Evening star., 1918-01-28

| that the British decided to remodel
their guns but the suddenness of the
war prevented them making the
Had Unanimous Consent.
THAT decision made that night" Mr..
| Baker added, referring to the confer
ence held at which 1t was decided to
change the American rife. had the
unanimous consent of every man at
| After America entered the war. Mr..
| Baker said, Maj. Gen. Wood came to
his off1ce and advocated the necessity
Of calling out large Army. Secretary
or arms. but Gen. Wood replied he
. knew that. but. contended the men
needed to live together for "prelimi-
| nary training. He told Gen. Wood he
sembled as rapidly as possible but it
| was the intention to build up the Reg
u1ar Army and the National Guard first
and then the National Army.
| Concluding his statement regarding
the decision to call many men early
Secretary Baker said:
| so, the determination ultimately was
upon an attempt to forecast the time
needed for training. 1t was deemed wise
to put men into camp to learn camp
living and essentials of a soldiers life
| a little in advance before they could
be fully supplied with arms"
| 100000 Rifles Available.
| Regarding Senator Chamberlain
statement that rifles originally sent to
| camp were motley collection" Secre-
tary Baker said he did not object to the
term. but that the facts were that
I'VE had about 100000 Springfield rifles
and , something over 100000 Krags.
the world he added. furnishes an OBJ
| solete rifle for practice until men learn
TO take care of better weapon"
...,i 40 not mean to say he added,
| bly,. 1t might have been better to have
used the English Enfield. But I do
/; mean to say that it was decided con-
! seientiously. that now every man in
| this country intended to carry 4 rifle
has one. and a rifle of better quality
| than if we had adopted the existin o
| type at the time.
Practice With Rifles.
| And. he continued. although we
| nave sent soldiers to Europe much
more rapidly than we ever thought we
would or could, every soldier has not
only modern rifle, but has had prac-
tice with it. That also is true OF. every
! solder who will go to Europe"
Turning to the machine gun ques-
| tion. Mr.: Baker said that up to last
- INC Lew is gun nau not been Sa It's
! iactorily tested with American am
| munition. although. widely used by
England. The French. he said never
| took the Lewis gun in any large num-
bers.
The board he added, referring to
| the board he appointed in the fall of
1916 to test machine guns, never de-
layed for one second the procurement
Of additional machine guns"
He told of the Navys test of the
Lewis gun last April. with an Army Of
hcer present. and added:
LAS a result of the test an immedIa ta
order was given to the Savage Arms
company for Lewis guns. Large orders
for Lewis guns have been given, We
are advised. however, by Gen. Pershins
use on land. Gen. Pershing and his stan
desire them only for aircraft
Supply Light French Guns.
In the meantime" said Mr.. Baker,
the French government Is able to sup
ply US: with light French guns and
! heavy Hotchiss guns for the troops who
are abroad and who will be sent for
the present.
we have ordered all the Lewis guns
We could get, and have ENCOURAGED the
company to extend its plant for increased
proquct1on. 1t has not yet begun to ex-
pand to the extent we would like. Our
Army abroad is provided with the guns it
has elected as adapted to its use, and
our supply is to supplement that"
Guns Shipped to Camps.
Obviously, he said. there were not as
many machine guns for camp training
as was to be desired. but he read a
table showing that on November 1 each
camp or cantonment had been shipped
thirty Colt: sixty-fve Lewis and forty
ev,
each regular cavalry regiment had
been supplied with ten Lewis guns and
each infantry regiment with ten Chau-
chat.
practically all of these were shipped
before the troops were ready for
them-that is. before November l." Mr.
Baker said.
Senator Reed asked il before the
troops were ready for them meant that
the men needed preliminary training.
or before they had been mobilized.
Secretary Baker said he believed it
meant that the ranges had not been
completed and also that preliminary
training was necessary
Senator Kirby asked why Lewis guns
had been sent to camps when it had
been decided not to use them with the
land forces.
Many Types Added in Training.
Secretary Baker said it was SO the
anisms of as many types as possible.
On the question of big guns, Secre-
tary Baker recalled that Gen. Crozier
chief of ordnance. had urged Congress
and the various secretaries of war con-
tinuously for larger programs. because
of the time it took to make the guns
The record served. he thought, to show
that Gen. Crozier had realized the DELAY
that must be faced and sought to pre-
pare in advance.
Reading from a letter from NJ Tar
dieu, French high commissioner Secre-
tary Baker showed that France entered
the war with more than 5000 pieces of
heavy artillery, but only 40 quick
firers.
Great effort was made NJ. Tardieu said,
to get the slow-hring guns from the fort
resses into service for the field, and this
policy proved to be mistake, as quick
firers were needed for field work
An appended list of orders for heavy
artillery placed by France, the Secretary
said, showed that cit did not lie in the
imagination OF any one to realize what
the ordnance program of the war would
become. not even France. the very seat OF
the conflict with the enemy at her throat"
Takes Step to Supply Artillery.
We had limited amount of artil-
Iery, and our first step" the Secretary
said, was to speed up that already
ordered and in process of ma manufacture"
British and French theory OF artillery
usage differs. he said. adding:
1--WE had to decide for ourselves what
we should use Army experts were
sent abroad to study the question.
Early in June it was .ntimated that