Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-01-06 | Page 2 | Cloth for Army Clothing not Yet Supplied

CLOTH 1 II CLOW IT lETjpiEO Colonel Lindsley, Quartermaster's Quarter-master's Agent at Philadelphia, Phila-delphia, Puts Blame on Eisenman Committee. SAYS "HAGGLING" CAUSED BIG LOSS Senators Will Try and Clear Up Discrepancies in Testimony Tes-timony and Conclude Inquiry Next Week. WASHINGTON, Jan. 5. Responsibility for shortages of army clothing was placed upon the supplies committee of the council coun-cil of national defense today by Colonel Elmer Lindsley, quartermaster's agent at Philadelphia, testifying at the senate committee's war Inquiry. .Another witness, wit-ness, William Bianchy, a New York dealer, who has purchased cloth for foreign for-eign armies, charged that an unnecessary wool shortage "scare" was created to increase in-crease the use of wool shoddy, ordered for army garments by the supplies committee. com-mittee. Colonel Lindsley contradicted the recent re-cent testimony of Vice Chairman Eisenman Eisen-man of the supplies committee, that the committee had secured an abundance of cloth for army needs. He said there now Is a shortage of 1,000,000 yards of cloth and that the supplies committee system was responsible for both delays and friction. fric-tion. Caused Heavy Loss. Garment manufacturers, the 'witness declared, are without sufficient cloth to keep their factories working to capacity und in that connection he said that "haggling" "hag-gling" by the committee with the American Ameri-can Woolen company last summer over prices had caused a loss to the government govern-ment of 3,0u0.0u0 yards of cloth, many looms being idla for two or three months. Strikes of 'garment workers also have caused some deiay, he said. Bianchy said the wool shortage "scare," as lie termed it, was in the interest of manufacturers of shoddy garments. Many American cloth makers, lie testified, do not have factories equipped to make all-. all-. wool garments and, therefore, could not have shared in the war contracts if shoddy had not been approved for army clothing. European armies, he asserted, are better clothed than American soldiers, and lie severely criticised the use of shoddy, declaring it was whol unnec- es.sary. Jf Will Be Cleared Up. Chairman Chamberlain announced that discrepancies in the testimony of Mr. Klsenman and Quartermaster General bliuvpi; regarding responsibility for the Uuthing shortage are to be cleared up by reports of cloth deliveries which botn are h(curing for the com n; it tee. Each has placed the responsibility on the other. it also was announced during the day tiiat the committee had asked Secretary Baker for a complete report as to any clothing shortages in the training camps un January 1. Previous reports have dealt with conditions as they existed borne time ao, and t,lie committee wants to know just what Is the situation at present. Conclusion of the entire arnTy inquiry late next week or during the following week is planned. Committee members desire de-sire to close the hearings quick) v, make a prompt report to the senate iind press Chairman Chamberlain's bill to establish n department of munitions and other legislation.