Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1917 — World War Will Be Won by Machinery and Conquest of the Air [ARTICLE]

World War Will Be Won by Machinery and Conquest of the Air

By Basil A. Hester

J I will venture a prediction, viz: that the present world war will be won by machinery. The sphere of combat will be the air; the motive power, gasoline; the agent, an engine; light but powerful; the machine itself, monster airplanes, that will spill and spit high explosives, fire and flames, until their mission is accomplished. These, attacking the trenches, will drive out and scatter their defenders like frightened geese; will demolish and overturn -fortified strongholds and utterly lay waste and burn the capital cities. [ The beginning of this era of warfare was well foreshadowed by the unstopped havoc of the undersea destroyers. But their compass was too narrow, being circumscribed by the seas. It remains, then, for these monster engines of destruction, commanding, as they will, both land and sea, to make the devastation complete. The victor in a world’s life and death struggle will have justly earned the title of “The Prince of the Power of the Air.” Perplex yourselves no longer about sufficiency of mtm power on either eide. There is abundance and to spare. Machines are going to win the war; therefore, call forth your dread machines, assemble these mighty enginery of war together ; for to those who first see tad effectively grasp this new development of destructive power will belong the victory.