New-York tribune., 1921-05-22
War Placed in the Pillory
Of Our Modem Civilization
Mars and His Long Retinlie of Shame and Deg
radiation Brought Under Flashlight of Censure
In Striking Book

many had the late war won. in her
hands, when she sent deadly fumes
rolling down on the Canadians at
Ypres in 1915. She hesitated to use
her advantage, or did not at once re-
alize the power OF gas on the battle
fteid, and means were found to meet
and combat the menace of the gas.
But the next struggle will see, at the
outset, another condition in the area
o. gas in active use as a death dealer.
When the war ceased in 1918 the
United States had in Lewisite gas
which was so fatal to human life that
a dozen air bombs OF the greatest size
used In 1918 might, with favorable
WIND, have eliminated the population
OF Berlin!" And now there is a hint
OF gas much more deadly, a mere
capsule of which in small grenade
can generate square rods and even
acres of death. America also has up
her sleeve a contrivance that controls
aeroplane flying without pilots, steer
ing them by wireless and SO making of
them super-guns. From central sta
t'on IN a fortress or on the deck of
o&ttleshlp, scores of these speeding
troopers of shells and poison gas in
bombs could be sent to wipe out far
olstant armies and towns.
The tactics of the next war call for
wondering and fumbling prophecy. For
VINO, with the tanks in mind, knows
whae machinery will be perfected to en-
close and protect men in their advance
on an enemy? Irwin is inclined to be-
heve that infantry will not wholly be
done away with. The individual man
is and must be the unit of warfare.
But this unit, throwing away his rife
as obsolete, may go into battle strange
ly and weirdly armored and BEARING
chemicals to produce fumes of death
and concealment and grenades filled
with other ingredients of destruction.
The cost in money should be wall
in the face of men who desire to pre-
cipitate war. Near rhe middle of this
book is chart showing the national
debts of the United States, Great Brit
ain and France in 1913 and 1920. To
the left, in each pair of perpendicular
black lines representing dollars, is
small, almost insignificant block: to
the right towers a tall, sinister thing
representing millions upon millions of
dollars literally cast to the winds. Will
Irwin tells us that "the money the
World War cost for a single hour the
last year would build ten high schools
costing S1o,ooo,oO0 each-$240,000,O 900
was the total cost per day for all
countries"
We invite your attention, in closing,
to significant lines at the end of this
book. The writer knows his subject,
he realizes the present strength of his
own country = the United States - he
admits that men are, after all, fighters
at heart and selfish when gain can De
won. We could, if we wished, control
the Americas, make the Pacific
Yankee lake, defy all the world to take
from us what we chose to grasp and
hold. Is it worth the cost? Is it not
better to give all humanity an example
of a powerful people, content with
enough and not envIous cf neighbors?
War means new hates, wounds that re-
quire centuries in healing, the loss of
arterial blood from the national body.
This little book, SO fit for coat
pocket, is big enough to challenge the
attention and the study of any think
ing man who, worried by the fact and
the aftermath of the late war, desires
to get a glimpse of possible future
for the battlefield, and, above that,
vision of method through which it
can be abolished forever,