OCR Text |
Show FfGiiJiC TOOLS OF OUR SOLDIERS Standardized Equipment, Quality, Efficiency, Determine Advantage Advan-tage Over Enemy. WORK CF ORDNANCE BRANCH Department Has in Washington Alone 3,000 Officers With Thousands of Civilian Employees and Many Being Added. By JAMES H. COLLINS, From xne Committee on Public Infor-' Infor-' mation, Washington, D. C Of all the large activities conducted by Uncle Sam in his war establishment, the ordnance department of the army Is second largest in expenditure, being exceeded only by the quartermaster department. And as our war program develops, ordnance might easily come to be the largest single activity. This department has the responsibility responsibil-ity for furnishing artillery, rilles, ammunition, am-munition, motor transports, and practically prac-tically all the fighting tools our army needs, except aircraft, together with means for assembling and storing them in this country and delivering deliver-ing them on the fighting front in France. With expenditures now approaching ap-proaching twice what is called for by our entire shipbuilding program, the operations of ordnance are naturally of great magnitude, and its problems are complex, for In furnishing the tools of war it has to enlist enormous productive pro-ductive capacity by converting old industries in-dustries and creating new ones, as weil as go back of the munitions factories In many instances and find enormous supplies of raw materials. During January the ordnance department de-partment was thoroughly reorganized. So It becomes interesting to observe the workings of this department as newly constituted. Let us try to look at the proposition through the soldier's eyes, and see it whole if we can. It may he well to begin at the A B C of the subject and ask ourselves: What is a soldier? The answer to this question might be: A soldier is a man whose occupation Is fighting. What does a soldier, light with? He fights with tools. How do a soldier's tools compare with tools used by other craftsmen? They show practically prac-tically the same characteristics as those In any peaceful modern industry. respect to the technical men In any peaceful Industry, making researches and tests and utilizing all the refinements refine-ments of Invention and design to keep pace with competitors In war equipment, equip-ment, and secure every advantage possible. pos-sible. ' Have Capable Experts. In peaceful industries the public Is satisfied to judge by the quality of the final product. When the history of the present war is written, it will probably proba-bly be found that this was the proper measure of our fighting industry, the results secured on the battle front. Those results will be secured by the American military officer trained to design the equipment of an army, and the weight of expert opinion both from military men of other nations and capable business men in this country who are working with the war department depart-ment is to the effect that we have as good a system of development as exists. ex-ists. In ordinary times our requirements for fighting tools are so .small that they can be supplied as an incident to peaceful industry. The American military mil-itary expert was able to center upon the design of rifles, guns and ammunition, ammuni-tion, turning his blue prints and specifications speci-fications over to manufacturers who were waiting to bid npon contracts. When the design was finished he simply sim-ply advertised for bids and secured deliveries de-liveries through the penalty clause in government contracts, and saw that quality was maintained by careful inspection in-spection of material delivered. For several months after war was declared the ordnance department found its whole scheme. of organization fairly satisfactory, and for a reason which will be apparent to everyone when it is stated. Regardless of the magnitude of out war task and the urgency which has not been lost sight of our new army and our war preparations had to he arranged on an orderly program of growth. Soldiers for the army had to be drafted and trained. This was work which would consume months of time no matter how well the plans were laid. And while the men were being mobilized and instructed, the ordnance department could arrange for their fighting tools. There was even time to spend on thorough tests to determine deter-mine which .type of rifle, machine gun, etc., would give the best results on the fighting front. The peace-time plan of organization was therefore adhered to, hut with full provision for growth as the new army was trained and sent to France. It was possible to plot the requirements for each bureau, increase the organization by drawing in more technical men from civil life for each specific task, and provide new bureaus to deal with new tasks. A bureau of supplies became necessary, neces-sary, for instance, and was started last May, with two men in a single room, who proceeded to map out that bureau's bu-reau's functions for IS months, taking into account the delivery of supplies from factories, and their distribution tn every army camp in the United States, as required by the army's developments de-velopments in this country, and finally final-ly taking care of its requirements when it reached the western front. This bureau of supplies today has about 5,000 workers, and more are being be-ing added daily according to orderly growth of work, and by the end of this year there will be fully 10.000. War Engineers in Charge. . The ordnance department is now arranged ar-ranged in a way that makes It an efficient, ef-ficient, self-contained agency for the performance of its particular work on the largest scale, and with the most careful attention to all details for the period of the war. At the head of the department today Is the chief of ordnance, ord-nance, which position is still held by Maj. Gen. William Crozier. General Crozier. however. Is at present in France, applying his ability and experience ex-perience to the study of the army's requirements re-quirements In the field. Brig. Gen. Charles P. Wheeler, as acting chief of staff. Is in charge in this country. General Gen-eral Wheeler is a West Pointer, thoroughly thor-oughly familiar with the requirements of the army, and Is assisted by three other regular army officers, ouch at the head of n bureau carrying part of the detail work. The eneinering bureau, under Col. John 11. Puce, conducts researches and experiments, deals with inventions and designs, determines types of military equipment, conducts tests and draws up specifications. The control bureau, under Col. Tracy C. Dickson, attends to estimates esti-mates and schedules of requirements, co-ordinates and supervises the various vari-ous operating divisions, deals with methods, organization. Industrial relations, rela-tions, transportation and the adjustment adjust-ment of complaints and disputes. The general administration bureau, under Col. William S. Pierce, looks after af-ter arsenal administration, finance, property, legal and advisory details, the personnel of the army, both military mili-tary and civilian, attends to the department's de-partment's mail, records, publications, library and Information generally. In addition, the chief of ordnance Is In touch with the general military situation sit-uation through the war council nod general staff of -the army, and military mili-tary attaches of foreign governments stationed in Washington for advisory service. The ordnance department now has In Washington alone approximately fi.OOO commissioned officers with thousands ol" civilian employees, and this organization organi-zation will steadily Increase In size as the war program develops. When It Is remembered that much of the work was accomplished In peace times by a chief and a very small force In one office, some Idea of the magnitude of the new war organization Is realized. Prior to the war, on April 0, KI17, there were 70 ordnance officers; about CO In Washington. In the first place, they have been wonderfully amplified in-recent years ' by the use of power, and increased In .complicity and complexity. Practically every labor-saving contrivance invented invent-ed for peaceful calling has been applied ap-plied to present-day war. The-machine excavator that 1 ys our water and sewer pipe quickly in peace times can be taken Into the field to dig trenches, and a battle front requires construction work, power plants, telephone tele-phone and telegraph systems and railroad rail-road transportation far beyond peace requirements for equal population, and sthese requirements must be met under the pressure of war's emergencies. Soldier Like Factory Workman. Present-day war involves the organization organ-ization of great communities back of the fighting front, so that the. soldier may follow his actual trade of- fighting fight-ing with the greatest efficiency. And when he actually reaches the fighting front with his real fighting equipment he is comparable to craftsmen in other trades in that his fighting tools are more or less standardized and that success suc-cess or failure turns upon the quality of his tools and improvements in design de-sign and efficiency which give him a definite advantage over the enemy for the time being. The soldier on the fighting front Is not unlike a workman in n factory. Modern industrial production, under competitive conditions, seeks advantage advan-tage by standardization of equipment, large scale production and ceaseless activity in the Improvement of tools so that a little increase in output here or a little Increase In cost there W enable n given workman or factory fac-tory to outstrip competitors. The tools of war are standardized. Every army uses rifles, machine guns, fieldpicces. heavy artillery, aircraft. Popular imagination im-agination continually looks to some novel and unheurd-of Invention as a means of settling "the war. Actually, modern war is made with tools as standard as those of a shoe factory or steel works, and most of the inventive ability centered on those tools Is directed di-rected toward minor technical Improvements Improve-ments which will place better apparatus appa-ratus In the hands of the men on the fighting front and give them an advan- tnge perhaps only temporary over their competitors, the enemy. Tho en- 1 my. of course. Is just as quick as an Industrial competitor In , catching up with all advance'! In the art. and Is aNo fin active inventor and improver himself. It was along this great general trend of modern war, the making of better fighting tools, that the recent reorganization reorgan-ization In the ordnance department was carried out. When war was declared de-clared we had an establishment of military mil-itary men whose business It was to design de-sign tools of war. They not only knew liow these tools were used by the soldier sol-dier but kept track of Improvements In fighting tools In every modern army, and the almost dally changes In the way figlillng tools are used. That was their Job, and a highly technical profession. pro-fession. They corresponded In every |