The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-12-05

Washington, d. c., Dec. 3-That
all of the disarmament SO far dis
cussed at the conference amounts
: to no than an agreement
among Quarrelsome men each to
throw away an Anticipated blunder-
buss which he has in his hand
while keeping two loaded auto
mates, a hand grenade and a dose
of strychnine in his pockets, is the
way one observer describes the sit
uation here to date.
The two most deadly instruments
of human destruction so far dis
covered-poison gas and the air
plane-have not even been dis
cussed. The proposal so far is
merely to scrap a few capital ships
which will probably be obsolete be-
fore the next var gets under way
anyhow.
OF course, the real business of
the conference is to try to reach
some settlement of the troubled
questions in the far east, which are
almost sure to cause war in a few
years unless adjusted. There are
some signs of progress toward such
an adjustment. But it is pointed
out that the whole pretension to-
ward disarmament is futile unless
a o effective program than the
present one is evolved.
France, next door neighbor of
its ancient enemy Germany, has
served notice on the world that it
has no intention of reducing in land
forces to a point where there could
be danger of successful attack
from its PROSTATE enemy, once it
is on its feet again.
England, Japan and the United
States discuss the ratio their navfes
shall bear to each other. A serious
mulling over of this aspect of the
situation occurs when it is pro-
posed that the American and Brit
lsh ships shall be matched i'll
strength, with Japan having three
capital fighting ships to every five
IN the American navy. A counter
proposal is made that the ratI ,
shall be seven to ten
How About Poison Gas?
Whatever the final conclusions
on the number of s~uperdread-
naughts and battle cruisers and the
matter of and forces, under arms
or in the reserve, for all nations. it
may mean very little unless efec-
tive means can be devised to put a
check on chemical and aerial war
fare for the future.
Chemical warfare was employed
on a large scale in the World war
for the first time. Gas, first used by
the Germans against the Canadian
troops, was developed rapidly by
both sides, while defense against
gas attacks was rushed. When the
arm1stice was signed, the war was
DO per cent chemical, according to
military authorities.
The aIrplane became a tremend-
ousIy important factor before the
war was over. Planes for all sorts
of war uses were developed rang
ing from the small speedy scout
and combat planes to the slower.
heavier bombing planes, hospital
planes, and the like. Defense
against aircraft attacks has never
reached the effectiveness of de-
tense against other forms of fight
ing. The anti-aircraft gun is high
ly useful, of course, but the best
defense against the enemy flyers
when the war ended was other fly
ers to drive them off or bring them
down.
The trouble with curbing chemi-
cal warfare is that the plants
which would be of tremendous
military value in war a be camou-
tagged into chemical plants of the
most innocent looking sort during
eras of peace. 1t is disclosing no
secret to say that the chemical ex-
perts of all countries are hard at
work now experimenting and devils
ing new ard awful combinations,
capable of results far beyond the
most destructive engines of war
yet used.
The whole world sat up and took
notice recently when a CONNER
cial chemical plant in a little Ger