Evening star., 1925-03-17

L nave shown in previous INSTALL
ment how an enemy with q fleet of
bombing aircraft properly protected
by fighting planes might cut our
lines of transportation between East
and West, raise havoc with our
wealthy cities of the Atlantic slope,
make chaos of our national life
left New York for the time being, out
of consideration. Yet New York is
supremely important. 1t is the rail-
way center of the Atlantic coast. 1t is
our biggest port-the second biggest
IN the world-and our most productive
manufacturing city. Finally, in less
| than square mile of its downtown
district lies concentrated the finan-
| clal power of the Nation. AS Kipling
said Of the Bank of England, Wall
line"
An enemy establishing an offensive
air fleet on the edge of "the great
triangle" would probably strike first
at New York, just as man in fight
strikes first at his opponents head
And the Island of Manhattan is espe-
cially vulnerable to aerial attack It
Is seaport; If the enemy's landing
had been preceded by victory at
sea, his naval planes could reinforce
his land based air forces. Its wealth
and population are concentrated to a
degree unknown elsewhere in the
world.
First Stroke mt Reservoirs.
The first stroke would be enough
to render Manhattan and most other
| boroughs in Greater New York un-
inhabitable for weeks. The city de-
pends for its water upon reservoirs.
AS l have shown elsewhere. a few
mustard gas bombs dropped into
these broad Iar
the city supply not only undrinkable,
but violently poisonous.
The railroad communications, like
everything else in the city, lie closely
concentrated. The Pennsylvania sys-
tenn has its station and yards in the
region of Thirty-fourth street and
Eighth avenue. Heavy bombs in the
right place would here cut the city's
most important link with the South
its second most important with the
West. For good measure the enemy
would probably gas this region. He
would almost certainly gas the under
river tunnel by which all trains en-
tering the Pennsylvania Station cross
from the mainland.
The lines running into the Grand
Central station present a simpler
problem. They do not enter the city
by tube, but by bridge. Blow up
three or four bridges crossing from
Manhattan to the Bronx and the job
is done: the greatest line of commu-
nication to the West, the sole line to
the North, is cut. There remain sew
eral less important systems which
have their terminals and yards on
the Jersey shore"-the western bank
of the Hudson.
Other Exposed Centers.
The city feeds its freight and pas
sengers to them mostly by the Hud-
son system of underwater tunnels
and, to lesser extent, by ferry.
Destroying these lesser terminals by
explosive bomb might, curiously, be
a harder job. To end their useful
ness to New York City, however, it
would be necessary only to blow up
the power houses which run the
trains in the tube, to gas the tubes
! themselves, to destroy the ferry
slips. And most of New York City
proper, including the Borough of
Manhattan. is isolated from the
world.
Already the enemy would have
paid special attention to the heart
of the matter-the region known In
American polemics as Wall Street.
Measure it off on the map; you find
it occupies less than a square mile
of the city's surface. / have shown
that Is tons of gas, at the highest es-
innate, can blot out life in an ordi-
nary square mile of city. This, al
lowing a margin of error, can be
handled by 10 of the largest bomb
ing planes. If the enemy carried the
pitiless logic of modern war to its
inescapable conclusion, he would gas
this region not at night, when 1t is
almost empty, but by day, when it
holds the very flower of American
financial and administrative ability.
An organization is built not on steel
and cement and other material things,