The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-04-17

In the Metropolitan magazine for
April the patriotic war policy Of
that publication is assisted BY the
following sentence: Even such a
visit" Ito New York's tenement dis
tricO can bring certain facts wildly
before the mind, exactly as the m oet
hurried visit to our training camps is
enough to show the wooden guns,''
What are the facts about the use OF
wooden guns in training camps?
When a state war with Germany
was declared in April. 1911 the mill
tary authorities OF the United States
bad available more than 500, 900
Springfield rifles and 100, 900 Krag-
JorTensens That IL to say, there
were rifles enough on hand to arm
the rifie-carrying men of an army Of
a million. II 1t had been imperative
Immediately to arm the recruits in
the training camps, they could have
had Sprinssfieldz. But it was not
imperative. II was not even neces-
selry. The first training in military
discipline and rudimentary drill had
TO be given before the men could be
put at rife practice, And no one but
a psychic analyst could see why
wooden guns would not serve as well
rs metal ones for preliminary train
ing, just as siob~sticks' are used
in the British army
Our government arsenals had been
turning out Springfield rifles Private
firms were making. chiefly. the En-
field rifle used by the British II was
obvious that the government arsenahs
could not produce MI the rifles that
would he needed by our forces. 1t
was equally obvious that It would be
wise To adopt the weapon which
American manufacturers had brought
to quantity production. Eighteen
months after these manufacturers
had received their contracts from the
British government, they made their
first deliveries OF Er1lelds. To avoid
another such delay the war depart
ment decided to adopt the Enfield
for the American army. recham ber
ing il so that 1t could use the same
ammunition as the Springfield, and
i'm proving the bolt-handle design so
as 10 increase the rapidity OF fire.
The war department wished to give
the American soldier the best rife
that could be obtained, in the be-
lief that one way 10 win = war is to
meet the enemy with superior wea-
pons. The ordnance bureau under
took TO have the improved rifle ready
as soon as tho men were trained to
receive It. And the ordnance bureau
succeeded in that undertaking. On
September ]. the draft boards be-
gan to deliver the first 1900 men
TO the environments. In the same
month deliveries OF the improved
Enfield commenced.
In other words instead OF rushing
TO arm a BODY Of unframed men with
inferior rifles. the government took
the time to design a superior gun
and had it ready to place in the
hands OF the men as soon as the men
were ready to receive it.
At the same time the ordna nee hu-
reau speeded UP the production ~
Sprin gfields, and Increased the out
put of the new Enfield at such A
rate that 900 900 new rifles have
been manufactured since April 1917,
there are now 500. 900 such rifles on
hand. together with 32o. 900 Krags
and other training rifles; and the out
iput OF modified F,nfelds is now so,
! 600 n week which is sufficient 70
supply three army divisions. The bu-
reau purchased from the British
government its rife-makinc maohin-
ery in this country for $4,000 600
This machinery. II ii could he oh
tanned at all could now he bought
I for double that amount And the
output OF service cartridges has been
| increased from "a millions a day
| during January tn 100 millions q
day during March.
| Similar reply can he made to the
| falsehood that are being circulated
! u bout the bureaus machine gun
programs. Before our first contin-
gents went 10 France, it was decided
THAT they should use the French ma.
chine guns for three reasons: Be
cause the Americans were going tc
night IN the French lines; because
j tho French machine guns were he.
lieved to he the best on the battle
! front, and because the French gov,
eminent had a sufficient output oi