Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-12-31

WASHINGTON, ID. c., Dec. Is
The next war, If it comes, will in al
likelihood be fought to a large ex-
tent with chemicals. The amazing
development of this form of warfare
in the late world struggle coupled
with the fact that peace-time COM
mercial chemical plants can be
u-us4ormed immediately into for
raidable munition plants. is saLiclent
To guarantee this.
Contrary to general popular opln
ION, fighting with gases is SAID 10
be far more humane than othSr
forms of warfare. The measure OF
humanity in war is the NUMBER OF
deaths and permanently injured IN
relation to the total number lnJu"-
eli. The surgeon general OF the
army in his latest annual report,
published interesting figures to prove
that chemical warfare is more M
I name than conflict with bullets and
high explosives.
The blame for every conceivable
sor. of illness has been laid at the
door of war gases, including diseases
OF the central nerVou system. heart
and blood vessels, respiratory tract
and the digestive system. This was
because chemical warfare on large
scale was new, and little was knoWn
of the after effects. But a careIui
study of the subject has been made
bv the War Department during the
past eight months, during winch
time some $500 letters were sen OUT
to leading medical people
out the world to obtain their views.
Also. 1900 claims for war fSisfN
benefits were examined.
The result of this thorough inveS-
tigation led to the i~nescapable con-
e.usion that gas. on the whole' causes
no permanent disabilities. 1t was
found by investigation Q oniy heIe
hut in Germany, England, France
and Switzerland, that there is no
direct evidence that tuberculosis IS
On after-effect affecting gas vlc-
TINS. -
In addition to this phase of h
investigation, letters were sem TO
manufacturers of chlorine, heavy
chemicals, and other materials that
gases similar to those used
i1 war. The answer to these letters
an avery case was that they had
never observed permanent dlsapih-
ties resulting from exposure TO these
gases. and that az a matter OF Iaci'
during the many years these chen.
,oals had been manufactured,
question had never ON up oelore.
Figure for the Army and Navy
excluding the Marine Corps. snow
fhat in the World War 25S,336 men
we're injured. OF this number, o.
$40 died on the field OF battle.
There were 1881 who died In nos
ritals. OF this number 7O.552 Were
suffering from gas alone. and only
1921 died. Brigadier General amos
A. Fries, chief of the Chemcai
Aarfare Service of the United STATES
army. estimates that less thar zoo
mel actually died on the heiu ~
hsttle as a result of gas attacks,
since concentration of gas SUFFICIENT
no kill within twelve hours was sci.
dom obtained. Assuming that 2ou
Gied on the battlefield from chemlcal
attacks. General Fries pointed ous'
the total deaths from gas would oe
tt41. less than two per cent OF the
7O.752 a cases.
OF the 1885 injured Ly bullets
and high explosives, 46,449 died o.
more than "a per cent. IL is eVi1ent
from these figures that the man IN
1ured by gas alone had more than
twelve times as good a chance oil
rec overy as the man injured by high
c~ynlosiye shells or bullets.
Other comparisons are quite as
striking. The official e 1rds show
mat Sc men were totally blinded in
the war. A were partially blinded IN
10th eyes. and 644 were blinded IN
enc eve. These include eyes de-
sgroyed. or those in which me sight
was lost. OF the gassed patients
four blinded in both eyes and %
in one eye, a total of 20. These %
were 3.S5 per cent of all those SUI
tering blindness in one of both eyes.
In other words. bullets and high ex
rIosives were responsible Tor 20
times as many blinded as was chem :
zeal warfare.
Chemical Warfare a Peace Insur-
ance
'In defending chemical warfare
saws General Fries, I'VE are not
! pleading for war: we are pleading
for peace. To the practical nan the
only way peace can be brought about
In the world-we mean permanent
! neace-is to make war so powerful
GEd so quick and so certain against
the armed forces of the enemy thai
war will become intolerable.
mo chemical warfare officer has
ever defended frightfulness N war"
the General continued. 1.-THE whole
| service is strongly agains- the use