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War in the Air.

No invention of military science is more significant of future development than the airship constructed by the Lebaudys. of Paris, under contract with the French Ministry of War. The latest test of this machine was made Monday. With propellors averaging 850 revolutions a minute, the airship rose to a height of 600 feet, sailed sixty miles at speed ranging from fifteen to twenty miles and hour, responded to every touch of the helm, and returned to the point of ascent without an accident to the machinery, and without a suggestion of discomfort or danger to the six men occupying the car.

This achievement conclusively demonstrates the value of the airship as an adjunct to every great military machine. The Hague Conference of 1899 prohibited the use of balloons in warfare, except for purposes of observation. It declared against their employment for the employment for the carriage of riflemen or light artillery, or as conveniences for the dropping of explosives upon the positions of an enemy. The sub-committee of the conference which first considered this question voted to make the prohibition permanent, but captain Crozier, one of the American delegates, was responsive for a resolution by which the Conference subsequently limited the period to five years. The limitation has now expired, or is about to expire, and it may be expected theat when the next International Conference assembles France, at least, will not consent to any resolution depriving her of the advantage secured by the ingenuity of her inventors in perfecting the dirigible balloon. 

The erratic disposition of the ordinary balloon, the fact that it cannot be steered, that it is at the mercy of storms and air currents, makes the exclusion of it as an agency of offensive warfare of little or no consequence. But when the genius of man evolves an airship that can be steered against the wind, which answers its helm like a yacht, which can remain aloft indefinitely and traverse the ether at twenty miles, or more, an hour, the temptation to employ it in war is too great to be resisted. So we may expect the nations to take up the building of airships precisely as they now build submarines. The value of the latter as offensive engines has not yet been clearly demonstrated, although it is years since France first led the world in constructing them. The value of airships is still more problematical, but enough is already assumed to insure construction in quanties which will make of them considerable factors in the next international quarrel.




PEARY SCORNS BALLOON IDEA
MEN AND DOGS THE ONLY USEFUL POLE HUNTING AGENCIES

Suddenly Varying Temperatures and Winds, He Says, Render Air Trip Impossible -Wireless Telegraphy Useless in Far North-Drifting Plan Pure Chance.

BOSTONS, Nov. 27.-Commander Robert e. Peary, the artic explorer, arrived here at 9:40 to-night from Sydney, N. S.

He was accompanied by Mrs. Peary and A. J. Quigly of New York, a personal friend. The party left for New York on the midnight train. 

Commander Peary said he would remain in New York but a short time to-morrow, as he was anxious to get to Washington in order to spend Thanksgiving with his children.

He thought he might see some of the members of the Artic Club while in New York.

As to making any more trips to search of the Pole, the explorer said he had not given that subject any thought, his chief anxiety being to get home as quickly as possible. 

Mr. Peary said that he believed that he would have reached the Pole had not there been such an unusually open season and heavy storms, which broke up his system of relays arranged to bring up food as he dashed north over the ice. 

He was asked if it would not have been leasable to have used canoes in the open water as Nansen did, but to this Peary replied that he did not think so on account of the number of people he had with him. In Nansen's case, he explained, there ware only two men in the party.

The commander was greeted at the Brunswick, Me., railroad station by a throng of Bowdoin College man, who cheered him lustily. The explorer came out on the platform of his car and made a short speech, saying that he was proud of his achievement, for he considered it was an achievement to have reached a point further north than any other man. He was also proud, he said, to have old Bowdoin share the honors.

Peary is an alumnus of Bowdoin, class of ;77, and he was personally greeted by President Hyde, with whom he chatted while the train was getting ready to start. 

At Portland, a number of personal friends were on hand to congratulate him. 

In an interview on the train Commander Peary said:

"While I don't want to appear as criticising the plans of others personally, I have no faith in the airship or allied means for reaching the North Pole. If it were possible to bring the airship to such a degree of perfection that it would be as reliable as an ocean liner and dirigible enough to withstand the sudden and remarkable fluctuations of circumpolar winds and able to go to windward-all of which it is not- then we might talk with reason about balloons and aeroplanes.

"However, these ideas of electrical sledges and airships as contrivances on which to reach the Pole are based, it seems to me, on lack of knowledge of prevailing conditions up there.,

"An airship, as it is at present, would meet with insurmountable difficulties, among them rapid fluctuations in temperature, these being about as fierce and as variable as the winds.

"Then the heavy falls of snow weighing on the balloon would make a very appreciable difference in its weight, with consequent difficulties in its management.

"Besides this the minute particles of snow, long and fine and piercing as needles, due to evaporation of snow and ice, might affect the chances of the airships' airworthiness. The rise and fall of temperature ot the extent of a difference of 25 degrees with or without the sun would naturally have its effect upon the gas and on the mechanical operation of the ship.

"I have in no way changed my opinion regarding the proper way to reach the Pole. My allegiance to the Smith Sound or American routes unimpaired. I have always admitted the possibilities of the drift method of reaching the Pole if a ship can be put into the ice at the proper place, manned by men of such temperament as would permit them to submit patiently to campaign which would not be aided in the least by their own methods. 

"Of course it is impossible to say how long such a method would require to be successful. It might take five or six or ten years to drift over the Pole, or to approach sufficiently near it to make it possible tor sledge parties to reach it without any extraordinary difficulties.

"It by no means follows from the voyage of the Fram that another ship or that even the Fram herself would be able to repeat her voyage in safety.

"I am strongly opposed to the use or an attempt to use untried or undeveloped ideas in the polar regions. The Far North is not safe ground for experiments, as I have always maintained, and I have again found that the only practical leagencies for travel over the rough ice floes and ridges  of the polar sea are the man and the Esquimau dog. 

"Some of these ridges frequently rise