New Iberia enterprise and independent observer., 1915-12-18
NAVY DEPARTMENT ADMITS
THAT IT WANTS TO SUB
SIDIZE PRIVATELY-OWNED
MUNITION PLANTS.
By Frederick Monroe.

the war IluSl ID SOID ~ AoA"S 49,"
Congressmen and Senators to ap-
Dropriate One Billion OF your
Dollars for war preparation.
In the report of the Chief OF
the Bureau of Ordinance OF the
Navy Department to the Secre-
tary of the Navy, just isued, Ad-
miral Straus, head of the bureau,
makes this statement:
"The facilities for the prodr"
ton of smokeless powder and
other explosives in the United
States have been enormously III
creased owing to the demands
the beIligerents for these mater
ials. 1t has taken many month
of time and enormous eXpendl-
lures of money to develop these
facilities and their conservation
for the benefit Of the United
States government in time of war
is a problem which will require
the most careful consideration OF
the department when the Euro
pean war is over and the present
demand from abroad has ceased. "
Do YOU see now why the war
trust wants big preparedness!
Admiral Straus says we have got
to take care of the War Trust s
enormous factories which they
build to make big profits out of
the murder now going on abroad.
The War Trust does not propose
to let these plants lie idle while
the war is over. Capital invest
ed in them must bring in profits
after the war as well as now. SO
Admiral Straus is very solicitious
indeed about these private plants
which are now coming money out
of the very blood Of the toilers of
Europe. They are making mil
lions and millions Of dollars in
profits now, and they want to
keep on doing it. That's why
your congressman is going to vote
your congressman is going to vote
your hard earned money away
into the hands Of these gentlemen.
already stained with their bloody
profits from abroad. That's why
we are to have the peace Of this
continent placed forever in dan
ger by preparedness
1t Will be Some"
Problem. Too.
"When the present demand
from abroad has ceased" " says
Straus. "the problem will require
the most careful consideration Of
the department. You bet it
will.
And Admiral Straus is the boy |
to give it "careful considera-
ton" The Dupont Powder
Trust is going to be quite safe in
his hands.
These gentlemen about whom
he is SO solicitous are the gentle
men that between 1905 and 1913
have sold to the government 3d.
S63,224 pounds of powder, for
which you, workingman, paid
them $21, ,99S,250, at the rate Of
eighty cents a pound for 3,297,-
7l2 pounds of it; and a rate Of
sixty-five cents pound for ~
565,5 ,512 pounds Of it.
And Admiral Straus' own re-
port, on the same page on which
he tells us that we must be care
full about the powder trust when
the war abroad is over, shows
that the United States govern
ment. during the fiscal year 1914
and 1915, manufactured the
identical powder at "a cents a
pound which was reduction from
80 cents a pound for the previous
fiscal year. A simple little prob
lem in subtraction will indicate
that the government can manu-
facture it's own powder for less
than half what it has in the past
been paying the powder trust!
But. then, of course, we can
let these expensive plants be idle
after the European war, can wei
But turn over another page of
Admiral Straus' report and look
at another phase of this "pre-
paredness" madness.
The cost of many of the ma
terials of strictly military char
acter." says the admiral, "has
increased, owing to
the demands for these materlals
by the belligerents, and the bu-
reau has frequently been con-
fronted with the absolute neces