Side-car equipment for the Indian and Harley-Davidson machines was bought in almost as great quantities as the motorcycles themselves. In fact, the demand for motorcycles and side cars from these two concerns was so great that they were working at 100-per-cent capacity for the Government before the summer of 1918.
The needs of the Army for machines increased so steadily and the requirements were so vast that both the Indian and Harley-Davidson concerns had made large additions to their plants for meeting the Government needs at the time the armistice was signed.
A standard military type of bicycle was turned out for the Army by the Westfield Manufacturing Co., at Westfield, Mass., and other bicycles were ordered from the Great Western Manufacturing Co., at Laporte, Ind., and the Davis Sewing Machine Co., at Dayton, Ohio.
HORSE AND HAND DRAWN VEHICLES.
It was early realized by Army officers upon our entry in the war that procurement of horse-drawn vehicles for the Army would require mobilization of practically the entire wagon-making industry of the Nation. Consequently one of the first steps taken to provide the Army with the necessary vehicles of this type was to call into conference representatives of the four largest manufacturing companies in the industry.
R. V. Board, of the Kentucky Wagon Co.; A. B. Thielens, of the Studebaker Corporation of America; E. E. Parsonage, of the John Deere Wagon Co.; and R. W. Lea, of the Moline Plow Co., were named members of an advisory committee to assist the Army in the procurement of vehicles.
Our first requisition called for the manufacture of 34,000 escort wagons. This order, with the necessary spare parts for these vehicles meant the building of the equivalent of about 50,000 wagons.
At the beginning of the war the manufacture of vehicles from kiln-dried lumber was almost unknown, as there had always been a sufficient amount of air-dried lumber on hand to meet every demand for farm-wagon construction. Our first order, however, practically used up all of the air-dried lumber then in existence in the country. In order that dry lumber could be obtained in sufficient quantities to keep up with the demands for Army vehicles, the War Department entered into an arrangement by which dry-kilns were built by contractors with the Government defraying half of the cost, the wagon manufacturer being reimbursed at the rate of $10 for each wagon produced, or on a basis of $10 for each $185 worth of spare parts fabricated.
Despite the fact that ordinarily six months were required even with kiln-drying before a log was ready for fabrication into a vehicle, all orders for the War Department were filled on time and in accordance with the plans outlined. To make this possible every manufacturer of the industry capable of turning out the class of vehicles desired did his part and did it so well that up to the signing of the armistice approximately 110,000 horse-drawn or hand-drawn vehicles had been delivered, of the total of 185,727 for which contracts had been placed.