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" ; . . Sunday morning, September 2?, 1907
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7 the next great
tvar. airships may be the
decisive factors,, win
ning victories.
This is no phan
tasy. Gradually, se
cretly, but none the less
surely, the great world
powers have concluded
that the time has come
for Mars to assume
suzerainty over the air.
And he is doing it.
How eloquent of
imminent aerial strife
how absolutely par
alyzing in the boldness
of its portent is that
message sent out from
The Hague conference
put a few days ago
a request that the pow
ers shall use for air warfare only dirigible
balloons - x
It is an acknowledgment that war
fare on the wing has come. It may not
be, turned back. Peace advocates can now
do nomore than designate the kind of
airship that shall be used in killing.
No less an authority than Dr. Alex
ander Graham Bell, inventor of the tele
phone, states unequivocally that the day
of aerial warfare is at hand.
.Every great nation, including the
United States, is feverishly conducting ex
periments with a view to having the best
airships for use in the next war, for all :
realize that the nation without an aerial
navy stands in danger ' of extinction.
Verily, earth has never-known such
scenes as will appear when Mars next
flashes his calcium light upon the screen
of international warfare.
A
MERICA will bp the first country
to perfect aerial battleships."
For this statement Dr. Alex-
nHpr Tlflll- lTurontnr nf tVia tola.
phono, and one of the greatest all-around
scientists living, is authority. He declares
that it is not his opinion alone, but actual
knowledge based upon inside information.
And it will come soon. Dr. Bell declares;
will, in fact, be the very next development in
aerial navigation.
How long will it bet Dr. Bell says
months, at most; possibly weeks.
He is himself perfecting a kite airship,
which he hopes to drive at 15 miles an hour;
but others, he admits, are nearer the solution
of a ship that will skim the air at a tremen
dous speed, scattering fearful death and de
struction about.
Evidently those forty powers meeting at
The IJague in a peace conference agreed with
Dr. Bell.
Naturally as though in compliance with,
a compelling force discussion at that great
meeting turned upon aerial navigation. In
the airship all saw more than a possible factor
in warfare of the future.
A previous Hague conference had decided
against the dropping of explosives from bal
loons as an improper method of warfare.
But now comes a new ruling. The use of the
unsteerable balloon is decried. Only the diri
gible airship may be usd.
There were present at the discussion men
grown old in wars wars of the old sort, on
land and sea. There wfre diplomats, statesmen,
philanthropists, religionists.
At other conferences these men or men
like them had met and grappledt with the
question of lighting with guns and bayonets
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bad tried to devise some way
. dreadful slaughter.
But now arose among them a new terror
a wraith, bat-like, portentous, grinning,
. which swooped down on ambient wings and
demanded attention the airship.
And in the dread of the apparition, war
fare by land and sea were forgotten; the
peace conferees were seized with terror.
No Banquo's feast scene this. For the
war airship was real. And it was treated as a
reality.
So now. we have heard the dictum of the
peace conference that in the wars of the fu
' ture if wars there be only DIRIGIBLE bal
loons shall be used. The word is capitalized
with good reason. For the restriction volubly
declares that the balloon in warfare is here.
Why the restriction ? A balloon of the old
type the simple gas bag can soar, but not
where it will; it must obey the will of the
breeze. Therefore, used in warfare, it
might find itself, through circumstances un
controllable, in the very country of the enemy.
Obviously, to fire upon it, destroying its oc
cupants, would be no legitimate feat of war
fare; it would be taking advantage of chance.
With the dirigible airship it is different.
Here is a fighting chance; the steerable airship
may go where it will, or where its occupants
will, as surely as a battleship or a cavalry
troop. Therefore, if caught within the enemy's
country and perforated with shot, no excuse
could be pleaded for it.
; "Should war break out, the country with
practical airships would have the advantage,"
said Major Baden-Powell, the English military
expert, the other day, and he deplored the fact
that his own country-was behind France and
Germany in perfecting dirigible war balloons.
And even while Major Baden-Powell was
speaking there was being perfected at Aider
shot for the British government an aeroplane
for use in warfare an aeroplatne with, a apeed
capacity of forty miles an hour, similar to the
one which Wright Brothers are reported ta
have sold to the French government.
Not this alone, but the British War Office
has under consideration a plant to compose a
war fleet, including sentry kites and dirigible
balloons, to act as depot shfpg and lupplj;
stores to the naval fleet and; fighting aero
planes. Fighting aeroplanes! Can you imagine
them going through the air like! flocks of great
birds, either to engage in demcjmstrationa with '
rival fleets or to drop bomBsi upon f orta or
cities of the enemy?
As Baden-Powell said, in) discussing the
matter :
"Should airships in warfare become com
mon there would probably be) no more land
battles. For what good wouldlbe an army of
men marching over the country with their
enemies hovering over them, seeing their
every move and able to destroy them at willl"
When Dr. Bell declared thut America will
be the first country to perfect aerial battle
ships, although he gave no details, it is more
than possible that he referred to the work
of the Wright Brothers, of Dayton, Ohio.
But the invention of the Wrights, notable
as it is, will not be acquired by their owA
country, it seems; and back of this statement
lies a story of unappreciation seldom equaUd.
After having demonstrated to a dozen tvp
utable citizens of their own city their sucibess
with an airship, the brothers approached the
government at Washington. They were re
buffed. Others hod made similar claims claims
all unfounded. The War Department people
were noi in a mooa to listen to others; they
repudiated the Wrights.
The insult cut deep. There came a time
not long ago when the government was ready
to negotiate with the Wrights and to offer a
princely bonus if their invention should prove
satisfactory.
What, n chance for revenge! The Wrights
complacently informed the patriotio private
citizen who hnd arranpd a hearing with the
War Department that before any negotiations
could be entered into it was in order for the
government to apologize for its insult This
was not done.
Next heard of the Wrights they were ne
gotiating with the German government, and
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