The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-25
RIFLES BY ACCIDENT
By HOLLAND


 New York, July )--It was
 due to chance meeting in Washington | between Sir S. Hardman Level and
 Frank A. Scott that one of the situa- ticns which had occasoned the war de- partment and especially the munition
 branch great concern was relieved Only one thing now remains to be done l in order to perfect a contract entered into in behalf of their respective govern ments by these two men and that Is the l appropriation by Congress of s9.Sooooo. A [ bill calling for that appropriation is now before Congress and the government has no doubt that the appropriation Is nov be-
 fore Congress and the government has no doubt that the appropriation will be authorized. When the payment is made I Great Britain will transfer to the United States the contracts her representatives made two or three years ago with three plants occupied with the manufacture of rifles.
 Sir Hardman Lever has lived in the United States 20 years but has not taken out naturalization papers. He has rep resented Great Britain in several very important transactions, some of them of a financial character, and 1t was be- cause of highly satisfactory service of this kind that King George, some months ago, knighted him.
 Frank A. Scott Is the chairman of the general munitions board at Washington and the service he has performed in that capacity has been of great value to the government, explaining In some measure why the government has been able so rapidly to make adequate prepa- rations for providing our army with mu- nitions.
 MT. Scott discovered immediately after the United States joined the belligerents that we were woefully shy of capacity for manufacturing rifles. He was per suaded that at least 100000 rifles should be manufactured as soon as possible, but wondered how this was to be done. The government arsenal at Springfield, Mass, is not large enough to permit the manufacture in reasonably shCis tina of that number of rifles. Congress, though a year or two ago appealed to for an appropriation whereby the ar senal at Rock Island could be greatly enlarged, did not heed that appeal. The wonder was then how, where and when the government could secure the 100000 rifles needed for the equipment of the American army.
 It was at a time when Mir. Scott was giving earnest thought to this matter that he met Sir Hardman Lever infor mally and almost by accident. The two men were friends and. of course, occa- sionally met, each having the highest regard for the other, but upon the occa- sion now referred to one or the other of them spoke almost by chance of the contracts which Great Britain some two years ago entered into with the pro- prietors of the three great intuition making plants. one of which is known as the Eddyston plant, near Philadel- phia; another is the plant of the Win chester Arms company at New Haven, Conn.,, and the third the plant of tha Remington Arms company near Utica. Sir Hardman intimated that Great Brit ain was now so abundantly qualified through her own intuition plants to manufacture rifles for her army that it was no longer needful that she rely upon these American contracts for the manu facture of these arms. TAKING OVER THE CONTRACTS
 MT. Scott instantly saw the opportu- nity thus suddenly offered for meeting the emergency which had so greatly concerned him. He found on inquiry tha: Sir Hardman was persuaded that Great Britain would gladly turn over these contracts and all that they in- volve to the United States. Whereas, upon the other hand, he was told by MT. 1 Scott that there was no doubt that the 1 government would as willingly take over these contracts as Great Britain would | part with them.
 So far the minds of these two men | met, but the next question was how to | determine what Great Britains contracts !! represented in money to her, so that a | oasis for making a bargain could | thereby be established. The munitions | board brought into its service one of | the highly authoritative auditing cor of the United States This | was commissioned to take an ! rventory of each of the plants, cover- l ng, of course, only those departments | of the T. anss which represented the Eng l ish contracts It was a work propor- l donate in the magnitude of its details l 70 some of the other great undertak- l ngs which are now under way whereby | he government can be in all ways thor | 'ughly prepared to carry on the war.