New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-13
Has Britain Failed?

as "the failure in munitions Granting
that with the small number Of trained SOL
diers originally at her disposal she could
not reasonably be expected to make great
figure in the field, they ask why, after
whole wear Of preparation, she has made 50
little progress in the organization of her
industries that the Allied armies in Europe
are even to this day without sufficient ma
terial to conduct a successful offensive
campaign.
The enormous difficulties involved in or
ganizing the manufacture Of munitions are
but vaguely apprehended by the non-tech-
meal man. Some Of these difficulties, as
an engineer sees them, are set forth in the
following letter, which may prove enight
ening to those light-hearted censors who,
without considering the vast navy Great
Britain has to provide for or understand
ing in the least what it means to create an
industry capable of providing munitions
for a great army, can only see that what
has thus far been accomplished is obviously
insufficient to meet current requirements;
To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: There has been some speculation IN
the newspapers and a great deal in the
minds Of people with whom l have talked
as TO the possibility Of dissensions in the
Allies camp. caused mainly by the failure
Of the British to be Of real assistance IN
the land war This appears, however, TO be
improbable for two reasons-hrst because
the people Of France and Russia must
realize that this would not be TO their IN
forest. and second. because the military lead
ers in those countries very clearly the
enormous difficulty Of the British task, and
that even though there may be mistakes
in detail the British are doing all that
could reasonably be expected. 1t IS the sec
ond aspect of the matter that the news
papers and the average man fail TO grasp.
It must be generally admitted that when
the war broke out the British navy was
fairly well prepared and has carried out its
work successfully in spite Of some rather
disastrous mistakes, such as that which re-
shifted in the defeat Of Cradocks squadron.
As regards the army, however, the condi-
tons were very different. Obviously the first
hing was 10 secure recruits, for an effective
fighting force cannot be made out of I'M
trained men. Brigader General Cough, as
reported by Oliver, put the minimum train
ing period for infantry, under peace condi-
tions at two years, though he admitted that
it might be considerably shortened in war
time Hence when the war broke out we
heard Of nothing so much as the call for
recruits Immediately following this was
the call for equipment for the soldiers, and
that this was sorey needed the stories we
heard from Salisbury Plain showed clearly.
Now. locking back l doubt if we could ex-
pect much greater progress than has been
made in recruiting, training and equipment.
But while the papers we're full Of these
matters work on a more formidable problem
had begun-the organization Of the manu-
facture Of munitions. 1t Is difficult for the
non-technical man fully to realize what such
an undertaking means. Presumably the
British munitions factories are normally
prepared to furnish material for the little
standing army under ordinary conditions,
but obviously were unprepared for the i'm
mense new army under the conditions of
the present war. In effect, then, it was
necessary to start a number of new facto-
ries and to turn to the great resources of
this continent for that purpose. Now, any
engineer knows what the organization and
starting Of a new and highly technical in
dustry means-it cannot be done at short
notice.
As an illustration let us take the manu-
facture of shrapnel. This must be manu-
featured Of a particular kind Of steel, from
which the blanks are made. The blanks
then machined and must go through an
elaborate and careful heat treatment The
machine work requires high degree Of
curacv, specifications calling for errors less
than cne-four- hundredth of an inch. Natu-
rally the working force Of the factory must
be trained for this, special machinery OBJ
tanned, the work systematized and so forth
Therefore when the recruiting. etc. was
fairly started the next great agitation was
for the organization of munition manufac-
ture. There is little doubt in my mind that
the complaints about the slowness and
slackness in this respect were exaggerated
deliberately in order TO spur on the manu-
facturers and their workmen TO greater
efforts. / have seen American factories
which almost Immediately after the open
ing of the war got contracts for munitions
and strained every effort TO fiji them, and
vet months passed before any shells were
actually turned out These factories, too,
were not managed by any ordinary uninteli-
gent people. but by engineers Of the highest
ability SO far as the munition factories
IN this country, of which ! have personal
experience, are concerned, do not see how
they could have done much better
Now n new problem has arisen-Ot rather
has become acute, for 1t easily fore
.een and that is the question Of raw mate
ras. There are factories to-day with TN
finished shells piled up to the roof because
of the impossiblity of getting the raw mate
rails needed TO finish them Piles of shrap-
mel shells lie waiting for bullets because
these are made Of an alloy containing SO
per cent lead and ~ per cent anthony. and
h. .,rohlen, LIZ ,,tkn a ..et thn Int irnnr,