The New York herald., 1921-11-27

not less habitable. Fires start and there
is no means of quenching them. Great dis
tricts fall into blackened ruins. 1t is i'm
possible for the military, the police or vol
unteers to come within effective distance
of this active, functioning poison.
That is one picture.
There is another, still partly imagina
tive, it is true, but which is being trans
lated into fact in more than one labora-
tory of the great Powers. For many years
chemists have dreamed of some radioactive
substance which would continue almost in
definitely to throw off burning, deadly
force. Before the last war closed there
was more than a hint that some such sub
stance was in process of development II.
@. Wells in one of his novels used the idea
with dramatic force. If that substance is
ever found warfare will become as impos
sible as cannibalism. Any country, no mat.
ter how small or weak, will have the re
sources sufficient to equip itself with that
savagely destructive weapon
without going into the future, however.
another glance or two into the recent past
IS revealing. OF the 275,000 casualties of
the United States Army in the last war
more than 81 per cent were caused by the
various gases used, with mustard gas the
,rost hurtful.
Advocates of chemical warfare insist that
the use of gases is the most humane
method of attacking an enemy. They base
their contention on the fact that as rule
the great majority of gassed men recover
lnder skillful treatment with little evil
effects. They argue that it is infinitely
more humane to asphyxiate few thousand
men temporarily, thereby putting them out
OF action and accomplishing desired tao
tical stroke, than it is to shatter their
bodies with shrapnel or machine gun
bullets
Without speculating too much on the
probability, it is worth while saying that
many thoughtful persons in our military
service and in the scientific departments
OF the Government would like TO see un-
limited experiment and development in
chemical warfare methods because they be
lieve that very rapidly chemical warfare
weapons would be perfected to such
dreadful menace as to make war utterly
unthinkable.
They say, too, that with this chemicaI
weapon ready at need in our great dye fac,
tories, the United States need have no fear
of foreign armies or foreign navies.
But it is not only poison gas that is
dropped from airplanes. There are many
other types of bombs which wreak damage
making this new scientific warfare more
terrible.
There are bombs that set fire to cities
cantonments and fields, bombs filled with
phosphorus, in the flames Of which nobody
would be able to exist These were dem
onstrated not long ago in the army tests
with the obsolete battleship Alabama in
Chesapeake Bay. The flames enveloped the
ship and IL was demonstrated that such an
attack on a vessel of feet would kill the
crew. of course putting the vessel out of
action.
There are other types of incendiary
bombs large canisters, that contain flares
which. bursting on the way down from
the sky, are scattered along for a consider.
able distance, igniting everything with
which they come in contact. And the Off
GERS who devised this deadly bomb declare
confidently that not a fire department ex.
lists which could cope with such an attack.
The ease with which armies could be de-
stroyed with aircraft has been demon.
strated time and again at the army prov.
ing grounds at Aberdeen. Md. with
type of bomb which explodes on hitting
the ground and sends great quantities of
shot in all directions, moving down line
after line of soldiers.
In their development of this bomb those
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