New Britain herald., 1915-09-25
Shoes and Preparedness. .(Springfield Republican,
Congressman Gardner would follow

# Congressman Gardnersw would follow
 up the lead offered :. by an infantry
 captain who after a good deal of#ob- servation in Texas declares the pres
 ent army shoe not suited for active service: Tt is a fine article of foot
 wear and for garrison use entirely satisfactory. But for campaign pur- poses 1t does 'notsfin the bill" But 1t Is with campaign purposes that Congressman Gardner is preoccup1ed and he might do worse than to expand on Capt. ,Greer's cop1- plalnt: 'To start with, if the roads are very hot or very rough the sole Is so thin. that the feet are blistered
 or bruised, and the shoe wears out then in very short period. Such conditions will be for us the normal in any actual field conditions which We are liable to have"
 There is a very fair opening to g. crltlc. Can it be, he might demand, that lesson so rubbed in by the civil war has been forgotten by our mil- 1tary experts? At the close of that war the whole American people had
 been taught that marching needs stout, thick-soled boots;s has the na- tional passion for f1imsiness already
 
 an army called upon for arduous field service and equipped with shoes fit only for garrison use?
 If Congressman Gardner wished to harrow our feelings still more he would only have to picture Lynn seiz- ed by a foreign invader before it had time to deliver such thin-soled shoes as had been ordered. In France a great sensation was made a few weeks before the war by Senator Humbert, who made the revelation that there was a shortage of 2,000.- 900 pairs of army boots. It was of course no news to the German general staff, but it was painful news to France; there is a fine chance for a critic of the administration to show that even such shoes as our army has would be useless in case of war. <
 The proper rejoinder, of course, would be to enlist shoe manufacturers along with inventors, aviators a md electricians in the national board of scientific defense. A company of them might be organized for the next bus mess mems camp, and set to testing shoes by long marches over bad roads in varying conditions When winter set in squads of them might be dele gated to spend their time in a ditch, up to their knees in mud and slush, proving the merits of different kinds of footwear. And, above all, they would be useful in working out program by which the government could be assured in an emergency of an abundant supply of honestly made boots. If criticism stops on Monday, says Bernard Shaw, on Tuesday the soldiers will be marching on brown paper soles. No point of war equip ment has been responsible for great CT scandals; if business men are enough interested in defense to work out a remedy. they can serve their country quite as we'll as by learning to handle a gun.
 Probably the Germans were the first to put great army into the field properly and adequately shod. They were we'll provided in 1870, and they were mira raculously provided in 1911. Wh ere did the millions of brand new uniforms and boots come from? ask ed the people in delighted amaze. No part of the German private's equip ment has commanded more admira- tion than the boots, faultless design, made of soft, strong leather tanned with German thoroughntS gener- ously and durably soled, and provid- ed with hobnails for further protec- tlon. To the German general staff shoes have been quite as important as Dig howitzers in the general scheme of preparedness. If. the encampment has helped to convince American business men that an army must be we'll shod it