The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-03-17
AMERICAN INDUSTRY
MADE VICTORY SAFE
Declares Major General Clarence c. Will
liams, Chief of Ordnance of United
States Army-It Was Not the
Ordnance Corps of Reg
ular Army.

Washington, D. c., March Ito
American industry and engineering and
American science, not to the ordnance
corps of the regular army, belongs the
credit Of having evolved and made pos
sible an ordnance program for the Amer
lean army that made victory a certainty,
Major General Clarence c. Williams,
chief of ordnance, declares in a letter to
the officers Of his department retiring to
civil life.
at was American industry and science
that were on trial, says the letter. THE
| ~ officers Of the ordnance department Of
the old regular army and the II govern
ment arsenals they administered could
never have dominated have won the
success or caused the failure of the 5000
officers from civilian life and the 5000
private industrial plants which were in
corporated in the organization for the
period of the war. The enlistment in
industry. equally with the draft of man
power. was success And for that ]
thanksyou, the administrative directors
and the engineering advisors of Amer
lean industry who came into the service
of the ordnance department during the
war"
No other part of the American war
program carried its responsibilities and
effort as to design and invention, or pro
duction, into so many channels, the let
ter says, or projected them upon so vast
a scale.
When your problem is the production
of 100000 separate components in more
than 5000 different plants it continues,
with these items ranging from feed
bags and star shells to complete trains
of railway artillery, the Judge who can
competently say what your progress has
been, must indeed have a profound
knowledge of the field
General Williams points out that his
own service took him first to France for
eight months, then back to keep the
work at home under constant review.
"Of such knowledge he adds, Il say
that you did exceedingly well and that !
am proud to have commanded such sol
diers in this war. say this utterly
without thought of any personal respon-
sibility for that success. The tribute is
not to me- 1t is not to the army ord
nance department of the regular estab-
lishment nor to the ordnance officers of
the regular army 1t is to American in
dustry and engineering, to American sci
ence.'
The department, Gen Williams stated,
probably exercised direction over
greater physical power than was ever
concentrated on single purpose in the
history of the world
The happy attainment of our obiec-
tive in the war within 10 months gave
insufficient time for the complete devel-
opment of that power" he adds. Prop
err strategy required the projection OF the
ordnance program upon scale designed
to secure an ultimate, overwhelming and
continuous rate of production rather
than a lesser rate of production at an
earlier date.
obviously a housewife could buy an
oven and bake six lOayes of bread IN
less time than a bakery could be built
and provision made for the needs OF an
entire city. But the rate Of production
from the housewives oven could never
feed the city.
THE ordnance objective was a rate
of production adequate for an army OF
100000 men. We could not sacrifice
production in 1920 to force quicker but
lesser rate of production IN 1919. we
were building to make ultimate victory
absolutely certain and there never was
moment when the ordnance program
did not absolutely guarantee the ultl-
mate defeat of Germany,
I'VE stood ready during the month
the armistice was signed to turn on the
taps at full force that had been made
ready to provide a flow of munitions
such as no nation had ever attempted
The fact that the American munitions
program alone was greater than that
which Germany could attempt after 30
years of preparation for war Is appar-
emily little realized in this country. But
have no doubt that it was realized in
Germany and that such realization sub
stantially contributed to a victory by
its reaction upon the minds Of the mill
tary masters of Germany"
In closing, General Williams urges the
retiring officers to retain a conscious
ness of this problem we have faced to-
getber" as they return to civil life, to
keep in mind the realization that as
scientists, they control source Of pow
er vital to their country in time OF war,