Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1919-01-15
AMERICAN GUNS
SHOOT 80 MILES
Some of the Remarkable Achieve.
ments Of the Participation in
the World War.

Washington, D. c., Dec 191S-'The
American Navy has designed, built,
and is now manning with bluejackets
specially trained for land service, the
largest and most high-powered mobile
land artillery in the world it is stat.
ed in the annual report of the Secre.
tary of the Navy recently issued The
type of gun referred to is of fourteen
inch calibre, hurls it's projectile thirty
miles, and can be moved from one end
of France to the other, on specially
designed railway cars on which the
guns are permanently mounted, as
easily as can field artillery.
In comparing this type of gun with
the German long-range freak" guns
which fired on Paris, the report says:
"They (the German guns) were built
on permanent steel and concrete foun-
dations which were eventually sought
out by allied aeroplanes and the guns
subsequently silenced The shells
were small and specially built for
long-range flight. This fact reduced
long-range guns, while they had Ger.
tain moral effect, were without great
practical military value. The Ameri-
can naval guns fire prOjectiles approx
mately 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 special mine-loading
plant with a capacity of more than
1000 mines a day. This plant has
been established near Yorktown, Va.
About. II, 900 acres of land was need
ed for the enterprise
In Brooklyn the Navy Department
has built what is said to be the largest
concrete stOrehOuse in existence. The
Navy has also installed in Annapolis
the greatest high-power radio station
in the world and in Washington has
constructed two Office buildings for
war expansion one for the Navy De-
partment and one for the War Depart
ment, which considered as a group
exceed in volume and floor space re-
other Office building in the world re-
CARELESS of type; indeed, it is thought
that no existing Office building is larg-
er than either Of these two" Time
records were broken in the construc-
ton Of these buildings. The total
floor space Of the two buildings is ap-
proximately 100000 square feet, or
more than Al acres.
The several wings if joined end to
end would form structure l "a miles
long, 60 feet wide and three stories
high. A complete circuit of all the
exterior walls would require journey
Of four miles.
That American invention genius in.
tends to take no chances 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 de-
vices submitted.
In his report the Secretary of the
Navy pays the following tribute to
the efficiency of the civil service
system:
"Under the law all hayward work
men must be recruited through 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 by the creation of
almost a new organization and the
fearless cutting of all needless red
tape has done all that was humanity
possible to meet the Nays demands