Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1918-01-31

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ferred to that Of the French. They could
not picture to US a barrage of heavy
nowitsers as compared to barraRe Of
20 MN. guns. They could not picture to
Us the association Of aircraft, balloons
ana mobile aircraft with artillery uses.
Tney could tell US about It, but even
whiie they told us the story grew old.
WAR A MOVING PICTURE.
The one thing they told us from the
very beginning to the end. was that this
war, OF all others, was not static thing:
that our adversary was versatile ana
agile adversary: that every day he re-
vamped and changed his weapons of
attack and his methods Of defense; that
tne stories they were telling us were
true when they left England and France.
put an entirely different thing was prob
ABLY taking place there now, and they
told US OF large supplies Of weapons Of
one KIND and another which they had
1Sve,opeo IN France and England and
which' even before they got them in sum.
Client quantity manufa ctured 70 take them
from the Industrial plants to the front
were superseded by new ideas ana had
70 De thrown into the scrap heap.
fhey said to us, this Is a moving pic-
lure; II IS something that nobody can
paint ana give you an idea of. II "a
not q static thing.
U. 8. NEEDED EYES IN rRANrr
Therefore. it became necessary FOR -.
70 nave eyes there in instant and immo.
oiate communication with US, and we sent
over TO France, General Pershinx, and we
sent with him not merely q division Of
troops to that shall refer In a moment
but we sent with him perhaps / can say
safely the major part of the trained. ex.
pert personnel Of the army. You know the
size Of the official corps of the regular
army In this country when the war broke
out. 1t was pitiful handful of trained
men, and yet 1t was necessary to divide
them up and send over to France officers
OF the highest quality SO that they would
be at the front and see in the workshops
and In the factories and in the war Offices
and IN the armies. where consultations
would take place Immediately back of the
front SO that they could see the thing
with their own eyes. and send US back the
details by cable every day Of the changing
character Of this war.
EXPERTS BY THE THOUSAND.
General Pershing's staff Of experts and
officers over there runs into the thou
sands, and they are busy every minute
and every day that the sun rises 1 get
cablegrams from General Pershing from
10 to 16 and 20 pages long, filled with meas
urements and formulas and changes Of a
millmeter in size, great long specifica-
tions Of changes in details of things which
were agreed upon last week and changed
this week. and need to be changed again
next week, SO that is what we are doing
to keep up to what they want us to do.
Already you will find in your futrehr
examination into some Of the bureau work
Of the department, some of the divisions.
when they come down. you will find that
schedules which were agreed upon, weap-
ons which were selected and which we
had started to manufacture. have been
so far discarded that people have forgot
ten the names of them. almost and new
things substituted in their place, and those
forgotten and new things in their places.
NOT LIKE OTHER WARS.
$50 that II one gets the idea that this is
the sort of war we used to have. or II he
gets the idea that this is static thing
1t Is an entirely erroneous idea, and when
you remember that we had to divide this
little handful Of officers that we had and
send so large a part of them to France
and then think of those who remained al
home, you will realize, I am sure, that
those who remained here had the double
duty. insufficient for either aspect of It,
In numbers-and they still have this double
duty-they had to go forward with manu-
facturers, work out Industry and Industrial
relations; they had to see about supplies
Of raw materials and manufacture
finished products. and make from day to
day alterations and changes that had to
be made. and they had to be ingenious
with suggestions, to see whether they
, could devise on this side something which
had not been thought Of over there.
AN ENORMOUS TASK.
"They had to be hospitable to sug.
gestions which came from the other side
they had to confer with the foreign Of
fcers who were here and were constantly
being changed. SO that men fresh from thu
front could be here to advise with us
and In addition to that everyone Of them
had to be a university professor. going ou
into the life of the community and select
Ing men who had mechanical experience
and knowledge and training, but not mill
tary mechanical experience and knowledg,
and training. and adding to his origina
equipment the scientific training. tina
finishing touch which made him availabl,
for use as a military scientist.
las consequence this little groul
which stayed here have built the grea
special departments OF the army. TIL
ordnance department, starting. I think
with 9S or 90 officers, has now. as recall
the figures. something like 5000 officers
They have had to be trained, they hav
had to be specialized. and that has had t,
go on contemporaneously with thi
tremendous response to the changing
conditions on the other side.
INDUSTRIES NOT READY FOR US.
In the meantime. when we started
into this war I think 1t was commonl,
| thought throughout the country tina
our contribution at the outset nigh
| well be financial and Industrial. TIL,
industries of this country were largel,
devoted at that time. the appropriat,
industries. and many converted indus
tries were largely devoted to manu-
facture Of war materials for our allies
AS / suggested this morning whe,
we went into that market we found |
largely occupied, 80 that our problem
was not going to a shoe factory an,
saying Make shoes for us but II wa
going to a factory which never mad,
shoes because all the shoe factories
were busy making shoes for peopl,
from whom we could not take them
and saying. Learn how to make shoe
In order that you may mako them To-
u.s.
"Now. of course. that Is not true O.
shoes. but 1t Is true Of machine guns
It 10 true OF other arms, 1t Is true O
ammunition. 1t Is true Of forging ca
pacity. which was the greatest defec
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