Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-07-12
OUTFITS FOR l,000,O00 MEN
 IS ENORMOUS TASK
Quartermaster's Corps of Uncle Sam's Army Ap-
 pears Equipped.

SAo -A ~AP Washington, July 11.-How would you like to be at the head of family of a million members and have to provide them with food, clothing and other necessaries? In the language of the street, you doubtless would find it "some" job to do the shopping, even If provided with an unlimited purse.
 Yet this is one of the prodigious tasks that the war has imposed upon Uncle Sam-the task of outfitting hun dreds of thousands of men as they leave for battlefields abroad and at the same time accumulating store which to equip the half million men army.
 The shopping is being done through the quartermaster's corps of the army. A force of experienced buyers, great ly enlarged to meet the conditions, is working day and night, receiving bids, examining samples, drawing up speci- fications and sending out orders. Ev- cry purchase is made strictly on merit and the greatest precautions are taken to see that the goods supplied to the soldiers are of the very best quality.
 The average civilian-and the av- craze army officer for that matter does not realize the immensity of the task. Some idea may be had, however, from the mere statement that Uncle Sam will have to go down into his pocket to the tune of $46,500,000 to equip the .half-million men who will make up the first national army. A force of a million men, of course. will require twice that sum. The outlay is reckoned at s93 for each man. The amount would be a greatdeal more ex- cept for the far-sightedness of of ficers and the patriotism of manufac- turers. The $93 per man is for uni forms, underwear, stockings, tentage. etc., but does not include the rifle and the ammunition that each man must have.
 Some of the principal items on the shopping list may be enumerated as follows, the actual figures being SUD- piled by the war department rec ords:
 2,500.OOO hats to cover the heads of the soldier boys.
 2,600,O00 cots for camps, barracks and cantonments.
 5.380,O00 blankets to keep the khaki clad boys warm.
 4,7O0,O0O pairs of russet shoes and 2,500.000 pairs of field shoes. < 54,000,0O0 yards of duck with which to make tents.
 9,00O,0OO yards of cloth for shirts and underwear.
 45,O00,000 yards of cotton cloth for coats and trousers.
 14,000,0O0 yards of woolen cloth for suitings.
 1O,OOO,O00 yards of woolen cloth for overcoats.
 16.O00.000 pairs of cotton and wool en stockings.
 A question that naturally arises is how all this material can be manu factured and delivered in the short time before the men assemble at the cantonments. The answer lies in the fact that there is hardly concern in the United States which manufactures articles used by the army that is with out government contract. Every cotton and woolen concern in New England, and in the South and other sections as we'll, has government con- tract or can have one for the asking. All this has been done without pub licity.
 Army officers declare that it would manufacturers to find if any land manufacturers more patriotic than those in the United States. With the |severing of diplomatic relations and with war inevitable, thousands of manufacturers offered the services of their plants to the government. The offers have been coming in ever since. Many have agreed to turn out goods at 8 little more than cost. A large num- Der have offered to give their product to the government.
 And so, with comparatively few ex- the quartermaster's corps and the manufacturers of the nation are working hand in hand. In this man. [ner it is confidently expected that the hundreds of thousands of men com prising the great National armies will be equipped on time and at reason able cost. The task is enormous 1 one, but not the slightest doubt is felt that in this as in other matters Uncle Sam will prove himself equal to the occasion