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Show SPEED UP. Secretary Htikcr ;t ppoars not to be nutated by Iho astonishing things General Gen-eral ("'rozirr said to "the senate com mil -tn.e, tnd the still more .iHtoni&hing things that can bo read between the linos. The secretary of war intimates that if he is called as a witness he can givo the committer information which will reassure the members, but ho will testify only in secret. Naturally the public will net expect him to shout military mili-tary secrets from the housetops, and will be satisfied if he can convince the senators that all is well with our war preparations. At the 1 same time the public will not make the mistake of accepting ac-cepting pleasant assurances for facts. They will remember that tho British and French were beguiled into a false state- of security early in the war by official communiques and explanations which later they discovered were filled with quibbles and equivocations. If we meditate briefly upon the testimony tes-timony of General Crozier, we shall find that it is far from consoling. ' 1 1. will say, ' ' he testified, ' ' that none of the American troops will be delayed five minutes in reaching the theater of war berauso of lack of modem mod-em rifleu. " Here is an example of that partial view of the war which has brought such disastrous results to tho allies. The chief of ordnance is concerned only with the supplies that can be furnished our troops, although we have been painfully pain-fully impressed in the last few months by the statements ot Mr. Lloyd George, in which he has insisted that the chief error of the allies has been a failure to conceive the war as a whole and to conduct it according to that view. ' We are making in this country only about hall' as many rifles as were being made a year ago. Asked to explain this, General Crozier used the following vague words: "They tapered off in their manufacture manufac-ture and allowed their organization to get so pn rated und the men to leave them to a certain extent. They have had to get them by a process which has " been more or less gradual.1' The meaning of the cryptic explanation explana-tion is that there has been more work to ilo since the war was declared than ever before, and that labor has been spread out thin. But it may also mean and probably does mean to some extent ex-tent that the war contractors began .competing for labor, and that mou who should have been retained in the rifle factories wore induced by higher wages to enter into other employment. Whatever What-ever view we take of it, it is not altogether alto-gether encouraging. The outstanding fact is that there have been disorganiza tion and delay, and that, some of the most important tasks we set out to achieve are not being achieved according accord-ing to the time schedule prepared in advance. ad-vance. As the work grew in magnitude our spe.d diminished. And that was inevitable, given a supply of labor that could not be increased beyond certain limits uy triple shifts and other dovices. We have flattered ourselves, however, on our efficiency and upon our ability to perform any task. It is not cheering, cheer-ing, therefore, to find the chief of ordnance ord-nance falling back constantly upon excuses. ex-cuses. When he says that before the war it sometimes required seven years for the delivery of ordnance after tho engineers had drawn the plans, he is dodging the issue. We know that, in three vears and a half of war the allies have --rod need more can non and shells than in ten years before the war. They produced them because it was necessary. And it would be much more inspiriting if our chief of ordnance could assure us that the essential things would be done instead of trying to adduce all tho excuses ex-cuses possible why things have not been done r.n.l cannot be done. The secretary of war assumes responsibility respon-sibility for the delay in adopting a type of machine ur,s and the further delay i n ma u it fa-' taring them after the type had be-' a decided upon. By way of avoida.'1'V, c hints mysteriously that it ail can be explained if he can get the cats of the committee into a quiet corner cor-ner where there is neither German spy nor dictaphone. Let us hope that he will be able to cud the fears and misgivings mis-givings of tho solons. The people are interested, not in suave explanations, bat in o:1 1 1: (: g on'y ' the winning of tee w:m T!i''V v, :il de- mand of their public MTvanis the uttermost utter-most of speed and ei'ficien.-y, for tin.'1; is of the es-;et.ce of vn to:v and the big- . g;rd and incapable nnt bo disove.-ed j j immediate! v and -i-t a-ide. |