The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-10-25
Dispos.lsofvs.r
Material Large Enterprfse

Material Large Enterpffss
Washington. Qch e. .Eune Of The
largest business &teSprisa ,cond6ct-
ed under one ,msSs emsnt in the
United States ihfng the past year
has been the governments Job of dis
posing of surplus Var material. More
than 100000 different articles have
been sold for cash through a ANTON
wide auction sale system. Sales
have been in progress five days in
every week all the year and property
that cost nearly half billion dollars
has been disposed of, the cash pro.
ceeds turned into the treasury aggre-
eating approximately $4,000, 900.
A summary of the enormous trans
action in which the War Department.
has been engaged, obtained for the
office of Assistant Secretary Vain.
wright who is Uncle Sans Head
salesman, shows that ON September
l, 1921, there was available for sale
about .$75O,OOO,OOO 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 ex-
pressed 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 lie
percent Of what it paid in war times,
on q great mass of gas masks sold
for salvage the return was one half
of one percent of what they cost.
"The average recovery during the
year for all classifications is about
Is percent, which under the circum-
stances is considered very credit
able" the summary said.
Examinations of conditions impos
ed upon the War Department in car
rying out it's clearance sale shows
that the government has faced re-
strictions never imposed upon COM
mercial transactions of the kind in the
business world. For one thing it had
on hand vast quantities. Of munitions
and other military stores of no value
whatever except for war purposes.
They could be sold only as scrap, to
be broken up and reworked into ar
ticles 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 a part of
peaceful industry in such fashion that
private enterprise would not be crush
ed under the floods of materials IN
be sacrificed out of government
stocks. In some cases the govern
ment's stocks we're sufficient to have
met normal peace time consumption
of given commodity for a period of
years.
Still another restriction was the
necessity of making the War surplus
available to all classes of American,
|eitiEepa. rich or poor. The ssass wsns
conducted so that the smallest 10,
taller might have his chance and The
public auction system Of small lStl
was followed forl this reason. Stint
larly, sales were arranged at army
store houses all over the country IN
order that all who wished might In
spect and bid.
BY direction of Congress the army
surplus stocks of all Classes we're
made available to other government
departments and an aggregate
amount was transferred of cost val
ue of $1O5,OO0,O0O. This arrange
ment, however, nlent that the govern
ment departments might select the
best from the surplus stores and that
the stock was picked over" by these
preferred customers even before the
War Department could begin It's g.
gantic selling campaign.
Very few sales, it is stated, were
made on other than strictly cash
basis. There has been insisten pres
sure that the surplus stocks eb con-
verted into cash as rapidly as pos
sible in order that the. treasury
might have the benefit Of that income
in meeting other government obliga-
tions.
Under this pressure, the War De
partment adopted policy of accept
ing the highest cash offer made even
though it could have obtained better
prices by granting little time to
other prospective purchasers.
An illustration Of the widespread
nature of the selling operations it Il
pointed out that during the year Ii
question there were 129 large apc.
tion sales held In 81 different places
in 27 states. The sales were care.
fully arranged, however, so that pros.
pective buyers who wished to do Sc
could have attended every important
auction. Incidentally, this plan o.
risposing of the surplus at points n
storage relieved the government oi
L Ia II