Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1918-12-22


llilns, high chimneys, correlated watts
in innumerable series repeated shot
towers, miles of railway, miles of Gle
waited pipe lines machinery of the
finest type and the most perfect in
stallatlon, housed in concrete and
sheet iron built apparently for per-
manence. 1t was all only a few miles
/ from Gunpowder Creek, where We're
| concrete piers built in the midst of the
| once fine duck hunting preserves. Gun
| powder Creek runs into Chesapeake
/ Bay, so that vessels loaded with the
/ gases direct from the factory sailed TO
| HaVre without a stop. The govern
| ments investment here is 100000, 000
| Elsewhere there has been spent at
various subsidiary plants. about $12,
! 600 goo Thus all told the United
States has spent about $72.000000 in
the manufacture OF toxic gases, prac-
tically none of which have any com
mercial value. The basic clements art
salt, sulphur, and alcohol. which brol-
en- into component parts and chemical
/ ly reunited, in some cases by means of
heat. in others by means of cold. again
by force of gravity, are caused to form
the mustard gas, the phosgene and
the phosphorus, the chlorine, etc,
which have been found efficacious in
| warfare.
For the cold processes vast refriger-
ators were built. These cover acres.
Hair a mile away were enormous boil
ers and hot rooms for fusing. Then
curious towers OF spindle steel look
ing IKE immature Elilel ToWers, scat
tered ABOUT lhe GROUNDS. support pipes
doWh Which' IN dfferent process
are dropped Two chemlcal clemens
"Hlch mus are forced TO 1use by
graz ~,
NHiellF impressive once one pecauIe
acCuSt oillFu 10 the thouSht lhat all TINS
ingenious costly mechanism was
punt to generate poison for the sole
purpose OF horrb!y manning and
ff1ghtfully killing, was the orderfness,
the immensely, and the stability of the
plant. Inc Bethlehe msteel mills or
the Bridgeport rifle works are no bet
ter built.
The most remarkable thing about
,hls pant may not be apparent as you
iook at IT. SAID Colonel Chahoon. 1t
IS the Iact that when. the. government
started 10 bulld 1t there were no exist
, ing MODES Tor some Of the machinery
needed. Ihat IS where Colonel Walk
:, er- came. ID. lie literally invented tins
ing built There is nothing Like it any
where else in the world, and it had to
T. be created and operated as we went
along. The French and the British
: both sent their best experts to assist
us, but they stayed to get pointers to
take back to their own governments.
Major Aud, the chief British expert on
war gas, said frankly, Il came to teach,
but | stay to learn
Then we had any amount of diff
Guilty, as you may imagine, with labor.
In the beginning. when we were only
| building roads and putting in founda-
lions, it was not so bad but when we
: got our first watts to working and it be
| came known among the workmen that
J the poison was actually being produced
our real troubles began.
zone day last summer an incident
occurred that will illustrate what we
went through. The dust was very deem
on the roads. and along one of Thorn
came a heavy OK team. which kicked
up an enormous cloud of dust. Some
carpenters working a piece off in the
woods saw it. and some one started
the cry A poison tank has hurst -
That was enough. Those carpenters
started beating it for the railroad tvo
miles away. and as they ran tbox, 70 Ct
picked up company. Ry the time thav
reached the tracks there were > am
or 5000 laborers in etriclTor
flight The block signaler on the rail-
road saw them coming set oil bis
blocks. and ran. For three hours thai
afternoon the entire Pennsvlvania &C
tenn was tied up In a bunk house
eight negroes We're sleening If baino