New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1919-03-07
DISPOSAL OF WAR MATERIAL
FORMS SERIOUS PROBLEM

construction period is the dispoSa
of the vast quantities OF material
which the various purchasing depart
ments of the Government has or
hand. most of which was manufac-
tured in vast quantities on govern
ment contracts Manufacturing pro-
cesses of the nation had Just com
menced output on a quantity basis
when the armist'ce put an end tc
hostilties in Europe, and, with il
cessation Of demand for war ma
terial.
OF course some of this material
which is strictly military in charac-
ter, is OF no use to any one and must
be DESTROYED Already the gov 'rn-
ment has destroyed hundreds OF tons
of high explosives, which had been
assembled at various points, await
ing shipment to France. This was
in the interest of public safety q:
the storage of this sort of material
was 4 constant menace to any con-
munity near which it was situated
1t is estimated, that there is about
81 900 00OOI0 of merchandise, which
IS suitable for civilian use, now in
the hands OF the government and for
which the government has no need
II would be criminal waste of mater
ial to DESTROY this merchandise, and
it would be runous TO the market
for the government to sell il. Con
gresham Homer P. Snyder, Of the
33d New York District, has been
giving this subject considerable
A. ,,,t IN
the House of Representative which
provides that. with the exception o'
material which is perishable, tht
government shall not in any one
fiscal year offer for sale within the
United States, or any of its posses
sions. more than 20 per cent. oi
the merchandise or supplies it ha.
in its possession by reason OF the
| recent war.
Would Protect Business
In Speaking of his bill, Congress
man Snyder says: :,
II am told that there probably
will not be less than billion dol
lars worth of competitive merchan'
disc left on hand that the govern.
ment will have to find some methot
of disposing of. This, il thrown or
the market in any one lot, or at any
one time, would be. to my mind, the
most destructive process Of disposal
that could possibly be found. And
some way must be determined. IN
order to protect tn eindustries OF
this country, for the distribution OF
DISPOSAL of such competitive com
49,. I:.:o, -. tLa rroyaro yoeut uOW ha
on hand.
Take. for instance, the question oi
knit underwear. am told, and, ir
fact, l am nearly correct. that there
is on hand to-day l25,000O00 shirts
and drawers, both wool and cotton
If any such amount of goods as that
was thrown on the market it would
destroy the business in knit goods
for at least II months.
What applies to knit goods ap-
plies to almost everything we can
think of. Take the general line OF
hardware. There is in the depart
ment to-day nearly sl00OOO,0O0 worth
of hardware, such as shovels, hoes
picks, hammers, axes, monkey wren
ches, and things of that sort, manu-
featured in all parts of the country
and If, these goods are thrown on
the market by auction without very
careful consideration. it would dis
rupt the whole business Of this coun-
try.
Limit Annual Sales.
Now, ! am as anxious as any man
can possibly be to see our economic
conditions go on comfortably. Oi
course, we can not go along continu-
ously at the high rate of speed We
have been going on during the war
but it would be very simple matter
to throw US into confusion 4 due
care is not taken to dispose Of those
tremendous amounts of merchandise
tle government has on hand. My
idea is that If we should dispose oi
n per cent. of any item OF mer-
chandise during any fiscal year II
would not tend to disrupt to any
extent the business of the country
And, like the wheat proposition
this is one that interests the whole
country, and the country could TAX.
up $200,000O00 of the various items
the governments will have to dispose OF
without interfering very much with
any industry. and it would not be
a great hardship for the Government
to have to carry the balance.
my bill does not prevent the gov
ernment's disposing of any merchan'
disc on hand to parties outside the
United States. This would rendei
it possible to place such merchandise
at the disposal of the desolated re-
gions of France, Belgium, or Other
war torn countries OF Europe.