New Britain herald., 1918-01-10

! Nearly twenty square miles Of new
army blankets have been ordered by
| the quartermaster general since war
was declared. Some 1000 acres Of
| then1-5,9 90,236 blankets-had been
delivered up to December 1.
! Overcoats contracted for number
| 5,691,35O. If half of the entire num-
| Der of men of draft age in the coun-
| try should be called to the colors,
| these contracts when filed, would sup
| ply them with an overcoat apiece. De-
| liveries of overcoats amounted on De-
cember 1 to 2,026,346. Included in the
| total are some hundreds of thousands
of deliveries at army supply stations,
/ instead of at the camps and canton
ments.
! The army is particularly we'll sup
| piled with shoes Of these, 21,117,61o
pairs have been contracted for and
S,525,29S pairs delivered. Every SOL
! der can use up four pairs before the
! supply on hand is exhausted.
! Deliveries of hats total 3,554,09l on
! contracts calling for $500
For olive drab shirts, 35,155, OS1
yards Of wooden cloth has been con-
tracted for. To call it 1874 miles Of
! cloth will perhaps give a clearer idea
! Of the size of the order. Of this, TO-
990205 yards of material has been
made up into 5,676,444 shirts
The contracts for wooden uniform
cloth reach the somewhat smaller fig
ure of 2S.95695S yards. Of this IL
| 299,867 yards has been delivered and
| has been made into 2,37S,511 complete
winter uniforms and 455,S56 extra
| pairs of breeches
More than 10,84S, 900 pieces Of win
ter underwear have been delivered out
| of 2S,275,S45 pieces contracted for.
| Other articles that have had to be
! supplied to the camps in great guam
} titles are bed sacks, cOmfOrters leg
| gins and socks. Of the four camps
| visited by Surgeon General Gorgas, IN
| his recent tour of inspection, none re-
! ported a shortage of bed sacks. There
were leggins enough to go around and
! the supply of light wooden socks was
large enough to give each man three
! pairs Camp Sewer reported only
| two pairs of the light weight socks
per man, but had in addition 10000
| pairs of heavy wooden socks.
None of the camps reporting hal
quite enough wooden comforters. Carr
| Funston, for instance, was short aD""
! 5000. Funston, however, had ~"
than three blankets per man.
The latest reports concerning sui
| plies are from Camp Sewer, in Gree
Vile, S. c., where the National
| Guardsmen from Tennessee and the
! Carolnas are training. Sewer report
4 rJo ~
! far from an adequate stock of wooden
uniforms. Coats numbering "a $40,
ordered shipped from New York on
| November 13, had not reached Green
| Vile at the end of the month. PlaC-
| ing the responsibility Alright for such
J situations assthis was the purpose Of
! the recent congressional investigation.
| In this war the Quartermaster de-
! partment is feeding five times as
J many troops in the war with Spain,
with food costing three times what it
| cost in 1898, and hard to get at any
| price.
| Keeping a million of men for year
| on the United States garrison ration
| means the provision Of 225, 1000 tons
! 45OOOO,OO0 pounds of fresh beef.
This figure is reduced somewhat by
the substitution of other fresh meats
.-as turkey on Thanksgiving Day and
| Christmas, and occasionally mutton
| or fish Three hundred million
| pounds of -four must be supplied for
| the bread ration, not including the
| flour used in making hard bread.
| Other items of food supply are 90
| 100000 pounds of coffee, $4,000 tons
| of sugar and $4,000 gallons of GU
| cumber pickles.
Besides the articles OF the regular
! ration, the uuartermaster department
! keeps on hand 165 items of stock for
sale at cost. Many Of these items arc
! things to cat. Others are shoe-black-
| ing, writing paper, talcum powder
| 14S,S00 cans-and a few bottles Of
! toilet water.
In addition to supplying food and
| equipment for the new armies, the
| quartermaster departm ent-with the