In spite of unscientific and curiously garbled reports, there appears to be something serious behind Mr. Grindell Mathews statement that his "diabolical rays" will be capable of paralyzing a warship, or destroying an airplane; and the value of his invention needs no stronger recommendation than the simple fact that he offered it to the United States Government "Without encouraging result." It requires an unusual effort to recall any case in which an invention has been offered to the Government with anything but an unercousaging result. But one remembers easily enough the War Department scorn of the airplane, developed in America; of the submarine, invented here and used everywhere else; of the machine-gun and and any number of instruments, contrived by American ingenuity and abandoned to other nations for development and exploitation. It seems incredible that a country whose proudest boast is its superior business sense should permit its government to indulge in such-eminently unbusinesslike caprices.

At the same time, one may receive Mr. Mathewa' invention as merely one more of the terrific weapons in that unimaginable armory which will supply the armies of the Next War. We have already gas of such potency that it will lay waste whole cities; the "ray" is not so deadly as this; it attacks only the specific object at which it is directed. And there remains the justifiable skepticism in the ability of all of these lethal toys to perform in action as atipulated. After all, they must be operated by human beings, and, human beings are vulnerable. Probably the horrors of war will be increased, but its effectiveness, which has not increased with modern weapons, will remain the same. The proportion of casualties to total-numbers engaged has not increased since the sixteenth century--probably not. the amount or punishment which human beings will stand; there is little likelihood that this proportion will ever be substantially increased.

Consequently, those grim optimists who look to see war abolished with the appearance of more effective weapons neglect the most important factor--the human element. When humanity has lost a certain fraction, It cries for peace. Before that time, the more threat of untried devices is unlikely to deter any nation which feels the cosmic urge of battle.