Evening star., 1918-06-02

worth the telling. In this letter I
shall deal with the rife.
Almost every soldier carries a rife.
1t is his chief weapon Of offense and
defense. and upon its effectiveness
largely depends his victory over or
defeat by his enemy. II the gun is
such that he can get in two shots to
his enemys one he can do twice as
much damage. The fact that it cam
not jam or miss fire may mean life or
death. and the same is true as to the
accuracy Of the flight Of the bullet on
its way to the mark and the force and
shock with which 1t strikes.
~
In All Of these respects the Ameri.
can rifles now being made are su-
perior to the guns Of any other nation
fighting 10 Europe. They are the most
efficient man-kinin9 rifles ever put
into the hands Of soldiers. and their
efficiency is estimated by military ex.
,,erts to be greater than that of any
,ther gun yet invented. The Germans
are armed with the latest type
'Mauser. and the same is true Of the
Turks and . large part Of the Aus
.rians, although some Of the latter
.re still using the Mannlicher. The
french have been using the Lebel
rifle. with . long slender bayonet as
sharp a. the point Of a needle, and the
British have the Enfield. with q
sword-like bayonet. considerably
shorter than that Of the Germans. Our
lilies are the new sprineaeid. made
states rife. model 1917. which We
are turning out by the tens Of thou
:iands . week at the great .Winches-
er plants neaf New Haven and at
lion. N. 7. The latter is a modified
enfield. II is the British Enfield. to
"hich have been AIDED certain special
eatures Of the new Springfield and
.thers, which make it far more effec-
i've than the Enfield used by the
British. In this letter I shall speak
e it as the American Enfield.
The American Enfield and the
,arts and they use the same car
ridges. Before the war in Europe
,egan the Springfield had won the
pTize in many shooting contests over
he guns Of fifteen different nations,
..eteating team after team armed with
"ther rifles, including the Mauser. 1t
Won in the Olympic shoots Of 1908
md 1919, and in the latter year car
Tied OF the worlds record over all
other military rifles at from 500 to
.,6C0 yards. That record still stands.
1t has been claimed that the Mauser
= q
hat Of the Springfield or American
enfield, but this. as shall show later,
is due to its cigar-shaped bullet,
whose tail offers less resistance to
the air, but SO Affects the bullet that
it wabhles or turns over near the end
of it's flight.
Indeed, the experts Of our ordnance
bureau at Washington believe that
our rifles are so per cent more ef-
rcient than the guns of the Germans.
II this is SO our soldiers can shoot
three shots to the enemy's two. and
Germans. II we have 100000 men
in the field our guns will make them
equal to 100000. as far as killing
power is concerned, and this means
that we shall need just that many
less troops and shall save their trans
portation and upkeep in France. AS
a business proposition alone 1t means
the saving of several billion dollars a
year in the cost Of the war, and more
than that. considering the difficulties
of transportation to France. On
peace basis 1t is estimated that 1t
costs $1,000 year to maintain a SOL
dier, and on a war basis. such as we
have in Europe. the cost must be more
than five times that amount, or $1,000.
II by our guns we can add 100000
men to every million we have using
rifles. the annual saving will be 500.-
wv IAIuCS $O,VVV, HdhIH6 u SoLdl Sdte
Ing of $2.5o0.000,000 per annum for
every million rife shooters whom we
send orr the water.
+
We are now making more than 50,-
600 Of these new guns every week.
:Ihe Springfield. which is manufac-
tured at the United States arsenal
here. has increased its production
within the past year from 200 to 1000
rifles per day. and the American En-
field. which is manufactured in our
factories which made the British En-
Held. Is being turned out in six or
seven times as great quantities. AL
together we now have more than l.
100000 Springfields and American En-
fields. and by the first of July next
we shall have 100000 American En-
fields and 100000 new Springields in
the hands Of the Army. We are
steadily increasing our machinery of
production, and are now making
about four times as many guns as
the British did year after they en-
tered the war. and twice as many as
they were producing two years after
the war began. 1t Is expected that
the monthly production will soon be
100000. This means that we could
equip an army of 100000 men with
A1fies within the space of three