APRIL 1, 1923

HE following are extracts from the final report of the retiring Assistant Secretary of War, J. Mayhew Wainwright, dealing particularly with e problem of industrial mobilization:

The problem is to insure, so far as oresight may provide, that our industrial stallishments and factories may be preared upon the outbreak of war, to nas rapidly as possible from their ace-time tasks to the production and reation of those things that shall

have the primary call and preference upon their facilities for production. This call and the load so placed should be, however, so nicely adjusted that the essential needs of the people shall be disturbed only so far as is necessary. Much of these requirements can be met without great dislocation of business or industry -that is to say, the

Final Report of Retiring Asst. Secretary of War J. May

hew Wainwright

clothing subsistence and other elements of supply which do not differ essentially from peace-time requirements generally.

But with munitions and aircraft and related supplies-that is to say, with those elements of supply furnished principally by the Ordnance and the Air Service-it is another matter, those being all of a special nature and requiring either the diversion, transformation or the great extension of existing or the creation of new facilities. Here, as well as elsewhere, difficult and complex problems arise. The effort must be to insure the acceleration of production to the utmost extent conformable with the size and rate of mobilization of the man-power. Every factory, every industrial establishment must be induced to get into its stride of maximum production at the earliest possible moment, thus, and thus alone can the new levies be expedited through the training camps and forwarded to the theatre of operations-equipped to meet the needs of the military situation, and thus alone can the necessary flow of munitions and materiel be maintained to the commanders in the field. Roughly, there are three great elements of supply: Those things which the

ordinary or current productive capacity of the country can be relied upon to furnish; techni

cal supplies such as munitions and aircraft; the strategic materials-namely those not produced in sufficient quantity within the continental limits of the United States. such as nitrate, metal alloy, tin, rubber, platinum, tungsten and the like. The end to be sought must be to insure that the production curve in each or as many as possible of the essential elements of supply shall meet the curve of the induction

of man-power into service at the earliest point of time. It may be interesting to note, indeed

it is of almost ominous import, to have had revealed that in several essential features of the Ordnance program it will be many, far too many, months, after the declaration of war before we can hope that the production curve will meet the mobilization curve; also it is probably needless to say that a far more serious situation confronts us with regard to the production of aircraft and their accessories. Indeed, the cold fact is revealed that it may happen that it will be many months after the declaration of hostilities before we may reasonably hope to cope successfully with a more enterprising or provident foe.

The above outlines briefly the progress made to date, and indicates the status of the work. In brief, we have prepared the plans for the organization in the War Department necessary in event of a major emergency; we have practically completed the calculation of the requirements for such an emergency in terms of finished articles; we have laid down the general plans for the decentralized operation of procurement outside of Washington. I feel confident that all the steps taken have been based upon very careful study of our operations during the war and are thoroughly sound in prin. ciple. At every step we have been guided by the records of the War and have consulted those men (both officers and civilians) who were actually in charge of these operations during the war. While only actual test can definitely determine their efficacy, I am very confident that they would meet such a test satisfactorily.

I do not want to give you the impression that this work has been completed. There is still a great volume of detail planning to be performed. The calculation of requirements is not yet complete nor have these requirements been translated into terms of material and labor required. The finished plan will not only be reduced to these terms but the requirements for them will be distributed geographically through the logical industrial districts and a very full study made of each one of these local situations in order to avoid the congestion in labor, power, transportation, housing, etc., that existed in several areas in the last war.

I have been led to the conclusion that the real value of such a plan lies in its ability to arouse and maintain interest in it. and its problems, in the minds of the personnel, both military and civilian, (Continued on Page Sixteen.)

F

ROM stories that have appeared in the various service publications I am forced to believe that the majority of outside training suggested for Reserve officers has been in one particular branch. It is agreed that any plan for special training is excellent and provides the means of keeping up interest in the Army, as well as the means of training.

We, in Seattle, believing that an officer's value to his country in her hour of emergency lies in his knowledge of the service, have adopted the idea of meetings twice monthly and have solved to a great extent the problems of instruction and enthusiasm. We are busy men, yet we give these two nights voluntarily until Congress passes legislation giving further assistance to the Re

serves.

Our first problem was attendance at the meetings. We solved this by providing for rapid assembly rosters in regiments. By this system all officers are reached by telephone, no one officer having more than four telephone calls to make. A few days before our meeting the executive officer calls up the adjutant and the commanding officer, the adjutant calls four staff officers and each of these calls four others, battalion commanders, etc., previously designated. The battalion commanders notify their adjutants and so on down to the last subordinate. In this way we have kept our attendance at all meetings from fifty to a hundred.

We found it comparatively easy after we had our attendance, to provide something to keep interest up. For instance, many officers during the war made their regular Saturday inspections by walking around and looking wise. Going into the kitchen, they lifted the lid of the ice-box, perhaps, and sniffed. Of course, none of the men in the kitchen were expected to know that it was a two to one shot that the officer would not have known had something been wrong. Many good officers who were ranked above average got by on an intelligent look without knowing what the Government titled to when it purchased supplies for the mess he was inspecting. How many company commanders knew that the neck of a beef should be cut off perpendicular to the vertebrae, leaving three vertebrae on the car

was en

Seattle Sector Holds Meetings Twice a Month; Various Subjects Are Discussed

cass? How many could tell by looking at the carcass on the block whether it was that of a bull, stag, steer, ox, cow. heifer or spayed heifer, or that there should be no more than twenty-five pounds difference between the weight of the hind and fore quarters? How many knew they were entitled to and insisted upon getting the same kind of hind and fore quarters?

Knowing the general deficiency along this line due to lack of instruction, we held a meeting at the local Armour plant. Colonel Mathews, a regular officer on duty with the Reserves and who has made a special study of the ration, addressed us. This lecture was on fundamentals. The entire plant was turned over to us and after the lecture the evening was devoted to practical demonstration in the refrigerating plant. Not one of the 75 officers present left without having learned a great deal about what had been a dark mystery to him before. The writer felt that each officer was worth after that meeting at least a year's pay more in case of war.

Each session is devoted in a similar

Are These Fair Questions?

manner to the thorough study of some subject. We always have as lecturer the best man available. We have had offcers here from Washington or from Corps Headquarters who were on inspection tours. We have called on the Commanding General at Camp Lewis, on the Commanding Officer at Fort Lawton and upon the Military Department of the University of Washington for specialists.

During the earlier meetings when we studied nothing but the fundamentals we had papers prepared by our own Reserve officers. These papers, after five or six had been completed, were subjected to a critique lasting fifteen or twenty minutes. Our lectures are mimeographed and not only make a valuable library for future reference but enable the officer who has been so unfortunate as to be absent to make a study of it.

During the eighteen months that this series of meetings has been conducted we have covered a multitude of subjects, including Functions of the General Staff and the Working of the War College and the Staff School; Gas Development since the War; Trains and Operations of the Medical Department at the Front.

These meetings have been so instructive that not an officer of the sector does not feel that he is much more valuable to his Government than if he had relied entirely upon the inadequate summer training. The proof of the interest taken lies in the fact that no officer will remain away from a meeting if he can possibly avoid it.

How do you do it?

Second Corps Reserve Officers Active

Colonel Peter Murray, G. S.. Chief of Staff of the Second Corps Area, will address the regular meeting of Quartermaster Reserve Officers of New York City on "Army Discipline and Courtesies" on April 5, at Governors Island. Lieutenant Colonel Walter A. Dempsey, Q. M., O. R. C., is one of the leaders among the Quartermaster Reserve officers of New York, and these meetings were instituted primarily to give demonstration work, lectures and instruction.

Meetings are now being held every two weeks. On April 19. Colonel Charles McK. Saltzman, Signal Corps, will speak on "Industrial Preparedness.."

T

HE training of any lot of horses

can hardly be called a system. To train them properly each individual horse must be handled more or less differently. In parts of the training they can be handled alike; therefore, I will not dwell on any so-called system, but will give an outline of the care and training of ponies in general together with some observations with regard to civilianowned ponies. These impressions will comprehend breeding. type and sex.

The thoroughbred blood undoubtedly dominates on the polo field. I first noted this among the better ponies at Meadowbrook owned by civilians. Each time they showed a good one or one that had played in one or more International matches, it was always a thoroughbred, or at least three-quarters thoroughbred. Then I noticed, as the Army ponies trained, that the thoroughbred ponies always came back sooner than the other breeds. When they were injured they responded to treatment so quickly that it was remarkable how soon they were again in condition to play. If they were tired at the end of a game they were not the ones to turn their tails to the feed box and look gaunt and dejected the next morning, but always came out with their heads up, looking for more polo.

When we came to the fast, horse-killg. heart-breaking games of the final it was the thoroughbred that had the stamina, endurance and determination to go on the field for three of the hardest periods on horseflesh over seen on a polo feld. It is not surprising to me that the public and the press commented on the wonderful showing of the Army ponies. as these ponies had more thoroughbred blood in them than any collection of Army horses ever accumulated in this country. This fact proves again that the Remount Service is progressing in the right direction in using the thoroughbred horse in its horse breeding activities. Of course, the skeptic will say, "Why breed all polo ponies" but it must be remembered that this same breed, same type horse and size horse is the wonderful little Waler who accomplished so many remarkable tests of endurance in the British Army in Palestine during the war. The average size of the Army ponies was about 15.2; average weight about 975 pounds, in playing condition. The average conformation was the big barrel short-legged, stocky kil, with good fronts. short backs, and straight legs. No crooked, hocked,

By Lieutenant

THOMAS H. MCCREERY

splay-footed or calf-kneed horse can stand this game. As to sex, it is noted that the temperament of mares is more adapted to this game. Of course, this is not always the case, but the mares have the much higher average.

As to training-it has been noted that the Army and civilian ponies in former years have been trained by having the grooms walk and trot them from one to three hours per day. This system may be all right for an endurance test or old style polo but the game has changed to a hit and run proposition and to be in the game at all, it is necessary to have fast horses. So, in order to have speed in a pony, he must have strength, health, good wind and some flesh on him. These things cannot be developed by slow, dragging exercise, so I have in mind two strong principles in training a polo pony. They are-give him just as much work as he needs, but save his strength. Therefore my general average of a day's work when the pony was not to play in a game was first, to put a man on him, preferably the officer who is to play him, then walk him five to ten minutes, trot five to ten minutes and canter from fifteen to twenty minutes. On the day before a game, or if the pony has not been played for some time, he should be given two or three bursts of speed for a short distance during this gallop, to develop his wind. My reason for having the pony ridden and not led alongside of another horse is, that he has to carry weight in a polo game, and must become accustomed to it. My reason for not keeping the pony under saddle for more than twenty-five or thirty minutes is to save flesh, as flesh means strength, and strength means speed. If the pony has played a hard game the previous day, I would have him led out at a walk, then have him

trotted up and down to see if he is sound, then carefully examine him for any cuts, bruises or injuries, examine his feet for soundness and shoeing. then let him eat grass for one-half to an hour, and put back in the stable to rest for the next game. On the morning of each

game, all ponies were walked and trotted under saddle for twenty to thirty minutes. Only one pony out of the forty-seven head did I find it necessary to train according to the old method. This one was a big hardy, but extremely nervous mare. As to feeding, each horse, while in training, was given all he would eat. Some would eat only seven or eight pounds of grain while others would eat as much (Cont. on Page Fifteen)