Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-09-20

Of the American Legion that an inter-
national conference shall be called for
the purpose of fixing limit upon the
building of army planes for war pur-
poses. The Legion proposes that what
has been done in the matter of ships
! of the sea shall be done in the matter
of ships of the air.
! Any attempt to limit the preduc-
ton of army planes for war purposes
necessarily must have its path beset
with difficulties. The airplane is COM
! ing into greater use day by day for
commercial purposes and for the
peace purposes of government, such as
mail carrying. AS the plane develops
as an instrument of commerce it will
be more and more difficult to prevent
its development as an instrument OF
warfare, at least so the students OF
the situation declare.
A good commercial plane stanchly
set and fast can be converted into
war plane over night. It is held,
seemingly, by the students that to limit
| the manufacture of planes for war
purposes would in effect limit their
manufacture for peace purposes. 1t
is argued here that if the country pos
sesses $4,000 commercial planes on
/ Wednesday it could have in its pos
/ session on Thursday the same number
of war planes by the simple process
of a few changes in arrangement and
in fixtures.
Not the Same With Ships.
Some persons may think that the
same argument would apply to YES
sells of the sea, inasmuch as some
commercial ships can be transformed
into warships in a brief space OF time.
This argument, however, the students
say, does not hold good because the
commercial ship, unarmored and lack
/ ing the stanch construction necessary
for the carriage Of big guns, cannot be
made into anything more formidable
than a light cruiser. During the World
war commercial vessels we're trans
formed into warships, but of very
minor and inefficient kind. Most of
the merchant ships during the war
were armed with light guns capable
of sinking submarines, but beyond this
comparatively little was done with
them. The navies of the world de-
pended upon battleships, cruisers, de-
stroyers and submarines for the work
/ in hand.
Airplanes cost money, but they do
not cost as much as battleships. 1t is
held in Washington that one Of the
most appealing reasons for the peo-
pies support of the conference on, the
Limitation of ornaments was the fact
] that limitation would save the taxpay-
/ ers enormous sums of money. The
naval programs of the world have been
I cut and the saving has been made.
There would be nothing like the
same amount saved if a check should
be put upon the building of airships.
/ Therefore it may be that the plea of
the American Legion will not be given
the same sympathy and support that
we're given to the plea for the reduc-
ton in the number of great going
men-of-war.
Our Air Service Is Awake.
AS things are today. France and
Great Britain are going ahead ambi-
tiously with plane building programs.
The United States government is not
| Indifferent to the situation. It's air
service is efficient and constantly is
drilling and preparing for the defense
of this country against air enemies.
The United States is not as well
equipped with air machines as are
several other countries in the world,
brt the service has kept abreast of
the times and it knows what will be
necessary to do in the way Of prepara-
ton if the occasion should arise.
At the outbreak of the World war
| It was predicted that airplanes would
turn the tide of battle in favor of one
or the other of the contestants. This
might have been true if the service
had been upon the plane of aggressive
efficiency upon which it rests today.
The war development of the bombing
! and combat machines helped mate
rally. but the planes did not reach the
point Of perfection. They are said to
be reaching that point today. 1t would
be interesting to learn how many of
the commercial machines today are in
type virtually like the bombing and
combat machines.
Accuracy in way did not keep pace
with other improvements in planes as
they were developed during the war.
!, At the outbreak of hostilities in 1914
| it was virtually impossible for bomb
ing machine to drop high explosive
shells upon any fixed and compare
lively small target OF course, shells
could be dropped indiscriminately into
towns, cities and villages, but as they
we're supposed to take up the often
sive only against ships, Notifications
and bodies Of armed nlen, the legiti-
mate targets were hard to hit. As the
war went on the bombers became more
accurate. Various devices to aid ac-
curacy were invented and put to use;
but no bomber, even today, can quail
ify, so to speak, as a sharpshooter.
BuffaIoes in Java.