The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1922-02-02
is MADE EASILY IN SECRET
Any Falthless National Would Have
Tremendous Advantage UnIess the
Others Are Allowed to Keep Abreast
of Chemical Development.
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK

tain limitations have been put on the
use of submarines ana other nipple
ments of warfare Everybody, of
course, would rejoice If it could be
known in advance that no nation ever
again would use poison gas In war
fare, but poison gas is on a different
footing, so to speak, than submarines
and other things which men use when
they want tc kill other men.
1t IS pretty well known that the men
who are to give their signatures to the
act Of prescription do not believe that
there will be any check to the study
of poison gases and of their efficiency
on the field of battle. AS many men
here seem to view it, the very nature
of the poison gas case forbids the
neglect of its study by the military and
naval establishments of the world,
even If it's use is forbidden.
Poison gas, the argument Is, must
be given an entirely different form of
consideration than that given to, say,
submarines. If the size of submarines
is limited by agreement no country can
build big raiders without having the
fact known at once. But with poison
gas the thing Is different The chem
ical industry will continue in exist
ence. 1t will advance as the years adj
vance and with its advance knowl-
edge of the means of the manufacture
of poison gas of increasingly deadly
nature will keep pace.
Easily Made in Secret.
In one country today there are
chemical Industries turning out en-
tlrely proper and beneficent material,
but which can be turned over night in
to poison gas factories and no one
will know the difference. The moving
e a lever or the slipping of belt in a
way are the only things needful to
change the medicine factory into a
mustard gas factory.
Even ! war time 1t IS possible Tor a
belligerent or a set of belligerents TO
learn what the enemy is doing, pro-
vlded the work under way takes time
and necessarily must be conducted
more or less in the open. Poison gas
IS made under cover and when it Is
shipped an observer cannot tell it from
the ordinary munitions of warfare.
Therefore, as army men and foreign
office men view the thing it will be
perfectly possible for an enemy coun-
t~y which does not care to keep its
poison gas agreement, to make gas,
ship 1t to the front and deluge with 1t
an unsuspecting enemy which Is keep
ing its word in the gas matter.
Military men say that the country
which breaks its word, gets its secret
ly-made gas to the front, and uses 1t
against the enemy, will win instant
victory The Germans did not win a
victory in 1915 by the use Of poison
gas because at that time there was not
the high efficiency In its use which
later developed. Today there are
gases which need in their liquid form
only to be sprayed on an army in order
TO annihllate It.
Feel They Must Be Prepared.
The question which is disturbing
military officials of the United States,
and unquestlonably those of all other
countries is whether they are to be
allowed for defense purposes to keep
sufficiently abreast Of chemical de-
vcopment TO be able to meet in war
fare a gas attack from a word-break-
Ing country. Five nations seemingly
Hre to agree that gas shall not be
used. II seems to be the feeling that
# any one of these five nations shall
kprp abreast Of the chemical times
and the other four do not, the one
which keeps up with the study and
makes up fits mind 70 break its word
can put the other four nations out Of
the running quickly If war shall come.
| II is perfectly true that some Of the
ranking officers Of the United States
army have urged that the use Of poison
gas I'm warfare be prescribed. All Of
the officers Of the army probably are
willing that It's use shall be prescribed,
but what the majority fears is That the
1 agreement win he taken as meaning
I that the United States is TO lose inter
est In gas even as defensive weapon
and that I'm consequence If n war shall
come, II will be totally unprepared to
meet an emergency situation If such
shall arise
In warfare If n country is invaded
and its existence as a nation Is at
stake, II can be taken for granted
that It VIII use any means that II
knows anything about to drive the In
I ynder out That is national nature
Just as II is human nature.
Senate Gets Another Scholar.
George Wharton Pepper has taken
his seat in the United States senate
as the successor of the late Boles Pen
rose. Another Scholar In politics
has been added to the senate member
ship.
Senator Pepper usually is accounted