Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1890 — OUR SUPERIOR GUNS AND UNPARALLELD GUN WORKS. [ARTICLE]

OUR SUPERIOR GUNS AND UNPARALLELD GUN WORKS.

Fifty years ago the retrogressive predecssora of our present “r)form" Free-Traders were just as bitterly opposed to Protection as are their successors iu our own day. They opposed the tariff on cutlery on the plea that it was absurd for Americans to presume to compete with the famous Sheffield cutlers. But the tariff was maintained, nevertheless, with the result that American cutlery is equal to any in the world. A quarter of a century ago the opponents of Protection said that it was madness for us to undertake to build iron or steel vessels in this country, and they are saying it now. Yet to-day our ship yards are turning out the most perfect vessels afloat, So through the whole history of the tariff its enemies opposed it with—ail sorts of objections. When the results of Tariff ■> legislation proved the falsity of one of its enemies’ objections, they retreated to anoiker, and never for a moment gave up the light they- were waging in behalf of -the foreigner. Another notable triumph ot Protection is now recorded. Less than ten years ago this country did not pretend to make the big guns demanded for modern warfare. Further than this, the American Cobdenite knew that we never could make them. Now see what has happened. **' Lieutenant Colonel \V. Hope, Y. C-, of the British army, recently endrd a tour of inspection in this country. Before leaving our shores he gave the results of his observation for publication in the metropolitan journals. Never wss a more glowing tribute paid to the. beniheeut effects of Protection than his proaunciauiento on American guiis and gun works. That t iie is good authority is attested by the Free Trade New York Tims of December 3. It prefaced its report of interview with him as follows: Lieut. Col. Hope has long been recognized by army and navy officers in this country as being o:ie of the greatest living authorities on ordinance matters of the present day, and-his opinions regurdjk g the progress of American gtin .establishments are of much imserk inee. During his three jnonti l ' 3 t° ur of inspection iu this countr v he has visited all the great gv 1D works and war material establishments of the United States. Then it proceeds to let Col. Hope-himself talk: ‘T consider th. * Bethlehem gun plant to be super ’or to auy gun plant in the wor. d, Bethlehem is the realization of dream ot what a perfect gun et'tablisiunent should be, and. i beltevt' it -to -be the only perfect establishment of its kind in the world. The gunshops of this place are prodigious iu size, the capabilities of the establishment beyond the conception of any who has not visited it, and the excellence of the material • *

turned out unequalled in point of thoroughness. This I say without a shadow of exaggeration. I could only look and wonder, and l return to England firmly convinced that in America exists the gnn t\h,il steel producing yplant iu Hie world.” . _1 ■

“As to the Washington Gun Foundry-—the Bethlehem and Washington are practically the same establishment—ray remarks concerning Bethlehem apply ■ qually well. At this latter place I, for the first time life, became convinced that it was possible to construct a perfect ‘built-up’ gun. This is a result I have long contended was impossible to attain. I now see that I was in error. Mind you,. 1 do.not say, that I believe that the ‘built-up' gun is the best gun that can be devised, but I do say that the ‘built-up’ gun of the United States Navy, as turned out at the Washington Gun Foundry]! is the most perfect gun in existence. I will go further than this and say that I believe, : and know it to be a fact, that the t ‘i>uilt-up’ gun, as now used in the United States Navy, is the best * and most powerful gnu nflo.it or ' ashore anywhere in the world. : There is not a gun in Europe, ; there is not a gun anywhere, that kiiu begin.to compare with it, und the credit, due to the heads, of the Ordinance Department of the United States Navy for this result is unestimable.” “I ascribe the success' of the ‘built-up’gun to the fixing of individual responsibilities on every one connected with the assembling of the pieces. The slightest error in measurement is traced at once to to the person directly responsible, and it goes without saying that the error will not again be repeated. The proof of the efficiency of the American ‘built-up’ guns is thß results of the tests they have stood. Not one of the guns has developed defects or shown the slightest tendency to yield. In England we are way behind you.’' In the words of the Boston Journal, “how it must harrow up the Free-Traders to reflect that every big gun thundering from the steel t-idesaafaanrlfrrafoM moiujuflfrar is an object lesson to all the world of the good results of the Protective policy!