Supply line

“ By a system of priorities that governed both production and distribution the War Industries Board regulated the supply of raw materials to manufacturers and the delivery of finished products. It stimulated production and speeded distribution of whatever was urgently needed for the fighting forces, for exchange with neutrals or for our own people, but limited the supply of raw materials, or coal, or electricity, or labor, and temporarily withheld the facilities of distribution when need was not immediate, or when there would otherwise have been interference with some war-making effort. ”

“ But in many towns, and especially in America, the supply is considerably greater, but also in many cases a good deal of the supply is lost by leakage of the mains. The supply through the branch mains of a distributing system is calculated from the population supplied. But in determining the capacity of the mains the fluctuation of the demand must be allowed for. ”

“ As we have seen above, one branch of production works for another. To make production systematic it is necessary that each branch should be supplied with as much material as it requires; one enterprise getting more, another less. That means that each product should be distributed regularly, according to plan, in correspondence with the demands of the branches in question. The various organs of supply, that is to say, such working organisations as deal with distribution of products, must be in direct communication with the organs dealing with its production. ”

“ As 17 yards of linen are to 10 yards of cloth, so are 1000 times 17 yards to 1000 times 10 yards. At the existing exchange value, the linen which England requires will exactly pay for the quantity of cloth which, on the same terms of interchange, Germany requires. The demand on each side is precisely sufficient to carry off the supply on the other. The conditions required by the principle of demand and supply are fulfilled, and the two commodities will continue to be interchanged, as we supposed them to be, in the ratio of 17 yards of linen for 10 yards of cloth. ”

“ In determining how the inadequate supply shall be distributed, it might be necessary to consider the character of the freight tendered-whether perishable or staple, and whether a necessity of life, needed in crowded cities, and the like. ”

“ When the products of the farm or the forest are collected and brought in from the surrounding country to a town or station serving as an entrepot for that particular region, whether on a river or a line of railroad, such products are not yet exports, nor or they in process of exportation, nor is exportation begun until they are committed to the common carrier for transportation out of the state to the state of their destination, or have started on their ultimate passage to that state. ”

“ The Community Department of Exchange then shipped it directly to the place where it was needed.
Under this system of distribution, products passed directly from the producer to the consumer and were never handled but once. The producers held their surplus in their own possession until they had orders from consumers by whom it was needed. The Commissioner of Exchange at Orbitello had a tabulated report of the surplus held by each district, and each district had its clerks in the Order and Supply Department of the Continental Exchange. ”

“ The population of the west has also increased so vastly during these latter years, that the demand on the dealers, and accordingly on the mines, has gradually become steadier till, at last, the industry rests upon the well-settled foundation of a regular demand, a regular supply, and a dependable railway service, in other words, it fulfils the three conditions laid down in Emerson's definition of commerce. ”

“ A large proportion of the commodious and well-lighted warehouse level on the top storey is let off to individual traders in what are known as "fixed spaces," the demand for which is always in excess of the supply. Goods of great variety and of great value are stored here. The warehouse is found especially useful in connection with the extensive goods traffic carried by the Great Eastern Railway Company between England and the Continent. ”

“ In such work, at a time when there is likely to be any freight congestion in the country, stock-pile facilities should be provided to care for a supply of material to carry the work for one to two weeks. ”

“ The accumulation of many large manufacturing establishments in the same district has a tendency to bring together purchasers or their agents from great distances, and thus to cause the institution of a public mart or exchange. This contributes to diffuse information relative to the supply of raw materials, and the state of demand for their produce, with which it is necessary manufacturers should be well acquainted. ”

“ As the means of communication improved, the mobility of armies called for a better organization of supply. It became imperative to import foodstuffs from a distance, as, owing to the growth of armies, the theatre of war was no longer able to maintain them from its local resources. To bring food from a distance requires transport, and consequently the Treasury or civil side were gradually obliged to organize a transport as well as a supply system. ”

“ Round the large military cantonments in some places, the neighbouring farmers, finding that there is a demand for it, have taken to growing it for sale, and it can be bought in the bazaar; but as the supply is not certain, it is better to enter into a contract with one of the growers to supply the quantity by weight daily required. ”

“ Again, if the commodity itself is of a perishable nature, such, for example, as a cargo of ice imported into the port of London from Norway a few summers since, then time will supply the place of competition ”

“ The control of the world's supplies tends to get into the hands of a few big producers or operators instead of being in the hands of a vast number of small ones; and this has come about through ever-expanding markets and ever-increasing specialization. Even whole nations specialize more or less; some produce the corn-supply of the world, some its coal, some its oil, and some do its carrying trade. ”

“ As the articles are requisitioned by the factory management, the numbers or weight extracted from bins or racks are noted on the cards and the supply made up from outside, the aim of a good storekeeper being to maintain a certain high-water mark, below which the stock is not permitted to fall. ”

“ There is wanted, therefore, for home production—
1st. A force of workmen adequate to the production of a minimum supply of ordnance and ordnance stores for the army. This force is shown in paper No. 3.
2d. That this force should be permanently attached to the Bureau, and in no way liable to be interfered with by any one.
3d. That a minimum supply of food and clothing should be furnished by the Subsistence and Quartermaster Departments.
The "impediments" to the importation of such supplies as must still come from abroad, must be overcome, as they arise, by individual energy and resource. ”

“ In the intermediate warehouses was kept constantly a thirty days’ supply for all the American forces in France and in the distributing warehouses behind the [Pg 75] front and at hospital, aircraft and other centers of final distribution there was always on hand a sufficient supply for fifteen days. Most of the material for all this vast network of storage houses had to be shipped from the United States. This was especially true of the base supply depots and the early construction. Later, much of the wood was cut by American engineering troops in French forests. ”

“ Definitions For the purposes of this Chapter:
supply chain means a cross-border network of enterprises operating together as an integrated system to design, develop, produce, market, distribute, transport, and deliver products and services to customers. ”

“ Commerce, or the distribution of commodities, involves their storage and transfer, and requires warehouses, docks and freight depots, while the population engaged in this business requires residences, shops and public buildings. Where the products handled are of low value, and the handling is a simple transshipment, the result of even a large flow of commodities in locating population at a point of trans-shipment may be small. ”

“ Every article of supply furnished or brought to market, will be paid for at a fair and settled price; but as immediate and constant supplies, especially of provision, forage, fuel and transports, are necessary to all armies, it is well known, that requisitions are unavoidable, and must be enforced. ”

“ It is the interest of the manufacturer to have the material abundant and cheap. If prior to the domestic production of the material in sufficient quantity to supply the manufacturer on good terms, a duty be laid upon the importation of it from abroad, with a view to promote the raising of it at home, the interest both of the farmer and manufacturer will be disserved. ”

“ There is a system of cold storage and ice manufacture which makes it possible to carry a five months’ supply of fresh food stuffs for a full complement204 of troops, so that the transport can take on a supply of rations at a home port and not be compelled to replenish until it returns again to America. ”

“ At the centers of business the great merchants, in touch, by the post and telegraph, with both consumers and producers, study to apportion the supply so that it will reach those who stand most in need of it, and seek to regulate future production so that there may be neither waste nor want when the product is brought to market. ”

“ A first consideration is the location of the building for operating advantages, which is a local matter, but involves shipping facilities by team and by car, convenience to the source of production, and power plant. Naturally the value of the commodity in storage, which at present prices, reaches a considerable amount, and the safety of the product becomes a matter of no small thought. ”

“ It will be necessary, therefore, not only to produce a sufficient supply, but such articles, both in quantity and in kind, as may be required to remunerate those who conduct the imports. There will be needed then more husbandmen, and other artificers, in our city. There will be needed also other persons who will undertake the conveyance of the imports and the exports, and these persons are called merchants. ”

“ The requisitions for material go through the buying department, the designs go from the drawing office and in a reasonable time, if the organization is complete, the parts commence to collect in the various stores throughout the factory. When the stock is sufficiently forward to ensure a regular supply to the various shops ”

“ Official stations were established to control transactions in the principal staples, as rice, charcoal, silk, timber, horses, and so on, and merchants were required to exhibit samples of their commodities in their stores, so that "shopping" began to be preferred to purchasing in the market. It was in this epoch also that commission agents and shipping agents [5] came into existence, and bills of exchange [6] began to be used in connection with inter-provincial and foreign commerce. ”

“ Let it be remembered also that the migration westward is incessantly going on, and that with every farm opened within striking distance of a great arterial railway, or its anastomosing branches, a certain amount of freight must find its way to the seaboard markets, while the demand for manufactured products, and for domestic or foreign commodities, in exchange for breadstuffs or raw material, must necessarily increase; thereby adding greatly to the prosperity of the commercial centre towards which articles of export tend, and from which imports in return are drawn. ”

“ Import and export duties are levied, the former in many cases for the protection of national industries. The imports largely consist of railway material, industrial machinery, cotton, woollen and linen textiles and yarns for national factories, hardware, furniture, building material, mining supplies, drugs and chemicals, wines and spirits, wheat, Indian corn, paper and military supplies and equipment. ”

“ It enables the consumer to obtain fresh products, as they are shipped direct from the point of production to the place of consumption. The plan carries other benefits which are of great moment to the producer. He is enabled to sell in carload lots at shipping point, thus saving to himself the cost of transportation, which ranges from 7 to 15 per cent of the gross selling price. The exchange secures a much wider distribution of the crop, with the result that overstocked markets are much less likely than under the consignment system. ”

“ But if there were any feasible transportation facilities I doubt if we should make use of these native raw materials. It is the policy of the department to go into the market like any other buyer where it can. ”

“ Through the processes of Trade, myriads of commodities for the satisfaction of human wants, commodities produced by human service to the point of delivery to ultimate consumers, flow to ultimate consumers out of retail stores. These depots for final delivery in Trade are the customary terminals of production, where certifications of service in terms of Money are usually exchanged for products of service in the form of commodities. ”

“ One of the most promising things that the Board of Trade had done to foster exports was to set up an Industrial Supplies Department with the specific duty of determining the competing claims upon raw materials advanced on behalf of the home civilian market and the export market. ”

“ With each 25,000 men it was necessary to dispatch simultaneously enough supplies of every sort to maintain those men for four months. And at the same time had to be shipped the varied kinds and immense amounts of material for the development of the ports, the building of storehouses, the making of camps, the providing of railways and rolling stock, and all the rest of the work to be done. ”