The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-09-06
.INTERESTINGTALK WILL BE GIVEN AT
 CHAMBER LUNCH
"Peloruses" Wanted By Boys In Uncle sam's Navy
 Mot Good to Eat"

Now that Uncle Sam has such big family in the army and navy the old gentleman has to do his shopping systematically in order to keep sup piled his two or three million nephews in the army and navy.
 Every day he starts out with a shopping basket on his arm to pur- chase what the family needs and it is a colossal job for the needs are many and Uncle Sam is not denying his boys anything.
 The other day the boys in the navy needed 500 peloruses. Uncle Sam, generally speaking did not know what a pelorus is but he needed 500 Of them. It was a rush order and Uncle Sam started shopping for them. If he couldn't get 'em in the stores some body would have to make them.
 Before he got the peloruses the boys in the navy wanted 25 masfeme- ters, 2,OOO holystones, 21,oO0 gallons of turpentine, 50,000 gallons of ma hogany stain, 100000 yards of serge lining, 10000 cubic feet of hydrogen, 100000 pounds of jam and 7,00O,- 900 pounds of pickles.
 Uncle Sam has orders like that every day from the family and it's "up to him" to get them. He can't stroll down the street in a leisurely manner any more. He has to do his shopping in a systematic manner.
 Through the Section of Resources and Conversion of the War Industries Board he sends out a call to all sec tions of the country and lets all the manufacturers and storekeepers know what he wants, when and where he wants it and asks for bids on the cost of supplying it.
 At the head of Uncle Sam's shop ping department is Charles A. Otis, chief of the Section on Resources and Conversion. It's the business of his department to find out who can make the peloruses and the holystones and the hydrogen gas and the 11,000,000 pounds of jam. He tells Uncle Sam all about it and Uncle Sam then makes the purchase.
 If there isn't anybody making pe- loruses, and a pelorus is an article that cannot be turned out by every l plumber or shoemaker why the ma i chinery under MT. Otis starts to con- vert some factory which has been ] making something else into factory | able to turn out the peloruses. It is a wonderful service and the talk which Charles A. Otis, chief of | the Section on Resources and Conver- sion of the War Industries Board will give on Monday, Sept. g, at the | Chamber of Commerce monday | luncheon will be most interesting and | valuable to the men who manufacture l the thousands of different articles that | Uncle Sam needs.
 MT. Otis will speak on Industry and the War" and will be able to 1 speak with authority on the policies | of the government with regard to in- | dustry during the period of the war. Manufacturers from ali over Con- neS<icut and western Massachusetts have been invited to attend as well as the Ordnance Bureau force, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Bridgeport Manufac- | turers' Association.
 The luncheon, which will be the first of the winter series of the Cham- Der of Commerce will be held in the
 ball room of The Stratfield as the | Chamber has outgrown the breakfast room where the luncheons were for
 merly held and has found it neces-
 sary to take larger quarters for these popular events.
 Invitations have been extended this year to number of speakers of na- tion-wide prominence and the Cham Der of Commerce luncheons will be
 of much more than usual value to business men in Bridgeport this year,