The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1919-03-15
INDUSTRY AND
ENGINEERING MADE
VICTORY A CERTAINTY

Washington, Mar l5.--To Ameri-
can industry and engineering and Am
el lean science, not to the Ordnance
Corps of the regular army, belongs
the credit Of having evolved and made
possible an ordnance program for the
American army that made victory a
certainty, Major General Clarence c.
Williams, Chief of Ordnance, declar-
es in a letter to the officers of his de-
partment retiring to civil life made
public tonight.
1T was American industry and
science that were on trial." says the
letter "The ninety-seven officers of
the Ordnance Department of the old
regular army and the eleven govern
ment arsenals they administered
could never have dominated, have won
the success or caused the failure of
the 5,000 officers from civilian life
and the 5000 private industrial plants
which were incorporated in the or
ganzation for the period of the war
The enlistment in industry, equally
with the draft of manpower, was a
success. And for that l thank you,
the administrative directors and the
engineering advisors of American in
dustry who came into the service of
the Ordnance Department during the
war"
No other part of the American war
tnl L. |. A
| and effort as to design and invention,
or production, into so many channels,
the letter says, or projected them up
on so vast scale.
when your problem is the pro-
duction of 100000 separate compon-
ents in more than 5000 different
plants" it continues, with these items
ia" ging 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 con-
slant review.
"Of such knowledge" he adds. q
say that you did exceedingly well and
that | am proud to have commanded
such soldiers in this war. / say this
utterly without thought of any per
/ cnro1 SnOnciti1;t.r
for that success. The tribute is not
to me. 1t is not to the Army Ordn-
ance Department of the regular estab-
lishment nor to the Ordnance officers
Of the regular army. 1t is to Ameri-
can industry and engineering, to Am
erican science"
The department, General Williams
says, probably Exercised direction
over greater physical power than
was ever concentrated on n single
purpose in the history of the world"
"The happy attainment of our OBJ
iectiv" in the war within nineteen
months have insufficient time for the
complete development of that power"
he adds. 'PrOpcr strategy required
the projection of the ordnance pro-
gram upon a scale designed to secure
an ultimate, overwhelming and CON
tinuous rate of production rather than
a lesser rate Of production at an ear
licr date.
"Obviously housewife could buy
an oven and bake six loaves of bread
in less time than 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 a quicke,
but lesser rate of production in 1919
We were building to make ultimat,
victory absolutely certain and ther,
. never was a moment when the ordn
ance program did not absolutely
!. guarantee the ultimate defeat O
. Germany.
= "We stood ready, during the montl
the armistice was signed, to turn ol
the taps at full force that had bee,
made ready to provide flow of mum
tions such as no nation had ever at
tempted.
u The fact that the American mum
e tions program alone was greater tha,
that which Germany could attemp