The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-05-21
UNITED STATES IS NOW EXPERT
IN MAKING MUNITIONS OF WAR
America the unready, Is America the Unready No Longer-Rloh In
Machinery and Experience, This Country Can Now Turn
Out War Material in Staggering Quantities
Hiqh Efficiency Reached in Big Plants.

| DputCcS IA q Auot ~ u AoNNp
the whole country was fertilized. The
purchase Of horses and the demand
for meat and grain In u%nheard-of guam
titles filled to overlooking the. pockets
Of the farmers. The boot, wooden,
clothing, and implement manufacture
ers were soon working overtime. Such
raw materials as brass, nickel, and
copper put on an amazing squirt. In
deed, for a while 1t almost looked as
though the American industrial ma
chine would be subjected to q" strain
1t might not be able to bear.
Bid Against Each Other.
| So little in the early days Of the war
! was the business Of purchasing Amer
lean supplies reduced to a system that
not only were England, France, and
Russia competing with n another,
but the army and navy departments
Of all three countries had their sepa-
rate representatives over here cover
Ing the same ground and bidding
f1ercely for the same commodities.
If things had gone on like that the
results would have been bad for the
allies, but, I think, worse for America.
There would have been much ILL
feeling, constant misunderstanding,
and more than q little litigation.
American manufacturers would have
got, and were, in fact, rapidly getting,
a bad name in Europe; and it might
easily have happened that the short
comings of a comparatively few Amer
lean contractors would have proved a
boomerang to all American prosperity.
Nor could the United States have
reached its present level of uniform
w~ell-being under the haphazard sys-
tenn Of buying and selling that OBJ
tanned in the first months Of the war.
Some corporations would have prof
tied abnormally; others would have
been left out in the cold, and while
trade in any event would have re-
vived, its revival would have been
much less diffused, much more un-
even, and much more liable to sudden
setbacks. Wal business in those days
was practically the only business the
United States was doing; it was the
mainstay Of the whole industrial fab
ric, and while it was important for
the allied governments, 1t was even
more so for America, that it should
be handled with judgment by respon-
sible agents, and in a way that would
bring in the utmost benefit to all par
ties.
Appoint Purchasing Agent.
The British government in January,
1915, selected the house Of J. P. Nor
gan & Co. to act as its representative
in America, to safeguard it against
the men Of straw, supervise its pur-
chases, and bring order and common
sense into the business of making con-
tracts. The firm was to receive a
commission Of 2 per cent on the first
$5O,OOO,000 of the purchases 1t was au-
thorized to make, and 1 per cent there
after. 1t was not an exclusive con-
tract. That is to say, the British gov
eminent might buy through other
channels and agencies to any extent
it pleased, providing it informed Nor
gan g. Co. of the character and amount
Of it's purchases, such information be-
ing, of course, very necessary, to pre-
vent any overlapping Of orders. The
only other points of Importance in the
contract-to which the French govern
ment became a party four 81 five
months later-were that it was term
Unable by either side at any time and
that Morgan & Co. engaged to disclose
the extent Of their holdings in any
firm they might recommend to the
British government.
Since the war began the allied gov
ernments have spent in America on
munitions and raw material alone
about 49, 800, 900 ,OO0-rather over half
being for munitions and rather under
half for raw material. Some rs per
cent Of this sum, or nearly $2,000,0OO,-
600, has been disbursed on the advice
and under the guidance of Morgan &
Co. I suppose no firm in the whole
history Of commerce has ever been
placed in such a position or %intrusted
with such a task.
The great boom, Of course, Is over
No new orders for munitions are being
placed here now by the British and
French governments, and very few, II
any, repeat orders. In a few weeks
from now practically all the existing
foreign orders for American munitions
will have run out, though the pur-
chases Of raw material will continue.
We are nearing the end Of one of the
most wonderful chapters In American
industry, and Its lessons and its ad-
vantages can be treated now almost
In a historical spirit.
It makes a really great record, and
one on which all Americans may look
with equal gratitude and pride; graft
tude because 1t has been the means Of
equipping the nation with some Of the
most vital factors in Industrial pre-
paredness, and pride because Ameri-
can manufacturers, when put to the
test of a new and highly technical
business, have justified all that has
ever been said in praise of their ver-