Any idea why russet harness could not be sold for profit?America’s Munitions 1917-1919, Report of Benedict Crowell, Washington, GPO, 1919
https://books.google.com/books?id=vxcCA ... &q&f=false
Page 230: The Government ordered about 1,200,000 axes to be used in trench operations, of which 661,690 were delivered. Bags of all sorts for horse feed, grain, rations, and supplies totaled in their deliveries about 2,250,000. The Government received 809,541 saddle blankets; about 3,750,000 carriers for entrenching shovels, axes, and picks; nearly 4,450,000 covers for the breech locks of rifles; over 1,000,000 currycombs; 76,230 lariats; 727,000 entrenching picks; nearly 4,750,000 first-aid pouches, and over 2,000,000 pouches for small articles; 234,689 Cavalry saddles; 134,092 Field Artillery saddles; 15,287 mule saddles; 482,459 saddle bags; nearly 1,800,000 entrenching shovels; 2,843,092 spur straps; 70,556 steel measuring tapes each 5 feet long.
Page 472-73: In all, $75,000,000 was spent for harness and leather equipment. The procurement of saddles in itself was a hard problem, since there were only three or four makers of saddletrees in the United States, and only one of these could get the ash or basswood required. The division induced various furniture factories to install the special lathes required for turning saddletrees, and in this way built up eight factories, which gave us sufficient capacity. Belting manufacturers and manufacturers of shoes were educated in the art of producing the leather for the saddles. The Army harness is of russet leather, a product for which there is no commercial demand. The result is that surpluses of Army harness can not be disposed of to advantage.
WWI Saddle Production
Ya gotta remember that this source is from 1919, and Crowell's basically regurgitating the line of the 'foxes' that are still in the hen house - namely, Colonel George B. Goetz and his crew. The old harness trade association hands that were setting up the distribution and sales of harness were downplaying the value just as they were setting up the mechanisms to control it.
I think their purpose on talking down 'russet' harness was the fact that most (if not all) civilian harness was black leather.
Plus Crowell's numbers aren't very complete either, but that makes sense given the time and who was still reporting these things. Three years later following a massive congressional investigation, those numbers were pushed to over double - well over 900,000 saddles (a lot of the count was hidden in 'artillery sets').
Curious to see his note about saddle tree companies and difficulty finding specification wood. Just for s's and g's, here's a list of the 'Big Five' saddle tree companies that supplied the US during the war - each had contracts over $100,000.
J.M.Hays Wood Products Co. (formerly J.S.Sullivan Saddle Tree Co.)
Edward Flor Co., Demorest, GA
Perkins-Campbell Saddlery, Cincinnati, OH
Kittinger Furniture Co. , Buffalo, NY
Herbert Brush Manufacturing, Kingston, NY
The last two were very late in the war (late summer/early fall of 1918), and didn't appear to deliver very much before the contracts were cancelled at wars end. J. M. Hays was pretty much shut down in 1918 because of changes in the Missouri penitentiary system, which effectively ran them out ( Sullivan/Hays contracted for prison labor for decades). This is speculation, but this could have been the cause for contracts with Kittinger and Herbert Brush, to replace that lost manufacturing capacity.
I think their purpose on talking down 'russet' harness was the fact that most (if not all) civilian harness was black leather.
Plus Crowell's numbers aren't very complete either, but that makes sense given the time and who was still reporting these things. Three years later following a massive congressional investigation, those numbers were pushed to over double - well over 900,000 saddles (a lot of the count was hidden in 'artillery sets').
Curious to see his note about saddle tree companies and difficulty finding specification wood. Just for s's and g's, here's a list of the 'Big Five' saddle tree companies that supplied the US during the war - each had contracts over $100,000.
J.M.Hays Wood Products Co. (formerly J.S.Sullivan Saddle Tree Co.)
Edward Flor Co., Demorest, GA
Perkins-Campbell Saddlery, Cincinnati, OH
Kittinger Furniture Co. , Buffalo, NY
Herbert Brush Manufacturing, Kingston, NY
The last two were very late in the war (late summer/early fall of 1918), and didn't appear to deliver very much before the contracts were cancelled at wars end. J. M. Hays was pretty much shut down in 1918 because of changes in the Missouri penitentiary system, which effectively ran them out ( Sullivan/Hays contracted for prison labor for decades). This is speculation, but this could have been the cause for contracts with Kittinger and Herbert Brush, to replace that lost manufacturing capacity.
Looks like the good Colonel may have had a wee bit of a conflict of interest here!Hearing Before Subcommittee No. 5 (Ordnance) of the Select Committee on Expenditures in the War Department, Select Committee on Expenditures in the War Deparment, House of Representatives, Sixty-Sixth Congree, Second and Third Sessions on War Ependitures, Honorable William J. Graham, Chairman, GPO, Washington, 1921, page 4641
May 7, 1920.
Memorandum.
From: Lieut. Col. George B. Goetz, salvage member, Claims Board, O. D. P., room 2636, Munitions Building .Washington, D. C. To: Col. A. W. Yates, A. F. in F., P. and S., Eighteenth Street and Virginia Avenue, room 115, Washington, D. C.
Subject: Black Artillery lead and wheel harness.
1. There was advertised in Circular No. 4, certain quantities of black Artillery harness, lead and wheel, and while the same was given wide publicity, the bids so far received are for small quantities and at very low prices considering the cost of the equipment.
2. After a conference with Maj. J. C. Byron it was our opinion that by finding a market for the usable component parts, a higher value might be obtained from the remaining parts by cutting them up into components for shoes, harness, bridles, or anything else that would work out advantageously, and in order to get at the accurate figures and the labor and expense necessary to accomplish this object, it is requested that you immediately ship by express to the A. D. Goetz Co., at Charlestown, Jefferson County, W. Va., two double sets black Artillery wheel harness and two double sets black Artillery lead harness. Upon receipt of same, instructions will be given to convert them along the lines indicated, and when completed, a full report will be made.
3. This equipment will be held by the A. D. Goetz Co., as Government property awaiting shipping directions, or will be paid for by the A. D Goetz Co. on the basis of the average of the bids received as of this date.
4. In asking the depot to make shipment, instructions should be given to mark and bill same to the A. D. Goetz Co., Charles Town, Jefferson County, W. Va.
George B. Goetz, Lieutenant Colonel, Quartermaster Corps.
There is a great deal more on this subject at the site listed below.
https://books.google.com/books?pg=PA464 ... tz&f=false
Huge amount of self-interest / self-dealing going on at the time. But then, even as the investigators stated themselves, although it was dirty business, it wasn't technically illegal. A great deal of legislation ended up being passed in the years following WW1 as a result of some of these types of dealings. It might not even be too much to say that this sort of shenanigans materially assisted the development of the 'isolationist' mentality that held on for the next couple of decades.
If you read down the link provided by Couvi, you'll see Goetz being shown as president of United States Harness Co. - this was a 'clearinghouse company', if you will, set up by Goetz and his other trade association cronies while still in government employ at wars end, to 'manage' the coming glut of surplus harness and leathergoods that was basically going from shop floor to surplus storage. Nominally this was to keep this glut from destroying the industry and all it's companies (many/most good members of the association...), with the side benefit of benefiting those with connections and allowing the profiteering to continue from government contracts to managing government surplus distribution.
It's hard to read some of the things they were doing and not be amazed that jail time wasn't divvied up like playing cards - but much of the self-dealing that was going on wasn't YET illegal.
If you read down the link provided by Couvi, you'll see Goetz being shown as president of United States Harness Co. - this was a 'clearinghouse company', if you will, set up by Goetz and his other trade association cronies while still in government employ at wars end, to 'manage' the coming glut of surplus harness and leathergoods that was basically going from shop floor to surplus storage. Nominally this was to keep this glut from destroying the industry and all it's companies (many/most good members of the association...), with the side benefit of benefiting those with connections and allowing the profiteering to continue from government contracts to managing government surplus distribution.
It's hard to read some of the things they were doing and not be amazed that jail time wasn't divvied up like playing cards - but much of the self-dealing that was going on wasn't YET illegal.
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Ralph Lovett
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- Last Name: Lovett
US Model 1916 Artillery harnessing is very difficult to find. I have only found one grouping of this type in decades of looking. I was able to buy eight complete sets but in a much shorter time I was able to put together the German WW1 Field Artillery Harnessing, WW1 German Foot Artillery Harnessing, plus the WW2 German standard Artillery Harnessing, in each case enough to equip six horse teams. The suggestion that much of the US Artillery Harnessing was cut up to make other leather products at least makes this relative scarcity make sense.
R/
Ralph Lovett
R/
Ralph Lovett
Byron, Benke, Goetz.... A person almost needs to do an 'investigation board' with their photos and a timeline of connections for these three and some others to see it. Goetz had a reserve commission before the war, and was a prominent member of the national harness trade association, and was tapped to move into the acquisitions/contracting dept for leather goods when the war started. Several of his subordinates and peers were similarly connected to the leather industry and the trade association leadership. A heck of a good masters thesis or even PHD dissertation topic - free for taking, suggested by the Society 
Although the threads are still tenuous and need to be investigated further, these were the guys that made sure that the talk about how the Rock Island Arsenal could deal with this glut of post-war leathergoods surplus came to a conclusive dead end. Even before the war was over, or even looked like it was running to it's close, they closed down the leather production at RIA and had all the machinery, tools, patterns, et. al., crated and shipped off to the Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot, where most of it sat in said same crates for quite some time. The close of the war dumped vast quantities (think hundreds of railroad boxcars) of used and new/surplus leather items on the JQMD facility as well - just managing the material was a years-long task, with little room for 'competing' with the civilian firms in re-purposing surplus leather goods.
Purely my impression from reading the congressional investigation records - the Rock Island Arsenal leather shops were probably the most capable high-volume, high-quality production facilities of their type in the world at the time, and any post-war material 're-purposing' done by the government would have necessarily be managed through there. Outside the control of the civilian sector, now bereft of juicy government contracts... So, while the 'civilian competitors' were in control during the war, they killed it to ensure their post-war control of the material - which was quite effectively done.
Although the threads are still tenuous and need to be investigated further, these were the guys that made sure that the talk about how the Rock Island Arsenal could deal with this glut of post-war leathergoods surplus came to a conclusive dead end. Even before the war was over, or even looked like it was running to it's close, they closed down the leather production at RIA and had all the machinery, tools, patterns, et. al., crated and shipped off to the Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot, where most of it sat in said same crates for quite some time. The close of the war dumped vast quantities (think hundreds of railroad boxcars) of used and new/surplus leather items on the JQMD facility as well - just managing the material was a years-long task, with little room for 'competing' with the civilian firms in re-purposing surplus leather goods.
Purely my impression from reading the congressional investigation records - the Rock Island Arsenal leather shops were probably the most capable high-volume, high-quality production facilities of their type in the world at the time, and any post-war material 're-purposing' done by the government would have necessarily be managed through there. Outside the control of the civilian sector, now bereft of juicy government contracts... So, while the 'civilian competitors' were in control during the war, they killed it to ensure their post-war control of the material - which was quite effectively done.
https://books.google.com/books/reader?i ... =GBS.PA569Couvi wrote:Were the leather-working facilities moved from Rock Island to Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot as a result of the gang’s manipulations?
Found it last night - if you read from this point for about six or seven pages, you'll see just how far the tentacles of this little cabal went - even the Quartermaster General and Sect'y of War were likely getting some 'shine' from this operation.
As far as the destruction of the leather shops at RIA are concerned - I'd say, yes, these guys were deeply involved in ensuring the leather manufacturing stronghold at RIA was removed.