The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1918-05-25
Standardized Equipment, Quality,
Efficiency, Determine Advan-
tage Over Enemy.
WORK OF ORDNANCE BRANCH
Department Has in Washington Alone
5000 Officers With Thousands of
Civilian Employees and Many
Being Added.
BY JAMES H. COLLINS,
From the Committee on Public Infor-
nation. WASHINGTON. D. CT

From the Committee on Public Infor-
nation, Washington, D. CT
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 war program
develops, ordnance might easily come
to be the largest single activity.
This department has the responsible
lily for furnishing artillery. rifles, am
munition, motor transports, and prac-
tically 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 APP
proaching twice what is called for by
our entire shipbuilding 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 go back of the munitions factories
IN many instances and find enormous
supplies of raw materials.
During January the ordnance de-
spartment was thoroughly reorganized.
Let us try to look at the proposition
through the soldiers eyes, and see it
whole If we can. 1t may be we'll to
begin at the A B G of the subject and
ask ourselves: What is soldier?
The answer to this question might be:
"A soldier Is 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-
tically the same characteristics as
those in any peaceful modern indus
try.
In the first place, they have been
Wonderfully amplified in recent years
by the use of power. and increased in
bompacity and complexity. Practically
N1afg iabor-saving eontrivance invent
led for peaceful calling has been ap-
piled to present-day war. The ma
chine excavator that lays our water
and sewer pipe quickly in peace times
can be taken into the field to dig
trenches, and 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 great 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 real fighting equipment
he is comparable to craftsmen in other
trades in that his fighting tools are
more or less standardized and that suc-
cess or failure turns upon the quality
of his tools and improvements in de-
sign and efficiency which give him
definite advantage over the enemy for
the time being.
The soldier on the fighting front is
not unlike a workman in factory.
Modern industrial production, under
competitive conditions, seeks advan-
tage by Standardization of equipment.
large scale production and ceaseless
activity in the Improvement of tools
1t was along this great general trend
Of mf dern war, the making of better
fighting tools, that the recent reorgan-
izatiM in the ordnance department
was carried out. When war was de-
clared we had an establishment of mill
ltary men whose business it was to de-
sign tools of war. They not only knew
how these tools were used by the sol
der but kept track of improvements
In fighting tools in every modern army,
and the almost daily changes in the
way fighting tools are used. That was
their job, and highly technical pro-
fession. They correspondent In every
respect to the technical men in any
peaceful industry, making researches
md tests and utilizing all the refine
nents of invention and design to keep
pace with competitors in war equip
nent, and secure every advantage pos
sible.
In peaceful industries the public is
TO judge by the quality of the
inal product. When the history of the
present war is written, 1t will proba-
lily be found That this was the proper
measure % our fighting industry, the