Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1922-12-09

One of the largest business enter
prises conducted under one manage
ment in the United States during the
last year has been the governments
job of disposing of surplus war ma
terial. More than 100000 different ar
ticles have been sold for cash through
nationwide auction sale system.
Sales have been in progress five days
in every week all the year, and prop
erty that cost nearly $5OO,OOO0OO has
been disposed Of, the cash proceeds
turned into the treasury aggregating
approximately $S3OOO,OOO.
A summary obtained for the office of
Assistant Secretary of War. Vain
wright, Uncle Sans head salesman,
shows that, on Sept. /, 1921, there
was available for sale about $3.50, 00O,-
GOO in surplus war stocks, ranging in
character and size from locomotives
to pins and needles. One year later
there remained on hand of that
amount property worth $243, 100000
and officials today expressed the hope
that Uncle Sans shelves could be
cleared in another six months.
The rate of return to the govern
ment varied tremendously. On one
small lot Of lumber it received 116
per cent Of what it paid in war times
on great mass Of gas masks sold for
salvage the return was One-half of l
per cent Of what thew cost
Satisfied With Return.
'The average recovery during the
year for all classifications is about 10
per cent, which, under the circum-
stances, is considered very creditable,"
the summary said.
The government has faced restric-
lions never imposed on commercial
transactions of the kind in the bust
ness world. For one thing, it had on
hand vast quantities of munitions and
other military stores of no value what
ever except for war purposes They
could be sold only as scrap, to be
broken up and reworked into articles
of peaceful commerce. The return on
such sales could have no relation to
the cost value.
Another restriction was the neces-
sity Of disposing Of those classes Of
commodities which are part of peace
full industry in such fashion that pri-
vate enterprise would not be crushed
under the floods of materials to be sac
rif1ced out OF government stocks. In
some cases the governments stocks
were sufficient to have met normal
peace time consumption of given
commodity for period of years.
Still another restriction was the ne
cessity Of making the war supplies
available to all classes of American
citizens, rich or poor. The sales were
conducted so that the smallest retail
er might have his chance, and the pub
lie auction system of small lots was
followed for this reason.
First Call by Departments.
BY direction of c0sgress, the army
surplus stocks of all classes were made
available 70 other government depart
ments and an aggregate amount was
transferred Of a cost value of $1O5,-
100000.
Very few sales, 1t is stated, were
made on other than strict cash basis.
AS an illustration Of the widespread
nature of the selling operations, it is
pointed out that, during the year in
question, there were 129 large auction
sales held In 81 different places in q
states Incidentally, this plan re-
lieved the government Of the necessity
Of transporting thousands Of tons OF
commodities and adding the cost OF
transportation to the original cost.