Imperial Valley press., 1941-02-17
by Peter Edson..
The Inside Track in Washinqton

WASHINGTON, FEB. IT -Ihere
still a little bit of jealousy between
the regular army officers and the
experts brought in from private
industry to speed up the defense
effort, and that's only to be eX-
pected.
Privately, army officers will admit
that the bright boys from Sears
and Roebuck, A. and P, Penney
and other chain outfits are teach
ing them all kinds of tricks about
buying. and as a result, the entire
supply system for the services is
being modernized SO the govern
ment will buy on a buyers market
when prices are low. and the ma
tlcnal economy will be stabilized
bv putting some seasonal industries
to work in slack periods.
Gut Of the original Sl3 billion
appropriated for the defense ef-
fort, all has been allocated except
a matter of some $500 million
mere chicken feed. That doesn't
include the supply bills to keep
the services going, but that's
where the smart buying comes in.
1t explains also the need for the
current Sl75 million appropriation
bill which will enable the quar-
termaster corps to buy food and
clothing.
THREE MAIN FOOD
BUYING OFFICES
Take food. 1t will cost three
quarters of a million dollars a day
lust to feed an army of million
and half men. Yes, a day.
To do that trick, the chain store
bows have set up three principal
purchasing offices to supervise the
job for the whole country. New
York will buy condiments and
ncn-p perishables. Chicago will buy
meats. flour and cereals. San
Francisco will buy fruits and veg
etables. The lines aren't hard and
fast. but those are the main divi-
Sions.
Supplementing that, there will
be 36 zone offices, one in each OF
the II main and "a branch fed
eral reserve districts, which will
buy stuff locally for the camps in
its zone All this buying will be
done under the army quartermas-
ter corps, with civilian expert
sitting in to advise.
Under the old setup the ON.
from each camp would do his own
buying. Sometimes, when there
were three or four camps in the
vicinity of one market town, the
QM.'s would drive up with their
trucks early in the morning, GO
into competition with each other
for supplies, run up prices, and
by noon have the market SC
cleaned out there wasn't anything
left for the local housewives The
new idea is TO eliminate all that
Furthermore, truck farming in the
vicinity of each camp is TO be en-
couraged SO that areas will be
largely self-supporting.
Take clothes-take oVercoats
Right now is the slack season in
the cvercoat making industry Al
coats for this winter have been
made. and they haven't started or
the coats for 1912. The army will
need nearly million overcoatS
for next winter 1t Owns the cloth
Sc it will soon let contracts TO cut
make and trim next winters gar
ments.
Take shoes. A soldier wears Out
four pairs a year. Carter Glass
wonders how Washington's mer
got through that winter at Valley
Forge, when the revolutionaries
didn't have any shoes at all, but
since this won't be barefoot army
shoe buyers have to figure how
they can get six million pairs veal
out of present factory capacity.
RUBBER, SOAP PLANTS
TO MAKE POWDER BAGS
This matter of finding plants tC
make the things the services want
is a problem in itself. More thar
10 years ago the army began it.
big survey Of industrial production
facilities in the United States. Ter
thousand plants were inspected
catalogued and classified. The sur
vey took into account how each
factory could be converted to make
war supplies. A corset factory, for
instance, was found TO be an ide.