216 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
States had made their contribution it was not even possible to secure 
an adequate supply from China. Jam brought variety to the soldier’s 
ration, but the 26,000,000 pounds consumed carries a suggestion of 
monotony. Fifty-nine factories in the United States operated at 
emergency speed to supply the 94 million brushes needed, and China, 
India, Russia, and Siberia were drawn upon for bristles. The 
45,000,000 safety razor blades constituted a minor, but essential item 
of supply and recall the story of the negro trooper, who, finding a 
safety razor in the comfort bag which he received from some well- 
intentioned organization, was heard to remark, “I wonder what 
damn pacifist put that in.” 
Hospitals with 280,000 beds were made ready and available in 
France, and the amount actually spent for medical supplies was over 
$370,000,000. A single item covered. 300,000,000 tubes of iodine- 
potassium. In one month there were shipped 65 tons of surgical in- 
struments to France, and during the war ever 1,000,000 clinical ther- 
mometers were supplied. It is interesting to compare the estimated 
medical requirements of an army on a peace and war footing, a peace 
quota of 500,000 men being adequately suppled with an expenditure 
of about $9,000,000, whereas on the war basis 5,000,000 men necessi- 
tated. an annual expenditure of nearly $306,000,000. . In other words, 
the expenditure per man is about three and. one-half times as great 
on the war basis as during a period of peace. 
The problem of transportation of military supplies is obviously as 
important as that of their procurement. It is a matter of common 
knowledge that the railroad facilities of the country broke down 
under the strain imposed upon them and have, in fact, not yet re- 
covered therefrom. . However this may be, transportation from the 
terminals to the front must in nearly every case depend ultimately 
upon motor trucks, and of these the army had in the latter part of 
1918, 85,000, Had the war lasted until July 1, 1919, there would have 
been in commission 185,000 trucks, 30,000 motor ambulances, 40,000 
passenger cars, and 70,000 motor cycles. To them gasoline, of 
course, stood in the relation of powder to the gun and was latterly 
consumed at the rate of about 200,000 barrels a month, including 
that assigned to Army planes. For these there was provided a spe- 
cial redistilled gasoline, known as “257° Fighting Naphtha,” which, 
to avoid waste and misuse, was dyed red. 
However one may feel about the horse, the mule is generally re- 
garded as raw material. In two years the Army purchases of horses 
were over 800,000, and more than half as many mules were brought 
into service. For these fodder, feed, and veterinary supplies were 
obviously required in great amounts, and the former were, of course, 
derived directly from the soil. 
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