The Washington times., 1917-12-21
BRITISH UNIFORMS
BETTER THAN j. s,
SHARPE ADMITS
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mo. SIR" replied the general.
"Are you sureT" persisted the Sen.
ator.
well. It isn't as good as IL used to
| be-" admitted the general.
'Is 1t not a fact that II contains
I only Il per cent OF wool as compared
to 80 per cent wool before the war;"
asked Senator FrelinEhuyssn.
"Oh. ! see what you are getting At
now" said General Sharpe.
isn't 1t q fact that It IL absolutely
unsuited to trench work. continued
Senator Frelinghuysen.
"oh. wouldn't say that" replied
the general
Are you perfectly sure?"
Don't Like LeGEinGs.
well, we were told on the other
side that everything wss all right"
said General Sharpe. with a few ex-
ceptIons," he added
what are they?" demanded Sen
ator Ferlinghuysen.
well, they didn't like the legginEa
and wanted puttees," answered the
general.
The general said that 1t had been
necessary to reduce the percentage OF
wool in the uniform because OF q lack
OF funds.
"If we hadn't reduced the wool per
centSEe we would not have had any
thing like the quantity Of supplies we
had on hand for the Mexican mobiliEar
tion," he said.
General sharpe said that Il had been
difficult to keep up to General Persh.
InE's dSmand for clothing supplies,
and that he had been given authority
to place orders for 100000 uniforms
in Great Britain. General Sharpe In
sisted that II had been nSoessAry TO
conserve wool and that the new uni
form, while not a. good, was almost
as servieeable.
General Sharpe said that the Coun-
ell OF National Defense selected the
manufactursr from whom the eloth
was to be purchased and fixAd the
price. Gen. Harry J. HirSeh, In
charge Of the purchasing from man.
ufacturers' represents the quarter
masters department with the Council
Of National Defense.
Garnet works Make CSats.
The quartermaster general said the
loom capacity Of the country was
5000, 900 yards per year. and that
carpet factories had been put TO work
on oyercoGt material and even lace
factories were making army goods.
Senator MeKellar asked:
"You don't know how many con-
tracts have been turned down BY the
Council OF National Defense or who
the contractors weref"
NO" Answered General Sharpe.
But you know" persisted Nickel
lar, that the present system has fall
ed don't youT You know you're not
getting enough uniforms?"
General Sharpe did not answer
these questions directly. but said he
| thought there should be rome pur-
chasing committee such a. the Coun-
ell of National Defense.
Senator Hitchcock reverted to the
number of men already provided with
uuiformA General Sharpe gave the
number a. 1.e4o, ,202-one uniform to
q man
OvereOsts Supplied.
"As far as the oVercoGts are con-
cerned. we completed the ShIpmSnts
to the camps December TO-" said Gen.
eral Sharpe.
You hAd two million ovsrcostS.
Each man could have had two" COM
mented Senator Hitchcock. There
were only 1.20o. 900 men"
THE coats were not coming in"
said the auSrtsrnastsr general.
There are BtiIl 100000 short coats
behind on shipments"
Senator Hitchcock said the COM
mittee wanted to md out why COM
plants come in that "thousAhdB" Of
men At the cantonmSnts were with.
out overcoats. underwear. or shoes"
"Not Shoes" protested General
Sharpe. II am sure we have plenty
OF shoes"
A major on General sharpe's staff
! said there were now q sufficient
number Of oVercoats at the canton
ments, but they did not all Mt for the
interesting reason that the drafted
men were on the average larger than
the usual sizes.
This maJor-Hardeman by name
said there was ian overcoat for every
man in the country today" but the
Eizes were not yet adjusted
Camp Custer (Mich.) was singled
out by Senator Weeks as one where
the correct sizes had not been sent. He
said he thought responsibility for
this should be put upon some one.
shoes Toe Small
Senator wadsworth declared that at
Camp Custer the shoe sizes were so
imperfect that one-hAlf OF the men
would wear the shoes to the target
range, then march back and then hand
the footwear over to the other half OF
the troops.
Senator Chamberlain wanted to
know II II would be better to place
more authority In the hands OF the
division commanders instead OF CEN
Trailing all authority in the War De-
partment. General Sharpe said he
thought II would.
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