BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS. 489 



DISTRIBUTION OF SURPLUS WAR MATERIALS, EQUIPMENT. AND 



SUPPLIES. 



One of the most helpful services rendered to the States has been 

 the distribution of road-building macliinery, equipment, and supplies 

 from the surplus war material of the Army. The material, thus 

 distributed, has enabled many of the vStates to organize and equip 

 maintenance divisions to patrol the entire State road system. 

 Approximately $190,000,000 worth of property, including 30,000 

 motor vehicles, has been distributed. 



The largest item of these surplus materials delivered during the 

 past year is made up of shop machinery and shop tools and equip- 

 ment, the distribution of which has enabled the several State high- 

 way departments to equip shops in which motor vehicles and other 

 motor-driven macliinery, also received from the Government, have 

 been reconditioned and repaired. This shop machinery consists in 

 the main of lathes, tool grinders, milling machines, cutting machines, 

 planers, drill presses, and electric motors. 



Other major items received from the War Department's surplus 

 include the followdng, approximately in the quantities noted: 



80-poiind relajing rail tons. . 25, 000 



25-pound industrial rail do 10. 000 



Motor vehicles, including 1,118 Dodge touring cars and light delivery 



trucks - 5, 000 



Picric acid pounds. . 12, 500, 000 



TNT do 8, 000, 000 



Sodium nitrate do. . . . 24, 000, 000 



Ammonium nitrate do 5, 000, 000 



Of the picric acid received, approximately 8,000,000 pounds have 

 already been distributed. The explosive as received from the War 

 Department is put up in cartridges similar to commercial dynamite 

 and sliipped to the States for road-building and land-clearing pur- 

 poses at 6 cents per poimd f. o. b. Fort Wingate, N. Mex., Sparta, 

 Wis., and Edgewood Arsenal, Md. 



The nitrates are to be mixed vrith TNT at Sparta and distributed 

 from there to the States in the form of a modified TNT, which is 

 also to be used for road building. The nitrates received, when mixed 

 ^vith the TNT, will produce 37,000,000 pounds of a very satisfactory 

 explosive. 



The department has secured a ruling from the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission permitting the shipment of surplus war materials, 

 except motor trucks, to be made as contractor's equipment, second- 

 hand. This ruling has reduced the freight charges assessed the States 

 to a considerable extent and has encouraged the Western States to 

 make larger requisitions. 



In addition to the material distributed from the excess stores at 

 camps and arsenals in the United States, there are now being retm-ned 

 from Germany and France 150 motor trucks, 23 Cadillac automo- 

 biles, and 3,000,000 pounds of spare motor vehicle parts, shop 

 machinery, and machine tools. 



