Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1919-02-04
AMERICANS HAVE GUNS
THAT SHOOT 30 MILES

THAT SHOOT 30 MILES
"The American Navy has designed,
built, and is now manning with blue
jackets specially trained for land
service, the largest and most high
powered mobile land artillery in the
world" 1t is stated in the annual re-
port Of the Secretary of the Navy re-
Gently issued. The type of gun re-
ferred to is of fourteen-inch callbre
hurls its 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
foundations 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 re-
duced their military. efficiency. The
German long-range guns. while they
had certain moral effect, we're
without great practical military val
ue. The American naval guns fire
projectiles approximately seven tlmeE
heavier than the shells the Germans
used against Paris
Other recent achievements OF the
Navy Department, as shown by the
report, include special mine-load-
ing plant with a capacity of more
than 1000 mines day. This plant
has been established near Yorktown,
Va. About 1000 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, II |
Is thought that no existing office
building is larger than either of these
two" Time records we're broken in
the construction of these buildings.
The total floor space of the two build
ings is approximately 1900, 900
square feet, or more than Al acres.
The several wings II Joined end to
end would form structure y miles
long, 60 feet wide and three stories
high. A complete circuit of all the
exterior walls would require a jour
ney of four miles
That American inventive genius
intends to take no chances with 4
foreign foe is indicated by the fact.
as stated in the report. that the Ma
val 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 efficacy Of the civil service sys-
tenn;
Under the law all navy-yard work
men must be recruited thru the civil
service, and the department desires
to express its qualification and ap-
probation of the manner in which
the Civil Service Commission met tlS'
and by the creation of al
most 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,
but 1t is a fact that the forces of ar
tisans, laborers and other civilian
employees at navy yards and naval
stations in the United States increas-
I'd from about 10000 to more than
100000 during the nineteen months
Of Americas participation in the
war.