Evening Star Newspaper, January 24, 1931, Page 4

eclares U. S. Department Eventually Supplied Best Materials in War. BY MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CROZIER, . 8. A, Retired. (World War Chief of Ordnance.) Gen. Pershing's account of the war be incomplete without a state- ent in regard to the shortage of mil- supplies, of all king entered the war, and he correctly laces the responsibility for this short- on the whole people of the United tates, which is where it belongs. The names of those responsible were ym, Dick and Harry. They were the verage citizens—the people who are jow refusing to let the country make ny commitment for preserving .the in a quarrel not our own—while fia price of peace was, and still is, an ffort, an expenditure and a risk. ‘The theory of representative govern- t, however, places the charge of all ch matters immediately upon Con- ‘ess and the administration, and these ncies of the people, to the extent, at t, to which they are expected to be eaders and not followers of public y popular in military preparation, if ich criticism is due in any official uarter. Picture Not Overdrawn. After the European war was in full rogress the administration discouraged arnings of military unpreparedness as {ng hysterical and inconsistent with neutrality “even in thought,” hich had been enjoined, and, through e mouth of the Secretary of State, 3t decried even reasonable defensive easures on the ground that they ht be taken as an indication of our tention to take part in the war. Gen. ing's general picture of unpre- ess 1S not overdrawn, but cer- details, concerning matters for hich he was not responsible and in to which he could not be ex- ted to be closely informed, require er explanation or correction. His concern over the shortage of flield lery was keenly shared by myself, ho, as chief of the military depart- it charged with its design and pro- ent, had been making anxious forts to forestall the shortage years jore Gen. Pershing was assigned to ds, with which | hog far the command of the A. E. F. I could fill & volume with ons from my ports and from my hearings committees of Congress in which had been setting forth our lamentable lack of artillery, the fact that it was the most unsatisfactory feature of our mumr‘:uwly and the long time that would be required fe ment of deliveries upon any orders that | might be given in an emergency. As far back as January, 1906, I stated in my hears before the Ap g tions Commi of the House, in re- gard to an item for fleld artillery in the annual estimates: “I would like to say, in connection with this item, that | it is & very important one, because this material is of a class that cannot be procured on short notice. It takes & | great while to build these guns and to build the carriages and to get the am- munition for them.” I followed this | appeal up each year, and in mfi hear- | ings of January, 1011, I said: “Nothing is perhaps more striking than that, as we make some progress, it is impressed upon us how slowly we are ninl. and d again, we have yet to go.” “I do not think we could count on got- | ting a battery delivered in less than a year from the time the order was given'” The failure of response to these con- tinued representations left us under the necessity, described by Gen. Pershing, of securing from our associated powers the greater part of the fleld artillery | requirements for our Army in Europe; | | but his aécount does not stat~ clearly | | the manner in which this assistance was obtained. It would be a natural inference from the portion of his narra- tive relating to this point that his staff for the commence- | had been léft to find his Army faced with an impending shortage of essential | equipment, from which it had to extri- | cate itself as best it could by appeal to | the Prench authorities. Doubtless Gen. | Held 3-Inch Guns Here. i | The fact is that, before action by the | board of his staff officers whose ap- pointment. he mentions, I had arranged with M. Andve Tardieu. the French high commissioner in Washington, for the supply of the most important items of artillery equipment and ammunition | to our troops. as they should arrive in | France. When ‘M. Tardieu informed me | of the ability and desire of the French government to supply this equipment, the artillery of the 1st Division was in process of loading on transports for shipment to France, and I had to make a quick decision relating to the confu- slon of ammunition su{mly which might result if the ist Division and others to follow were to have our 3-inch field gun, while others would have the similar, buf | not, identical, French 75-millimeter. I | had the 3-inch guns unloaded. kept all of that caliber in this country for the training of new troops, and directed that all new manufacture should be of | the 75-mm., with ammunition inter- | | changeable with the French. | " M. Tardieu was so well satisfied with [ Pershing did not intend this inference. | n8S THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1931 the arrangement made, which permitted the profitable employment of available ch mi capacity, that he forwarded to his government a state- ment for the press from which the following are extracts: “An_important agreement has been concluded between the United States Government and the French com- missioner, Monsieur Andre eu. Ac- oovm{n:o!m, o s two “h.lp.lm e adop princ| eces of material of French , the 75« mm. fleld gun and the 155-mm. rapid- fire howitzer. . . . The negotiations taken up for the first time at the end of May were characterized by two ideas. On one hand the American Government wished to adopt the quickast solution, in order to realize in the shortest time the complete armament of its forces. On the other hand, with great foresight they attached particular mportance to realizing, for the American and French armies, called to fight on the same bat- tlefields, uniformity of munitions, as of capital importance from a tactical point of view. Mr. Baker, Secretary of and Gen. Crozier, chief of ordna the American Government, have given proof in this case of the broadest spirit of comprehension and decision and have succeeded in a few weeks in se- curing for the American sroops artillery of the first order. Our high commis- sioner in Washington speaks in un- bounded praise of their co-operation with him." Output During War. Gen. Pershing mentions that, with | & few exceptions, no guns of American manufacture were fired by his force in battle. This statement, though true, As to machine guns, one can but sympathize with Gen. Pes 'S anx- ety over the poor prospect for sup- ply of these important weapons to his learned that he might ,nofl Hotchkiss machine guns lairly serviceable Chaucat automatic rifie. In his narrative he scores not only our deficiency of store, but the al- lowance of the organization tables which failed to recognize, as did the tables of the Germans, the development of the efficacy of these weapons following the Russo-Japanese war. The general him- self had a close look at that war and doubtless his reports, emphasized the lesson of the machine gun; but the failure to profit by the lesson is a re- sponsibility of the general staff and not of the Ordnance or any other supply department. In his analysis of con- ditions affecting machine gun supply of the period perceding our entry into the war, he shows that he was not accurate- t | ly informed, as was natural, Jince this subject was not ithin his province. Machine Guns Ordered. In two places the general states that there had been such acrimonious con- troversy between the Ordnance Depart- ment and the inventor of the Lewis machine gun as to result in failure to reach a conclusion which would war- rant the manufacture of machine guns in quantity by the time of our entry into the war. cellent machine gun. known as the Benet-Mercie, had been adopted in 1908 and was in the hands of all the troops ly does not give a correct impression of |of the Ref American artill production. At the time of eur engg into the war there were -only two establishments in the | ilI. United States cl‘p.ble of manufactur- ing artillery, including the steel forg- i these were occupied to ca- with orders from our associates. It was not deemed good policy to dis- place these cvders for the use of ar- mies aroa confronting the enemy with our own requirements, and we proceeded to enlarge the two existing plants and to set up six new ones for the manufacture of arullery forgings and seven for fashioning the forgings into finished guns. The output during our participation in the war comprised over 14,000 gun forgings, a large number of other ar- tillery components, and 2,000 complete artillery uni , carriage, limber, etc., which were supplied for our own forces and those of our associates. The 2,000 American guns amounted to about 85 per cent of the total number of guns in action in the A. E. F. during the war, although only 800 of the 2,000 were shipped abroad. and these largely to other forces than our own. The ar- rangements made, including notably the delivery of forgings to cur associates, facilitated such supply to our own troops as to prévent any shortage on the firing line during the continuance of hostilities. WoopwarD & LoTHROP 10™ 11™ F aND G STREETS Now You May Have a Complete Eye Examination By Our Registered Optometrist—at No Additional Charge to Making the Glasses To ‘meet the growing needs of our clientele we have inaugurated this new service of eye-examination by a competent optometrist, who will prescribe for you. This is but one of the many services our tical Section offers you—and all of which carry Woodward & Lothrop’s assurance of perfect satisfaction. newly enlarged These Are the Services We have a large selection of smart frames We fill our own, and other opto- metrist’s optical prescriptions ‘We prescribe—without charge We grind our own lenses al made against its efficiency. Also, ai improved machine gun, the Vickers, had been adopted in 1915 after extensive tests, and orders had been placed for its manufacture to the extent of the then available funds, some $190,000. But the first appropriation of any sig- nificance with reference to the great numbers of machine guns which were concluded to be necessary for the World War was the $12,000,000 mentioned by Gen. Pershing, which was carried in the On the contrary, an ex- | act of Al 1916. It was this ghnon ‘which the general mind, as there was delay of some four months in placing orders under it, but because of failure to adopt & new gun, which, as stated above, had been done in 1915. curred t my strong recomme! tion, and was in extreme solicitude to give every consideration to the Lewis n and prevent any reasonable ground or dissatisfaction at its treatment. ‘The “acrimonious controversy” was over the relative efficiency of the Lewis claimed that the Lewis gun should re- place. As to the merits of the contro- versy Gen. Pershing, in his narrative, assumes a detached attitude, although he had previously held a more itive opinion, as evidenced by the following extract from a Jetter forwarding reports of test to the War Department: bt gl reports are further evi- dence that in the extensive tests made in the southern department, the Lewis machine rm has failed to_demonstrate its supe; ity over the Benet-] gun in so far as its lulubm for use with the machiné gun tion of Infantry and Cavalry regiments is con- cerned—John J. Pershing, major gen- eral, commanding southern department, 1”?91’7‘?‘ Houston, Tex.” (Dated March The controversy effected the improve- | ment of manufacture of the American- | made Lewis gun until it equaled in effici-ncy the English-made gun which was supplied to the British forces, after which it was extensively purchased by the Ordnance De, ent. In review- mame subject after the war, the Sec- fel :y of War made the following state- ment: “Whatever may have been the teach- ings of mechanical science,”the results of shop and fleld tests and the logic of the machine gun controversy before the war, the war itself had completely de- war, the war itself had completély dem- onstrated the correctness of the posi- therefore, nothing left uninvestigated, of inquiry the Secr:tary of War is happy to assert, as part of the record of Gen. Crosier,” his confident approval of his entire course in the matter.” About 180,000 machine guns and gun and the Benet-Mercie, which it was | g and in denying the request for a court | needed any assistance sutomatic rifles of the various types used in our service were manufactured in the United States during our partici- tion in the war, which was greater the number manufactured by the British during the same period, not- 'lf-hxtandty our handica) start. Our rate ‘manufacture to the armistice reached 25,000 guns per month, which was twice that of the Prench_or the British, of our Browning to be such that the French applied for the purchase of a supply for the’armament of their own oross. The French supplied our troops with Hotchkiss machine guns and Chaucat automatic rifies until the end of ril, 1918, when we had something over 300,000 men in Eu- rope of the 2,000,000 ultimately sent May and June of that year afmed 84 ‘were with Chaucat automatic rifles, but they had America; in-made Vickers machine !unm went over. after lune Browning machine guns and Browning automatic rifies, and by the date of the armistice enough Browning guns of both classes had arrived in France to equip all the American forces, although the change was not completely made from the guns which they were using because of ths extremely active opera- tlons which were going on toward the end. Had Plenty of Rifles. ‘The one feature of supply of fighting material for our forces which we can look back uj with cheerfulness is, fortunately, it important man’s rlfle‘.n.g; make any to rifie supp! me?l'yod' “l‘ bl and h its really deplorable shortages e om| to take comfort from the fact that no soldier was delaved five minutes in sailing for Europe by lack of & modern rifle, and that, having recelved or TOm our 8sso- ciates, his Army nevcr at any time suf- fered from shortage of rifles in the theater of war nor from the threat of such a shortage. The 285,000 Springfield rifies men- THE ‘Those were all armed with American |80y tioned by the general as issue at our entry into gether with those then in the troops, ht h Enfleld rifie brought about such rapid augmentation of supply that if a ‘c men were sent abroad without sufficient training in rifle practice it was for other reasons than lack of rifles to train them with. Decisions made by the Ordnance Department t op- position of some bitterness certain influential quarters — in regard to changes in the British model produced uniformity of tst‘.’: British rifle as to make it & worthy to, and ready gone beyond my I have not touched upon though e upo . If any one has the unusual interest to lead him into further examination of the provision of ~E fighting material for the A. E. F, h can_ find in my book, “Ordnarnce of the World War,” published in 1920, an account of the embarrassments under which the Ordnance Department func- tioned during and before the war, and the way in which they were met. I {l:fle to hil&ve’nnt a mdc:h i be with the feeling that the depart- ment and its officers had done their de- v best with the resources available and that, where Ame; sources 5 rtunities from our assoclates, offered good luck, were seized by good management. Perhaps I can best rest the department's case with the claim that it so developed the country’s field of talent and industry as to place in the hands of our troops the best infantry rifile, the best machine |gun, the best automatic rifle and the best pistol which were used in any service, on efther side, in the great war. (Copyrignt. 1931, by Noith American News- paper Alliance.) SHOW ammunition with the | ingfield and such improvement in |two REPORT PUTS DRY ISSUE TO FORE, LEWIS STATES Senator-elect Says Wickersham Commission Helps Make Ques- tion Dominant in 1932. By the Associated Press. TUSCON, Ariz., Hamilton Lewis, it elect from Illinols. ed told an audience at the Universfty of Arizona Thursday the Wickersham ~_report “contributes to make the prohibition question a domi- nant issue in the presidental election | of 193: “The Wickersham Commission after years of study.” he said, “brings forth a report of nine conflicting parts, | none giving relief nor promise of remedy for present restrictions. “The final result of the work of the commission is to throw the subject back to the States for separate State action on the basis of home rule.” . Colored glass windows, to give a light that renders blood indistinguishable, is being tried at Michi, State College as a cure for cannibalism in chickens. The Winton-Stanley 1411 Harvard St. N.W. Four Rooms, Kitchen and Bath Reasonable Rentals Telephone National 5000 For immediate delivery of The Star to your home every evening and Sunday morning. ‘The | | Route Agent will collect at the end of each month, at the rate of 11, cents per day and 5 cents ! | Sundsy. Two Fine Cari_ WITH NEW BEAUTY - NEW PERFORMANCE NEW LOW PRICES When you visit the Automobile Show this week, you will be impressed by the beauty and smart appear- Note—The charge for grinding lenses, or for any of the optical supplies (frames, etc.) may be placed on your regular sccount. ance of the new Oakland Eight and the new Pontiac Ormicar Srcriow, Fmst Pioor Six. They are two fine cars. Aftractive styling is evident in their bodies by The Style Authority of the Screen Fisher and in their pleasing front ensembles with “V" radiator and in-built chrome-plated screens. Fashion News in Sound and Color New comfort is achieved by spaciousness, balanced design and complete rubber cushioning at Being Shown at the Earle Theater—Found Exclusively at Woodward & Lothrop We have the identical hats leading movie stars are wearing and that are being shown this week in Fashion Fgeatures at the Earle The- ater. Miss Marian Marsh is shown in this Lilly D’Ache model of Wol- vis, in yellow contrasted by a piping and bow of black patent leather. $15 Mriinvery, TemD FrLook. more than forty points. And both of these General Motors products are , fine cars to drive—Oakland, with its smooth, 85- e Converttils Coupe horsepower V-Eight motor, and Pontiac, with its- big Pontiac cars available alsoin Custom Sedan, Sport Coupe and Convertible Coupe body types. PONTIAC IN WASHINGTON s770'5“ for the 2-Door Sedan, equipped and delivered. Coupe, $770.50; 4-Door Sedan, $840.50; Sport DELIVERED $840.50. These @akiand cars available also in 4-door Sedan, 2-door Sedan esd Conpdboty tpden: 60-horsepower motor. Both cars are offered at new low prices. Their value is further increased by such features as five wire wheels at no extra cost. IN WASHINGTON B() fo, the 2Door Sedan, equipped 399 WU and detivered. Coupe, $995.50; o 31678507 Casiom Sedans Coupe, $81050; C Sed /] Co , $1075.50; t N P . y .50 ; te DEEIVERED: £ e540:" Gonvertibls ' Conps Your dealer invites you to learn by demonstration SIMIT Convartitle. - Casge, $1095.50. These cors are fully equipped—even : These cars are fully equipped—even front and rear bumpers, extra tire, tube, ani ront and rear bumpers, extra tire, tube, and tire lock are included. Five wire wheels are how capably these fine cars can serve you. tire lock are included. Five wire wheels are standard equipment. standard equipment. \ Monday—Talk With Miss Katherine McClure * The Butterick Pattern Expert About Your Spring Wardrobe From Monday to Thursday of next week she will be in our Pattern Department to answer your dressmaking problems. Miss McClure will analyze your type, give you advice about selecting patterns and the right fabrics for them, and show you how to adjust the patterns to your individual figure. Monday PATTERNS, SECOND FLOOR. MAKING NEW FRIENDS AND KEEPING THE OLD L. P. STEUART, Inc. Temple Motor Co. H. R. King Motor Co. Alexandria, Va. 514 H St. N.E., Washington, D. C. Jesse M. Gue Prince Frederick. Motor Co. Damascus, Md. Prince Frederick, Md. Warner Motor Co. Dick C. Weaver Pence Motor Co. Waldorf Motor C%:~ Annapolis, Md. Culpeper, Va. Manassas, Va. Waldorf, Md. THE NEW PONTIAC IS ALSO ON EXHIBIT AT THE RIALTO THEAW SCARETEEIRIPEIN I UBRETIANIII S 301 L i S Service Department 1119 21st St. N.W. Central Garage LaPlata, Md. Southern Maryland Garage Upper Marlboro, Md. Blythes Garage Lanham, Md. New Car Department 1401 14th St. N.W. General Auto Truck Co., Inc. 2100 Virginia Ave. N.W., Washington, D. C. Paris Auto Service, Inc. Carpenter Motor Co. Quantico, Va. Madison, Va. Tuesday Wednesday Thursday . 1 4TI BRI PRT 11457145 0