1st.C. and you're a senator on the Military Affairs Committee.

You and your fellow committee members are investigating the administration's efforts to build up the military

and the way you see it so far it's been a mess. Production has been slow and inefficient.

Opportunistic companies have hiked their prices and exploited the surge in demand.

And last fall, competition between the military and manufacturers caused a shortage of freight trains

and snarled up the eastern railroads.

So today you summon Secretary of War Newton Baker to answer some questions,

and you've got plenty of them.

Now Secretary Baker, what is the administration doing to ensure we are adequately equipped for this war?

Well, Senator, in just nine months, the Army has increased from 212,000 to one and a half

million men.

It's the largest force ever mobilized by this nation. No army in history has been

raised, equipped, and trained so quickly. Yes, Mr. Secretary, we have called up a million

and a half young men into service but at the same time

did you not abandon the Springfield rival already being manufactured in favor of

some new design that indeed proved slower to manufacture? Yes senator Senator, that is correct.

And that decision left our young recruits without guns, correct?

And they remain without them now.

They have them now.

I assure you that every soldier being trained in this country who ought to have a rifle has a rifle.

Is that right, Mr. Secretary, because the reports from camp commanders do not support your claim.

Some say they have only half the guns necessary to train their men.

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