UNCLE SAM STARTS Bissest Sale In History

FORTY BILLIONS \YORTH OF SURPLUS COMMODITIES ON MARKET

at , t ,\. Dy JACK Uronne

And now, ladies and gents, step right up and witness the starting of the greatest sale in history ; a sale that compares with the greatest previous sale within the history of civilization like the explosion of an atomic bomb compares with the snapping of little Willie's cap pistol.

Uncle Sam, ladies and gents, your own Uncle Sam (of which delightful personality you are, of course, a very integral part and parcel) is starting in to sell and otherwise dispose of some forty billion dollars worth of surplus goods, "surplus commodities" they are called, consisting of tens of thouands of separate and distinct items ranging from tooth brushes le{t in the PX's, to locomotives and ships of the line; from pencils to thousands of great motor vehicles.

Wl-ratever is no longer needed for what is left of the great r"'ar, rvill be disposed of. As this is written there is a move on foot before Congress to appoint some one man to head this most gigantic of all sales enterprises; and on the skill with which the job is done will depend just how many billions Uncle Sam rvill get back out of the {orty billions or more he has invested in these things. There is a great job for some great salesman.

When I approach the job of trying to give our readers some idea of what this sale consists of, and how unbelievably big it is, it makes my knees knock like those of a green orator. You will understand that if it were possible to secure a list of the things, the very general things, that our armed services now have to dispose of, that list would fill every page of this book,'and there would be plenty left over for rvant of room. So I can only hope to give you a general idea. And, in case you rnay be interested, to tell you something of the distribution and sales units that have charge of the job at the present time. Those set-ups are subject to change when the new general manager gets appointed and takes over, but for the present at least, the disposal agents have been officially outlined.

Perhips a good way to illustrate the size and quantity of stuff the government finds on its hands, would be THIS story. When the war suddenly ended they stopped the movement of all war materials that could be immediately classified as no longer needed. So they stopped the shipment of all shipbuilding steel that was then enroute to the shipyards of the West, and ordered it returned to Chicago for unloading, so that the cars could be turned loose. There wCTe SIX HUNDRED CARLOADS OF SHEET STEEL THUS DIVERTED. Why, ladies and gents, you can't even think six hundred carloads of sheet steel any more than you can think forty billion dollars. That is some steel.

At this time they are unloading all these cars just out of Chicago on the Indiana side of the line. It required a great effort, and hasty preparations. They had to gather together dunnage in the shape of cheSp wood of all .sorts to put on the ground under the steel. And they had to gather other materials of various sorts to cover the unloaded steel. And later will come the matter of disposing of this enormous amount of construction material. What can it be used for? Who will want it?'How much improvisation will have to be done to salvage it all ?

I offer that as just one item in the line of surplus commodities that the government has on hand. There will be tens of thousands of automobiles, trucks, motor vehicles of many other sorts, tractors, bulldozers, jeeps. There will be enormous parts and replacements for all these items. There is being displayed at the present time in scores of places throughout the land samples of'machinery ready for disposal. You will see worlds of the highest quality machines ever built. Lots of them were specially built for special purposes, and may never find a civilian need. Others will. You gasp, as I did, at the perfectly marvelous looking machine shop and other equipment that the armed services used. What shall become of them ? Who can use them ? What good purpose can they serve in peace time? There will be electrical motors in a myriad of shapes. There will be thousands of electric sewing machines and equipment of that sort that have been used for army and navy clothing repairs. There will be army clothing', new and second hand. There will be millions of items of bedding, sheets, etc. There will be millions of items of professional and scientific instruments, agricultural machinery and implements, engineering equipment, stoves, kitchen equipment. There will be ships and the tens of thousands of small boats and paraphernalia that go with ship and landing operations. There lvill be life preservers in great volume; likewise life rafts and all their equipment. There will be gas masks and the things that go with them. There is railroad signal control equipment, sprinkler systems, lathes of every size and sort, refrigerators, etc. There will be the personal equipment items of both soldier and sailor. There will be boxes and trunks. There will be entire plants of a hundred different sorts. There rvill be lots of building material, mostly used, some new. There will be great numbers of enormous warehouses to be torn down and disposed of. There will be great camps and their buildings to be gotten rid of. There will be new lumber and other building materials

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