The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-11-07
ALLEGED CHEMICAL
 WARFARE DELAY

point on March 27, 1919
 ALLEGED CHEMICAL
 WARFARE DELAY
 With reference to the charges of un-
 necessary and prolonged delay in the manufacture by this government of poisonous gases, it must be remem> bered that at the time we entered the war we had practically no experience in manufacturing toxic gases and no existing facilities which could be con> yerted to such use.
 The government found it necessary to build its own chemical plants md to finance certain private firms in order to secure quantity production. As a result of the policy adopted by the war department, the gas and the capacity Tor filling were at all times we'll ahead or the supply of shell containers 10 be filled. In June, 1918, we shipped in nuik 1S tons of mustard gas 705 iona or chloropicrin and AS tons of phos> gene.
 We sold excess gas both to England ana to France. England received 300 tons or our chloropicrin and 36S tons of Ameri- can phosgene. France took 300 tons of ch'oropicrin and i40S tons of chlorine In addition 200 tons of mustard gas were shiDred to England. Tn addition to this we shipped overseas 30o00O 75-mm shells hlled with chloropicrin and 15o, 900 filled With mustard oil, 24,9S4 grenades filled With wbite phosphorus and 175,0 ,0S0 filled with tintetra chloride; also 1S,eOO Livene drums loaded with phosgene./ The total monthly producing capacity of November l. 1918, was So5 tons of liquid chlorine, 1,5U tons of chloropierin, 1,05O tons of phos- gene, 300 tons of mustard oil, 90 tons of brombenzyl cyanide, 100 tons of white phosphorus, 91 tons of tintetra chloride and 30 tons of titenium tetrachloride
 "The total monthly capacity of our plants for filling shells, etc, on the date shells, 4500OO AT shells. 54o,0OO 155-mm shells 1S0.oo0 6-inch shells 75O,0o0 gas grenades, 4S0O0o smoke grenades and sO,ooO Livens drums. At the signing of the armistice we were equipped to produce gas at a more rapid rate than France, England or Germany. AS TO SHELLS AND ORDNANCE
 Tt has been charged that the army only shipped 17,0O0 American-made shells to France, and that but P American-made guns reached our forces at the front. | Both of these statements are absolutely unwarranted Instead of r GOO shells there were received by our forces in France up to November Ii, 1918, total of $500 ,O0O America n-made shells of all calibres, or one-half of the total number of shells ex- pended by our forces during the war pc riod. The ammuniaitn actually fired against the enemy's front, however, was mostly of French manufacture, due to the fact that French and British, partic- ularly French, was easily accessible and already at the front and the American- made shells shipped overseas were used to replace French and British shells in the artillery reserve, Had the war continued, these American-made shells would have been used a. the front in constantly in- creasing numbers. There were actually fired 7.40o rounds of artillery ammunition of American manufacture
 Twenty million rounds of artillery am- munition were produced in American plants, and as stated above, almost one third of it wss shipped overseas. -s'
 Tt has been charged, furthermore, that but seventy-two American-made guns reached forces at the front, yet as matter ot fact we had in France at the time of the armistice 3500 pieces of ar tillery, of which nearly 800 were of Amer ican manufacture and the others were purchased from England and France un- der arrangements made with the allied commissions which visitde this country These arrangements were made so that our troops would be promptly supplied with artillery. The American forces used on the firing line 2,250 pieces, of which 130 were made in America. We also had a sufficient supply of light artillery for the combat divisions that were ready for 1 the front line service, and when the ar | mstice came in November our army not 1 only had sufficient 75-mm. for the twen- 1 5f.xs- t..A .1v,t enough more for twelve other divisions.
 Numerous other charges have been |