Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-02-19
By DONALD MGREGOR.
WASHINGTON. D. G.. saturd

TT HE United states to-day Is fully at
peace with all the world. 1t is the
first time in a decade. War and
rumors of war have crowded through the
last ten years.
Mexico doomed first-then American eyes
turned toward Europe-and now peace
The world readjustment is now well on the
way. And with the washington conference
for the limitation of ornaments making
marked progress toward insuring continued
tranquility among the nations, America now
is able to take stock of what it has done in
the last ten years-take stock of its de-
velopments in the all-important period
through which 1t has just passed.
These developments have been in many
ness at hand-in the grim art of making
war. Americas war inventions. the story
Of how they were brought about, the part
they played in bringing victory to the nation
at arms, will form an absorbing chapter in
the histories that will be written in the
future.
Turning the Sword
Into PlowShareS Now
American genius now will turn many of
the developments to peacetime work Many
Of them will remain in arsenals for use il
war ever comes again. They viii be
weapons tucked away for an emergency,
which the nation hopes particularly at this
Christmas time. never will arise.
Save for the bow and arrow virtually
every weapon known to man. some Of them
long regarded as obsolete, was employed on
the western front during the world war
This was due to the fact that the battle
line extended from the sea on the one end
to a neutral country Switzerland, on the
other, so that the ordinary flank move
ments in warfare could not be employed 1t
led to the special warfare that continued for
So many months. and it brought into play all
sorts of weapons, most of them, of course,
improved upon since they had been used
in the early days.
One noticeable instance of this was the
"tin derby" worn by the doughboys in the
trenches to protect themselves against
NllClhy mt HIS lItduSGdI WAS uULHlHS
more nor less than the armor of the days of
old. Some of the soldiers who served as
snipers went much further than the head
gear, wearing buet-proof corsets and other
types Of armor to the average mind asso-
cated with the knights of many years ago.
Hand grenades had been used during the
Napoleonic wars, when there was close
hand-to-hand fighting, but they were inn
Cd fort Io 10 on 4t,a;.
tents were explosives far more deadly than
anything ever known in the old days, Still
hand grenades were not development of
the world war
The airplane as a combat unit was dis
tinctly a development of the world war 1t
had been used for scouting duty before the
outbreak of hostilties, and had been in
cuded in the military scheme But for use
in dropping bombs and against other air
craft 1t was unknown.
War Development Has Much
Increased Since Armistice
The truth is that this development has
progressed more since the armistice than it
did before. The ideas, or large number of
them, were obtained during the war, but
the end came too soon to put them into
application. The construction of a 1000
pound bomb, the largest known in military
operations, is the work of recent months.
Up until recently there has never been a
bomb sight really worthy Of the name.
The airplane was fairly well developed 1t
is true, when the war broke out but only
the most preliminary study had been given
to its uses in time OF hostilities. The few
airplanes the armies had were intended for
gathering information about the enemy.
Their use. as known to-day, developed grad
ually after the war began.
This came about when one airplane, intent
on flying over the enemys line to get in
formation was attacked by another. In the
first instance fliers, although from opposing
armies, simply saluted each other when they
passed. Then one day one fired on another,
and so it was that air battles began. The
use of bombs from airpanes was a similar
development.
Instead of the small bombs that were in
use when the war ended, the armies now are
equipped with large bombs and bombs OF
many kinds, each for its special purpose
demolition bombs for use against intrench-
ments, augmentation bombs sending out
waves of small bullets for use against
troops gas bombs and incendiary bombs, to
set fire to camps. villages and ammunition
dumps.
The Tank and It's Second Cousin,
Caterpillar Tractor, Here to STAY
Poison gas is entirely a development Of
the world war. Up TO the time the Ger
mans, in 1915 in the battle of Ypres, iber-
ated poison gas against the Canadians ii
lad not been used in combat This how