New-York tribune., 1918-02-03
For a Real Aeroplane Offensive

The public read with deep interest the
statement of Colonel Deeds that aeroplanc
contracts already exceeded by hundred
millions the large appropriation by Con-
gress last year. We wish it were much
more Fifty years hence the historian Of
this momentous struggle will record again
the slow and painful effort to bring mill
tary methods up to the inventive and sci
entific possibilities of its day The first
steamboat which Robert Fulton ran was
rot upon the Hudson, but on the Seine
near Paris in a demonstration for tech
nical committee appointed by Napoleon. Of
course its reporr>was adverse.
Had Napoleon built dozen or a score
Ct steamships after Fulton's model he
could have cut off the. English army FROM
the Continent and perhaps changed the
whole course Of after history.
1t will not be so in the present contest.
Germany and our allies alike have failed
to realize the possibility of mass construc-
ton for the aeroplanes. According to re-
liable reports, neither side has been able
to maintain at the front an actual aero
plane effective of much more than / 500
machines each. Yet the amount of light
and heavy artillery and machine guns has
been tremendous. In some engagements
Congressman Mccormick reports that
there were something like three men be-
hind the guns to two going forward into
action. The war has already become a
contest determined by superior weight
of metal.
We hope yet TO see the manipulated ma
chine take the place Of this bald play or
brute force. We feel that in one regard
the possibilities of the aeroplane have
been overlooked, and that is in the destruc-
tion Of crops. Germany has attempted to
starve England with the submarine. Let
The Allies retort by sowing devastation in
their enemy's fields. 1t need not be cor
fined to crop burning. The growing har-
vest may be withered by spreading alkalis
and blights.
But for this we require planes by the
thousand. And only America and Ameri-
can methods can offer such a supply 1t
is interesting to note that $685. 600, 600
one-third Of all the contracts placed
have gone to foreign firms in France and
Italy. 1t does not matter where the ma
chimes are made, so that we get the re-
quired numbers. We can ship only SO
many from this country. If we can send
The raw materials and supply the funds to
speed up the factories of France and italy,
we shall attain the same end.
What America hopes most Of all is to
make this war to end all war, forever.
We believe it can be done. But only by
forcing the war into the air. And we
imagine there has been a genuine repug-
nance on the part of the true military
mind to aid such an end. 1t would be the
end Of the fighters job 1t is perfectly
certain that what has thus far been spent
on planes on either sides has been only
few per cent Of what has been spent on
guns. And the guns of Napoleon, though
of shorter range, caused a greater NOR
tality, number Of troops employed. than
those Of the present day.
Guns attack relatively small bodies of
men, sheltered in trenches and caissons.
The casualties are in point of fact almost
negligible. Germany or England could go
on fighting ten years with their present
losses. A destruction Of crops would strike
whole nation and end the struggle in a
few months.
This is what ten thousand aeroplanes
could do!