Evening star., 1948-09-26
Purchasing
Continued From First Page.)

ing overtime tabulating bids on
many of the same items.
In the Navy, Rear Admiral E. D.
Foster. chief of the Bureau of Sup
plies and Accounts, said that in
some instances 1t had been found
necessary to buy the same type of
materials declared surplus less than
year after such declarations were
made. He pointed out. however,
that Navy stocks Of civilian-type
goods had been kept purposely low
to aid the civilian economy.
Surplus Bought Back.
1t was learned that there have
been isolated instances in which
the Navy actually had bought back
the very sans goods it had declared
surplus.
Gen. Courtney H. Hodges. now
commander of the 1st Army. told a
Special Senate Investigating Com
mittee on December IA, 1945, that
the Armys revised "Strategic Re-
serve Plan" to lay away wartime
stocks was based on the needs Of
1000, 900 men. The Hodges Board
report itself Is locked in the con-
fldential files at the Pentagon.
The department estimated, Gen.
Hodges told the committee. that
by the middle Of 1949 the bulk of
the demobilization will be over
and we will be down to the strength
somewhere around 100000, and
we will continue on that level until
the middle of 1949." The strength
subsequently was cut back much
further and faster by rapid de-
mobilization but that was the figure
that Gen. Hodges's special depart
mental board used in determining
what amount of personal property
should be retained for adequate
maintenance and what goods could
be released to help alleviate the
then desperate civilian needs.
Shoe Bids Opened.
Service shoes are good example
Of what is taking place in armed
forces purchasing. The new draftee
will get one pair Of the low quarter
tan type and two pairs Of the regu-
lar work shoes. Records show that
166. 900 pairs of Army shoes were
declared surplus-some of them are
still available in civilian surplus
stores-and that their 1945 cost was
$414 a pair.
The New York Purchasing Once
has just opened bids on 350,008 pairs
of the low quarter type and 433,0O4
of the composition sole type. The
bids on the former ran around IS a
pair and on the latter from $4.83 to
s5.7S. The Army estimates 1t must
pay an sverage of $5.13 a pair for
shoes today.
The Army also is in the market
at s3.42 a pair-for Arctic type over
shoes, of which 1896, 900 pairs, cost
ing the taxpayer $305 pair during
the war. were declared surplus to
the needs Of q 2 million-man force
In December, 1945.
Combat boots, I'll, 200 pairs Of
which were sold through WAA for
80 per cent or less of their $6.74-a-
pair wartime cost, now currently
cost the taxpayer S8.45 and the
Quartermaster Corps is buying them
also. The surplus stores here and
elsewhere are now advertising them
to the public at s4.99 pair.
Seeks Over Million Trousers.
Then there are trousers, eight
pairs of which will be issued to the
new inductee. In December, 1945,
the Army declared 10000 pairs of
trousers surplus to the needs Of g.
900, 900 men. Bids have Just been
opened on 634,780 pairs of cotton
trousers. The bids range from 81
cents to $1.39.
Bids also have just been opened
on $4,000 wool serge field trousers.
They range from sl.54 to $2.s1.
The Army explains part of this
purchasing of such tremendous
amounts Of trousers and jackets by
the fact that hereafter soldiers and
airmen will wear matching trousers
and jackets Of the same material
it is called shade 80 olive drab.
Heretofore, shade 80 has been &C
ceptable for one of the garments.
The Army declared vast lots of
jackets surplus on this basis and
many Of them are still available
in surplus stores. But today 1t
has requested bids on 675 900 jackets.
Most Of these are the new-type
Eisenhower jackets" which the