Evening star., 1918-07-28

1t does not interfere with marching.
There are certain white men who
have feet which are negroid in char
acte-. and in some the muscular de-
velopment of the sole almost fills up
and obliterates the foot arch The
footprints of such men resemble those
OF nat feet, but the men can march
all right and there should be no ex-
emption in their cases. The true nat
foot looked at from the side is fat
tened over the instep, and at the front
the inner part of the side of the foot
seems to be sunken. If the man steps
in basin of water and then walks
over the bare floor the whole or
greater part Of the foot arch will be
registered -an- tho imprint. =. There safe
give no pain in marching. although
you might think otherwise to look at
them. --'
It takes an enormous amount of
leather to make footgear for the
Army. By the time this letter is pub
lished the number Of shoes made for
the soldiers will approximate 30.000.-
900 pairs. and the factories will be
turning out additional pairs at the
rate of 100000 per month. They
will make $4,000 pairs per day or
about 5000 per hour for each hour Of
the working day all the year through.
The leather for these shoes comes only
from the firmest and best part of the
hide. 1t Is from a wide strip above
the belly and behind the shoulders
extending over the back to the root
of the tail. 1t Is known as the pena.
The strip is SO small that only five
pairs of shoes can be made from one
skin. SO that the animals required for
each days output number 10000.
Every pair of Army shoes requires at
least four square feet of such leather,
SO that at rough calculation the
product of one day would be enough
to make leather belt a foot wide and
forty miles long. The shoes for one
month would take enough leather to
make belt reaching from Chicago
to Boston. The leather SO far con.
sumed since the war began. II
patched together into a crazy quilt,
would cover 5000 acres, or il cut into
strips 1t would carpet q roadway wide
enough for the largest motor car as
long as from Philadelphia to the bat
tlefie1ds.
In buying the leather for army shoes
an enormous amount of money has
been saved for the government
sistance Of leading men of the shoe
and leather industry. As 1t is now, a
great part of the cost OF the PERISH
ing shoes goes into leather. At the
time war began ]. F. McElwain. the
chairman of the committee on the
Council of National Defense. and
others aided In making the prepara-
tions for the ehoe orders. They saw
that the demand would send the
prices Of certain leather to the skies
and went to the tanners and got
which the leather could be furnished.
The orders were Piled at this rate.
thereby saving the government many
millions of dollars. Had the leather
purchases been thrown open to COM
petitive bids the shoes would have
cost 80 cents upward per pair above
what they cost now.
~
The orders for the old type of trench
shoes were. I am told. $4.s5 q pair.
but the new trench footwear. which
Is now being made. 10. being let in
orders ranging from 10000 pairs to
1000 pairs and upward at from
ss.5s to secs per pair. The shoes
are being made all over the country.
We have altogether about 1900 shoe
factories and Of these more than sev-
enty five of the largest are engas sed
in making shoes for the soldiers.
1t was to tell you how the Army
shoe is made that 1 came to Man
chester. Here Is the chief estab-
lishment of the McElw ain Shoe Com
pany. which has twenty-five plants
in different parts Of New England.
and which since the war began has
at times been turning out shoes for
soldiers at the rate OF 10000 pairs
per day. The company was making
Army shoes for our government be-
fore the war broke OUT, and after
that It furnished many shoes for the
allies The French government tried
to arrange with this company through
it's buyers in New York. but the Nc
-, a <or,o.s a T.