Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1917 — BLAMES GEN. CROZIER [ARTICLE]

BLAMES GEN. CROZIER

Col. Lewis, Inventor of Machine Gun, Testifies. Declares Ordnance Bureau Has Always Been Hostile to His Weapon Browning Gun Untried. Washington, Dec. 24. —Col. Isaac Lewis, inventor of the machine gun which bears his name, in testimony before the senate military affairs committee, blames General Crazier for the failure to supply guns to the American forces now in France and declared the war department is “cursed with Crozierism.’ ’ Preceding Colonel Lewis, E. E. Borle, president of the Savage Arms company, which manufactures the Lewis gun, told the committee that even after the United States had entered the war the army ordnance bureau had refused his offer of thousands of these guns, which were eagerly snapped up by the navy. Colonel Lewis was even more graphic in his description of official ineptitude in the War department and more bitter in his denunciation of it. “The responsibility for these shameful conditions rests on the ordnance bureau,” he said, “and General Crozier is more responsible than any man living for the present obsolete and inadequate equipment of the American army.” Among other statements made by Colonel Lewis were these: “The American forces in Europe have no guns except those they got from France. “The Browning gun, which was adopted by the: war department, exists only on paper and is a figment of the imagination. “The ordnance bureau has always been hostile to Lewis guns; it has regarded them with suspicion, notwithstanding thousands are in use in Europe.” Colonel Lewis said that although his gun had been offered to the United States free of royalty and other charges, the influence of General Crozier in the department had been sufficient to cause the offer to be rejected. He said he is ready now to end the controversy and will make further efforts to have this country adopt the use of his gun.