THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



209 



enter into competition with her slender 

 purse. It would neither be wise nor, as 

 Americans say, "decent." 



So a formula was worked out for the 

 buying. It might be stated something 

 after this fashion: 



"Save tonnage today if we can pay 

 back tomorrow ; mortgage the future. 



"Always give the fighting forces the 

 first chance. 



"Ladies first." 



Some one suffered from a constriction 

 of the imagination when the body that 

 does the buying in Europe was named 

 the Purchasing Board. It is libeled by 

 so tame and commonplace a title. Its 

 members make purchases, to be sure, but 

 that is only one phase of its activities. 

 Now and then it lapses into diplomacy. 

 It negotiates with European labor and 

 adjusts the American machines and ways 

 of doing things to continental men and 

 women. It is in the manufacturing busi- 

 ness. It is turning over every shop in 

 neutral Europe in search of raw material. 

 And it all began in the mildest way pos- 

 sible. 



GENERAL PERSHING'S BIG TASK 



General Pershing began it, of course, 

 for in the army all things begin and end 

 with him. One reason why his job makes 

 such a tremendous appeal to the imagina- 

 tion is that it is this sort of a job. He is 

 not only creating an enormous business 

 organization, but he is catching the men 

 to run it. Sometimes he does not catch 

 the right man, and then he has to take a 

 few minutes off to catch the wrong man 

 and fire him. But an organization is 

 being created. When it gets on its feet 

 it will stand comparison with any organ- 

 ization in the world. It would be folly 

 to say that it can stand alone today. 



"I must have coal," he told the man 

 who is today the chief purchasing agent. 

 "Go out and buy it." 



I have promised the chief purchasing 

 agent that I will not use his name, but it 

 is only fair — to the army — to say that he 

 was the head of a great bank in a great 

 mid-western city. He was a business 

 man, too, of the sort who is not afraid 

 either of money or men. When the 

 United States went to war he volun- 



teered. He is still, praise be, a business 

 man. 



When he came into Pershing's office he 

 was probably told to sit down and have 

 a cigar, and asked if he had seen any 

 U-boats on the way over, that being con- 

 sidered a neat conversational opening in 

 France nowadays, and before he could 

 answer he was told that the American 

 army needed coal and that it was up to 

 him to get it. 



HOW THE PURCHASING OFFICER ACHIEVES 

 RESULTS 



Well, he got the coal. But before he 

 got it he negotiated with two European 

 governments and the heads of some 

 European labor. He had to find a way 

 to have ships commandeered, not having 

 any handy way to commandeer the ships 

 himself. There was even talk of reopen- 

 ing some of the coal mines that France 

 has temporarily abandoned on the central 

 plateau because of a lack of labor, but 

 that plan was given up for various rea- 

 sons. 



The whole secret of the job was that 

 the American army had to have coal. At 

 the moment there were 6,000 tons on 

 hand; 10,000 tons were owing to the 

 French Government; there was none in 

 sight, and winter was coming on. That 

 was a standard condition in all lines dur- 

 ing the first days of the American activity 

 in France. 



The chief purchasing officer and his as- 

 sistants got the things needed because 

 they know how to hustle. I was in his 

 office one day when a major, whose name 

 and millions have been a Sunday feature 

 in New. York for twenty years, came in. 

 The outlines of the feature have not 

 changed materially. They consist mostly 

 of dollars. 



"I'm out of a job," said the major. 



"Go to French headquarters," said the 

 chief purchasing officer, "and get some 

 stuff out of storage." 



Before the major was out of the room 

 the stenographer was telegraphing head- 

 quarters that the appointment of Major 

 Money as liaison officer at French head- 

 quarters was desired. The appointment 

 came back by wire before the major got 

 to French headquarters. That is the sort 



