The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-04-03
This Will Lead to Manufac-
ture of All Kinds of
War Munitions.
CORPORATIONS NO
LONGER GROW FAT
Congress Will Provide the
Money for Suitable
Factories.
Bv en-. soN GARDINER.

Washington, April 2.-"The chances
are that this congress viii provide
for very large amount of govern
ment manufacture Of war munitions, !"
said Representative Clyde H. Taven-
ner of Illinois today. 'sThe action of
the democratic caucus In sweeping
away parliamentary obstacles to this
kind of Legislation is the biggest
thing that has happened yet, he con-
tinued. cit is a big victory for the
advocates Of government manufacture
and is very creditable to the demo-
cratic party. BY this caucus action
we have succeeded in getting rid Of
that old device, the point of order
by which committee verdicts are made
all powerful, and which for twenty
years has been used to kill every
amendment of this character that has
been brought into the house. Now
the way is open to bring in our gov
eminent manufacture amendments to
every bill appropriating money for
war purposes-the army, the navy,
the Notifications, and the sundry cfvil
bills.
AMENDMENTS READY.
eve have the amendments drawn. y
continued Tavenner, "and intend to
ask congress to vote for them. There
viii be roll calls and the members
must go on record. The TiIIman bill
for government manufacture Of arrnor
plate is, of course, one Of the principal
ones. Then there are the bills for
government manufacture of other
things needed in the navy-subma-
rines, mines, torpedoes, munitions for
the big guns, smokeless powder, and
so on. The big hold-up of the people
and the government IN past years has
been not so much in the army as In
the naval appropriations. Today 30
per cent of the things used by the
army are made under government
auspices. In the navy, ON the other
hand, there has been that vile and
increasing scandal, the armor plate
trust, made up, as Secretary Daniels
says in his annual reports, of three
rms-Bethlehem, MidvaIe and Car
negie-which firms do not even pre-
tend to compete with one another.
"The other day Secretary Daniels
wrote letter to Senator Swanson OF
Virginia, in which he explained how
these three arTnor plate firms practi-
cally admitted to him that they d.
vided the profits of the contracts be
tween them, and that If they should
compete they would be merely reduc-
ing the profits to be divided. The best
the secretary has ever been able ID
do was to bat them down to q saving
of a mere S111,S75 on one of the con.
tracts, whereas the extortionate prof.
its spread over a period of years have
been enough TO build one or mere bat
tleships complete.
seThe sentiment in the house, as
find it, regardless Of party, is strong
for the government manufacture
proposition. I have been surprised a
it. considering how little encourage
ment I had when ] began this f1gh
four years ago. Now this govern
Iment manufacture proposition afford
a common ground on which the mem
bers are meeting, whether they ar
big navy or little navy, big army o
little army men, or whether they ar
republicans, progressives or demo
Gratis. There are mighty few VIII
TODAY viii come into the open an
champion the cause Of the special in
terests, like the armor trust, the pow
der trust and other munitions makers
:, These latter gentlemen have now be
come ratified, and for the first tim
/ f,-o,4i-,,.S IN paga ctx