Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-09-18
Plenty Of Dia Guns
For Army Because =
~ Of Aid Of Allies

Washington. Sept. ls,-Tho commit
toe on public information has MADE
public tho following statement on the
manufacture of armament:
When we declared war against Ger
many. the military authorities OF
Great Britain and France offered 10
provide our expeditionary forces with
big guns In order to save our ship
tonnage from the burden OF transport
ing heavy ordnance and to keep at .
maximum production the ordnance pro-
duction abroad.
France and Great Britain had an
adequate force Of skilled workmen for
making heavy ordnance and we had
not. In this country all the factories
that would make tho large machine
tools necessary for turning, boring and
pressing big guns were already busy
on contracts for tho allies. in order to
prevent a confusion in allied plans. TO
save ship tonnage. and to make wise
use of such arsenals and workrncn ~
the allies had. our war department
agreed to accept as much as possible
of its first years supply OF guns abroad
and to devote that year to developing
it's own big gun industry.
The program has been carried out
successfully. Our forces in Europe
have had a sufficient supply of guns
and ammunition purchased I'M Europe.
Our men in the trenches have had the
same heavy ordnance protection that
the British and French troops have
had. We have sent over some heavy
artillery. to supplement the allied sup
ply. And We have developed our own
designs. built our own factories. in
stalled our machines. and trained our
own workmen for the manufacture OF
all sorts of big guns.
We have spent $4,000. 900. 900 on ord
nance in our first year. We are plan
ming to spend sic, 00o, 900. 900 in our Sec
ond.
The complaint has been made that
our ordnance bureau lost six months
in vain efforts to improve on the per-
feet recoil mechanism Of the famous
French ISIS. That Is untrue. The
charge is due apparently to the fact
that we prepared designs for an Am
erican six inch gun which was put
into production before the models for
the Is arrived from France. We are
making both guns and our contracts
call for the delivery Of more than 5000
of them by January. 1919. After that
date the 1917 model of the French 75
will be manufactured here at the. rate
of about 500 month. And Our new
gun with the split carriage, il more
flexible even than the French -. and
more deadly therefore to the enemy.
OF the six Inch sea coast gun, our
contracts provide for the delivery of
400 by January. 1919 and OF zoo
monthly thereafter. or the 155 MILL
meter howitzer, 1900 are to be de-
livered by January, 1919. Deliveries of
the ai0 nilIimeter howitzer are reach
ing 100 a month.
We have produced in light and heavy
Brownings, the best machine guns in
the world. and we are making them at
the rate Of about 5000 a week. The
new American rife is admittedly an
Improvement on any OF the allies
rifles and far superior to the enemy's.
We are turning Them out at the rate
Of &C. 900 a week. Our automatic pistol
calibre45, has rcfeated the Germans
in close fighting. All these weapons
are being produced in vast quantities,
and our ordnance division. that was
cartooned and scoffed at as the Joke
and failure Of the war has proved
itself as resourceful as the men whom
1t has armed and as efficient as the
weapons with which ii has armed them.