Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1918-05-16
Fighting TOOLS
Of OUR SOLDIERS
uolx OF ORDNANCE BRANCH
Department Has In Washington Alone
1000 ot6esrs With Thousands Of
Civilian Employee and Many
Being Added.
ey N n. COLLINS,

0y JAMES q. COLLINS,
tFrom the Committee on Public lnSor-
NATION, Washington, D. c.l
OF all the large activities conducted
BY Uncle Sam In his war establishment,
the ordnance department Of the army
Is second largest In expenditure, being
exceeded only by the quartermaster
department. And as our wal program
develops, ordnance might easily come
to be the largest single activity.
This department has the responsible
ity for furnishing artillery. rifles. am
munition. motor transports, and prac-
Ideally all the fighting tools our army
needs. except aircraft, together with
means for assembling and storing
them In this country and deliver
Ing them on the fighting front in
France. With expenditures now ap-
preaching twice what Is called for by
our entire shipbullding program. the
operations Of ordnance are naturally
Of great magnitude, and Its problems
are complex, for in furnishing the tools
Of war 1t has to enlist enormous pro-
ductive capacity by converting old In.
dustries and creating new ones, as well
as 60 back Of the munitions factories
10 many instances and ind enormous
supplies Of raw materials.
During January the ordnance de-
partment was thoroughly reorganized.
So It becomes interesting to observe
the workings Of this department as
newly constituted.
Let US try to look at the proposition
through the soldiers eyes, and zee It
whole IL we can. 1t may be well to
begin at the A B G Of the subject and
ask ourselves: What Is a soldier?
The answer to this question might be:
A soldier is a man whose occupation
Is fighting. What does a soldier fight
with? He fights with tools. How do q
soldiers tools compare with tools used
by other craftsmen? They show prac-
ideally the same characteristics as
those In any peaceful modern indus.
try.
In the first plnce. they have been
wonderfully amplifed in recent years
by the S OF power. and increased in
compacity and completely. Practically
every l~nbor.savtng continuance invent
ed for peaceful calling has been ap.
piled to p%resent-day war. The ma
chine e%xcavator that ! vs. our water
and sewer pipe quickly IN peace times
can he taken into the field to dig
trenches, and a battle front requires
construction work, power plants, tele-
phone and telegraph systems and rail.
road transportation far beyond peace
requirements for equal population,
and these requirements must be met
under the pressure Of wars emer.
gencies.
Soldier Like Factory Workman.
Present-day war involves the organ.
ization OF grent communities back of
the fighting front. so that the soldier
may follow his actual trade OF fight
ing with the greatest efficiency. And
when he actually reaches the fighting
front with his renl fighting equipment
he Is comparable to craftsmen In other
trades in that his fighting tools are
more or less standardized and that sue.
cess or failure turns upon the quality
Of his tools and improvements in de-
sign and efficiency which give him n
definite advantage over the enemy for
the time being.
The soldier or the fighting front Is
not unlike a workman in a factory.
Modern industrial production, under
competitive conditions. seeks adyan.
tage by standardization Of equipment.
large scale production md ceaseless
activity In the improvement OF tools
20 TINT a little increase In output here
or little increase In cost there
will enable a given workman or fnc.
tory to outstrip competitors. The tools
OF war nre standardized. Every army
uses rifles. machine guns. fleldpleces.
heavy artillery, aircraft. Popular i'm.
ngination continually looks to some
novel and unheard-of invention as a
means OF settling the war. Actually.
modern war IL made with tools m
standard m those Of a shoe factory cr
steel works. and most Of the Inventive
ability conferred on those tools is d,.
rected toward minor technIca, improve
ments which will place better anna.
rnfus In the hands Of the men on the
hghting front and give them an sdynn.
tnge perhaps only temporary oyer
their competitors, the enemy. The en.
envy. OF course, IL Just as quick as nm
Industrial competitor In catching nm
with n'l advances In the art, and ia
also nm active inventor and improyer
htmself.
wa along this great genern, trend
"f t,"dern war. the making Of better
hghiing tools. that the recent reoreon.
isation In the ordnance departmsn.
was carried out. When war WAS IA.
e'nrcd We had On establishment Of mil.
'tary men whose business Il was 70 De.
asn tools OF war. They not only knew
how these tools we're used BY the sol.
oier bot kept track Of improvements
N HxhtinE tools In every modern army.
ana the almost daily changes In the
way hghtine tools nre used. That WINS
their job. md n highly technical pr.
vss@"n. They cOrrcsponded In every