Norwich bulletin., 1919-12-27
EXPENDITURES OF ARMY CONSTRUCTION DIVISION

EXPENDITURES OF ARMY
 How the construction division of the |
 United States army has spent more
 than s1,000, 100000 is told by Brigadier
 General R. c. Marshall, Jr,, chief of | that division, as follows:
 'AThe work of the construction div1-
 sion during the world war is so far
 reaching in extent that it is possible to touch only the most important of i it's accolnpl lishments in any reasonable i length of time. The construction division under l took and had Oeurp Ated or under way at | the time of the armistice 535 construc-j
 ton operations in 444 different local 1
 it1es, covering every state in the union 1 but one. In the course of eighteen
 months it had expended about $500, | 0,000, and to date it's total expend1-
 lures total over s1,000, ,G00,0o0
 | One of the lessons of the war is that the efficient conduct of large op- eratonS is impossible without special | iZation. and this is nowhere more strongly exemplified than in the con-
 Struction division, an organization that was built up of specialists in ev- cry line of construction work. The basis on which the new structure was l4OuHQGu WdS buS liI0n eAdOtIl1S WI struction and repair branch of the quartermaster generals office, headed by Colonel, afterWard Bfigadier Gen eral, Isaac W. Littel, which. was charged with the duty of handling all construction, maintenance and repair work at army posts throughout the
 country,
 "On May r, 1917, the secretary of
 war assigned to Col. LLttel the task
 of building the national army canton
 ments and national guard camps. He
 was relieved of his former duties and given authority to form his organl-
 zatien and to report direct to the sec
 retary of war. It WAS only through
 the latitude allowed him that it was
 possible to accomplish the results re- quired.
 ''The above operations were practice ally concluded in the fall of 1917 and on October the secretary of war d1- rected that all building for the army ! in the United States rendered neces- sary by the emergency should be uT-
 dertaken by this organization. Inn
 medialtely the field of effort broadened and construction of every character including not only camps for training | purposes, but arsenalS and industrial plants of all kipds, h.ed to be built, as we'll as hospitals for the sick and wounded and port ter eiinals for hand ,, ling troops and supple sto be sent abroad During all this period tre- mendous assistance was given to the
 construction division by the council c1 !, national defense, which organization appointed subcommittee known as the emergency construction committed opposed originally of w. A, Starrett t of New York; Frederick Law Ohm y stead, of Boston; c. w. Lunderf O. 2 Cleveland; M. C. Futile, of Boston and Major William Kelly, of theUnit' j. ed States army for the special pur.
 poses of CO., ordinating and eXpeditins e construction operation. Matters per S taining to the selection necessar! e forms of emergency contracts wer' t largely in the hands of this comit e tee.
 Il 'tThe form Of contract used was on s wherein the contractors compensation t was based on the cost of the work r his profit being determined by a slid r ing scale percentage with a maximum 0 upset fee. As the extent of the wor It increased the percentage allowed a If the contractors profit, over and abov 9 the actual cost of labor and material tt decreased, and in no event, no mat q ter what the size of the contract, wa 10 it allowed to exceed $250 900; for ex e ample, on a job not exceeding S100,00 d a profit of 10 per cent was allowed n This percentage reduced automaticall n as the cost increased, until where tn
 amount exceeded S3250,000 the con ,eI tractors fee became 6 per cent and re ,- mained at that figure until it totale Il S250000, at which figure it stopped, n f. mattr. how much higher the projeC h happened to run. As an actual mat II ter of fact, the percentage actually re g. ceived by the contractor on all i'm d portant projects was between ? and " per cent. of the cost.
 Fe The construction division was dur ot ing the period of it's greatest activit s- the largest construction organizatio Id that ever functioned and the large. le employer of labor in the history of tn '" mistice more than 100000 laborer ss- work on it's various projects.
 i "One of the most important function 10 Of the construction division was
 provide for accommodations of u
 country, and in carrying out this vol i'd ti not only built new buildings of as temporary or permanent character !; It might be decided on. but it also toe ch over a number of hotels, nercanti ve buildings, etc., and altered them f lo hospital purposes; in all a total of 2 n, hospitals, accommodating 121 900 D; 1a tients at an approximate total cost SS $127.725 900 were provided.
 Da D Another item somewhat intimate .S' connected with the work of the med nL cal corps was the provision of sa nf water supplies at all of the vario ,o projects executed in this country, al tn it was handled so successfully tn o while the average cost of water W ch under eight cents per 1000 gallons. y ,-s up to the present time no case of 'es phoid fever or other waterborne di ease has been traced 10 any of |
 water supplies furnished. Water " he furnished in a sufficiently libel ey amount to provide ample fire prote ng ton, and while the year 1918 show jig a per capita loss throughout its United States of $2.70 from fire { He total per capita loss at the vario n-