The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-18
MISTAKES MADE
 IN WARS HASTE
By HOLLAND

l
 New York, January 17.-(SpeciaL)-A year or two before the European war began a representative of the corpora tion in Europe which was the owner of the patents under which the Krag-Jor- gensen rifle was manufactured, ap- | preached one of the bureaus of the federal | government for the purpose of offering | this rifle to the government. This repre- sentative was familiar with some of the | predominating characteristics of Wash ington bureaus and government commis- slons Nevertheless, as this rifle was ! looked upon in Europe as the best gun then manufactured, it seemed to be ap- | propriate to make offer of it to the | United States. The particular bureau to which the rifle was offered for inspection turned the proposition down. It did not 1 originate in the United States nor was | any member of the commission associated directly or indirectly with the invention 1 of it.
 This action was not unexpected. But i a few weeks later the representative re- | ceived a call from someone who asserted that he brought message from the gov- ernment officers to whom the proposi- | tion was made that if one-half of the roy alties, which were to be $1 a gun, were l taken off then the government would ] accept the rifles. This seemed to be in I tion of the reason why the board had re- i fused the rifle. The suggestion that 50 cents be taken from the dollar royalty | from each gun was accepted and then the i government contracted for nearly 200, 900 1 of these rifles. i As the days since the war ended pass and some of the heretofore mysterious !, decisions reached by members of the | government bureaus or commissions are I explained, it becomes evident that there | are many almost tragic, certainly unfor- 1 uunate, romances associated with the decisions of the bureaus which will from time to time be made public.
 Already some of them are known. They illustrate the difference between the gov- ernmental authorities in the United States and those of England and France and Germany respecting action taken up- on inventions that were asserted to be of importance and have since proved to be of great value.
 THE LEWIS GUN
 Already much comment has followed the action of government bureaus in de- clining to accept the Lewis rapid-fire gun. Personally Captain Lewis was not
 greatly concerned oyer this action. Eng land had already accepted the gun, find
 ing it to be admirably qualified for ma
 chine gun purposes. But the government
 bureau members or boards were moi
 favorably disposed toward the gum Nc
 other reason has been assigned for this
 reluctance to accept the gun than that
 members of the broad or bureau found it not associated with anything if which
 they had previous knowledge Captain
 Lewis was receiving large orders from
 Great Britain and his gains on account
 of these contracts were sufficient te
 bring him a considerable fortune, wheth- CT the United States accepted the gun or
 not.
 An officer of the navy invented and
 perfected little apparatus which was
 designed to prevent superheating of en-
 zines and for kindred purposes when in
 use upon torpedo boats. The Washington
 bureau dismissed, with something like
 contempt, the offer of the inventor to
 turn this apparatus over to the United
 States But when the English naval off cers saw it and put it to a practical test
 upon their torpedo boats they said, This
 is a most valuable invention; we mus'
 have it'' and they did equip their torpe-
 do boats with 1t.
 Before one of the bureaus or boards
 at Washington there pas put a proposi-
 tion which, if accepted, would have es-
 tablished in the United States many de-
 hydrating plants. The food situation a,
 that time was critical. The process ol dehydrating would, it was said, serve | greatly 70 increase the 1000 Suppiy pS' cause, by use of it, vegetables, perishabl } food and fruit could be conserved. But
 the bureau officers paid no heed to ths proposition though England was already
 using the process, so was France, ane
 Germany was relying upon it almost en- ) tirely After long delay, and the wind ing of much red tape, several rehydrat1ns
 plants were established in the United
 States, but these were inefficient and mil lions of pounds of vegetables which were presumed to be dehydrated were fount to be worthless and were cast into th'
 sea.
 A few months after the United State: , became one of the belligerents, pr. Ed ward Goodrich Acheson offered his form ula for fabrication to the government, be- lieving that manw demonstra tions in ac tual practice had proved that it was no only the best of lubricants, but also woul' 1 name of the person for whom sthe pre- scription is given on the bottle or othe
 receptacle containing the medicine befor delivering the medicine. Public health. No 5S, by MT Epsey: To amend, sec
 ton 6964 of chapter PA of the code 0 ! n