The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-01-21
Abolish the Ordnance Department.

| Company, for account OF the Turkish Gov
eminent. 10000 sabrc-hayoncts, in addition
| to previous order for $1,000, ON which they
were at work. Daily these works, without
| hoiso, printed reports, or fuss or feathers.
| turned out 800 finished blades. Orders were
given two weeks ago to increase this pro-
duet 10 1909 u day,
! The annual report of the Chief OF Ord
nance for 1877 inevitably fails Ia mention
the number of hayoncts produced ia the last
fiscal year at the United States arscnals.
Logically reasoning that every musket
made was fitted with u bayonct, we infer
from n count OF the three grades Of muskcts
manufactured at Springfield, under the
Ordnance Department. that the years pro-
| duct of bayoncts was 1850 less than % a
day The number of officials concerned in the
production Of 1000 bayoncts a day at Chico
pee is four. The number of army officers
concerned in the production Of less than 20 u
day is sixty-four.
The New Haven Arms Company has not
published n report 10 darkcn knowledge and
cover waste. But news in scant paragraphs
has three times found publication in the
daily press To the effect that n million. a
million and n quarter, and million and a
half dollars worth Of rifles and fixed ann
munition had boon shipped from New Ha-
ven to Constantinople In swift British
steamers. Similar scanty Information
leaked out Of immense shipments Of arms
by the Providence Tool Company. 1t IL
probable that over 100000 repeating rifles,
and ammunition corresponding have been
quietly fabricated at these two works while
our Ordnance Bureau was pottering over
product Of 1900 muskcts, and dcvsing ma
tcrial for an annual report Of 7ci pages.
This contrast suggests to the people Of the
United States that the Ordnance Bureau Is
quite unnecessary institution and that it
would be much cheaper to buy our arms
than To make them. study OF the ord
nance report for 1871 will deepen this sug-
gcstion into conviction.
We have come back from n hunt through
the wilderness of words in the 7o4 pages
with a feeling Of acknowledgement about all
public service in America with fScliug Of
wonder that incapacity and uniitnrss can
intrcnch themselves in system Of popular
government and DEFY attack; that igno-
rance and uulituers can live delightfully."- ON
the earnings of the "suarteet people ia cree
alton" Ordnance officers should lee mcchau-
les II is not necessary for them
to be soldiers, and they are not
soldiers. Their business is that Of purvcv-
ing tor soldiers They purvcy ordnance.
small arms, ammunition. and equipments
They should be- mechanics technically, and
IN taste and sympathy. But sce Three Of
tho chief ofllcors of the bureau. through
shameful favoritism, got themselves scnt 70
Europe in 1873 TO examine and report on the
lt4t a II.
Sweden, Prussia, Austria. France Switlor-
land. and England. or all places IN Europe
TO which true cannonmaker and mechanic
and genuine soldier, would go quick
and straight, KRuPP's steel works at
Essen in Prussia IL first in interest and
attraction. Lieut-Col. BESroN's report of
his official visit 10 this greatest and hes. OF
all the gun factories IN the world Is In these
words Visited KKUPp's steel mandatory
at Essen on the l4th Of August. Limited
time prevented ~ from examining thir vast
establishment fully, and our observations
were confined chiefly Ia the cannon depart
monts' From that last word till he gets
through one page Of octave print. and six
miles away from Essen, Col. BESTON does
not say one word about kRUpP's method Of
making cannon. Limited timcw Why
what did he go for. But while thus stulti-
Tying his mission, something he does say
80 suggestive of ignorance that the reader
L. filled with Abatement: Mr.. DUYCIIMAN
the chief engineer of the works" We quote
the words Of Col. benton" states that
BESsEMER stool does not make good guns,
owing 10 its want If uniform texture i'm the
lngot.' Elsewhere this Lieutenant Colonel
Of Ordnance, whose business it is to know
metals says: 1--WE were informed that the
French Government had tried BEssEMER
steel for large tubes but without success:
out of forty tubes nineteen were condemned
for defects. while the remainder were more
on less imperfect" Now there is not ragged
boy around any BE,sENIER steel mill in the
United States who does not understand why /
piles Of hundreds of tons OF the sawed butts |
Of rails are hoaped up in the yards, pres
emily Useless and worthless. He knows |
that BEssEMER steel will not weld, cannot
Doe made homogeneous, and will not temper. |
Yet this ordnance officers report specifically |
advcrtiscs his ignorance of well-known
qualities and defects in this metal. IT is |
manifest that when this commission went |
to Europe it was not qualified to examine
and report ON the various European pro-
ccs-cs of making field and siege guns The |
hast" with which It ran through KRUPPs |
famous and foremost works shows that this !
military mission to Europe was nothing but |
Il pleasure trip, and bctrays the impatonce
oil women behind these ordnance officer, To
get out of duh Germany into gay Vienna
and Paris.
Indeed the Ordnance Department is a
fair sample Of our extraordinary army
OF on" officer To every eight soldiers.
our army of commanders without rank !
and file. This department Is COM
posed Of one brigadicr-gcnclal, three /
colonies, four ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, ten ma /
jors, twenty captains sixteen first licutcn- |
ants, and ten storcliccpors, Of whom one Is a
major and nine arc captains-in all sixty |
-four officers. They have quartcrcd Them
selves in nineteen different ar,onals and
between Maine and Oregon. In
lis" Of those work for the army Is done. a. ,
ln live only. At Springfield, Mass. s,.,,
arms and -maIl-alm ammriti" o,', ,.,''5
At Waiortown, n. y. So oo,.' w." 1a,. "'''"'
ana prol"ctllo5 FIR .o,, ,,,.n. srn ,na a"I