Show ± T I iCA TIMELY WARNING I Tien Vorlc City Jicfcitsclcss 1tLimst lUo dern Warfare The H wars and rumors of wars which have of late occupied much of the public attention combined with the somewhat unusual incident of the presence of English Eng-lish and Russian vessels of war in the Atlantic waters have not unnaturally turned the metropolitan mind to the consideration con-sideration of the situation of New York especially in its relation to an always possible pos-sible warlike contingency The situation situa-tion can be best understood by acquiring familiarity with the forces which could be brought against that city in case of war and the nature and extent of these are shown in the host of heavily armed vessels belonging to different Powers Talking recently of a proper means of defending that port in case of war a prominent man whose ideas and opinions are worthy of consideration said A first rate torpedo system an effective effec-tive fleet and a thorough line of fortifications fortifi-cations closely connected around the Gravesend neighborhood on the reefs in the lower bay and at Sandy Hook Sandy Hook is the most strategic point and the works there are vouchers for the ability the engineers who designed I them but the principle is fifty years behind be-hind the time Steel revolving turret with heavy ordnance would bo excellent but not these alone there must be fortifications too Whenever men are employed they must be protected somehow Fort Lafayette La-fayette could be made a very strong point with steel plating and an emplacement of ten guns of from Fix to eight mile range The fortifications should be continued con-tinued out on the shoals and joined to Fort Hamilton to a bridge It would not injure commerce in the least With earth there can be a gun to every forty feet with a steel one to every fifteen feet Masonry should be at least twenty feet thick to be at all servtcable All this would take time Yea years We cannot roll a 20inch steel plate here nor make the guns It would take three or four years to perfect the plant to say nothing of constructing the fortifications Nor can we get heavy ordnance abroad at a moments notice Big guns are not kept in stock ready made like trousers While other nations have been experimenting and improving ordnance ord-nance we have done nothing but wait for the maximum to be reached Then if we see fit we seem to think we can step in and take advantage of them This said Professor Michin Professor Pro-fessor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy Phil-osophy at the West Point Military Academy Acad-emy and formerly an ofiicer of the Engineer Corps is such a projectile as modern nienowar throw It will pierce thirty inches of wrought iron at 1000 yards and has a muzzle energy of H000 loot tons The effect it would have in dropping on a pavement in New York I would be the same as dropping the Central Cen-tral Park obelisk from a point as high as the top of Trinity spire It can be used either as a shell or solid shot Loaded with dynamite so that it would explode on contact or while penetrating each shell would blow the whole side of a block to pieces It would be an easy matter to drop one a minute into the city Put it mild and say 50030 damage a minute 3000000 an hour 72000000 a day was being done how long do you think the citizens would be in raising 200000 000 tax should l it demanded oaiu a prominent New i oncer recently New York should learn a lesson from St Petersburg During the Crimean war the English were very anxious to get there and destroy the city but at Cronstadt the Russians had fortifications which were sufficient at that time to keep at bay the combined English and French fleets As soon as guns improved so that stone forts became useless the Russians began to build iron turrets at Cronstadt a very expensive job for artificial islands had to be constructed as foundations As the power of naval vessels increased the turrets continued to keep pace with the improvements and today St Petersburg Peters-burg is just as safe from the English fleet as she was in 1859 What an example for us forumVe should also let the example of Alexandria furnish us with wisdom No sooner were the troops withdrawn from Alexandria than the rabble rushed in to plunder and to burn If New York were under fire the dangerous element in our community would be in Fifth avanue in short order sacking the homes of the rich This city needs insurance against such a calamity It needs guns it needs torpedoes and it needs armored fortsWhat What would b3 the damage in dollars and cents which a foreign manofwar dropping big shells into the city of New York could cause How much of the 1200000000 of taxable and 1000000 t00 of untaxable property in the city limits could be shattered or burned in the I course of a few hours bombardment The mind shrinks before the appalling figures It is almost impossible to comprehend com-prehend the concentrated values which ire stored in the citv I A single 2000 l pound shell dropped I from the BrItish ironclad Inflexible up on the new Produce Exchange would de stroy 3000000 worth of property iri an instant A single shell bursting upon the Mills Building would send J15000000 out of the world with a crash I |