The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-05
GREAT WASTAGE OF ENGLISH WAR FUND
 MUST BE STOPPED
Some Examples Given to Show How Nations Cash Has Been Wasted by .
 Experts

London, November 2o.-(special Corre-
 spondence. )-Great Britain is spending
 about $25, ,000,00O a day on the war; and 1t
 is estimated by experts that about s9'-
 o0O,O00 of this is avoidable waste There
 is much more waste that Is unavoidable
 In war conditions, taking into consider ation the fact that England was not a
 military nation and was not organized
 for raising, feeding, transporting and generally providing for armies that are counted in the millions. rather than In the thousands The avoidable waste to- day is chiefly in the purchasing de-
 partments and is due, to the system of buying which, so far, has ignored the trained business man and left this most important branch of national economy in the hands of officials, whose appoint ment is due to their having attained a certain degree of excellence at school and university, and passed a civil service ex- animation on literary subjects that have no possible bearing on their duties.
 After 16 months of war the nation has walked up and at last has called its great business men into council. An informal committee is being organized which Will advise the army authorities on the proper organization of it's supply and purchasing departments, and will generally supervise the national expenditure. The members will not be paid and will hold no official | appointments, but they have placed them- l selves unreservedly at the service of the | government. Among the first members of this new committee are Sir William 1 Lever, the great soap manufacturer; Sir George Gibb, the great railway manager; i Lord Cowdray, head of Pearsons Limited l the biggest contracting firm in the world; l Sir Robert Hatfield, a great ironmaster, | and Richard Burbage, the manager of Harrods' stores, one of the biggest Lon | don retail dry goods houses.
 The task that must be undertaken by | these men can best be illustrated by some | of the stories that are common talk to- l day in London business circles about the i! way ill which money has been spent | One of the best is the famous wheelbar- I row story, which was referred to in Par | liament by Lief Jones, M. P, a few l nights ago. The war office invited ten ders for some thousands of wheelbar- | rows to be made to q certain pattern. | Three firms rendered and after exam | ing their specifications rne war office de- l cided to award the contract to the highest I bidder, although its tender was about 25 per cent above that Of the lowest bidder. There was no suspicion of graft. The | officials, simply came to the conclusion l by some obscure process of reasoning, | that firm No, 1 would do the job best. | Firm No. l got the contract but did | not do the job. It had more profitable | work in hand so 1t turned over the war l office contract to firm No. at the price which No. had offered to do the work | 1or the government, and all it had to do | with supplying the wheelbarrows was to l send it's bill to, the war office and bank | the; war office check, picking up the diff | fcrence~of 2e per cent.
 Another good story which is told by one l of the manufacturers concerned has to do | with the supply of stoves for warming the trenches in winter. A large number of these were wanted in hurry and the I war office "eXperts" determined that they would not be overcharged by the grasp l ing manufacturers. They made inquiries and learned that articles something like | those required could be bought retail at !! about $5. Then they came to the con- | cluSion that fair price to pay for large | quantities would be about $4 A meeting !! of the manufacturers who could do the | work was summoned, but before it came | off the manufacturers had a little meet | ing of their own at which they decided | that in the quantities required by the war
 office they could make the stoVes and | handsome profit as well, at a few, cents i over S3 each. When they assembled at ] the war Iffice the purchasing expert | stall1cd in, and after explaining what was | wanted, concluded: And gentlemen, you l
 
 get q penny over s4 each. That is what | we have decided they are worth and we | don't pay more" Of course the manufac- i turers accepted the offer after a little | diplomatic tasglsng, and the expert went ! back to his desk, no doubt congratulat- | ing himself on how he had buffed an l assoabiage of shFeWd business men.
 Another story which illustrates a phase | of waste caused by red tape is the sock story. At the beginning of the war the \ government decided to deal direct with [ principals, and to cut out the middle men. A soon the new armies began to ' grow, it needed large quantities Of wooden | AoclSs and a speculator in the city of London discovered where there were a | million pairs that he could buy cheaply ( He got an option on them and offered | them to the government at a req sonabl | price. The government re-usec to deal l with him, because he was not manu- | facturer. So he took the socks to q firm 1 that owned a small factory, sold them | for a better price than that at which | he had offered them to the government l and few days later the government 1 bought the same socks from the manu- 1 facturer" at a price that paid a hand l some profit to all concerned.
 Just now the government is in the 1 market for large quantities of chairs for the soldiers winter huts. The type of chair used is an ordinary wooden Sichen chair In peace times any housewife can buy these. chairs in any quantity she wants at about 60 cents each. At present, on account of the shortage of labor ana | the rise in the price of wood, the retailers are charging about 50 cents. The war Office, however, which is buying the chairs by the thousand, is offering S132 Der chair. It is true of course, that the chair must be made to the war office specification, but it is not better or stronger chair than the ordinary article which can be bought at retail for so cents. There does not seem to be any good reason why every war office chair should conform to the same pattern, but that is the custom, and the officials do not seem to be able to alter it. Perhaps the business men will. t.
 The war office ordered 50 motor trucks built according to specification. The build
 CTS were unable to get the type of rim
 specified and substituted another, which
 1a1lito- a gond The .offica