Evening star., 1920-01-04
CONSTRUCTION DIVISIONS
FUTURE RECEIVES ATTENTION
Proposal That It Be Represented on Cen
eral Staff Springs From Record
of Achievement.

shown since it was brought into be-
ing in 1917 raises the very serious
doubt as to whether it should now be
crammed back into the pre-war bottle,
and Brig. Gen. Richard C. Marshall,
jr.. chief of the division. recently made
the following recommendation to the
Senate committee on military affairs:
I'm the interest of economy; in the
interest of preserving to the govern
ment the business methods of the con-
struction division: to make available
to the government the experience
gained by having carried forward to
successful completion the greatest
construction program in the world
and the experience gained by the
greatest utility organization known
to this country; in order to organize
this purely commercial function of the
War Department in keeping with the
common sense business practice of the
commercial world, it is recommended
organization of the Army there be
included a separate staff unit known
as a construction corps, it's duties to
be defined and the provision for it's
personnel to be such that it's present
officers may be retained in the service
in their several grades held during
the war"
Based on pre-war tables covering
the period from 1907 to 1916, inclu-
sice. such a division of the War De-
partment would have charge of the
expenditure of s50,o0O.00O to SIS, 5,000,
900 annually, and the argument has
been advanced that this should be car
ried on by single department of ex-
perts. both enlisted and commissioned.
'Prior to the world war;" said Gen.
Marshall. 1.-The operation of utilities at
the several posts, arsenals and fac
tories under the War Department and
the construction work at different
places was done by each department
concerned The ordnance department
constructed its arsenals and operated
the utilities thereat. Similarly the
Signal Corps. while the Quartermaster
Corps did this work for itself. for the
surgeon generals office and for the
line of the Army. The only notable ex-
ception to this was the construction
of the Washington barracks"
Complimented by Gen. Pershing.
Gen. Pershing recently took occa-
sion to compliment the division on
the work it had done during the war.
but susggested that it be returned to
the supervision of the Quartermaster
Corps rather than be continued as
separate STAFF unit.
The only task comparable to that
of the construction division ever un-
dertaken by the military forces of
this country prior to the war with
Germany was the completion of the
Panama canal. That project called
for the expenditure of $375.000,000 and
covered a period of ten years. but
in the world war the construction
division directed the expenditure of
81 900, 100000 within less than two
years. and in one period of sixteen
weeks spent as much as the entire
canal cost Furthermore. the later
task was accomplished at a time
when labor, materials and transpor-
tation each presented a difficult prob
lem.
For it's billion dollars the govern
ment got. with other things. 275
water systems. with 500 miles of
mains and a daily pumping capacity
of 65O,000.O00 gallons. and never one
instance of impure water supply. 1t
got 260 power stations and substa-
tions. with $500 miles of transmis
with a combined capacity of 100000
pounds of bread per day: fifty-seven
ice plants, putting out SIT tons Of
ice daily, and 1,031 miles of new
roads.
The lumber used by the division
during the war amounted ito more
than two and half billion board
feet. which would build twenty board
| walks around the earth. provided
suitable foundation could be found to
lay them across the Atlantic and Pa
/ cific oceans.
Obviously such varied program
| called for all sorts of labor. from
| the man whose ability was limited to
, trundling a wheelbarrow to archi-
| tects and engineers with highly tech
nical training.