The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-20
LEWIS GUNS ARE. | PURCHASED FOR
 ARMY AND NAVY.

Washington, April 20.-An emergen-
 cy order. has been placed by the gov
 ernment for 5000 Lewis machine guns
 for use by the army, navy, and Ma rine Corps in the war with Germany.
 Three thousand of these guns will be
 used by the army The other 5000 will
 be for the navy and Marine Corps. It wasN explained at the War De-
 partment yesterday that the order for
 these 5000 guns was in accordance
 with the commentators made on Oct. 24, 1916, by the special machine
 gun board which met last fall to pass Judgment on the relative merits of
 the Lewis, 'Vickers, and other machine guns, and that the order just placed
 will not interfere with the tests to be
 conducted by the army next month
 for the purpose of determining finally
 upon the best type of light machine gun for use in the American army.
 The Lewis gun was invented by an American army officer and has proved itself to be one of the ordnance won ders on the fighting front in France. There has been contest in favor of
 the adoption of the Lewis gun for
 some years, and this fight started anew last fall when attention was called to reports from abroad indicat-
 ing that this was the most effective light machine gun in use in the ar mics of the Allies. The fight arose over the efforts of some leading off, cers of the army, including General
 Wood, in favor of the adoption of the Lewis gun, and the failure of the War Department to adopt it as a service weapon.
 l On September 2S last Secretary
 Baker appointed a special board to
 consider the character and quantity of
 machine guns for the army. In it's re- port of October 24 last, this board held
 that there should be two types of ma- chine guns adopted for the army-a , light type and heavy type. The
 board recommended that S,O15 guns of
 the heavy type and 9,286 guns of the light type would be required to equip
 the army and the National Guard, and
 recommended that funds be appro-
 priated rapidly enough to supply these
 guns within four years. The adop-
 ton of the Vickers type of heavy ma- chine gun for permanent use in the
 United States army was recommended.
 It also recommended that the Lewis
 and other light weight guns be tested
 at the Springfield, Mass, armory, be- ginning May 1, 1917, and as result of
 these tests permanent type of light
 machine gun will be adopted for the army. Meanwhile the army is obtaining all l the machine guns it can under this recommendation of the machine gun | board:
 | Should this country be engaged in
 war in the near future. the board rec ommends the purchase of all Vickers
 ma chine guns that the Colts Patent
 Fire Arms Co.,; all Lewis rifles that the l Savage Arms Co,and all Colt rifles that 1 the Marlin Arms corporation can make l until the total quantity required is pro- cured"
 In December orders were given by the war department for 1000 Vickers heavy machine guns at $750 each. The contract included accessories which brought it's value up to $5,500,0O0. During the Mexican border emergency last summer General Crozier, the chief of ordnance, bought 353 Lewis machine guns to meet an emergency. The orr ders now given for 5000 more Lewis guns will bring the total of new ma- chine guns> being obtained for the army to more than 10000. The 5000 Lewis guns now ordered call for the full output of the factory of the Saw age Arms Co. t