Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1916 — WASTE BECOMES A HABIT [ARTICLE]

WASTE BECOMES A HABIT

French Officials Save $150,000 a Year by Tracing Army Custom. Paris. —A weeding out of unnecessary governmental expenses takes plaoe in the chamber of deputies every year when the report of the audit office is distributed to parliament. Usually a score or more of conspicuous cases in which the public money has been wasted are selected by a committee which investigates them. A member of the committee on economy spent several hours endeavoring to find a reason why ammunition was sent to the front in zinc-lined cases. The other members of the committee and the minister of munitions were not able to solve the problem, so two members of the committee accompanied a box of cartridges from Vin. cennes to the front to ascertain the reason for the zinc. None was forthcoming, but after numerous fruitless interviews with army officers the general in command of the Fifth army hit upoif the reason. The zinc had been used for sixty years around ammunition boxes and no one had ever thought to take it off. As a result an order was issued doing away with the zinc lining. As the zinc in each box is worth nearly $2 the savings during the war amounts to almost $150,000 a year. v