Speech of Assistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson Before the Convention of the Motor and Equipment Wholesalers Association at Chicago, Illinois

WAR DEPARTMENT F U I U R E RELEASE FOR RELEASE AFTER DELIVERY Address by The Honorable Louis Johnson The Assistant Secretary of Tar Convention of The Motor and Equipment Wholesalers Association Stevens Hotel, Chicago, Illinois December 3, 1938, 11:00 a. m. WAR BRAKES AND PEACE SPRINGS Members of the Motor and Equipment Wholesalers Association: I envy you your expert knowledge of motors and of equipment. I wish I had your complete familiarity vith geskets and bearings, with spark plugs and piston rings and with the dozens and dozens of other items that make up your inventories. If I had your background of training and experience, my job of keeping the Army's wheels rolling would be much simpler. Still, I venture to say that even the most expert among you tould find the duties of a motor supply officer in the United States Army, even in times of peace, a heavy tax on your ingenuity and on your patience. Then I joined the Nar Department seventeen months ago, I learned that the Army had more than twenty thousand motor vehicles of twenty-eight different makes and models in passenger cars, and of one hundred and forty-three differ- ent makes and models in trucks. That variety appeared absurd to me and I determined to find out why such a state of affairs was allowed to grow up. Can you imagine the magnitude of the job of the Quartermaster Corps of the United States Army of trying to maintrin in its warehouses at all times enough spare parts to keep a motorcade of such E heterogeneous group of types and models in continuous operation? How would you like to be shouldered with the responsibility of taking care of such a conglomerate array of vehicles in a theater of battle operations? Frankly, I do not believe that under war conditions the Army or any organization under the sun could maintain such a variety of automotive vehicles, and you, who are familiar with motor and equipment problems, undoubtedly will agree with me. The fault, I find, is not entirely the Army's. So long as the law requires that government contracts be awarded on a. competitive basis, the Army will be compelled to accept the automotive vehicles of the lowest bidder. One year, it happens to be Ford. Another year, it is the General Motors. Still another year, it is Chrysler. Occasionally, the bid is taken away from the "big three" by another manufacturer. As a result of this system, the Army finds itself with a variety of Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge-Plymouth and Inter- national trucks in the light group type of vehicle. Furthermore, appropriations made annually have never been fully sufficient to take care of all of the Army's motor needs. To function at all, our motor units often have been compelled to work with a wide variety of vehicles in many different stages of obsolescence. Operating in 1938 with models extending all the way back to the World War makes the job of maintenance an almost impossible chore. Until Congress appropriates enough money to put the Army effectively on wheels, and until it provides sufficient funds to replace all obsolete vehicles, the fight to reduce makes and models to a minimum can never be won. In so far as the Army has failed to adopt standard types of vehicles for its many automotive needs, it has only itself to blame for 0. part of the chaos. We have in America the most successful and the most progressive motor TRUMAR NARA MORE