In order to
coordinate these purchases and to prevent competition between our
departments, a general purchasing agency was created early in our
experience to coordinate our purchases and, if possible, induce our
Allies to apply the principle among the Allied armies. While there was
no authority for the general use of appropriations, this was met by
grouping the purchasing representatives of the different departments
under one control, charged with the duty of consolidating requisitions
and purchases. Our efforts to extend the principle have been signally
successful, and all purchases for the Allied armies are now on an
equitable and cooperative basis. Indeed, it may be said that the work of
this bureau has been thoroughly efficient and businesslike.
Our entry into the war found us with few of the auxiliaries necessary
for its conduct in the modern sense. Among our most important
deficiencies in material were artillery, aviation, and tanks. In order
to meet our requirements as rapidly as possible, we accepted the offer
of the French Government to provide us with the necessary artillery
equipment of seventy-fives, one fifty-five millimeter howitzers, and one
fifty-five G P F guns from their own factories for thirty divisions. The
wisdom of this course is fully demonstrated by the fact that, although
we soon began the manufacture of these classes of guns at home, there
were no guns of the calibers mentioned manufactured in America on our
front at the date the armistice was signed.
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