Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Purchasing/Department, Under Adpiiral McGowan, Has Met All Tests Successfully—Centralization the Chief Merit, of the System—Complimented for Efficiency After 1 ■ ■////•.! Investigation by Congres can go and Watch nil transactions Km nip \n ‘os piusafcui I • i n oj ipn 1 ng t he tliousamlsyofi bids, received daily work in open view of any person vvlio \V;ipt* to enfer this room. - As fast as Ijjd ' tire opened 1 lie,amounts of each item lire posted In books and placed upon J*'l i counters. win 1 re anyone may examine them, learning all flip .'facts about the prices bid by competitors. Admiral Me(iow>m’s views on pub licity 'for eovmrfnnent ’ purchases an Y,ejy prop<mKced. “In I'mimling- other people's inojnw tldHraK^iJiust not '«nty he right, 1 ’ In j say<;—but tliPy nnnr lookjright.'’ And the best way of haviiig them look rigb’t in his belief,. Is to let the public supei J,Aise operations to 1 1be utmost rxfeTihj Only in war lias the navy found it necessary to keep any hiformatioii aldnit its .purchases eonJideiit in I, and even* in war secrecy is necessary for hut a very small fra<‘tion of the pur , elmsing, where 'knowledge of details inight afford assistance to the enemy Centralized purchasing with - a 1 well- planned organization..lias -made -It pos ; s'flde for the navy to increase its turn over niany thousand percent, hot iii/pb- ly wi.tiiouf Congestion or other dilli etilfjes, but with actual,, increase in ... jIIui ehb4wte$. As pw*4frt-iw* have.grown larger and more numerous They have been 'handled with greater speed and at imvo* first. — ' —; and ,tnad« them part of the organiza tion, ’ The navy needed steel fi)r war, thou sandsupon thousands of tons of it. for construction and other purposes. It got a steed expert* S: R. F'Utlcg, .w ho resigned from a big Chicago railway supply coneernmnd went to• work in the bureau of supplies and"•accounts supervising thy in lrase of structural 4feei forgings and eqs*tings for ships Washington.—A bustness- cconcern which can Increase its turnover i2,boo per emit in 11* months without radical Changes in thejthml would seem to, be a pretty sound organization.’ Amid all the expansion of govern ment activities due to war, with far- reaching /changes in methods of con ducting business, reorganizations, in crease in personnel, and addition of wholly new departments, one big busi ness agency of the government, .has changed not at all, -except In magni tude. That agency is tlifi bureau .of supplies and accounts of the nilvy, which purchases practInilly^v'erything required by the navy exeemXariJinr plate, guns, and shells. It f^edsNtnd clothes the nqyy. buys its stee», imV als, lumber, textiles, and cheinlcnH provides transportation .for the navy’s supplies, coals its sl.ilps, and pays its officers and 'men.. During the last year this bureau has been greatly en larged by the addition of new officers, technical experts from civil life, and clerical workers, .hut Its organization and', me+bods have fully met all tests of war and have required practically Benjamin ’l no change, says tin* New York.Times, chartering After thorough inv < ■ s?igation. ’con gress recently declared, this great busi ness office of the navy to be notable for efficiency, as wen as one of the biggest imsfness 'enterprises in tin United Stales.- There are two reasons for the effi ciency—an excellent business systeiq and an excellent business man, mlral McGowan, who first became It—Steel cargo ship Galesburg, T.btMt tops, launched at Mariner's'Harbor, Staten island. 2—Observers at Amer ican outpost station in Frame, projected by antiaircraft gunners. '3—One of-the great Handley/Ruge bombing ma Chines of the British air force, being prepared for. a raid. . .•■*',,* severed liis connection with a big’New York* stopping concehn for the period of the war. -."'fTinT^iortation* on land was taken over by < *. M. ..Ellsworth, who left a remunerative position with a Idg railway system .to enter Uncle Sam’s service. > The navy needed chemicals, and Donald Utley came front a large chem ical concern to take charge of tliis-de- Quality Safeguarded. ■’t And with growth . and magnitude there lias been every care to safeguard tin* quality of supplies purchased for ih«‘ navy. When we entered the war confusion existed la commodity mar kets, and .there was apparent sluud- age of wool and pjjjrr supplies. It was believed for a.time that navy specifi cations would have to •4-; f" ‘vis(‘d. with a lowering of qnalityX But the bureau o( sujqilijes’ and accounts took a deter mined Stand on that point. Very often in view of assumed conditions, it look ed ( like a stiff-necked island., agltinsr reasonableness. Despite a ^vhb*-spread belief among t'-xtile men \that .navy uniforms would have to .he mfide partly of shoddy, if the enormous. require ments were to In- promptly met-, -the b’urcjiU refused to consider any Iow>T- ing of its standards for uniform doth, and. through tin* department of agri culture, secured actual, figures regard ing the available" wool slock'in this country at that time. This survey not oldv proved that fh<-re was ample wool. Identified with tin partment: , It needed industrial ae- coimting, and a great- accounting ma chinery concern made nfrangements whereby C. 3. Ashdown took that ac tlvity In hand, giving all -fils time to the development of accounting sys tems, a’s the bureau's transactions mul tiplied'again and again. A department' to deal with foodsTuIts was provided under I-’. A. Tillman) another' dealing with lumber under C. M..Morjjqrd. and another dealing wWi leather and al lied materials under J-. W. McIntosh. The general 'standard ofTibility set by the navy for its civilian experts is that each man must be worth several times vv'liat the navy pays him in sal at\v, and that he must come into the organization for tin- period of the war nfisolu'tejy. “Outside talent With In- shle control" is the principle followed, and this has worked so well that the navy has never been obliged to seek advisory service 'outside its own or- •> -• <y swwm^iwav . i. WOa«»i a /■V/yW»>vv .vnooooo»»/X A ^OOCOOPCi KMUi XA.w^, may lie scattered over the world. Ships are provisioned in the West In dies, sailors are'provided witlr warm winter clothing fo‘r\dost hover .service In the. submarine zone around tin* Brit ish Isles, eofil is dispatched to ships In the Philippines, nitrates are brought from Chile, clothing is nthnufnetured In New York and Norfolk, stores are carried at innumerable points ready for delivery to ships at instant notice. Yet all activities center-in Washington, find navy supply business is pot( only- kept under tlie eves of a few execu- tlvos, hut is expedited by a line vvork- Ing spirit. Next to centralization and this film working-Kjdrit.-proltahly the most Im portant element in the‘system is pub licity lii dealing witli the supply- of the navy's Innumerahle needs. Under pressure of war other departments have found it expedient to set aside) the normal peace-time methods of pur chasing under competitive bids, but tin* navy has adhered to the ^rnuhod of open bidding, with full .publicity; on the principle that tin* public;, contrib uting war funds by taxation, has- a right to know exactly and in, the full est detail how its money is being ex pended. Another principle \Hm navy adheres to Is that war demands should be met by the peace-time system of purchase lng. Great as war ‘dem^anls nre, they call simply for an -iiutpensw in volume of business- not a change in the fun damental method of conducting' busi ness. If the method has -1a*en proper ly worked out .in peace, it will meet the exigencies of war. . in the country for military purposed hut-ybeektVl a wildly rising market. The same stand has been taken on food for our sailors, coal for battle ships, and practically every article re quired by the navy, “The best\tbat is humanly possible,'’ savs Admiral Met low an, ."is none joo MRS. IRA NELSON MORRIS BALDY OF NOME AND HIS SERVICE FLAG gi»od for the men jit'the front, wheth er they be In the army or.navy. /I hold myself personally accountably to every father, and every nvoil^-r, and every wife, and every sweetheart, that flic nn ii I have any supervision and • are over are ns well clothed and as well .fed as it is possible for them to he. I acknowledge- that as a personal responsibility costing on me. I freely aglwu*\' : le.tlge. it ; excuses are not ro- eeivublo, and w-li^bis are nbt"ncc< , pted. Wlml we want for Hie navy Is tin- SEEKS SERVICE FOR REVENGE \ Misses Kay and Helen Allan, daugh ters- of “Scotty” XThm,' driver of the ; finnojjs-Hrrrling team of dogs, with Bnldy of Nome, and ids fiu'g rejiresent- ing his 20 sons and^ggandsons now in i lie service on the Italian front.- 5 Lbildy was the leadey of the Darling- team, but'was too old for active'war service.- 1 Ills descondants are mnong the dogs that-have been •Invnl’uafii? in; carrying siipplies- and munitions to! Italian soldiers in the mountain j passes, especially during the' winter. Harold Bowen Savv “Red.’’ When He Heard Brother Had Been Wound ed in France. Sioux Falls. S. D.—\\ncn Harold Bowen of Hartford, S. D., was advised that Ids brother, William l’.owcn. had been wounded while on thr ..filing jine in* France wiili other A*m» rican troops', I A* Immediately conin'.cn<vd to see "re'd,."-and hastened to.Sioi\ Falls in an elTort to he assigned to'early serv ice in France so he could avenge the wounding of his brother. Harold Bow en. \vas. s.^-tivc draft man. and stood well down ihX|jst. lie aj'pealed to the local exemption w*ard ili.Sloux Falls and'begged to he accept ed into the service at once, out of his turn, in order that he could get to France with the least possible delay so he could kill a few - Germans. His plea was accepted by* 1liemein bers of the exeniplirin board, and young I’.pi\ en departed to undergv training m Camp Lewi’s, .Wash., pre- liminairy to being sent to the battle lihe in France. .- 1 Directed by McGovyan. If every institution is the length and shadow of one man, as Emerson said, then the hureau of supplies and accounts today rellccts tin* personality qf Admiral McGo'wan. When the hu reau transacteil Its affairs with 2S ju*o pie, lie knew them ill I, and they work ed under his eye every, day. helped by tin* optimism and energy wliidb he,ra diates. After a year of war. with his organization approaching 1.00b i>eople, he still knows them all and sees them frequently, arid maintains the original spirit of organization *by niakiqg un limited demands upon each individual for 1 work, according to his or her capac ity, with unstinted ’cotnmendation for all gooVl work, whether the Job be great or small. - When the strength of the navy was about 04,000 officers and enlisted men the bureau of supplies and necoluUs did all its purchasing and transporta tion through naval officers of the puy- m^ter’s corps. When war came, and activities Increased by several hun dred per Cent monthly, the^^"organiza tion wa»”lengthened by taking on about a dozen civilian experts from business life, men.who gladly resigned good positions and large salaries with prlyQte business concerns to don Uriel;* Saints unlform.and work day and night j nous qs a meat the comparatively slender salaries ! cheese can also be of Ti^jral officers. . j r>octor Kin suys that, she ^>tn«Vpurchasing departments of roquefort the government met their early problems. enlisting advisory com ffint(if*\usfness experts, who in vestlgnted gV en problems, outside compiled facts)-, made arrangements and offerM suggestions. The navy on the. contrary, took Its civilian ex ports in bodily, pat them into uniform EErntca Mrs. Inr Nelson Morris of (Chicago, wife of- the American minister ta Sweden, has been faking a rest in thu United States. The. reports funiisl+Ud the American- state department by her husband have kept the \Vi^hing- ton governmentfln close touch'not only with inside conditions In Gennahy, but with the swift chang<*s In the remark* able Russian, situation. ^Mrs. Morris has labored Incessantly td alleviate suffering In Sweden and rebontly was publicly thanked by King Gustave for her help to the destitute. . ONE REASON WHY THE HUN WAS STOPPED | On the top tldor of fill -Washington street, New York city, is one of the most interesting kiteheiis in the world, presided over by a (Chinese woman doctor. She recently* spent six months 1 in a trip to China to study and ana lyze the soy bean. Dr. Yamei Kin. for tifaf is.lnr name, says that the-protein coutulned in the soy bean is equal to that of. meat and is of great value to persons who'.cannot safety etib meat. It is a replacer of meat—a sort of vegetable cheese.- Jt forjns no acid, .it ( Th an alkaline form of protein. Coni-' T)lned with liash or any forpi of meat leavings it -R»rms a wonderful food for.diahetics. as the curd contains*no starch. When you eat "cho|r suey,", "chow mein" and other dishes in Chi Cliff Swallow's Revenge. L. M. Hollingsworth tells n stor^* of the way a cliff swallow treated a- blue / bird who had stolen Its nest: t "While making f iny home.With grandmother, an^""uncles told me the^ 'following incident in the life of the cliff swallows. jf>ne spring, on. re turning to their old home umjer, the' eaves, a pair of the swallows found their nest already in possession of a pair of'earlier blue birds. They tried Iq vain Mo drive them .mt. At last MOTHER .TAKES LIFE WHEN SON JOINS NAVY Memphis, Tynn.—When Mrs. • • Sarah Brewer, forty-five, mother m • of. Harry -Brewer, eigfileen, ^ heard that Harry , had enlisted • i <r in'"the' navy she exchiini.ed: • “A'ow I -have nothing to live ^ ci-.u ] * for *” nn<1 tlu ‘ n a > fa- <x made £op, them • t:i1 carholtc aci.l '' f can mnk cheese that smells war looks like the real 'thing. .She the whole -company Joined. Afte» reaching a decision, they formed a constant line of swallows from the horse jio'nd to.the pest, carrying a-lit ticket ltd *$jt-TnTrdr. : one btiflf his pellet Into the p^outh of the nest until they luol-the tdue bird that held tl)> nest walled up within It. Th€ best afterward became dislodged and fell with Jhe carcass of the bla« bird Still With; Football Team Enlists. says ; -—Rr-,r Tjoutw:—Th i h mtmrs; and all BHtlsh’ subjects, Unlisted tn a body-fit the local UrttlMi Canadian Recruiting Ml^slon h^adquayters. They 'comprise the membership of the Brit bdt-^mericjtn Football club of Spring This heap of empty shell cases shows Just a - part of the ammunition expended by one British battery In a few days’ ( fightlng on the French frojkf The allies have more shells than they 4«ed, for all their ammunition factonea «l,.kt ..j v v S' It) The bird had' died It .field; _I1L 1 are working night and day.