THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



211 



U. S. Ami} Methods of Procuring and Salvaging Rubber Articles 



J>v John J. Camcro)!. 



THE TREMEXiKii-s DEMANDS of the Army during the war for 

 articles of rubber, numbering thousands of separate items, 

 were met, because the Army took practically the entire 

 capacity of all the mills in the United States, because at all 

 times the manufacturers of rubber goods gave the Government 

 their best services and did all in their power to meet the heavy 

 demands made upon them, and because of the great savings 

 made in salvaging articles containing rubber. 



ARTICLES PURCHASED BY CLOTHING AND EQUIPAGE DIVISION. 



The chief purchases of rubber goods made during the war by 

 the Clothing and Equipage Division, Office of the Quartermaster 

 General, Director of Purchase and Storage, which is charged 

 with furnishing all the clothing for the Army, were: 



Rubber bocls, hip t<^irs 



Rubber boots, knee t>airs 



Overshoes, arctic /'oirj 



Raincoats, foot (incIuditiK slickers and ponchos) 



Raincoats, mounted ■ . . . 



Oilskin coats 



Oilskin hats 



iilskin 



The difference in purchases and deliveries are accounted for 

 by contracts cancelled or in the process of cancellation. 



The reasons for these enormous purchases are largely ac- 

 counted for by the fact that the consumption in action is three 

 or four times that of the peace rate. The rule generally fol- 

 lowed in supplying i-'.^Mm—j wns that there should be for each 



» 



(Signal Corfs. A. E. F., U. S. .Ir.ny.) 



Rubber Rep.mr Department of the Salv.'vge Depot, St. Pierre- 

 DES-CoRPS. France. Here .\ll Rubber Goods Are Repaired. 

 The Men in the Background Are Repairing and Vul- 

 canizing Rubber Boots. 



man at the front a three months" reserve in France, another 

 two or three months' reserve in the United States, and another 

 three months' supply in transit. 



In supplying articles of rubber, which are matters of common 

 commercial production, however, the problem was not as diffi- 

 cult as compared with the making of gas masks, an article not 

 before manufactured. But the large needs of initial equipment 

 did put an enormous strain on the industries turning out rubber 

 goods. Of the different types of rubber boots purchased by the 

 Clothing Equipage Division, there were more than 4,000,000 

 pairs, costing more than $20,300,000, one-half of which were 

 purchased by the Clothing and Equipage Division since Jan- 

 uary, 1918. 



Supplying our soldiers with raincoats was a difficult problem. 

 As there was not a sufficient capacity in this country to meet 

 the requirements, practically all stocks of commercial raincoats 

 were purchased on the assumption that even a poor cover was 

 better than none. In October, 1918, for instance, when the 

 influenza epidemic was prevalent in the West, it was found that 

 there was a great shortage of raincoats made in accordance with 

 government specifications. As there was no one place in the 

 zone where commercial raincoats could be bought in large quan- 

 tities, it was necessary to go into the open market and purchase 

 these coats from jobbers, and retailers, large and small. Author- 

 ization was secured from Washington, and the San Francisco 

 Depot at this time purchased approximately 69,175 raincoats, 

 valued $280,462. 



The total purchases of ponchos, raincoats and slickers during 

 the war amounted to over 10,000,000 garments, costing $46,000,- 

 000. 



The lack of tonnage led to the adoption of baling garments 

 for shipment overseas as compared with the old method of 

 boxing them. By baling there is saved from 50 to 70 per cent 

 of the space required for cased goods. Nine and nine-tenths 

 blankets cased require as much space as 25 blankets baled, and 

 fifteen and one-half slickers cased require as much space as 

 45 slickers baled. 



Statistics recently prepared showed that this method of pack- 

 ing equipage, which includes all forms of clothing, such as uni- 

 forms, boots, etc., saved the Government during the war over 

 $50,000,000 in labor, time of handling, and ship tonnage space. 



ARTICLES PURCHASED BY MOTORS AND VEHICLES DIVISION. 



Next in importance to the purchases of rubber made by the 

 Clothing and Equipage Division were those made by the present 

 Motors and Vehicles Division of the Office of the Quarter- 

 master General, Director of Purchase and Storage. Exhaustive 

 tire tests were made from time to time and orders placed with 

 iTianufacturers who met the specifications. Tube and solid tire 

 replacements for overseas use were heavy because of the con- 

 dition surrounding operations of the vehicles. 



The total amounts of rubber material purchased by the Motors 

 and Vehicles Division of the Office of the Quartermaster Gen- 

 eral, Director of Purchase and Storage, from April 18, 1918, 

 when the procurement of motor vehicles, tires and spare parts 

 was consolidated in the Quartermaster Corps, and all the motor 

 vehicle procuring organizations of all the corps of the .Army 

 'rom April 6, 1917, to December 16, 1919, were as follows: 



Article. 



The cancellation of tires and tubes made u 

 amounted to 157,974 units, or 2.704.69 tons. 



COOPERATION OF RUBBER MANUFACTURERS. 



The second factor enabling the Government to obtain the 

 necessary products made of rubber was the cooperation of the 

 manufacturers who helped solve the problem by giving their 

 services and converting their plants. Crude rubber was sup- 

 plied to the factories through The Rubber .Association of Amer- 

 ica, Inc. The allocation of raw itiaterials was one of the chief 



