SHOPPING ABROAD FOR OUR ARMY 



IN FRANCK 



By Herbert Corey 



F 



"\OUR hundred shiploads of things 

 the American Army needs in France 

 have been bought in Europe. 



I know of no more blunt and uncom- 

 promising way of beginning this story 

 of a big job. It lacks color and voltage. 

 It really should be illustrated by a dia- 

 gram showing a procession of four hun- 

 dred tall ships sailing into a port in 

 France, each loaded down to the captain's 

 quarters, while a fleet of toothless U- 

 boats gives way to furor Teutonicus on 

 the side lines. That would bring home 

 to the reader what this achievement of 

 the Purchasing Board in France really 

 amounts to. 



Each ton bought in Europe lessens by 

 2,000 pounds the strain on the tonnage 

 line that connects the American Expedi- 

 tionary Force with its home t base. One 

 might go into the dollar feature of the 

 situation and show that each ship will 

 cost the American Government not less 

 than $10,000 a day, and that they will 

 average 60 days to the round trip ; but 

 that phase is relatively unimportant. The 

 essential point is that an enormous ocean 

 shipment, with its attendant risks and 

 delays, was avoided in this way. 



SHORTAGES IN AW DEPARTMENTS EXCEPT 

 THAT OF COURAGE 



The 400 shiploads only include the 

 material bought by the Army Purchasing 

 Board in France. A huge quantity of 

 other goods has been bought by the com- 

 manding officers of units, these- ranging 

 from the day's rations to footwear and 

 ready-made huts. Such purchases, how- 

 ever, are of the hand-to-mouth order and 

 only satisfy the moment's needs. The 

 greater purchase may be charged to capi- 

 tal account. The goods were needed for 

 permanent equipment. They are the 

 shelves and counters needed for Uncle 

 Sam's new business abroad. 



Every one now knows the conditions 

 under which the American army began 



operations in Europe. Some thousands 

 of men had been hastily gathered together, 

 herded on steamers, and pelted off to 

 France. Probably every one knows that, 

 thanks to our failure to take out insur- 

 ance before our house caught fire, this 

 first expeditionary force only outwardly 

 resembled an army. Seventy-five per 

 cent of the men were rookies ; some of 

 them took their first steps before a drill 

 sergeant on board ship. The bureau- 

 cratic chair-fillers at Washington, who 

 used to send men to Manila wearing the 

 clothes designed for blizzardly afternoons 

 on Skagway Pass, were living up to their 

 own best worst. There were shortages 

 in every department except that of cour- 

 age. 



In the United States every one became 

 busy — and talkative — at once. The col- 

 ums of good news about things that were 

 sure to take place, if nothing happened, 

 must have sent thrills down the backbone 

 of every good American. In France, 

 General Pershing had no time for prog- 

 nostication and hurrah. 



Persons who think they know com- 

 manding generals who have had harder 

 tasks than Pershing in this war are in- 

 vited to name their candidates. He was 

 not only responsible for those prelimi- 

 nary arrangements of a purely military 

 character, which will lead to victory later 

 on, but he was obliged to create overnight 

 a huge business organization. He be- 

 came the head of an enterprise that could 

 put the Standard Oil octopus in its 

 pocket and never feel it squirm. 



SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE 

 SITUATION 



The American army is 3,000 water 

 miles away from its home base, in a 

 country that is increasingly feeling the 

 strain of more than three years of war. 

 The number of Americans in France was 

 added to each week. 



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