Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 162, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1917 — TACKLE GREAT PROBLEMS OF WAR [ARTICLE]

TACKLE GREAT PROBLEMS OF WAR

What Members of Advisory Committee of Defense Have Undertaken to Do. BIG MEN GIVING SERVICES Co-ordinating the Industries of the Country So That Each Can Render the Limit of Its Potential Bervice to Government

By EDWARD B. CLARK.

Washington.—Probably a thousand times a day this question is asked by visitors to Washington: “What Is the Council of National Defense?” It is apparent also from letters that are received in the capital that the exact nature of the council and of its great advisory committee is not generally nor thoroughly understood. The Council of National Defense itself consists simply of six cabinet officers, the secretaries of war, navy, Interior, agriculture, commerce and labor. The advisory committee of national defense, which is affiliated with the council, consists of a commission of seven business men who, with the departments assigned to them, are' as follows: Daniel Willard, transportation and communication (president Baltimore & Ohio railroad), chairman. Howard E. Coffin, munitions and manufacturing (Including standardization) and industrial relations, vice president Hudson Motor company. Julius Rosenwald, supplies (Including clothing, etc.), president Sears, Roebuck & Co. Bernard M. Baruch, raw materials, minerals and metals, banker. Dr. Hollis Godfrey, engineering and education, president Drexel institute. Samuel Gompers, labor, Including conservation of health and welfare of workers, president American Federation of Labor. Dr. Franklin Martin, medicine and surgery, including general sanitation, secretary General American College of Surgeons, Chicago. All Freely Undertaken. Upon these men devolved the task of so co-ordinating the industries of the country that each and all, figuratively speaking, could render to the government the limit of its potential service at the pressing of a, button. Less than 100 salaried persons are working for the government under the advisory committee of national defense —of the members of the committee Itself only one or two have even rendered expense bills. From 400 to 500 men, whose Incomes from their business ranges from $5,000 to more than SIOO,OOO a year, are giving their services to the government that the United States may perform its share of winning the war against Germany. The vital thing at first was to ascertain the needs of the country, to learn the things industry must supply to put our soldiers into „the field and keep them there and to supply the needs of ourselves and our allies. A dozen major subjects instantly suggested themselves when the business men began to put their heads together:, the best use ,to be made of the railroads, both for the transportation of troops and of material to keep our industries going and our citizens fed; the part the waterways should play in

the scheme of transportation; the mobilization of. military and industrial resources; the increase of agriculture and manufacture to meet the abnormal demands incident to war; the building of ships, and the compilation of an enormous mass of data from which any reasonable question wTii reference to military and Industrial capacity could be answered. Railroads and Telephones. Already the 230,000 miles of railroad in the United States havq been virtually commandeered by the advisory committee, which, through Chairman Willard, can issue to them more arbitrary orders than President Wilson, under the most drastic law, probably would care to issue. This is a voluntary service of the railroad and admittedly possibly is Intended as in answer to some of the railroad criticisms in congress. One man also now governs the telephone—Theodore N. Vail, president of the American Telephone and Telegraph company. For the first time in telephone history regulars and independents are working side by side for the good of the country, More than 10,000 miles of wire have been set aside for the special use of the army and the navy and some of the other departments. Modern methods for using tlie telephone are being introduced and new systems Installed, one of which will cover completely the signal service in the field. Washington is being taught how to use the telephone properly and a new central office with a capacity of 10,000 lines is being provided. In the mobilization camps and among the lighthouses and coast guard stations new telephone facilities are being created, requiring 300 miles of submarine cable, 300 miles of pole and more than 13,000 miles of wire. The soldiers of the National Guard who are guarding railroad bridges and water supply systems have been i>ut in touch with headquarters. If secrets could be told, the story of the extension of the telephone service in the navy would make the people sit up.