Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-03-27

Saturday to address a joint meet
,ne Of Rock Island and Moline
reople al the Augustana gymnas-
INN auditorium. gives an interest
as account Of the war tanks. which
he originated and which have been
psed with great success by the al
lies on the western front.
The Argus has received a copy of
his booklet The Tanks" sent COM
nJimentarv by Professor ". Mac
TeiIe Dixon Of the University of
Glasgow. In the discussion of the
Gland shin" General Swinton points
ont that offensive of the allies al
vavs had been occasioned by ire
n,endous losses due to the activ-
jties OF the enemy machine guns
Int that with the use of the tanks
N destroy enemy machine gun
rests the wake of the attacking
army is not left stretch of dead
bodies
Appended is what General Swim
Ton has TO say concerning the
tanks.
The truth, nothing but the
truth but not the whole truth
On A certain Friday in Septem-
her 1916. after two years of fight
/ ins when II might have been
thought that human ingenuity in
1 the ART OF killing had been exhaust
d a fresh engine Of war was sud-
denlv sprung upon a world sick Of
/ hearing Of new methods of slaughs
Ter. A day or two later. so soon as
4 the newspa pers were able TO give
some information about this de-
yelopment. the word Tank was
4 m all British lips. and since that
moment has probably been spoken.
written. ami printed more often
Than during the whole previous
period since its Incorporation into
4 The English language
This prosaiC little word. also.
mas by its association with one of
4 the most striking episodes of the
world war and one of the few tech
uical surprises which the allies
have so far sprung on their enc
mics. and by the fact that its novel
4 application signalized the birth of
4 new Arm. been invested with
romantic meaning of which il can
never be deprived The machine
4 il describes is no ephemereal wea-
pOn Of occasion the materializa-
Il ZION Of a happy thought for one
| special operation Whatever the
i oountermeasures it may call into be
Il ing, and although its present i'm
= nature shape may be as remote
y from its eventual perfection as
A Putting Billy from compound
n decapod freight locomotive. the
4 tank has come 10 stay That Fri
/ day in September. 1916, marked
stepforward 1t was the beginning
/ Of 9l era in which dwindIiug man
power will force more and more
into prominence the necessity for
the conservation of life. and in
which the power and insensibilty
Of machinery will have to be as
fully exploited upon the field of
battle as they have been in that of
industry
: II is not only in English that the
word suddenly acquired import
snce. for il has enriched the mill
iary vocabulaTies of many other
languages. including German,
which have borrowed il in its new
sense. And curious as it is 10
British ears 10 hear tank" pro-
bounced by FTenchmen, Russians.
Italians and Rumanians. il would
probably sound yet more strange to
Americans in whose slang it has
meaning quite unknown even
amongst the most bibulous over on
this side.
Of hi
{ lame it may not be out of place to
4 satisfy general curiosity as to
minor detail by answering the ques-
ion, Why tank?'' Why should
'ghting automobile have been so
appropriately named? The reply
can be given in two words-for Sc
rrecy. In its experimental stage
the machine was known as a land
| cruiser or "land-ship." But il is
military platitude that the "eIe-
ment OF suTprise'-as il is always
falled in the eXt-boOks-has i'm
mense value in war. and it was
naturally realized that the greatest
results TO be expected from the
employment Of this new weapon
would be attained if it could be
aunched unexpectedly. so that the
enemy might be caught unpre-
pared to meet IL. And when il
crystallized into a definite shape,
and reached the stage of produc-
3uon, il became obvious that its
original names were far too sug-
gestiye for the real thing II was
therefore, decided TO christen it by
some nOn-commital word which
Would give no inkling OF its nature
ttose aOI in the know" and
would. a the same time. be suf-
1aently descriptive and short TO be
.eadily adopted by all legitimately
eoncerned.
Vuite a large part of the earlier
s@se OF manufacture you'd con-
i"t OF the rolling Of steel plates
sla their assemhlaee and erection
10 boxes. which TO all except
Jose who made a close examina-
9n might we'll be intended for
ssels TO hold water. petrol, or
The fact that the boxes would
. dullet-proof would merely lend
Oor 10 the idea that they might be
llsnded 10 move up into the fight
zone. This theory would not
cessarily he disCrediteG even
zen the stage Of itIing them with
ghes and caterpillar tracks was
NChed- Il would not be until the
ne Tor mounting the armament
me real purpose must become
AN, up 10 which moment an alias
4 nsht 10 some extent conceal II. /
reservoir" and "cistern' were
as-~inded and clumsy: tank
equally accurate and shorter. /
tank il became. As q mat