Scavenger Hunt

Into Sixth Army Headquarters at San Francisco's Presidio last week trooped a platoon of dealers in Army surplus goods. They had been summoned by Colonel Paul Steele, supply officer, who was anxious to buy back some of the $15.7 billion worth of the property the Government has sold as surplus (for 27.2-c- on the dollar) in the U.S. since World War II. Colonel Steele gave them a list of urgent needs: 32,000 field jackets, 100,000 blankets, 37,000 combat boots, etc. By week's end, after spending $600,000, he had filled most of his needs, though the Army had to pay $6 a pair for shoes it had sold at $1, and 89-c- for duffel bags sold for 9-c-.

All through the U.S., the same thing was going on last week. In Milwaukee, Fifth Army buyers paid $20 and $25 for items the Army had sold for $1. In Philadelphia, Army trucks drove up to Stanley Bernstein's Stan Textile Co. to haul away three truckloads of "surplus" war goods it had bought back from Bernstein.

What all this meant was that after eight months of fighting in Korea the Army still had not been able to organize its supplies efficiently enough to equip its new soldiers. In Washington, Major General Herman Feldman, quartermaster general, had some good explanations for the drive. Though the Army was paying a good deal more for goods than the Government had sold them for, Feldman said that it was still paying a good deal less than the same goods would cost new now. Even so, the spectacle of the U.S. paying twice for the same goods made many a citizen look biliously at his income-tax return.

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