative as
 to the future.
 WORK OF CHEMISTS
 Before the war the world looked to Germany in chemical matters and among the great nations America es-
 pecially was looked upon as most back
 ward in such matters. The results ob-
 tained by this country. however, during the war proved that the backwardness on the part of the United States was not due to the lack of ability in our chemists. or in our chemicals engineers
 but because the capitalists of the country had found a more alluring and better known field for their money
 than In the chemical direction. It Is hoped that one of the great results
 of this war will be to give capital confidence in the ability of our chem
 ical engineers to manufacture chemical substances at Cost that will compete with other nations.
 This war has shown that chemical
 engineering is the greatest undevel-
 oped field of industry in the Unitea
 States, and no nation can afford to
 permit such great possibilities to lie
 fallow. Our colleges, therefore, should
 make a speciality of chemical engineer ing, and our Congress should see the necessity of making the country inde- pendent of any other nation in essen- tial chemical matters, and should give protection in the beginning to such il- dustries. This war has shown Ameri can genius as effective in chemistry as in other fields. Future wars should see this country acquainted with the latest developments in the, chemical world and prepared to meet any line or system of attack that an enemy might devise"
 MOST DEADLY REGION Col. w. H. Walker, gas protection chief, took the lid off with relation to the gases that were made at Edge wood arsenal. the secrets of which had heretofore been so carefully guarded He told how the most deadly institution since time begun had been developed in an isolated region in Maryland. He said that the plant had been invented as it was built, for so much industry as it represented had existed before Enlisted men had worked with it's deadly products and at times the cas- ualties had been such as would be hard to match on the battle front. | Shells loaled with these gases were go- l ing to Europe by the shipload. Hun l dreds of tons of gas in containers were 1 stacked up at points of production. l Production was already in advance of ] the possibility of allied use. No Ger l man army could have lived through the gas attacks that were being staged. No less effective was the preparation for attack with gas by the enemy. according to Col. Bradley Dewey, wno was in charge of the gas defense pro-
 duction. Profiting by the experiences
 of our allies and supplementing it by
 American Ingenuity, mask had been
 evolved which required no nose clip, no piece in the mouth A man could wear it indefinitely, could sleep in 1t. So was an advantage over the Hun esta blished that was beyond compari- son, for no such mask was made in