Bisbee daily review., 1918-01-29

i part of the trained, expert personne
Of the army. You know the sire of the
I official corps of the regular army in
this country when the war broke out
II was a pitiful handful of trained mer
| and yet il was necessary to divide
tnem up and send over to France
ers OF the highest quanIy 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 thai
they could see the things with their
own eyes, and send us back the details
by cable every day of the changing
character of this war
Work in France
General Pershing's stan of experts
and officers over there runs into the
thousands and they are busy every
minute, and every day that the sun
rises | get kilograms from General
Pershing from ten and sixty and TWEEN.
ty pages long. filed with measure
ments and formulas and changes of a
/ millimeter in size. great long specifi-
4
which were agreed upon last week and
changed this week, and need to be
| changed again next week so that what
we are doing at this end is attempting
/ by using the eyes of the amry there
to keep up to what they want us to do
Already you will find in your fur
Their examination into some of the bu-
reau work of the department, some of
the divisions, when they come down.
you will find that schedules which
were agreed upon. weapons which
were selected and which we had start
ed 10 manufacture, have been so far
discarded that people have forgotten
the names of them. almost, and new
things substituted in their place, and
those forgotten and new things in
their places
so that if one gets the idea that
this is the sort of war we used to
have, or if he gets the idea that this
is a static thing it is an entirely erron-
eOus idea, and when you remember
that we had to divide this little hand
full of officers that we had and sent so
large a part of them to France, and
then think of those who remained at
home, you will realize, am sure. that
those who remained here had double
duty. insufficient for either aspect of
il. in numbers-and they still have
this double duty-they had to go for
ward with manufactures. work out in
dustry and industrial relations; they
had TO see about supplies of raw ma
terials and manufacture finished pro-
ducts, and make from day to day alter
atoms 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
They had 10 be hOspitable to sug-
gestions which came from the other
side; they had to confer with the for
eign Officers who were here and were
constantly being changed. so that men
fresh from the front could be here to
advise with US. and in addition to that
every one of them had to be q univer-
sity professor. going out into the life
of the community and selecting men
who had mechanical experience and
knowledge and training. but not mill
tary mechanical experience and know
ledge and training, and adding TO his
original equipment the scientific train
ing. that finishing touch which made
him available for use as a military sci
enlist.
The Ordnance Department
As a consequence, this, little group
which stayed here have built the great
special departments ofthe army. The
ordnance department, starting, think
with ninety-three or ninety-siX offic-
ers. has now. as | recall the figures,
something like 5000 officers. They
have had TO be trained; they have had
to be specialized, and that has had to
go on cOntemporaneously with this ire
mendous response to the changing con
ditions on the other side.
In the meantime, when we started
/ into this war | think it was commonly
thought throughout the Ountry that
/ our contribution at the outset might
well be financial and industrial The
/ industries of this country were largely
devoted at that time TO the apprOpri-
ate industries. and many converted in
dustries were largely devoted TO the
manufacture of war materials for our
allies.
! As l suggested this morning when
we went into that market we found il
largely occupied. so that our problem
was not going to shoe factory and
saying make shoes for us but il was
going TO a factory which never made
shoes. because all the shoe factories
were busy making shoes for people
! from whom we could not take them.
and saying, Learn how to make shoes
| in order that you may make them for
us
Now. of curse. that is not true of
| shoes. but il is true OF machine guns,
il is true of other arms. il is true of
ammunition. il is true OF forging ca
pacity. which was the greatest defect
in the country and all OF this time we
had not merely TO disturb the program
of allied manufacturer in this country
but we had not 20 cut OF the supplies
Of raw material to our allies. and we
/ had not 10 disturb the industry OF this
country. 10 such an extent that pro
, ducts upon which they depended for
success OF their military operations
would be interfered with. both agri-
cultural and industrial and commercial
Z products.
AT the outset the idea was that we
would be a financial and industrial as
. sistance TO our allies during the year