Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-01-24

tors to read the testimony before tn,
military committee which he was goinl
to lay before them Carefully an(
prayerfully"
Let me take up the machine guI
situation" he continued. England wa
using seven thousand Lewis guns OF
the battlefront and from the testimony
English officers and all others l have
heard, it is an excellent type of gun.
| american factories were making
these guns for England, but instead Of
seizing upon this type, our ordnance
department was trifling along trying
to find machine gun.
"With the nation at war, they actual
ly did not adopt machine gun until
June and then they adopted a gun on
paper. 1t is still on paper, because ii
has never had field test.
Gwen have to experiment and
change this gun before it is of real
value to us.
81 asked Secretary Baker how many
machine guns we had produced. He an
swered at the middle of December we
had completed nine. machine guns.
"Think of it, nine machine guns to
go up again the millions of Germany s.
we have been in the war ten
months and we have accomplished moth
ing in this direction.
Asserting that he had no fear of re-
vealing important information to Ger
many, Senator Chamberlain continued /:
Germany knows more about Amer
lea than men right in our military de-
partment. We'd better come out in the
spotlight and let the rank and file know
all. They would Immediately rally to
the country's support.
'EThe only source of information was
through the military committee S in
vestigation. There is no other way of
learning the true, facts. There are peo-
Pile out in the west where I come from,
who feel absolutely secure as to the
country's war situation. If the fathers
and mothers of those boys who are in
camps and are going to France, knew
the real situation, they'd sacrifice
everything they had to protect the
country"
Turning to the subject of army rifles,
the Oregon senator asserted that Eng
land had stopped experiments with the
Enfield rifles and ordered them made as
fast as possible to meet the war needs.
"Ameriea, with only a motley collec
tion of army rifles on hand, assert
ed Chamberlain, "began experimenting
and changing the Enfield rifle before
she would adopt it, although our fac
tories were equipped to turn them out
in quantities. Our ordnance department
kept changing the rifle, necessitating
changing of machinery to make them.
"In short, while the house was burn
ing the ordnance department was deter
mining what methods should be used to
put out the fire"
Chamberlain said that casual reader
Of Secretary Bakers testimony would
think our army had everything.
"When we hear from the men in the
field it is a different story he said.
There are no trench mortars in camps,
few machine guns with which to train
men, no howitzers and no big guns.
81 am citing this to show that our
military establishment has fallen down.
If it hadn t been for the men who came |
lere and gave their time and services
We never would have gotten anywhere.
sfThe country would conclude from |
he secretary of wars utteranees that .
he troops had plenty of clothing, but .
lgain when we hear from the camps |
hey have not.
81 can show by the secretary's s tes-
imony that he didn 7 know the true
Our distinguished president,
Who presumably got his information
rom Baker, didn t know the truth.
"The secretary must have gotten his
Information from some one else who