The Republican journal., 1918-02-07
AN OPEN LETTER.

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wondered why presidents, both past ant
present, have not chosen their cabinet
/ officers with reference to the work they
have to do The positions of Secretary
of War and Navy are positions requiring
business executive. A man with grea'
executive ability and staff of trained
army or navy officers could fill the posi-
lions with perfect satisfaction. But why
not find a man from each branch of the
service who has executive ability along
with his professional training and put
him in charge? We have such men, fol
who built the Panama Canal but an army
officer. Who is president of the Fore
River Shipbuilding Company but a former
navy officer. If we were to look around
more we could find plenty of men that
were trained at West Point and Anna
polls who are filling commercial execu-
tive positions which requires men of
ability and broad minds.
Also noted remark on the "sirplane
program" The "airplane program is
the one bright spot in our war. You ask
why we do not take the airplanes of Eng
land, France and Italy and make our
engines and planes like them? We are
doing this Several companies in this
country are fitted up to make Gnome and
Hispans-Suiza engines and are turning
them out as fast as they can for the
government but this is but drop in the
bucket We must have production Gas
the engineers say and our ''air craft
board' went ahead to get it. They de-
signed a motor which was simple and
gives more power per pound of weight
than any other engine built The former
means that there are less parts to make
and get out of order and the latter, that
the aviator can carry more gasoline or
bombs than foreign airplane of the same
power. Both of the above are desirable
but the main point they had in view was
this: The tools to make particular part
of the engine are all the same. A dozen
different machine shops scattered all ovel
the United States could be making cylin-
ders and others could make other parts
and these would be sent to one plant
where they would be assembled as fin
ished engine. By this method they will
get thousands per month in place of hun
dreds if we had adopted foreign engine
which is a complicated, machine shop
proposition. Then there is a stock of re-
pair parts required to be kept in France.
If we have three or four different types
of engines and planes, it means many
thousands of repair parts whereas we
only have to have parts for one type We
have also made an advance in our army
trucks in that we have adopted stand
ard truck in light and a heavy type.
This means repair parts for only two
types. The English have so many differ
ent kinds of trucks in service that they
have to have two hundred and fifty thou
sand different pieces Multiply this by
five pieces for each type of truck, it
climbs up into the million column and
represents labor, money and eternal vigi-
lance in keeping parts correct for the diff
ferent trucks.
The average man does not realize what
problems the engineer has to run up
against and make decisions on. He thinks
like 95 per cent of the congressman that
all you have to say is money, and then
rifles, cannon, airplanes and equipment
are all ready If the average man knew
a little more about such things we would
not have had to send our boys to France
with Enfield rifles because we would have
had a larger percentage of business men
and engineers In Congress who would
listen to some of the recommendations
submitted by army and navy officers. The
great trouble is to get men who are at
the head of their calling to 60 into poll
tics and perhaps this is the reason we see
so few in Congress. Until we can get
the men of the above two professions in
terested in the running of the govern
ment we will be spending big sums of
money foolishly digging out creeks, and
doing hundreds of other foolish things.
Once in while have to write few
lines to unburden my mind. Very few
people realize what proposition we are
up against and why things were done in
certain ways. They want action whether
it is right or wrong If you care to pub
fish the above or parts of, why 60 ahead.
am in charge of navy work here at the
Terry Steam Turbine Co., and so l see
quite bit of the workings of the gov
eminent. Too much red tape. Here is
an instance. A torpedo boat destroyer
came into one of the navyyards with the
blower turbines in bad shape We had
repair parts in stock and could have ship
ped at once but the commandant of the
yard said he would have to make them
as it would take too long to get an order
through for them. Such things as these
should not happen in war time.
Here is hoping you have coal enough
to run The Journal.
Yours ry'truly,
KARL MACDONALD.
A Real Hair Grower