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Show OUR CITIES BY THE SEA. ' 6cnntor Wntnon O. Hqiiiro, ox-President of tho Kcmhigton HiMo Company, Tolls How To lelbrid Them- What lis tonneeticm With the Foreign Hap Offices Sat Taught Simow John Suit Koses Out Our Street England at Plant of Our arbors and low to Attack Them Her Eortificationt on Vancouver' t stand and How 7 hey Controt "uget Sound The Columbia Stiver and Shetland How San Fran ritco is Defended and the Dangers of Mew York Fifteen Hundred Can mm Seeded improvements in Modern Warfare Explosives H 'hu h Kill by Swell and Huns H hick Kain Shot and Shell Torpedoes and Torpedo Stoats H hat J Great Wars Cost and fow Germany at Well at fiance Lost by Ser Late ar Small Arms and How They Can It Turned Out f tperUl CorrwpftBdf ace of the Kiw (Coj.rriihied W br Frank U. csrpantar.) Washington, January a, 1896. IVZ-T-MAN WHO HAS '-i I 10M tens of million I 1 74 V arms end munition! -1 M ufwar lolhe Rrcat u?f c4 countrie,' Europe WYA( 1 wand who hae been i?V,!H hi I"' dealing ? i.L&i-jwltn w" dePart' ments, ought to have oplnlona ol value 1 at to our defenses In the possibility ot a j war with Inland. Such man Is Senator Watson C. Squire, who has re ' cently Introduced a bill appropriating J M7, 000, 000 for the protection of our cities by the sea. Senator S.juire was chairman of the coast defence committee some ye.tr ago, and since he was elect cdto the Senate he has been devoting him ic It largely to matters connected with the army and navy. He was for many years connected with the Remington Reming-ton Manufacturing company and he has made a large foitune In dealing in firearms fire-arms and munitions of war, He was for a long time the agent of the Remington company in Europe, and was at one time its president. At the time of the Franco Fran-co l'russlan war he sold more than 14,-coo.ooo 14,-coo.ooo worth of small arms to the t rench. He tells me that the French thought they were well prepared for this struRgle, but that alter It had begun they found they could nowhere get enough arms for their soldiers. Among those which they bought of Senator Squire were a large number of the rilles tnd guus left over from our late civil air. The Senator purchased nearly ! 110,000,000 worth of such guns trom t'nele Sam and sold them to the French. 1 He has also furnished guns to others uf the great Kurufuan nations. He sold over f.H, 000. 000 worth of guns to the Spanish and he aided fn supplying the Ianes with h rearms. For years his business was In connection with the war olhce of all the Krral Furopean nations, and he could today draw maps of the streets of St. Petersburg and Constanli nople from memory. A great part ol the guns now in use in South America were sold by him. This Is the case with Cuba and to a large extent with the Argentine Republic and Venezuela. I do not think that the Senator has at present any active conned ion with the Remington company. His long experience, ex-perience, however, has given him a good opportunity to lenrn much a to the inside workings of war maiters in Kurope, and especially as to the plans of other nations relating to this country. JOHN DULL NOHtNO OLT OUR ftKCKKT. Ouring achat with him last night I asked Senator Stjuire whether he supposed sup-posed that the Knhsh had an accurate knowledge ol our so ports. He replied: ''Certainly they have. The Hritioh legation has a man connected connect-ed with it whuse buinct it is to look into and report to the British war o I lice u(on such mattern. The FngWh pro bablv have had men traveling through the United States getting the last and best information upon all matters connected con-nected with our army and navy and de-lenses de-lenses You cannot imagine the amount of money that foreign nations spend upon up-on such things. A ne gun or a new in veniion in any kind of arms is worth a fortune if it is ol real value, and govern ments sometimes buy such inventions and keep them secret until the time 1 cornea fur their use. Our war depart-1 depart-1 menl probably has much secret information informa-tion as to arms and ammunition which will not be developed until a war occurs. We send men abroad to report upon such matters. The results ol their investigations in-vestigations never get into the newspapers, news-papers, aod you cannot tell what new tilings huve been invented for warfare until war actually occurs. In the war ol in which Anuria was conquered by Prussia, the ru:nS iuccve!cd largely on account of the German "needle gun' which up to that time had been kept secret. It was a por thing at bet, and it allowed the gas rising from the powder to escape in nuth a way that It had to be fired from the thigh Instead of the shoulder. Stilt it was a great improvement over' the old Austrian gun and over anvti ing Furope then had. it was first used In that war and at tho battle ol Sadowa it gave the Prussians a victory. Alter this battle all Furope ruthed to get new guns, and the : wonderful small arms winch we have to l day are the result. It was the same during our civil war. The fight ol the Monitor and the Merrimac changed the naval construction of the world. He fore that wooden ships were ued nearly everywhere. After It gun -boats had to he made of iron and aicel, anil the big men ufwar which now cost from three to five million dollars apiece, and the cosily armor ptate with which theyaie sheathed are the result. PLANS OP Ot'R SKA PORT IN TIIU BRITISH war orrit'K. "Speaking of the Fnglish knowledge of our seaports," Senator Squire went on, ''I have no doubt but that a pi. in of every harbor and city on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts is in the Bntikh war office. These are revised frointirr.e to time io accordance with every new it' m ol information which they get concerning concern-ing our delenses. I venture to sny lh.it the Hntifth war office has a better knowledge knowl-edge ol the real condition of our sea coast cities than the Congress of the United States fn all probability the Fnglish have their plans made out In detail de-tail as to where they will attack each of our cities in case of a war, and It may be that the letters and telegrams are already al-ready written giving directions to the commanders in the diliercnt branches of the army and navy as to just what they are to do in such a case. This is so in nearly every big war office in Furope. Fvery possibility is provided for. You remember the story of Von Mollke, the commander-in-chief ol the German army at the time that the Franco-Prussian war occurred. The announcement that war had been declared de-clared by Napoleon was received at night, and the messenger bringing the news found Von Moltke sound asleep. He was awakened aud advised ol the fact. He did not rise, but merely sent for his aid and told him to go to a certain case and take the papers out of a certain pigeon hole and telegraph tho instructions instruc-tions therein incloned. These instructions instruc-tions gave directions as to the disposition disposi-tion ol ev( ry pait of the German army. Alter giving this order, so the story ! goes, on Moltke turned over and went I to sleep, knowing that when he awoke in the morning the whole German army would be preparing to move. The Fnglish probably have similar plans for 1 the action of their forces and fleets." n gland's fortifications. 'What is the condition of the Fnglish fortifications on this side of the water, Senator Squire?" 1 asked. "I don't think any one knows,1 re plied Senator Squire. "They are pro 1 bahlv in a very good cor,,iilnn. The Fnglish have been steadily increnvnc their lorliliratlnns about the I'nited Slates for years They have, 1 have seen It stated, so dredged the St. Lawrence Law-rence river that war ships draw ing twenty-six feet can now sail right up to Montreal, which, in the rase ol a war with us, would be one of their bases of supplies, lhey do not alio Americans Ameri-cans to go through their (oris. Not long ago my secretary, Col. Milder, who was formerly connected with the Fng llh army In Initis, was voiting tome ollirrs near Fuimault on Vancouver's Maml. He asked to be taken through the fort there, but was t!d that it would be impossible, as orders had been given that no one oulside of those immediately immed-iately connected with the fort wer to be allowed within it. This gteat Fnglish fortification practically controls the straits of Futa ai.d the entrance to Fu-get Fu-get Sound. ItC is within a few miles uf our coast. Port Townsend is just across the way, so near, indeed, that the morn 1 ing and evening guns from the fort may he heard there. Gen. Mi'es, who has examined closely Into the ubject, says that in twenty-four hours the llntnh il et at Iwpiimault could take absolute possession of Puget bound and destroy Hs cities and towns. We ought to have at least 2uo guns and nmr an on Fugct bound, nnd there should he 5x1 guns and mortars on the Pacific coast to properly pro-perly pro eel it.' TIIK UNUKPfiNhRD WRST. "ilut San Francisco is well protected, Is it not?" "Ily no means as well as it should be," replied Senator .Squire. "Ill the only Pacific coast port that is at all provided ! w.th means ol defeuie. Seattle and Tacoma and the porta of Pugut So u nil could be easily destroyed, bin Diego is defenseless. The grest Columbia river is practically open to foreign war vesbels. They could hail up it and ties troy Portland. Thev could send smaller boats further and ruin the canal which we are building about the Cascades, and upon which weare spending millions of dollars. We ought to have a canon factory on the Pacific coast. We have coal and iron, and we c-uld as caMly build guns there as in the east. 1 hwve introduced a bill appropriating f 1,000,000 for such a factory.' FtlTkRN Hl'NDKII) CANNON NKHUKI). "How many guns are wanted alio-get alio-get her lor coat defense, Senator bquire?' I asked. "It is estimated," replied the Senator, "that it will take at least 1,500 camion, that is, guns and mortars, to give ua the proper protection. At least half of these should bo eight, ten, twelve and sixtcen-inch guns, and the remainder should be mortar. These guns need rarr laces, machinery and fortifications, behind which they can be raised and lowered. It will take at a iow estimate at least f.S.ouo.ooo to put the ports in good shape, and my bill proposes that ; tins expenditure be begun audcained ; on until it is completed. "i'his expenditure ought o begin at I once," continued Stuat r Squire. "There is one thing the pe nl do not 1 seem to understand, ana that is that it , takes time to budd the great modern , i tuns. The contract was awarded to I one of the great American companies 'or building one hundred gur.s in I8! It Is now iv5 and they have only twenty guns which are anywhere near complete. 1 here are, I believe, none In actual use, though some are ready lor trial. In building grpt guns, works have to be made for them, and the actual cons miction mic-tion of the guns requires months. As to earthworks and defends, they could he erected in a short time by putting a large number of men at work, but It takes tune to nuke all kinds ot arms and munitions ol war. As to small arms, they can be turned out very rapidly. During the I ranco Prussian war the Remingion works made twelve hundred new rilles a day. Ihry made two hundred revolvers a day in addition to remodeling two hundred other guns, making an output of sixteen hundred small arms every day. This was, 1 believe, be-lieve, the fastest work of the kind that has ever been done." TIIH IMNCFRS Or NEW V0RK. "Speaking of our sea coast cities, Senator, New York is well defended, is it not?" "No," was the reply. "It has only about one-tenth the protection tint it should have. The other cities on the Atlantic are practically defensr-less. I visited the defemcs ot New York not long go. Our principal works are situated at Sandy Hook, whre we have two guns and sixteen moitari. 'Ihe guns are iwelve-imh guns. They carry projectiles weighing over seven hundred pounds and it takes four bushels of powder lor a single fire. They have a range of twelve miles, and they are only exposed at the time of bring. They are protected by an emplacement or fortification fortifi-cation made of cement and sand. The strength of this fortification la equal to 1 that of l Ho feet of sand, and It is so great that no modern gun can send a protectile through It. The guns are loaded behind it, and then by hwlraullc pressure are raised and tired. Twenty-one Twenty-one seconds later they have dropped behind be-hind the fortiltcations ready for reload ing. lu addition to thee guns we have sixteen mortars at Sandy Hook. These send shells of cast-iron and steel weighing weigh-ing from five hundred to a thousand pounds a distance ol six miles. I hry are tired from a pit, and they shoot their projectiles two miles up Into the air. liy a modern invention known as tb range tinder they have been known to be very accurate in their aim. By this invention it is ascertained at just what angle the gun should be shot. The gunners or those who fire them have a map ol the sea or the harbor before them, and this map is divided up into squares. It is found in which square the man of-war is at the lime ol firing. The sixteen mortars mor-tars are then trained upon that square and rain of their massive sheila will fall upon it. It would be strange, indeed, in-deed, if some of them did not hit her and carry her to the bottom' TORTRUOKS WILL NOT DO. "How about torpedoes? Why cannot alt of our coast cities be protected by themr" "Thtre Is little safety in depending upon torpedoes," replied Seuatoi Squire, "and it is not everywhere that you can , , ue them. The Idea is, vou know, to I fatten (hem to a wire ot mpe. A strong ! current would, fn such case, carry them to the top of the water, where they could be seen. If the water was very deep, I they would not be effective, ami, then, there is always the danger to our own I boats Some of the Chinese ships were, you know, blown up by their own tor pedrtes. They could probably he used for the defense of New York, Philndel phis, flaltimore and Washington. They could also be used for plates like Portland, Port-land, Oregon, but they would not be of much value In an open harbor, besides, the guns of these big war vessels carry six to twelvemilea. They can stand out at boa end Mteil the cities. The best way to repel them is by coast defenses, supplemented by our navy." "How about torpedo boats?" "lhat is a matter that cornea under the navy. Such boats would undoubtedly undoubt-edly be of great value, end they will be tarici'ly used. All the great nations are adding torpedo boats to their naval forces. Fugland has a large number, and is building more. France, Germany and Russia all have scores of torpedo boats. The advantage of suth vessels is lhat thry cm he built quickly and that they are comparatively cheap. They can go faster than the man-of-war. We are now building at Seattle a torpedo . boat which w ill make twenty-nine miles an hour. It will be the fastest torpedo boat of the world. "Ihese torpedo boats are very destructive," des-tructive," said Senator Squire, "At a test of torpedo boats as against gun bonis and cruisers in the Fnglish naval maneuvers not long ago it was shown that the torpedo boats did five limn aa much damage in proportion to their cost as the battle ships and cruisers.' NKW THINGS IN WAMFAKK, "Rut Senator, would there not he a number of new things brought forth by our people in the event ol a war with Great lintaiu?" "Speaking of new Inventions, replied Senator Squire, these ere being made all the time. The rapid firing gun has changed warfare to a Urge extent Some ol these will send shells weighing 100 pounds at the rate of aix to the minute, and there are guns which throw streams ot projectiles like water from a hose. Due ol the Maxim guus discharges rifle bullets nt the rale uf voo a minute, and by the machines now connected with the big nie 1101 -war continuous streams ol cartiidtei can be sent out from one gun managed by two men. One form ot the Galling gun shoots i,aoo shots a minute. Theie rapid tiring guns were used during the light between the Japanese Jap-anese aud Chim-se. Ships wiihin a mile of each other were exKcd to a hail storm of shot and shell Iroin them. The enormous power of Ihe aimour ol the ships was shown in this war. The twelve-inch guns ol the japanese.though they sent projectiles weighing boo pounds, could not aiuk the Cinuese battle bat-tle ships, and we are now making thirteen inch guns,instead ol twelve inch guns, for our men-of-war. The shells trom such guna have an enormous penetrating pen-etrating power, ihe powder ui in the Chinese-Japanese war was largely smokeless powder. We are making improvement im-provement in powders right along, and new Inventions are being: made in all ' kinds of munitions ol war. I IXI'LOSIVRS WHICH KILL DY SMKLL "The next war will determine many , new things as to high explosives," con ' tinued Senator Squire. "Tkre is an ex- 1 plosive known as melinite, which is said . to have some of the properties of the old 0 ; ' stink pot used by the Chinese. I "' ' recently read an arcount of the use ot ' this explosive. The article staled that the stull was three times as powerful ao , gunpowder, but that its lumes were ''''' 1 even deadly. It cited an instance In 1 - which a melinite shell had exploded on ' ' ! a vessel on which were some sheep and V V 1 1 goals. All of the animala not killed by A the shell were vutfocatcd to death. Then ' there is emensile, which Is another high i explosive of wonderful power, and there . Is a material called explosive gelatin, b' said to be fifteen times as strong as gun powder. There are numerous other j . means of defense than these which I - have spoken of which might be adopted .r.' as to our seacoast cities. There is no I i ' telling what new war Inventions may be t ' made in electricity. Mines under the I -, waters could he exploded by this means 1 upon the approach ol war vessels, aod there are other ways. It is said, in which J , electricity could be used. It is practically practi-cally a new science, and Its enormous force will be largely developed by the , : wars ot the future." TIIK COST OF WAR j MI suppose the next great war will b the most costly ol the wars of history, Senator," said I. i "Yes." was the reply. A number' i. r ot our battle ships have cost between , three and tour millions of dollars. We ' i appropriated J .000,000 for two such ' ships last year. It coita an enormous v ; amount to run these ships In time of ' 1 1 peace, and a half hour 'a naval action ' will cat up a fortune. The cost ot the 1 wars ot the past have been enormous. 1 according to an estimate ot French and , v , h German statisticians, which 1 have lately seen, the wars of the last thirty years have cost Ihe world more than " ', ij 000,000,000 in money and the lives of s,yju,ouu men. France paid more) r lltan three and a half billions for her . war with Prussia, end it is estimated - , that that war cost the Germans fx t . . otu.oou more than the Indemnity which J ' 1 thev received. The Crimean war cost ' ;i about two billion dollars, and the war 1 - ' between Prussia and Austria of t cost over three hundred million. The war between Russia and Turkey Is esti- f , 1 nuted to have coat one hundred and V twenty-five milliona ol dollars. I be , ' . lieve that a war between England aod the United States.if it should ever occur, t would result in a greater loss of money ' and hie than any of the wars ot the past and 1 sincerely hope that such sn event . will never take place. 1 believe, bow ' ' ever, that It is our duty to be prepared a - for such an event, so that when the ' - fight does come we will be able to tie feud our honor aud ourselves." - |
