The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-01-14
AMERICAN GUNS q
SHOOT THIRTY MILES

WASHINGTON, D. C. 1.-THE
American navy has designed, built
and is now manning with bluejackets
specially trained for land service, the
largest and most high-powered mo-
bile land artillery in the world" 1t is
stated in the annual report of the
secretary of the navy recently is
sued. The type Of gun referred to
is of fourteen-inch caliber, hurls its
projectile thirty miles and can b
moved from one end of France to the
other, on specially designed railway
cars on which the guns are per-
manently mounted, as easily as can
field artillery.
In comparing this type of gun with
the German long-range freak" guns
which fired on Prais, the report says:
They (the German guns) were built
on permanent steel and concrete
foundations which were eventually
sought out by allied aeriplancs and
the guns subsequently silenced. The
shells we're small and specially built
for long-range fight. This fact re-
duced their military efficiency. The
German long-range guns, while they
had certain moral effect, were with
out great practical military value.
The American naval guns fire pro-
jectiles approximately seven times
heavier than the shells the Germans
used against Paris"
Other recent achievements of the
navy department, as shown by the re-
port, include a special mine-load-
ing plant with a capacity Of more
TINA. 1000 miles a day. This plant
has been established near Yorktown,
Va. About II, 900 acres of land was
needed for the enterprise.
/ In Brooklyn the navy department
has built what is said to be the larg-
est concrete storehouse in existence.
The navy has also installed in An
napolis the greatest high-power radio
station in the world and in Washing
ton has constructed two office build
ings for war expansion, one for the
navy department and one for the war
department, which considered as a
group exceed in volume and floor
space any other office building in the
world regardless Of type; indeed, it
it thought that no existing office
building is larger than either of these
two" lime records were broken
in the construction of these buildings.
The total floor space of the two build
ings is approximately 100000
square feet, or more than forty-one
acres. The several wings If Joined
end to, end would form a structure
one and three-quarters miles long,
sixty feet wide and three stories high.
A complete circuit of all the exterior
walls would require a journey of four
miles.
That American inventive genius in
tends to take no chance with for
eign foe is indicated by the fact, as
stated in the report, that the naval
consulting board has considered more
than 10000 ideas, inventions and
devices submitted.
In his report the secretary of the
navy pays the following tribute to
the efficiency Of the civil service
system: e3
Under the law all navy-yard,
workmen must be recruited thru the
civil service, and the department de-
sires to express it's qualification and
appreciation of the manner in which
the Civil Service Commission met the
emergency and of the creation of al
most a new organization and the
fearless cutting Of all needless red
tape has done all that was humanity
possible to meet the navy's demands
in the shortest practical time"
1t is not mentioned in the report,
artisans, laborers and other civilian
employees at navy yards and naval
stations in the United States in
creased from about 10000 to more
than 100000 during the nineteen
months Of Americas participation in
the war.