Evening star., 1922-12-31
By WILL p. KENNEDY.

TTRACTINi comparatively little
~ attention from the people of the
~ United States, definite policy
of industrial preparedness has
been adopted by the federal govern
ment and the entire manufacturing
force of the country is being organized,
SO that in the event of military neces-
sity practically every factory through
out the land can promptly be switched
to mass production of war essentials.
The adoption Of this policy has been
officially announced by the War Depart
ment in a statement prepared by Secre-
tary Weeks for the Information Of and
to beget the cooperation Of the busi-
ness interests in every state and COM
munity.
Now . Fixed Policy.
Members Of Congress are especially
gratified that such practical peace
time method of keeping prepared for
war emergency has become a fixed pol
icy Of the government and are con-
graduating Representative John Q. Til
son of Connecticut on this successful
conclusion of fight he has been maxi
ing for fourteen years since he first be-
came a member of the House.
The essential feature Of this prepared
ness program is to have jigs. guages
and tools made up in large quantities,
such as are required for production OF
all sorts Of ordnance materials, and
have these distributed to the factories.
30 that on a hurry call factories IN all
20 of tho rn,fntrv at once DeR1n
turning out the munitions OF war. Sec
retary Weeks has announced that the
manufacturing talent and machinery OF
the United States is being organized
through ordnance s,std1 distrtcts - WIN WIN
these mobilixed manufacturing centers.
Representative Tilson was talking
preparedness" in 1908, when people
laughed at the thought OF another war.
He was talking 1t in 1916 Just befoee
we entered the world war: and and ne ne rs
still talking it, although 1t mas again
fallen into unpopularity.
Studied I'm the Factories.
And Col. Tilson. speaking on prepared
ness for war, speaks with authority
and personal experience both as
leader of trained fighting men and prac-
tical technical knowledge Of the manu-
facture of munitions. He went into the
machine shops and learned how to run
the machines and adjust the jigs and to
use the gauges in the actual production
of ordnance materials. Thus he was
able to show the Secretary Of War
where the ordnance bureau was not
ready for an emergency and how 1t
could be made ready in business Ike
way.
When William Jennings Bryan and
other peace advocates declared In the
early days Of the world war that there
was no need for preparedness in the
United States because we could raise
a million men over night if necessary"
Tilson was one Of those who went to
the house tops to deny this assertion.
The experiences Of the world war
proved he was right. On May "a, 1916,
Col. Tilson stood up in the House OF
Representatives and declared:
"It will require more than year to
produce the necessary gauges, dies, FIX
lures and special tools necessary to
manufacture small arms, small arms
ammunition and field gun ammunition
in sufficient quantities to carry on q
real war. ---
MillieA Net Spent.
He was 70 earnest in this plea that
he persuaded Congress that year to ap-
propriate s1.0oo.eoO to buy dies, gauges
and s,,ecial tov,St iul tlls iuaii0i:sclu.S :