AGREEMENT FOR THE EXECUTION OF THE RIFLE CONTRACT. Agreement made and concluded this 12th day of July, A. D. 1917, by and between the Winchester Repeating Arms Co., of New Haven, Conn., a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Connecticut, by J. E. Otterson, vice president and general manager, party of the first part (hereinafter called the contractor), and the United States of America, represented by William Crozier, brigadier general, Chief of Ordnance, United States Army (hereafter referred to as the contracting officer), acting by authority of the Secretary of War, party of the second part. Whereas the undersigned parties have this day executed a certain contract entitled "A contract for the manufacture of rifles," contemporaneously herewith and upon the express conditions of this agreement: Now, therefore, in consideration of the execution of said contract, said parties do hereby agree and covenant to and with one another as follows: (A) The specifications, drawings, and sample rifle referred to in said contract having not as yet been finally approved by the Chief of Ordnance, it is stipulated that said specifications, drawings, and sample rifle shall not be attached to said contract until approved by the Chief of Ordnance, and when approved shall form part of said contract as though attached thereto at the time of the execution thereof, subject, however, to modifications and revisions as provided for in said contract. (B) It is further stipulated that, upon such approval by the Chief of Ordnance of the specifications, drawings, and sample rifle, the contractor will use his best endeavors to the end that the deliveries of rifles provided for in article 9 of said contract shall be made in such numbers and at such dates as may be required by the Chief of Ordnance. (C) It is further stipulated that the specifications and drawings submitted on or about June 1, 1917, which are attached to and form a part of this agreement and which have heretofore been the basis upon which the contractor has proceeded in the performance of the work covered by said contract, shall, until the specifications, drawings, and sample rifle referred to in paragraph "A" of this agreement be approved by the Chief of Ordnance, govern the manufacture, inspection, and delivery of rifles, and form the basis upon which payments to the contractor shall be made by the United States. 66 (D) It is further stipulated that the cost of all materials and supplies (but not of machinery) furnished by the United States Government shall be added to the contractor's approved bills and considered as a part of actual cost" for the purpose of determining the basis on which to calculate the 10 per cent of profit and for this purpose only, and is not to be otherwise considered as a part of "actual cost" as the term is used in articles 12 and 14, or elsewhere, in said contract. (E) It is further stipulated that this "reasonable rate of interest' provided for under subdivision "C" of article 12 of said contract shall not exceed 6 per cent per annum. (F) It is further stipulated that the tax clause in paragraph "B" of aricle 12 of said contract is understood to except and not to apply either to any franchise tax or to any Federal tax on income, capital stock, profits, munitions, or the manufacture thereof. In witness whereof the respective parties hereto have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first above written. Signed and sealed in the presence of— WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS Co., By J. E. O'HERSON, Vice President and General Manager. Attest: Attest: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ARTHUR W. EARLE. Brigadier General, Chief of Ordnance, United States Army, Contracting Officer. NATHAN HAZEN. THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1917. CONVERTING NATIONAL GUARD CAMPS INTO CANTONMENTS. (See pp. 335, 406-420, 501, 568.) STATEMENT OF HON. NEWTON D. BAKER, SECRETARY OF WAR, ACCOMPANIED BY BRIG. GEN. TASKER H. BLISS, ASSISTANT CHIEF OF STAFF. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary, it developed in the investigation of the estimates that approximately $74,000,000 was requested to convert the National Guard camps into cantonments, and the committee understood from your statement that the guard would occupy them for only three or four months and probably after that they would not be required. It was desired to obtain such information as was available as to the necessity or desirability of this expenditure. Secretary BAKER. The original intention, Mr. Chairman. at the time these estimates were made was to convert all of the National Guard encampments into cantonments, on the theory that a much greater length of time would be required by those troops in their American camps. Later information and fresh studies of it and fresh information from the other side changed our mind about that to this extent: We now feel that a very much briefer residence in these camps by the National Guard can be foreseen, and for that reason we think it is not wise to convert the entire sixteen national guard camps into cantonment form of construction. We can not say with certainty the maximum length of time that any of the National Guard camps will be used, and it is not impossible that weather conditions may make it highly desirable to change some of them into cantonment form of construction, although that does not now seem likely; but it is determined to frame and floor the tents to some extent and make some other improvements that will make them a little more permanent and comfortable than if they were simply tents cast on the march. So that the original intention is not now adhered to. I sent you a letter, Mr. Chairman, on that subject which you probably got. The CHAIRMAN. It has not yet arrived. Secretary BAKER. Perhaps I can just read that into the record. (The letter referred to follows:) Hon. J. J. FITZGERALD, AUGUST 11, 1917. Chairman Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives. MY DEAR SIR: Referring to my recent hearing before your committee on the urgent deficiency bill, now under consideration, in which I stated in effect that it was not the policy of the War Department to convert the 16 National Guard divisional camps into cantonments, I desire to make further statement for the information of your committee as follows: It is not expected that these camps will be occupied by the National Guard for any extensive period, and therefore the expense of converting them into cantonments would be unwarranted unless they were to be occupied by other troops. It is expected that some of the camps may be occupied part of the winter and others until spring. It will therefore be necessary to prepare some of the camps for winter occupancy. It may also be necessary to construct other cantonments than those occupied by the first draft of the National Army, in case a second or third draft for the National Army should be necessary before the first draft has completed its training. In case such additional draft should be required the cantonments for its shelter would be required in the territorial districts from which the draft is made, and therefore the present camp sites of the National Guard would not be suitably located. While it is not desired to convert the National Guard camps into cantonments, funds for the construction of cantonment shelter will undoubtedly be needed, and also for fitting out a number of the National Guard camps for winter occupancy. The cost of preparing a National Guard divisional camp for winter occupany will be approximately $308,613 per camp. The number of cantonments which will probably be required in the next five or six months can not now be stated. I therefore have to request that the sum submitted in the deficiency estimate under the item "Construction of cantonments at National Guard camps," as it appears in the urgent deficiency bill now before Congress, be allowed to remain as necessary for the purposes cited above. Very respectfully, NEWTON D. BAKER, The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary, the estimate does not come in that form. It is divided among a number of separate items aggregating all told, my recollection is, about $74,000,000, and the impression I had from some statements made was that these National Guard camps had been located so far south as to enable these men to be trained regardless of the season of the year without any change. Secretary BAKER. That is true. The CHAIRMAN. Then what particular change is necessary for winter occupancy? Secretary BAKER. The training was with reference to weather conditions out of doors marching long distances and pitching temporary camps on large maneuvers in the field and had not anything to do with the form of residence which could be used for their more permanent occupation. The CHAIRMAN. I do not understand it yet. Secretary BAKER. We put 40,000 troops in a camp, and that is their home. They may be there three months; they may be there six months; they may be there nine months or a year. Now, where men are living in a place like that, it requires a more permanent form of residence construction than if that division were ordered to take a march of a week's duration and maneuver over a large area when they would simply pitch their tents from night to night. If they are going to be there throughout the winter, they ought to have a home to which they can return which will be more comfortable, easier heated, etc. The CHAIRMAN. Did not the estimate for these camps include provision for wooden floors in these tents in the permanent camps? Secretary BAKER. I do not know that it did; but if it did, it was an underestimate. The CHAIRMAN. That is not the information before us. The information before us is that the additional expense is due to the fact that in a cantonment they put in a very much more extensive system of sewerage and water and lighting, and so forth, which is not true in the camps. Secretary BAKER. I could not answer that. If the Quartermaster General has told you that the original estimate included the item of flooring for these canvas tents, then, of course, his information is accurate about it; and if the money has been spent in putting in sewerage systems and water systems in the cantonments, then the use of it in that way has created the deficiency. The CHAIRMAN. No; it has not been done yet, because I inquired about that from them. The work of converting these camps into cantonments has not yet begun. Secretary BAKER. That is true; and is not to be done. The CHAIRMAN. So that extensive systems of municipal work have not eaten up the appropriation. Secretary BAKER. We are talking about different things, Mr. Fitzgeralds The CHAIRMAN. No. Secretary BAKER. I was answering about something which evidently was not in your mind. You were asking me whether this money had not been used—————— The CHAIRMAN (interposing). No; whether the original estimate for the National Guard camps did not include the cost of flooring for the tents. Secretary BAKER. And I say it may have; I do not recall; but if it did, and if that money has now been expended for enlarged needs in sewer systems and water systems in the cantonments not in the camps but in the cantonments-then that would account for it. The CHAIRMAN. No; that situation does not exist. We have those figures separately. In the National Guard camps and in the National Army cantonments and the cantonments for the Regular Army there are accommodations for about one million and a quarter men, and in view of the conditions in mind as to the training of these men is there necessity for accommodations for any greater number of men during this year? Secretary BAKER. We will not have need in the United StatesThe CHAIRMAN (interposing). That is what I mean. Secretary BAKER (continuing). For housing more than a million and a quarter men, in addition to those men in the Regular Army whose housing is provided for in Regular Army posts and quarters. The CHAIRMAN. Well, I will have to change the question. In the National Guard camps and in the cantonments for the National Army there are accommodations for between 1,000,000 and 1,100,000 men. Now, will there be need for accommodations for more men than that during the coming year? Secretary BAKER. I think not; unless there should be some need arise for smaller cantonment construction for special corps of special kinds of troops which it may be found necessary to organize. This appropriation, however, would be available for the creation of suitable housing in France, would it not; or it ought to be made so. The CHAIRMAN. That comes under a different heading. Another matter that has come up in connection with the estimates is in regard to equipment. It has developed that the complete equip ment to be furnished by the Quartermaster General for the men to be called will not be available by the 1st or 15th of September, and the committee would like to have some information in that regard. I do not know whether you are familiar with the details or whether the munitions beard, which is supervising the contracts, should be asked for that information. One question which arose was whether they had utilized all the available resources of the country in obtaining the equipment required. Secretary BAKER. I am from time to time familiar with all the details. I have not those detai's with me because I did not know that question would be inquired of. In a general way this is true: There will be adequate supplies. By the inclusion of certain substitutions of things that are not regulation as to color but adequate in quality there will be adequate supplies for the National Army to be called out as at present intended, which is 30 per cent on the 5th of September, that date being selected so as to avoid Labor Day and a Sunday which comes in, for the convenience of the railroads: 30 per centThe CHAIRMAN (interposing). What is 30 per cent. 150,000 or 200,000? Secretary BAKER. About 150,000. Then the next 30 per cent is on the 19th of September, and 30 per cent on the Mr. SHERLEY (interposing). About 190,000? Secretary BAKER. Including the special troops; yes. Mr. SHERLEY. The cantonments expect to house 644,540 troops, and 30 per cent would be about 190,000? Secretary BAKER. Yes; nearer 200,000. Mr. SHERLEY. It was testified before us that there will be clothing for 150,000 only on the 1st of September? Secretary BAKER. Those estimates are as variable as the thermometer; they change frequently and they are variable because of two facts: We have to estimate deliveries from manufacturing plants; one day they are estimated to be one quantity and another day estimated to be another quantity. There are some labor disturbances in places which are producing these supplies; there are every now and then special calls on the Quartermaster General's Department to equip special troops, like railroad engineers, which dip into the supply. The last report I had from the Quartermaster General was that on the 5th of September the quota then to be called-whether it was 150,000 or 200.000 seems to me immaterial-will be supplied. That does mean that there will be a complete equipment for each man of the kind we would supply if our reserve stocks were full, but it means that we have enough equipment to clothe, shoe, and provide for these men on their arrival in camp on the 5th of September. Mr. SHERLEY. And that to be followed by similar equipment? Secretary BAKER. Yes: during the rest of the month, including the entire National Army. There may be a shortage of regulation blankets; if so, it will be supplied by issuing "unregulation" blankets, and so on. The CHAIRMAN. The Quartermaster General stated they would be able to equip 150,000 men on the 1st of September if his deliveries were lived up to. Now, Mr. Secretary, I do not know whether you are familiar with this situation or not, but the statement was made that the subcommittee of the advisory commission of the Council of National Defense has declined to make purchases from concerns like Wanamaker, Gimbel Brothers, Marshall Field & Co., and so on, although some of them are willing and in a position to supply some of the things needed. Secretary BAKER. I have no information about that. |