Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1915 — ARE BEST OF FORTS [ARTICLE]

ARE BEST OF FORTS

United States Defenses, However, Are Short of Men. Works on Corregldor Almost as Impregnable as Gibraltar or Helgoland —Great Fortifications Which Guard National Capital. By EDWARD B. CLARK. (Staff Correspondent Western Newspaper Union.) Washington.—Since the war broke out in Europe much has been heard about Helgoland as an impregnable fortress. In some statements it has been said that next to Gibraltar, Helgoland is the hardest fortress nut to crack in the whole world. Now comes the United States to maintain that it has a fortress that Is not only not second to Helgoland in strength, but perhaps not even to Gibraltar itself. Army and navy men seem to think that the fortress of Corregidor which guards the entrance to Manila in the Philippines can hold off any of the world’s forces and absolutely prevent any possibility of successful attack on Manila by way of its immediate front.

Corregidor only recently has been put into trim. Now it is understood that its big guns are all manned and that soon it will have a trained force of men equal to the occasion of working the weapons of offense for a period as protracted as any war is likely to be. In some respects it is said Corregidor resembles Gibraltar.

Much has been written recently about the fortifications on the sea coasts of the continental United States. During the discussions in the committees of congress on the subject of the military preparedness of the Ignited States it has been said that our forts and our guns are all right, but that we have not men enough to man them. From the report of the chief of coast airtillery, General Weaver, it is apparent that what has been said Just about sums up the situation. Congress it is expected will provide men enough to man our guns, for otherwise we will be in a position of haying spent a lot of money for tools which we cannot ÜB6.

In the year 1814 the British attacked Washington. In order to reach this city today a foreign foe, unless it can land an army, will be compelled to run by the fortifications at the mouth of Chesapeake bay and by other fortifications which protect the reaches of the lower Potomac.

Fortress Monroe, which is one of the guardß to' the entrance of the Chesapeake, is an old post and the layman who looks at it and Bees the old parapets with their granite facings cannot conceive that it would withstand the shots from modern guns. The truth is that old Fortress Monroe is occupied only for show purposes and for The uses of peaceful garrison life. Connected with the old fort are the new fortifications with their big disappearing guns. Fortress Monroe commands not only the entrance to the Chesapeake but the entrance to the James river.

In Hampton Roads, whose waters are at the mouth of the James and mingle with those of the ocean, there is a lbw-lylng American fort with powerful guns. It is an aid to Fortress Monroe, and between the two any slept, no matter how powerful, would have a hard time of it trying to break an entrance either into the James river or Chesapeake bay. Recently the government purchased land on Cape Henry and there another

fort is to be built. Ships trying to get into Chesapeake or to the James would find themselves under fire from the Cape Henry guns they get within range of the Fortress Monroe or the Hampton Roads guns. It iB believed by military experts that no fleet in the world ever can force its way into Chesapeake bay or the James river thence to go with its lighter draft vessels by the water route either to Baltimore, Washington or Richmond.