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Show PYKAM1D PARAGRAPHS By N. J. A Gun That Is A Gun There is an Austrian howitzer called the Skoda which is said to lire more ammunition In 1-3 of a sreond than was fired in the en-tiie en-tiie Battle of Waterloo. The life of this gigantic cannon is but 1-3 of a second; the cost of constructing construct-ing it is not mentioned; the death and destruction it may cause when fired are only suggested. Man has made remaikable strides in the art of killing but has not yet larn;cl how to live with his fellow-men. Will the time ever come? War Looms Ahead Woodrow Wilson hoped fervently that the League of Nations would preclude the possibility of future conflagrations such as the unspeakably unspeak-ably horrible holocaust of destruction destruc-tion known as the World War. Maybe May-be the League could have accomplished accom-plished its objectives had America gone into it with all her physical power and moral force. As it actually actu-ally worked out, America because of petty political antagonism toward to-ward Wilson refused to join the League at the start and has continued con-tinued to refuse since, with the result re-sult that it never did acquire the power and prestige which would o-therwise o-therwise have been its heritage. It carried on admirably for over a decade, dec-ade, however, doing much good. A-merica A-merica worked with it in various ways though without membership. All this progress was, sadly, virtually virtual-ly nullified by Japan's bombshell withdrawal over a year ago, followed follow-ed by Hitler-led Germany's recent withdrawal from the Geneva disarmament dis-armament conference, which will, tragically, probably spell an end to League influence of any sizeable nature. na-ture. Which means that we had bet-er bet-er once more start looking toward war As Frank H. Simonds says, the post-war era has ended in Europe Eur-ope and the pre-war era has begun.. be-gun.. A cardon of steel is being drawn around Germany. Hitler there has promised to regain the Polish corridor and that means war with Poland and her allies. He has promised to rejuvenate the nation na-tion and that means creating fear in France, who is consequently strengthening her fortresses along the Rhine. He is hoping for formation for-mation of a union with Austria, anj this prospect arouses the fears of Czecho-Slovakia. Germany Is openly op-enly arming and preparing for war in defiance of terms of the Versailles Ver-sailles Treaty, for she is determined determin-ed to have back part of the territory terri-tory wrested from her following the World War. The nations around her are Just as determined that she shan't have them back, and that almost inevitably means war. The republic to her south particularly is unwilling to relinquish Alsace Loraine or to see Germany regain the Upper Silesian terrain. And with guns that will consume con-sume more ammunition in 1-3 of a second than was used up in the most important Napoleonic battle a century ago, what kind of war is in prospect? Bombs will be drop-oed drop-oed that will destroy entire cities at one explosion. Civilians will be wiped out ruthlessly by the thousand thous-and along with male combatants. Airplanes and battleships will bo controlled by wireless. Tanks that figured so prominently in the last war will be useless, and about nim tenths of the warfare methods resorted re-sorted to in times past obsolete. No man living has sufficient imagination, imagina-tion, information cr pessimism to paint a picture of the next war. t . r : . .. 1 ....:.!........ About Capital Punishment. I President Roosevelt has evidently announced recently that he should like to do away with capital punishment. punish-ment. For the Associated Press says that Donald Wilkie of Laguna Beach, California, formerly of the United States secret service, wrote the President on Armistice day to the effect that the chances for the "careful" murderer are 12f to 1 that he will never die for his crime, and asked the Chief Executive to reconsider re-consider his "stand for the abolishment abolish-ment of the death penalty." Wilkie, Wil-kie, who claims that his crime records rec-ords were begun 60 years ago by his grandfather and that he is consequently con-sequently a world authority on crime, is in favor of retaining capital cap-ital punishment as a deterrent to killing. Seme men hold ihat with the fear of death by the state hovering hov-ering over potential killers' heads, fewer murders are committed. O-thers O-thers argue that there should be no capital punishment, that it does net deter meri from killing and that the state should not be guilty of killing a man simply because he has killed somebody else. It is interesting to note that Arthur Ar-thur Brisbane in his column this week says that he is opposed to capital punishment as a general thing, but favors it in the case of kidnapers. Evidently the California who recently lynched the confessed kidnapers of young Hart likewise believe in capital punishment, administered ad-ministered without benefit of legal injunction. It will be interesting to observe, now, how much of a deterrent de-terrent to future kidnapings the California lynchings will prove to be. |