The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-12-21
CR0ZIER WANTED
CRITIC BARRED
Editor of The American Ma
chinist Made Sugges-
tions to Baker
EXPERT ENGINEERS IN
ARMY MEMS PLACES
Workmen Playing Checkers
While Waiting for
Work

nance by Fred III. Colvin, editor of TIN
American Machinist, formed an intensel,
interesting, if non sensational climax t
the great volume of testimony by ma
chine gun experts as to why the rifle ant
, gun program of the United States is be
hind time in the Senate committee OF
military affairs yesterday Mr.. Colvir
strongly emphasized his point that tn,
system was wrong which did not put en-
gineers instead of army officers in charg,
of the practical details of manufacturing
and he told how year ago he hat
sought an interview with Secretary oil
War Baker in Springfield, where Mr.
Baker was visiting, and laid before him
certain plans for speeding up production
in the Springfield arsenal and elsewhere
which later, upon the invitation of Mr.
Baker, he submitted to the war depart
ment. This letter it appears did not
reach Mr.. Baker, but was sent to the of
| flee of General Crozier, who tartly re-
sented the suggestions and recommended
to the secretary that Mr.. Colvin be de
prived of his privilege of visiting the
Springfield plant.
| Mr. Colvin told the committee that the
bureau of ordnance did not discriminate
between essential and non essential parts,
and he went into useful detail to show
| that lack OF executive decision was re-
sponsible for the delay in turning out
rifles for the troops. In one plant he Wis
| tied, he said, he found the men sitting
around playing checkers waiting for or
ders, when practical manufacturers
would have had them turning out rifles.
He did not criticise the executive man
agement of the Springfield plant, but in
staneed as a sample of the cause of
needless delays that a bayonet, (which
is merely a huge butcher knife" never
should be put on machine, whereas the
war department required machining
down to two -thousandths of an inch.
Practical manufacturers, he said, would
have eliminated many causes of needless
delay like this Mr., Colvin submitted
correspondence with Secretary Baker dis
closing General Crozier's irritation over
Mr.. Colvin's suggestions which the tes
timony showed to be purely technical
and was yisibly disturbed when the com
as he said it would get him in bad
with the war department Witnesses
from the Colt plant were heard also.
The ordnance question is practically
closed. The testimony, particularly with
the light thrown upon technical meth
DDS by Mr.. Colvin yesterday, fails to ac
quit the bureau of ordnance of the eoun-
try-wide charge that guns and rifles |
could have been produced months before /
they were or are promised, if modern |
business methods had been employed and I
if practical manufacturers had been en- I
eouraged to 60 ahead instead of being /
to wait upon tedious govern
ment specltica tions, some of them dealing !
with trivialities. 1t has disclosed also
that the equipment program was moving
along satisfactorily under the guidance
Of the manufacturers called in by the
council of national defense until the
'mall arms division of the bureau of
ordnance was established last June. when
I began to lag Testimony is unani-
nous that the government itself made no
preparation whatever for war materials
until after the declaration Of war. ex.
ept a little through the initiative of
'fficers of the navy. The burden for de-
ay is borne still by army officers, moth !
ng yet having been developed to show
hat the secretary of war kept himself
Informed as TO the methods EMPLOYED :
" the bureau of ordnance That the sup /.
ly of guns and rifles will be ample be- !:
inning next spring and that both will :
e the best in the world, is conclusivelv :
ldicated
Additional testimony regarding DELAY 7
! machine gun production was given by =
ice President Hanson of the Colt Arms
ompany at Hartford. Conn.
Although the new Browning type was !,
dopted last May, he said. no contract :,
as made until July, although orders :,
ere anticipated and preliminary work =
Pgun. The delay was explained by Mr.. =
anson as due in part to deliberations =
the joint civilian army board, ap-
Ointed by Secretary Baker to test and
iopt the new weapon. Hanson was a :
ember of the board
Although given the Browning gun con
act in July, Mr.. Hanson said that be-
luse of need to prepare new machinery.
IS deliveries would not begin until next
pril. His firm, however, is making de-
veries on previous orders of Vickers
achine guns, some contracted for a
sar ago.
The quartermasters' department will
) taken up next by the committee
The quality of trinitrotoluol furnished
the United States government on con "
act and the ownership of the maehin- pl
Y bought by private firms to fin GOV
nment contracts for it may be made 81
e subject of investigation by the com 10
ittee before its hearings close. Re- in
'rts made by an employee Of the gov W,
nment engaged in semitic work Of the
CHEST Importance are said to disclose do
at the contracts call for an article only at
per cent pure. whereas the military bl
perts declare that almost absolute ne
rity Is essential if the ammunition wi
tn which American troops are being in
pplied is to be wholly effective. A va
rye producing concern in Pittsburg re- of
ntlv installed machinery for the pro- vo
elton Of toluol. and investigation i fid
" said to reveal that 20 per cent of
e stock Of the concern which made ha
E apparatus Is owned BY the Deut sches bl,
nix while other Germans are among all
E stockholders. This fact in itself ne
ght have excited no suspicion had 1t an
been discovered that in the prelim- fai
Try trials Of the machinery an inn bo
nse amount Of the invaluable chemi
was permitted to run To waste which vo
: essential TO the American supply. tir
? government. il is declared. bv an tai
.hority whose facts have been turned
r to the department 81 justice. has an,
tented itself with buying toluol in Ph
market OF brokers instead Of making sul
pr supervising its manufacture. and il sui