The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-05-14
@. NJ. C. DEPOT
SPENT BILLION
AND HALF IN AZ

Philadelphia, May 14-CUP)-One
and a half billion dollars, as the
saying goes. amt hay-it's almost
astronomical, but that's what the
Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot
spent last year on a quarter of a
million miles of cloth and 69,999
other items for the United States
Army.
The depot. small city in itself,
has been doing all the purchasing
for the Army for the last 143 years.
Normally the annual purchases ran
in the mere millions. The total ex-
penditure in 194l was a trif1ing
$10,000,00O, jumping to $50 times
that in 1912.
Housing $1,000 officers, enlisted
men, civilian employees and civil
ian specialists, the depot now oc-
! cupies 100 acres in Philadelphia,
maintains its own police and fire
departments, railroad and fleet of
modern buses, and utilities 3,00O,-
600 square feet of floor space.
Biggest Job Ever
The depot, which has procured
the supplies for the Army for every
war but the Revolutionary, has
never had a job approaching the
one it has today. Anticipating an
Army of 100000, the quarter
master general has to be ready tc
supply clothing, equipment and
personal items for every soldier and
WAAC in any climate and in any
part of the world.
Executives and employees at the
reservation say that it isn't enough
of headache to handle one of the
largest purchasing volumes in the
World, but in addition they are
often called upon to produce emer-
gency supplies Yesterday on orders
that sometimes aren't received I'M
til Tomorrow!
The largest customer of the tex
tile industry in the world, the de-
pot not only buys every item OF
clothing for soldiers, including I'M
derwear, gloves, neckties, shoes,
socks, overcoats, etc. ETC., but re-
Gently has taken over the same jobs
for the WAACs and the Army
| nurses.
! Run of the mine procurements
include flags, banners, all the Army
medals and insignia, band inStru-
mentS, writing paper, buttons,
needles and thread and camou-
flage suits. All these things are
procured by direct negotiation or
a combination of informal bidding
and negotiation under policies set
up by the War Production Board,
Services of Supply and the Quar-
termaster Generals Office.
Corps of Inspectors
To speed the flow of contracted
goods the depot maintains resident
inspectors in many supplying fac
tories and has a corps of Supervi-
sorry inspectors who make periodic
visits TO plants to insure contracted
quality and no slow-up in produce
ton.
A sub-depot is maintained at
West Springfield, Mass, and branch
Offices are scattered throughout
the country. All research and test
ing, however, is done at the Phila-
delphia headquarters in a "house
of magic" laboratory, which makes
such tests as tipping a Upper TO-
900 times without a stop.
Another special department Is
the depot factory, which is used to
fill in emergency orders at a few
seconds notice. and to manufac-
ture uniforms and other articles of
clothing for out-of stock sizes.
Before the next $1,500,000,0 900 is
spent the depot will have procured
enough cloth to sWaddle the earth
10 times-at the equator-or. as is
more practical, keep every soldier,
nurse and WAAC fully and ade-
| quately clothed in any part of the
world