The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1920-09-23
A WAR OF THE CHEMISTS
New York Times)

According to report issued by the /
war department, gas caused more
casualties in the American Expedi-
tionary Force in France than "gun-
shot missiles which in previous wars
decided most of the battles. There
were formerly combats, it is true, IN
which artillery played major part
that is to say. shell and shrapnel. In
the great war shrapnel and shell not
charged with gas We're far down on
the list of destructive agencies. The
gases used by the enemy were most
terrible in surprise attacks. OF 1885,
l112 admissions to the American hos
pitfalls in France, $3.50 Cor 1874 per
Icent.) were due to gas, and no less
than 38, 1896 to mustard gas, which the
Germans were first to use in quantity.
I"Gunshot missiles caused 80 per
lcent. of the American casualties,
lshrapnel 1872 per cent and shell 8 per
cent. Much was heard IN descriptions
of trench fighting of the deadly hand
grenade, but no more than ,156 AM
orleans were wounded by that ancient
but improved method of attack. Only
I245 were brought with bayonet
wounds to the hospitals.
In comparing gas and "gunshot"
casualties, which are close together
on the list. it must be considered that
1.-THE enemy often ran short of gas.
Maj.-Gen. VIM. L. Sibert, director of
the chemical warfare service, has said
THAT the Germans were never able TO
manufacture more than ten or fifteen
tons of mustard gas day. At the
thine of the armistice the United
Estates had completed chlorine plant
with capacity of 100 tons day If
i the war had gone on, the American
forces would have been supplied with
lenough mustard gas to overwhelm
the enemy in every battle.
The subject is not a pleasant one,
land it was difficult to interest Con-
lgress in the establishment of per-
lmanent chemical warfare service bu-
Ireau, to be attached to the war de-
apartment. One was authorized. how
'Iever, in the army reorganization bill,
(which was passed just before Con-
i gress adjourned. There can be no
] doubt that. il there is another great
WAR, gas will cause vastly more cas-
Qualities than "gunshot missiles, q
term that includes ammunition fired
from machine guns, which on th<
fields of France were often used side
by side over a far-extended front
General Sibert, admitting that chem.
lical warfare was at first viewed with
horror and condemned as barbarous
lit was felt that such an insidious
agency should be forbidden), says:
AS soon as the scientific world de.
veloped means of protecting the sol
Idier against it, and the various adj
vantages, strategical and tactical, Of
Its use became known. military mer
began to look upon it as a means Of
warfare that had come to stay AMI
Unjust be reckoned with"
1t has become a commonplace o.
prediction that chemists would xii
their millions In another war between
great nations. All the powers are pre-
Iparing to use explosives and gases O
unprecedented destructive force, t,
be discharged from airplanes ant
dirigibles as well as from field guns
General Sibert tells US that the mus
tard gas devised by the American
chemists, but never used, would hav,
been far more deadly than the Ger
man variety, which drove the British
/ tout of strongly fortified Armentierel
in one hour. It cannot be impresset
upon civilized peoples too much tina
q chemists war would be incalculabl,
more disastrous to the nations engag
ed in it than the struggle of 1914-1e
The American people must ask them
selves whether they can afford ii
disregard the conviction of the thirty
nine countries now forming III
League of Nations that it offers th.
hest safeguards against the horrors
and waste of modern war.