Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-12-18
TWO THOUSAND GUNS A MONTH
 |ARMYPR0CRAM
And a Production of 500 per
 Month Had Been Reached When Armistice Signed.

Washington. Dec. 17.-Faced by { nrogram of producing 2.000 guns o1 l all calibers per month without dis. |turbing the flow of guns to the allied nations, or the navy's prior right, the 'ordnance bureau of the war depart ment had achieved an output or about sOO guns month when the armistice ended hostilities. By June of next wear, production would have been ill Hull swing.
 These facts were revealed today by Assistant Secretary Crowell, Director bf Munitions, in a personally con- bucted trip to the new proving Erounds at Aberdeen, Md.
 MT. Crowell said the United States had formulated it's intuition plans so Is not to interfere with the gun and ammunition contracts, for France and leat Britain. Many American gun |orgings and completed guns have been poured across to Great Britain Ind shipsments to the French armies lad reached total of 1000 guns a nonth.
 The needs of the navy also agve it rority and the shipping board came ext in the list for steel and other ommodities needed to carry out the uge program mapped out for the merican army itself. This placed the merican ordnance program fourth In the list with the necessity of uilding from the ground up.
 A striking feature of what was ccomplished, it was shown by officers the proving grounds, was the fact bat in the 155 howitzer program, an utput had been reached that ex- eeded the estimated needs Of the merican forces, even on the basis of bur million men in France and six undred hoWitZers .4 were sold to rance as excess.
 The demonstration today covered all be trench warfare weapons and the eld artillery, including the six inch uns taken from American coast de- enses and many of which reached the ont as field guns before the war pded. It took in also the first public emonstration of the giant guns Ounted on railway carriages, solid Inks of inch, IA inch and 16 inch eapons hurling projectiles over the hnge.
 Among the guns fired were 1G ch mortar and a 16 inch howitzer. pth were mounted on especially Psigned railway carriage. A IA inch file of extreme range and power, 80 railway-mounted, and so designed lat the recoil is taken up in the back ard movement of the whole masisve (rriage along the tracks, also was ed It is a purely American output Pd is the first great Mobile seacoast ltteries to be added to the defense the country.
 The tank demonstration today was three ton, two man type of Amer an design. A production of 100 day
 these swift, machine gun armed nd ships was almost ready to start pen the war came to an end. Early in e spring it would have been reached pplementing the six ton tank pro- am upon which the United States $ working jointly with the British ln In design and manufacture. MT owell said that 5000 of the big tanks gre in process of manufacture in the plted States alone. All the working rus of many others were built il
 United States and shipped rt gland for assembly,. In this way " reached the front with British
 American crews.
 A whole fleet of American artillery actors also was demonstrated a! gre two new types of guns developed
 lals country. One was an 8 incl wltzer mounted on a tractor whicl Owed over rough ground or through avy woods, knocking down trees
 !. went. The gun was fired with thu Actor engine still running and B coads later the machine was off fo oaner location. An American gun
 70 callbre, the present standard .ierlcan light field gun, mounted ol .wo and a half ton tractor, showed ; sea over soft, broken ground, o sut or ten miles an hour. Witt ese s two guns alone at the front, tn
 sllery could have outdistanced tn taatry in an advance through an, ultry. Backed up by the "Carg
 f.ers, tractors equipped with mo
 truCk hOdioc o c%ooIx, Flou, o