Evening star., 1927-03-19

| than did any other army. The
wounded received prOmpter attention
and disqualification. So of the Ameri-
cans wounded by shot and shell only
| 25.7 per cent died, while of those
gassed only 30 per cent died.
Years before the World War. Eng
land, France and Germany signed
treaty outlawing the use of gas. That
treaty was relied upon by England
and France, but broken by Germany
at Ypres. without warning, whereby
the English suffered 5000 gas casual
ties. Should we again rely on
'scrap of paper" in the face OF that
example?
The agitators against chemical
warfare draw panic-creating pictures
of the terrorS of gaS-hOw 1t viii be
possible for an enemy to Swoop over
a city like Washington and lombard
it with incendiary bombs, and when
the conflagration has driven the ,popu-
lace to flee, from gasproof abris, fol-
| low with a poison-gas attack which in
a few minutes will destroy all animal
and vegetable life. leaving the fire to
rage over a desolated region without
life.
II all that be true, the military ex
perts retort. wherein lies the argu-
ment that we should make il a Grim
| inal act to study how to repel such a
death-dealing attack? 1t is an axiom
of tactics that the safest defense is
| the offensive. Escape would be inn
possible under such an onslaught, and
there would be no distinction be
| tween soldier and civilian-except that
the civilian would succumb first, for
being unframed, he would not be so
prompt in adjusting his gas mask df
he possessed one), where fractions of a
second mark the difference between
the quick and the dead.
~ x x
Every gas that is used in chemical
warfare is indispensable in industries.
The first one used by the Germans
at Ypres, and which took the English
by surprise, was chlorine. 1t was
available in great quantities because
IT had long been used throughout the
world in industries and in medicine.
Mix chlorine and carbon monoxide,
In equal quantities. and that produces
phoSgene, which not only burns the
flesh. but is useful in producing dyes.
and Is most powerful oxidizer, used
in producing fine opera glass and in
many other industries.
The gas known as lewisite is mix
ture of acetylene and arsenic, which
is a medicine to kill the effect of the
tsetse fly, whose bite causes sleeping
sickness. 1t is so useful in medicine
and in industry that, after the war,
Germans sought to get an English
patent on its manufacture, although
it was not invented in Germany.
There is thiodiglycol, which is used
in photography. and for making syn
thetic indigo, but add to it hydro
chloric acid and 1t becomes mustard
gas-the most useful in disarming an
enemy.
So 1t is demonstrated that 1t would
be impossible to decree that the study
of gas for chemical warfare should
be counted as criminal, while chemists
everywhere are using the same gases
in industries. Such an agreement
would be nothing but a hypocritical
scrap of paper" to be torn up first
by the least conscientious combatant
when war approached. War puts des-
perate strains on scraps Of paper"
X r X X
AS for the alleged use of disease
germs in causing epidemics among
the enemy, high medical authority
discounts that in it's entirety as an
unfounded bugaboo, utterly impos-
sible. Today science knows that there
is no disease whose germ could be
broadcast as effectually as 1t could be
neutralized or killed by chlorine, by
disinfectants or by inoculation. The
only serious diseases which cannot be
combated by killing their germs are
cancer, pneumonia and influenza OF
these the germs have not yet been
isolated, hence they cannot be broad
cast. All disease comes from either
vegetable or animal germs. No new
disease can be invented until man is
able to invent life, for a germ is alive.
When germ is shot out of cannon
or gun it is killed by the explosion. !.
When it gets into water 1t is killed by :
chlorine. The whole germ or bac-
terra bugaboo" is ridiculed by scien-
fists. so far as warfare is concerned.
Even If streams were impregnated
with disease germs. the water would
be purified by chlorine. as it was in
France wherever armies had charge
and as it Is today in all public water
works.
tCopyright. 1927. by Paul v. Colins.s