The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-01-07
Quartermaster General and Surgeon
General Combine Their Stats
TO Solve Problem Of Com
Portable Feet.
NEW TABLES SUGGESTED
General Pershins Wants to Limit
Sizes and Smaller Ones Are
Dropped Out Entirely
in New Lists.

Study is being given by the offices
of the quartermaster general and
surgeon general to fitting shoes to
soldiers. Examinations made Of sew.
eral different groups of men by both
army officers and civilians brought
reports indicating that only fifteen
percent of these men had shoes fitted
to the satisfaction of the examiners.
The quartermaster generals office
is making detailed comparison of the
number of each size and width OF
shoe used at each of the several
camps, the number of each size and
width called for by the tariff" tables
upon which orders have been based,
and the number of each size and
width which the investigators report
should be provided.
Average on Army Experience.
The quartermaster generals tar
iff' tables were made as the result
of years of experience in the regu-
lar army and represent an averaging
of that experience. Until recent
years recruits were allowed to ut
themselves. Most persons in, or re-
Gently from, civilian life choose shoes
too small for military use. In peace
times the training of recruits did not
proceed as rapidly as now, and
trouble from poorly fitted shoes did
not so soon appear.
In 1912 the present army shoe was
adopted after extensive experiments
and tests under board OF officers,
most of whom are still attached to
the quartermaster generals and sur
geon generals offices in Washington.
ID
in these tests, and marches totalfng
about 500 miles were made. This
new army shoe has made 1t possible
practically to eliminate foot disability
from the army if proper fitting of
shoes is secured. This shoe has
added between ten to twenty percent
to the marching power of the army, 1t
Is stated by officers who were on the
board and have followed the results.
Variations In Camps.
The tariff" tables, on wnlcn the
ouartermaster general decides the
proportion of each size and width OF
shoes to be ordered, have been re-
vised several times recently. These
tables met well the needs OF peace
times when large reserve stocks
could be carried and stock could be
distributed on a basis of average
requirements of the entire army.
Now single camp has third or
more as many men as the total
army had then. One camp has men
from city, perhaps largely men of
foreign-born parents averaging small
in stature, and with small feet; an
other camp has many woodsmen,
miners, and farmers, with larger
feet and accustomed to shoes not
very tight; still another camp has
many negroes with large, fiat feet,
and so on. Average conditions, to
which the tariff tables were well
suited. no longer exist.
Drops Smaller Sizes.
Foreign service will make still
further adjustments necessary. Gen.
eral Pershing has already recon-
mended dropping from the tables all
widths of the smallest size, 5, and
the narrowest width, A, in all sizes,
and adding to them the various
widths of sizes 10 and IA. Hereto,
fore IL has been the largest called
for by the army tables. His recon-