New-York tribune., 1922-01-15

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NOW AMERICA WENT TO WAR: THE
A0'ilS rs OF INDUSTRY. BY Benedict
o"c'i' formerly Assistant Secretary OF
ana director OF Munitions, and
robert Forrest Wilson. formerly Can,air
~ o. a. TWO volumes. illustrated.
published BY tho Yale universitv pr+.s
wv TE HAVE hitherto noticed ths
wv first three volumes Of this
monumental work. telling
the story Of the mobiliza-
'on and control Of resources and in
dustries in the World War and tb.
transportation Of the American Exnod;-
'ionary Forces to France. Now come
Two more of the six volumes. tel]inc in
detail OF tho multifarous and stunen-
dous war industries of the Unitod
'>ua'cs' their operation and output. Not
many readers, probably, have an ado
quatc conception Of the character and
magnitude Of those industries; Ger.
talnly not nearly so adequate as their
conception Of the armies IN the field
and their opera tions. An army of SOL
dlers is much more compact and homo
geneous than an industrial army. It is
TAR easier to visualize a million men
lighting in small territory in FIan-
ders and the north of France than q
million men divided among thou.
sand manufacturing csta blishments
scattered all over the continent from
Maine to California. Aforeover, we
were familiarized with the deeds Of the.
military army through the news of its
fighting, but the work Of the industrial
army was for prudential reasons large.
ly kept under cover and unknown to
the public. Now it is not only pcrms.
sible to tell the story, but it is emi-
nently desirable that it should be told,
at once as tribute to the amazing re-
sourccfulness, energy and efficiency Of
American industrialists and as an ad-
monltorv exposition Of the appalling
expensveness and wastefulneSs Of
war.
Neville Island
How many readers, We wonder, could
tell offhand where Neville Island is and
What was done or was intended to be
done there? We are not sure that MI
Edison put it in his famous question:
naire, and you will not find it shown on
many maps or mentioned in gazctteers
Yet on that little island in the Ohio
River work vas begun upon all ord
nance and munitions plant which
would have dwarfed the Krupp works
at Essen and the Seine ider works at
Creusot. If vas to turn out 14-inct
cannon at the rate Of one every two
days, with 1888 shells for each gun
1t was also to produce 16-inch and
even 1S-lnch cannon, the latter mon
sters weighing 255 tons each-the
famous "Woolwich Infant" if we re
member Alright, weighed only 100 tons
and to build hundreds of them simul-
taneously. The plant was to cost $780,
100000 and to emplo 10000 workmen.
1t was we'll begun, with orders in hand
for ninety 14-inch guns, when the arm
istice was signed. Work was then sus-
pended, and little later the whole en-
tcrprise was abandoned.
The tank" was invented by French
man and was first used by the British
army, but America quickly began their
manufacture; and orders were placed
by the government for 1905 of the lit
tie three-ton tanks, 4,i40 Of the six
MARK WIZ tanks, each Of which was
to have the offensive strength of a
thousand soldiers and still greater de-
fensive strength. For this output the
government agreed to pay 5000, 900,
but the enterprise was ninpcd in the
bud by the armistice, and Of the mark
WIZ tanks only 100 were completed
and delivered to tie War Department.
OF course, there were gigantic under
taklngs which were not thus inter-
rupted, at least until their output was
SO great as to stagger the imagination.
For example, take our manufacture Of
ammunition for small arms, including
machine guns, rifles and pistols. In
the fifteen months from November,
1917, to January, 1919 the production
aggregated considerably more than
$4,000 900 rounds 80 900 900 900
cartridges, or enough to send volley
OF twenty bullets into the heart Of