New Britain Herald Newspaper, January 3, 1918, Page 5

NEW BRITAIN DAILY HERALD, THO IN CAMP SUPPLIES t_tEisenman Plfilame for Lack of Uniforms on Quartermaster | Washington, Jan. 3.—Blame for the shortage in uniform and blanket Y equipment of army training camps ~gwas put by Charles Fisenman, vice chairman of the Supply committee of the Council of National Defense, upon the Quartermaster General's ment, in evidence before the Military Affairs committee. Mr. Bisenman, who was put through a severe examination, defended his own committee against any delin- quency. He maintained that the Sup- ly committee, of which he is the ac- tive head, had carried out the work of pareeling out contracts and hurry- ing the manufacture of equipment, but that the Quartermaster General's de- | partment had failed to get. the equip- ment to the camos. ' Although sufficient blankets had been made to supply all the men- in camp, Mr. Bisenman said, the Quar- | tarmaster General's department blun- dered in shipping too many blankets | to some camps, while others had none. | The department, he said, was also at fault in not having informed the Sup- ply committee as to exactly how many | uniforms would be needed, this caus- ing delay in getting the uniforms man- | ufactured, | Senators questioned Mr. Eisenman | about contracts given to various mem- hers of the Supply committee the wit- | ness testifying that nearly all of them | _were engaged in supplying the govern- ment with equipment for the army Senator McKellar brought out that the Supply committee members did not vote on contracts in which their firms were directly interested. The Tennessee senator paintedly | ' ked Mr. Eisenman if the Supply committee members had avoided vot- ing so as to keep from violating Sec- tion 3 of the food law, which forbids “voluntary or paid agents"” of the gov- ernment from particlpating in any government contract in which they are fiancially concered. Mr. Eisenman let Senator McKellar know that he resented the insinuation Wthat the members were trying to “con- veniently dodge the law,” as.the sen- ator put it. He defended the Supply committee against any suggestion of favoritism in the award of contracts to its members, At one point in the evidence Mr. Eisenman became aroused over ques- tions about why the army contracts had been allowed to lag. He said he welt that the scnators were unjustly insinuating Inefficiency and favoritism in the Supply committee. “The insinuations of senators here are unfair and uncalled for,” he ex- claimed, heatedly. “T don’t think it is fair to let such stuff go upon the record as has been given before this committee in the last few days.” The witness was led into an ex- pianation of the activities of the Base Sorttng Plant in New York, one of the owners of which is Ira I. Kap- lan, brother of Samuel Kaplan, chief advisor to Mr. Hisenman on the Sup- ply committee. Mr. Eisenman insist- | ed that the rag-sorting plant was not a “grafting” outfit, as had been inti- mated by witnesses before the com- | mittee, and that he had approved the contract under which it operated. Mr. Flsenman said the Supply com- mittee had made purchases for the army agsregating $800,000,000, “What I'd like to know,” inter- rupted Semator Hitchcock, “is why, | with a country of such vast resources as ours, asd such tremendous produc- .tion, we have been umable to equip 1,300,000 men with clothing, over- coats, and shoes. T cannot under- | stand it | “There has been no shoe shortage,” | replied Mr. Eisenman. | “Well. at least thousands of pa of shoes supplied don’t fit the sol- diers’ feet,” commented Senator | Hitcheoek. “It cannot be denied that ® there has been a serious shortage in | uniform and blanket equipment. Deaths have resulted ia some of the | camps and have been laid, by some, to lack of sufficient clothing in the severe weather.” “Well. when more men were calied out for service than had been antici- s ‘pated and they had to be equipped, something had te bappen, and it did | happen,” replied Mr. Fisenman. “A shortage had to come somewhere. If we had known last May that w would be called upon to equip an army of the size that was called, we would have done it without delay." “When were you informed how | . many men you would have to equip?” | " Yasked Senator Hitchceck. “We were never officially of it.” “Well, don’t you think it was your | job to see that there was adequate equipment. for every soldier?” de manded Senator Wee “Wasn't that the job vou had?” “It was the job of the Quartermas- | ter General's department, the | reply. Senator Frelinghuysen remarked that the Supply committee ought to have made sure that the men had adequate clothing and blankets, “Well, if the Quartermaster Gen- eral points out the greatest need there would not have been any shortage,” answered Mr. Bisenman. “I donm't like to criticise the Quartermaster Ceneral, but that's a responsibility T cannot assume. In some camps there were as many nine blankets to A cach man, while other camps had ¥rone. Now, there was something wrong with the shipments of those blankets—that's cvident.” Senator McKellar wanted to know if Mr. Bisenman was financially in- terested in any contract for army sup- plies. The witness replied that (ie Cleveland Worsted Mills, of which he | is a stockholders, had two contracts, aggregating $570,000, to supply wool. | ‘I never sed the purchase of | depart- senate ] }. informed | was) B | of the | mittee | Mr YARGES BLUNDER BRITISH “CAMELRY” AMMUNITION TRAIN RESTS DURING AN ADVANCE IN PALESTINE | = Copyright gz Undérwond & Underwpod | is | resting in the dried-up bed of a river | This camel ammunition train before onc of the battles that punctu- ated the advance on Jerusalem These camels had a goodly share of the glory in the British victories in i the Toly carried most of the ammunition across long, stretche: of desert, whe other means of transportation did not exist. Land. They no part in making the contracts,” ex | plained Mr. Eisenman. “But the contracts were let by the Supply committee to your firm?" “Yes, that's right.” “You assume responsibility for these contracts Senator McKellar asked. “Yes, but the Depot Quartermas- ter's department at Cleveland had placed the orders with the firm be- fore I knew anything about it re- plied the witness. “T had nothing to do with getting one contract.” The two contracts, the witness ex- ined, called for 100,000 yards, each, liting material. The profit to his firm was approximately $30.000 on the two orders. “Now, did you know that congress passed a law at the last session, pro- hibiting any agent of the government from dealing with himself in govern- ment contract work?” demanded Sen- ator McKellar. “I knew that Mr. Eisenman. | “With the full knowledge of that | vou permitted that contract to be | made between your firm and the gov- ernment?" “The contracts were made by the Supply committee. 1 have already explained that I took no part in them whatever."” “Well, how did you get around the law 2" : | “There was no ‘setting around’ | about it. We let contracts of that | character every day.” | pl very wel replied that's what this committee 1ts to know about: it's quite tm- portant,” commented Senator McKel- Vlar, “I'll tell you anything yvou want t( know about it."” replied Mr. Eisenman. Senator McKellar asked if any con- tract for government supplies had bacn let to Jacob H. Brown. woolen manufacturer and member of the Supply fommittee “Oh, yes,” replied Mr. Bisenman. “And when that happened he step- | ped aside and let the rest of you fix it for him?" pursued Senator McKel- lar, “If you call it ‘fixing,’ the reply. i A. L. Scott of the International Cot- | ton Mills, another member of the Sup- ! ply committee, Mr, Bisenman said, | had contracts to supply cotton duck | to the army. ) “And he stepped aside and let his conferees on the committee hand him the contract?” a Scnator McKel- | lar. “Fle conformed us did Another member committee to whom a contract was let was Mr. Turner, the witness said; he got orders for cotton duck. Mr. enman testified that many contracts with members of the Supply committee were let at prices 30 per cent below what they could have got in the opensmarket. “What do members of your com- get from the government 2" asked Senator McKellar “We get a dollar a Mr. Eisenman, “Incidentally too.” “That's true.” Brook Stevens of the United States Bunting company was mentioned as another member of the Supply cem- mittee who had a contract with the government Trelinghuysen interrogated Fisenman as to the character of manufactured for army uni- He said he had been informed because of a reduction in the welght of cloth American troops had been sent to France with uniforms 27 per cent inferior to those worn by the British and French “Do you feel that the American troops ought to be as warmly clothed as the British and ¥rench troops?” asked the senator “] felt all along that we ought to give them the best procurable ma rial regardless of expense,” replied Eisenman jeneral Pershing seemed safisfied with the uniforms supplied our men. The cloth have been supplying has been of ex- | cellent quality It we used all waol | ves,” was to the law, as all of of the Supply year,” replied | you are getting con- | tracts, we the wool from that company and had i in making it we would run out of | the committee some Senator wool before we got all our army sup- plied with uniforms. And I want to suggest that attention be turned to our producing all the wool we can next year and the year after. We are going to need all we can get.” Senator McKellar remarked that tsere appeared to be a “deplorable lack of co-ordination” between the Supply committee and the Quarte master General's department, Mr. I enman insisted that his commitieo had done all it could to convince the Quartermaster General's department of the necessity of supplying uniforms and blankets for the army going abroad and in camp “More than once I urged heavier cloth for the uniforms,” Mr. Eisen- man testified. “But I never got any action, because the Quartermaster General was apparently satisfied with General Pershing's approval of the lighter uniform.” When enator McKellar suggested that the Supply committee ought to have seen that uniforms and blankets reached the training camps quate quantity, Mr. Eisenman put the 1 | | | | | | in ade- | hlame on the Quartermaster General's | department, “The. needed,” he testified. work in the dark. “Well, it was vour job to find out,” insisted, Mr. McKellar. “That’s uncalled for replied Mr. Eisenman. “I want to tell this committee that I'm not deal- 1% in dry bones. I'm dealing in flesh ad blood facts. I'm going to scenery “We bhad to and unfair,’ “We don't care anything about the enery,” joined Mr. McKellar. Stick to facts.” “I'l not be shut up; I'll committee the whole thing," Mr. Eisenman. “The witness ders closely on Week Both Mr, Eisenman Kaplan, his chief advy the operation of the plant in New York. Senator Wadsworth reminded Kaplan that the Quartermaster Gen- eral'’s department 1 canceled the rag centract after Captain Pearless of that department had investigated the profit mado at the 6-cents. pound price fixed in the contract June. Mr. Kaplan asserted that brother's firm knew nothing of investigation by the tell the insisted is irascible and impudence,” snapped Samuel defended sorting and ser, base Mr. 15t his the didn't tell us how many were | give bor- | Quartermaster | motor and will run for hour: . 246 Main St. and that its ac- all profit was General's department tion in relinquishing purely voluntary “It was part of the contract that no or not Mr, matter if the price was 6 cents what, the profit to be made, was to exceed 1-2 cent a pound, Kaplan MINISTER INVENT FLYING TORPEDO | GOAL S PLENTIFOL BUT HARD TO GET Problem One of Tr?ansportation, Gouncil of Defense Says This is the eighth of a series of articles on America's war preparations secured from offi- cial government sources by the Connecticut State Council of Defense. These articles, two of which are given out each week are as complote and Informa- tive as military requirements will permit. The United States produced in 1917 something like 675,000,000 tons of coal. This is a ten per cent. sain over 1916 and a twenty-five per cent. gain over 1915. The coal shortage is a problem of transportation There is always plenty of coal { 400 times as much of it under these United States right now as we and our ancestors have dug out in the last 100 vears. And there are coal mines -7,000 mines and 70,000 ven in the unprecedented vear of 1916, the productive capacity of the mines was 100 million tons above the actual production. In 1915, a good year, the 5,600 soft coal mines of the country worked only 203 full days in- stead of 300, and produced two-thirds as much coal as they might have p-o- duced. The difficulty is to get the coal to the right place. The solution of this difficulty is what the consumer fs principally payving for when he buys his winter coal. Half of his coal bill ! goes for railroad transportation and for hauling through city streets. An autématic clock work torpedo for i boats has J. The flying enough chasing and g been invented Thomas Glynn of Reaver a fish torpedo will loop the loop and dip the dip under sca. The wings and fins and work. The buoyaney are used as diving rudde are by clock rudders give support to the torpedo. These and flap like the wings of a bird or {he flying fish, and make the torpade T or dive insom lever werk- ing automatically ithin the torpedo. The torpedo is propeled by soline side and rise controlled wings or by a GOTHA RAIDER FELLED IN ‘This Gotna raider recently bombed English towns, but it was brousht | wreek. to | the the new It is the moving of coal, not mining of it, that gives the big Fuel Administration offices most their work to do Distribution is the thing. administration concerns itself, di- rectly, with nothing else. Produc- tion is left for the Washington cffice to handle. But the Washington of- fice, too, is mainly occupied with get- ting coal from one point—generally @ siding in a railroad yard-—to another | point--say the furn of a hospital, {he bunkers of i scout cruisc:, or tho coal box of one of the *‘Hundred Neadiest Cases.” If the ill and the made to suffer, or should make only 23 knots would mean many or if anything goes wrong with heating plant or engine ENGLAND The state needy the scout ecruiser knots when 30 lives saved, anywhore A s ministration that it do xomething im mediately—and preferably to the rail- roads: There has been sufficient cc at railroad terminals to lend color to the frequent charges that the railroads are responsible for the coal shortage. But the' real cat of the trouble goes bevond the railroads. America’s system of coal vproduc- jon and distribution is wastefui 1t wasteful, for instance, for the N braska farmer to ship coal from est Vi in place of buying the smo- kier a dustier coal that Kan produce Americ travagant of resources, especially of tion. But the coal i Railroads estion o d 's national use ot fuel 1z ex- It is wasteful, not so much of mine labor, and ton-mies of transporta- and rendered a evokes great soldiers ground It British the complete among it is fundament- manufacturers rdustry and examining should he | some | miners. | of | | the great | the | nave shaped themselves to the exist- | Ing state of the industry. To make ny radical changes in the coal trade i would be to throw the whole machin- lery out of gear. | Hence the Fuel Administration con- jcerns itself not with opening new | channels for the coal trade, but with | keeping old channels stretched wide jopen. In most cases when the re- | sults it obtains fall short of perfec- | tion. it is idle to try to pin the blame down to the Fuel Administration, or ! to the railroads, or to any other sin- gle element in the situation. That the Fuel Administration is shown by these facts; That the Navy and the transports have been getting all the coal they need, and of the best quality, that the cantonments and munition factories are kept well supplied, and that the railroads in | this time of the world's great need are carrying much the greatest traffic of their history. CHANCE FOR MARRIE All Those Who Are Dissatisfied May Join Georgia Man’s Company. A regiment of dissatisfied men is the suggestion that has come married from Rome, Ga., to contributo to the gayety of nations and relieve the ten- sity of feeling which absorbs ecvery { zood American now that a realization has come of what the war will really mean to the United States. The French, with their wonderful humor and inexhaustible wit in the face of death, have taught the world that fun and the most sublime patriot- ism can live together, and it is no dis- credit to Americans that the element of humor enters into the war news as it has done in other countries. A prominent gentleman of Rome, Ga., whose name is withheld for very ohvious reasons and whose wife is said to be a strong woman, announced the other day that, inasmuch tha con- scription law is unfair to married men he was going to raise a company of dissatisfied benedicts. Ho is said to have got so many re- cruits in response to the call for vol- unteers that his wife calied at his of- | fice and solemnly informed him | the joke had gone quite far enough. | PRESIDENT PRAISED. London, J: President Wilson is Wconomist as “the man who can ex- press clearly and without bombast the fine ideals which are the real war aims of the Allies.” The article sav: that, had such a spokesman been found carlier, the sympathy and sup- port of Russia might permanently have been enlisted on the side of the Allies. The paper asserts also that President Wilson agrees with Lord Lansdowne's much discussed state- ment that the Allies have no desire to deny to (jermany her place among commercial communitie: world. “We find,” said the I nomist, “that well-informed opinion in praised by | the city is very strong on this point— gestion is likely to reach the IFucl Ad- | would be very difficult if not impossible, to impose an economic boycott on Germany in time of peace. Such threats have the unfortunate ef- fect of stimulating the v interest of the commercial classes in Germany when their instincts and interests im- pel them so strongly toward the rea- sonable peace that President Wilson offc that it COMPULSORY LENDIN Auckland, New (Correspondence). taken the first step sory lending. the house of representatives provides that persons with ta 3,500 and more must subscribe to the war loan three times the total amount which they pay in land tax and income tax. There are also provisions for penalizing persons who had not sub- Zealand, New Zea toward 1 has compul- scribed to the previous war loan, coping with the problem successfally | that | A bill which has passed | ble incomes of | 'AGCUSE DENTISTS ' OF LAW VIOLATIC i Warrants Are Issued and Sery on Doctors in State Hartford— Police, Superintendent s Thomas F. Egan, was Ed 10 warrants to serve on dental pry titioners in Conneeticut who are leged to be unlicensed. The warrants were issued complaint by the Connecticut Der association that the act regard practice of denistry was being V] lated in many parts of the state, ¥ liam A. Lockhart of Hartford was first to be served with a warrant. The others for whom warrants issued are: George W. Fisher, Brid port; Vincent D. Bldridge, Norw! Georgo W. Gregoire, Moosup;: Ge B. Najame, Togrington; Harry Reynolds, New Haven: H. f. New Haven; W. A. Fosdick, Seyma C. W. King, Waterbury; Mrs. Frank§ Ryder, Hartford. Local police ald the state police in placing the den under arrest and most of them given hearings in town court row. of aft Prisoncrs Felp. Wethersfield —That there is a stre patriotism in the hearts of all the § inmates of the sigte prison at Wel ersficld was shown at a meeting the board of directors of the insti tion when it was announced that 3 inmates had become members of Rer Cross in the recent drive and paid §1 each became enroll Further, the Italian inmates scribed $288.15 to the Italian war lief fund which was forwarded Washington and later acknowledsg] by the Italian ambassador. In add tion to this the Jewish inmates rais $105.50 for Jewish war relief whi was forwarded to and acknowled. by Jacob F. Schiff of New York. is thought that the Connectlcut i tution is the first of its kind in 1 country to show its patriotism in way and it is especially appreciated thase in charge of the conduct of t place as it is accopted as a very poi ed indication of the regenerative }| fluences of the liberal treatment prisoners and the henor system. T money all came from earnings of t inmates in the institution. = Coroner Investigates. Waterbury-—Coroner John T. M ani began his investigation today the death last night of William Ci ford, 18 years old, of 76 South V strect, a railroad brakeman, crush to death between two cars wh coupling them in the yards of t Scoville Manufacturing company T coroner will visit the scene of the tality, inspect the cars, and exami witnesses. loons.” close 1 the oth| Bridgepor president associaty “Close the Lridgeport—When they saloons, the theaters, and houses of amusement in said Rev. 1. A. Burnes, the Bridzeport Pastors' “in order to help in the { of coal, the churches of the | do their part in the movement.” ol | ernor Holcomb has asked all ehurch to enrtail services to save coal MAY RETUSE GAS. London, Jan. 4 (Correspondence). Numbers of motor cars in this city a being converted into gas-driven ve cles. So many men are engaged this work that it is probable the go| ernment will take steps to forbid use of gas as a propellant where P trol licerses have been refused.