materially. The association decided to hold a parade March 3, 1913.
Nannie and I were members of the advisory committee, and about ten
days before the date set Miss Paul, who had charge of that parade,
told me that she was having difficulty in getting permission to march
on the avenue. As I was personally acquainted with Mr. Rudolph,
General Johnston and Colonel Judson, the District Commissioners, I
introduced her to them. They treated her with the greatest courtesy;
the chairman, Mr. Rudolph, both encouraged her and expressed his
sympathy with her attempt to get permission and secure protection
during the march, as did Colonel Judson. General Johnston was a little
lukewarm; reasonably so, however, because he was not in favor of
woman's suffrage. But they did not grant the permission.
General Johnston objected to the selection of the day before the
Presidential inauguration, but others thought if permission was to be
granted at all, it was better to have the two parades as near together
as possible.
I advised Miss Paul to ask the Secretary of War for military
protection from Fort Myer. Judson agreed, and, in his presence, Miss
Paul made the application through the District Commissioners to the
Secretary. Later she showed me a letter from the Secretary of War,
declining to furnish the escort. Although the committee feared the
parade would not be protected, most people believed the police would
not so disgrace themselves as to fail to protect them from insult
and humiliation, or to allow their parade to be broken up, as it
practically was. Failing to get the permit from the Commissioners,
Miss Paul applied to Congress, and the day before the parade Congress
authorized it and made an appropriation for extra policemen. The
parade was organized as systematically, as brilliantly and as
efficiently as any parade of men ever held.
I believe that on that 3d day of March, 1913, woman's suffrage won
its fight. Some of its members have acted foolishly since, as members
of reform movements often do, but the day is won, and nothing but
absolute reversion to barbarism can prevent women, as long as this
country remains a republic, from having some voice in its government.
We both marched in the parade, Nannie with the homemakers. Another
army officer, General Charles Morton, U. S. A., had the courage
to march with his wife in this procession, as did a few Senators
and members of the House. What happened is history. As it is fully
related in Hearings Before Senate Committee, District of Columbia, 63d
Congress, special session, under Senate Resolution 499, part first,
wherein Nannie and I each testified, pages 101 to 116, inclusive, I
will not relate it here.
But, notwithstanding the insults and humiliation heaped upon these
brave and fearless women to the shame of many of the officials of the
government, and particularly the Washington police, it was a proud day
for women. Probably no marcher has ever regretted her participation in
that parade, but is still proud.
Nannie enjoyed the victory to the utmost. While she continued to
assist the society, she felt that the day of battle was past, and the
problem would work out by the common sense of the men and women of
this country, as it will.
"Be shame to him of woman born,
Who hath for such but thought of scorn."
It is remarkable that up to this time no candidate for President
ever admitted any sympathy with woman's suffrage. Since that date,
no candidate for President has failed boldly to announce (I hope
sincerely) that he was whole-heartedly in favor of woman's suffrage.
And I believe that in the future no candidate will fail to make this
declaration.
PROHIBITION
Another cause in which Nannie and I were enthusiastic was that of
prohibition, to restrain the intemperate use of intoxicants. We
always kept liquor in the house and often offered it to guests,
but we early learned to exclude it from the table when very young
officers were present, because such an example might encourage them
to form habits which they later would not be able to restrain.
Unfortunately, Congress and the War Department authorized the canteen,
an organization formed by the officers of military posts. Originally
intended to dispense only such articles as were not furnished the
soldier in the ration, clothing, and other allowances, it gradually
came to dispense the strongest beverages, sometimes of a very poor and
dangerous quality. Throughout the country, especially in States having
anti-liquor laws, hostility to this privilege awarded to the army
grew generally. Strong efforts were made to have Congress prohibit
the canteen on the ground that the young soldiers, entering to buy
ordinary supplies would be brought into the presence of comrades
indulging in liquor and thus induced to participate.
The War Department ordered that the selling of beverages should be
conducted in a separate room from that of other goods. This rule,
however, was not generally obeyed. Politicians, employed by the liquor
interests to circumvent the action which they feared Congress would
take, would apply to the War Department to send circulars to officers
of prominence asking his opinion as to whether it was to the interest
of the army to allow the sale of beverages. The liquor interests
selected copies of many favorable reports, together with a few of
those that mildly objected, and published them throughout the country,
carefully suppressing those vigorously opposing the use of liquor in
the canteen. The canteen continued authorized for many years after the
best judgment of the army decided against it, but Nannie and I both
lived to see it entirely abolished, to the great joy and benefit of
all save the conscienceless purveyor.
In like manner the highly taxed traffic was allowed among the people
long after public sentiment disapproved of it, but thanks to the
intelligence of Americans and the free discussion of the subject,
Nannie and I lived to see it suppressed throughout much of our land.
That it will soon disappear entirely, not only from this country, but
from the whole world, seems assured.
TRIP TO EUROPE WITH GENERAL MILES
As General Miles had previously invited me to go with him to Europe,
in 1906 I accepted an invitation to accompany him. We sailed on "La
Provence" for France, and spent some two months in France, Ireland,
Scotland, England and Switzerland, traveling most of the time by
automobile.
Mr. Colgate Hoyt, of New York, president of the American Automobile
Society and brother-in-law to General Miles, with his wife and
daughters, Elizabeth and Anna, had invited us to accompany them on
various journeys in their automobile, and we found them very enjoyable
traveling companions.
Our most interesting sojourn was in Dublin, where we met the genial,
strange, though interesting race of Irishmen. We were much interested
in the jaunting cars, which are to this day the principal passenger
vehicles of the cities of Ireland, and exclusively confined to
Ireland. Curious to know why they were used there and nowhere else, we
inquired, and found that the British Government, in their eagerness to
collect all the taxes they could from such properties, levied a tax
on vehicles per wheel, and on domiciles for window panes. To avoid
this, the stubborn Irishmen would use nothing but two-wheeled vehicles
and, unfortunately, they would put just as few panes of glass in their
houses as possible, and this custom is carried out there to this day.
The jaunting car, while not presenting to one unacquainted with it a
very enticing invitation to ride, is, after all, when you become used
to it, a very interesting vehicle, and General Miles and I invariably
rode in them.
Our visit was at the time of the horse show and, being cavalrymen, we
were interested in the exhibition and racing of the animals.
From Dublin we were invited by a Mrs. Galt-Smith, who was the owner
of an old Irish castle, to visit her, and we spent some days as her
guests at Kilwaughter Castle, in the north of Ireland.
Mrs. Galt-Smith took us around her neighborhood and we became
acquainted with the peat bogs, which we had never seen before, where
a great part of the fuel of the country was taken from dried up peat
bogs, and, strange to say, the undried bogs were such that even horses
became drowned when they tried to pass over them.
From there, we also visited the "Giant's Causeway," one of the
geological curiosities of the world.
We passed from there through Scotland, through the country described
by Sir Walter Scott, and saw in Edinburgh what is known as the "King's
Inn," a national prison.
We traveled through the western part of Austria, adjoining
Switzerland, where we saw the most unhappy people probably then on
earth, poor and helpless, surrounded by soldiers on all sides and
influenced by priests, who caused them to build wayside shrines at
short distances from each other along the roads where the people would
pause and make their obeisance to images. So unhappy and ignorant were
these people that they would make grimaces at us while riding by in
the automobile, and by gesture and physiognomy showed how much they
hated those who were better situated than they were.
Returning, we visited London, stopping at the fashionable Carlton
Hotel, where the people seemed less isolated from the world than on my
former visit, less exalted in their estimate of themselves, and more
appreciative of the progressive features of others, having adopted
street cars, tunnels, elevators and electric lights, and become
themselves personally more cosmopolitan, but they were still loudly
English, proud of their Emperor, his empire and his royal family
and accompanying dukes and nobles, so amusing to the rest of the
intelligent world.
MY CARTRIDGE BELT EQUIPMENT
The invention, development and manufacture of the woven web
ammunition carrier and its accompanying web equipment (which has
taken the place of leather throughout the world), was my greatest
material achievement. I only regret that they were not designed for
construction rather than for destruction.
In 1866 our army adopted the breech-loading rifle with metallic
ammunition, comparatively non-perishable by exposure to the elements.
The almost cylindrical stem of the cartridge with the projecting
flange on its head, made it possible to make a belt with closely
fitting cylindrical loops, in which the cartridge was held in place by
friction, prevented from dropping through by the flange.
When captain of the 18th Infantry, I equipped my company with my
invention, using belts made of leather, with sewed-on leather loops.
These did not prove entirely satisfactory. The acid in the leather
acted on the copper in the shell, producing verdigris, causing the
shells to stick in the belt or, after firing, in the chamber of the
gun.
Belts of this character were submitted to every equipment board
organized between 1866 and 1879, but so wedded were the authorities to
the use of ancestral methods that no board even made favorable mention
of my invention. Meanwhile, the cavalry and infantry on active service
against Indians adopted these belts of this character, fabricating
them themselves.
[Illustration:
FIG. 1. LONGITUDINAL SECTION THROUGH MAIN WEB A B, AND TWO LOOPS,
C C, SHOWING WARP AND WOOF THREADS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2. CROSS SECTION OF MAIN FABRIC, SHOWING EXTRA
THREADS _g_, IN TUBE OF SELVEDGE.]
[Illustration: MILLS BELT, PATTERN OF 1887.]
[Illustration: SECTION THROUGH DOUBLE LOOP BELT, SHOWING
CONTINUOUS FABRIC.]
[Illustration: MILLS DOUBLE LOOP BELT, CARRYING 90 ROUNDS, CALIBRE
.30.]
[Illustration: MILLS NINE POCKET BELT, HOLDING 90 ROUNDS, CALIBRE
.30.]
[Illustration:
MILLS INFANTRY BELT, DISMOUNTED. MODEL OF 1910, TEN POCKETS,
20 CLIPS, 100 ROUNDS, CALIBRE .30.]
Becoming known at Washington, two ordnance inspectors were sent to
inspect the equipment of the armies of General Terry and General
Crook, confronting the hostile Sioux, in 1876. They reported it was
impossible to compel soldiers on the frontier to use the regulation
McKeever cartridge boxes, and recommended the manufacture of a uniform
belt at arsenals. The Chief of Ordnance approved, and thirty
thousand sewed canvas belts were made at Watervliet. Their uniformity
and the facility with which they could be procured made them more
satisfactory than those previously used, but the loops were still apt
to rip and enlarge.
My experience with looms as a boy, gave me the idea of weaving the
whole belt, body as well as loops, in one piece without sewing the
loops, uniform in size and incapable of ripping or enlarging.
In search for advice as to the feasibility of this plan, I visited the
Russell Manufacturing Company, at Middletown, Connecticut, and found
Mr. Hubbard in charge.
I asked if he could not help devise a method for weaving the loops on
the belt. He told me that thirty years' experience in textile fabrics
told him it was utterly impossible, and that I should know that every
string had two ends!
"You an army officer?" he asked; "Will you get angry if I give you
some good advice?"
"No."
"Do you see that building?" pointing to the insane asylum. "Well,
there are smarter men than you right in that building who got there by
having just such things as this on their minds too long. I advise you
to get it off."
Notwithstanding his advice, I did _not_ get the matter off my mind
until I had accomplished my conception.
In 1878 the War Department organized a board of officers consisting
of Colonels Miles, McKenzie and Morrow, Major Sandford and Captain
Benham, all officers of frontier experience, to consider the best
method of carrying the new metallic cartridges.
They reported unanimously in favor of the belt, adding, "In this
connection the board is very favorably impressed with the means
devised by Major Anson Mills, 10th Cavalry, for weaving the cartridge
belt and recommends it for adoption by the Ordnance Department and
their manufacture."
This report was approved by General Benet, Chief of Ordnance; General
Sherman, commanding the army, and the Secretary of War.
A few of these belts were made for presentation to the board on a hand
loom manipulated by a skilled Scotch weaver, but we found it difficult
to produce a web with loops of proper consistency and resilience.
In spite of all we could do the web would be more or less fluffy or
inconsistent (unable to retain its form), and was not satisfactory. I
had more difficulty in producing webbing of proper consistency than in
inventing the web belt and a loom to weave it all in the same piece.
However, by procuring cotton of the very best fiber, twisted into
multiple threads with such hardness of twist that neither the warp nor
woof threads would break under a strain of nine pounds each, I finally
produced a web with a better consistency and resilience than the best
leather itself, notwithstanding the old adage that "there is nothing
like leather."
Mr. George Crompton, of Worcester, the textile manufacturer, told
me there was no hand machine which could not be duplicated by a
power machine. So my next effort was devoted to making a power loom.
I visited many textile factories in England, France and Germany,
but found nothing to meet my requirements, and in a shop with two
assistants I constructed the first loom, in Worcester, in 1879.
The Chief of Ordnance sent his senior officer, Colonel Hagner, to
inspect the loom and report whether it was practicable to weave
the loops on it. Its work was so satisfactory he recommended the
discontinuance of the manufacture of the sewed belts made under his
charge at Watervliet.
The Secretary of War adopted the belt for field service, continuing
the McKeever box in the garrisons only. On August 24, 1895, the box
was permanently abandoned and the belt became universal throughout the
army.
[Illustration: PROPER METHOD OF EXTRACTING CARTRIDGES FROM
LOOPS.]
[Illustration: CALIBRE .45 COMPARED WITH CALIBRE .30
CARTRIDGE.]
[Illustration: CLIP OF FIVE .30 CALIBRE CARTRIDGES.]
[Illustration: GOLD MEDAL AWARDED BY NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL
EXPOSITION, 1882.]
[Illustration: U. S. INFANTRYMAN WITH MILLS EQUIPMENT OF
1887.]
Its superiority over all other methods for carrying ammunition are too
apparent to need any general description here, but among its practical
qualities may be named the easy access, the ready inspection, the
instant detection of loss or exhaustion; the expressive martial
purpose at sight, important in the suppression of riots, the ease
with which it is carried, fitting closely to the body with weight so
equally distributed as to lead the soldier almost to feel it a part of
his person; the economy in weight and expense, neither being more than
the leather belt to which the box, pouches, etc., of other methods
were attached.
As an active army officer, I could not contract with the government to
manufacture the belt.
On September 22, 1879, I offered, through the Chief of Ordnance,
General Benet, to give the invention to the government if he would
manufacture the belts in his department, thus advertising its worth
to the sporting trade and to other nations. He preferred purchasing
the belts in open market. The Gilbert Loom Company, of Worcester,
agreed to furnish forty thousand single loop belts, paying me a small
royalty. The forty thousand belts supplied the army for five years,
so that neither Mr. Gilbert nor I received any large compensation.
But we supplied a larger number to the sporting trade for different
sized arms, rifles and shotguns, and so had sufficient income to keep
the factory going. The Winchester Arms Company had the sole right to
sell the sporting goods for five years, yet at the end of that period
we received from both sources less money net than I had expended in
the twelve years from 1866 to 1878 in perfecting and exploiting my
improvements.
The cartridges for army belts were forty-five caliber. More than fifty
loops on a belt for an ordinary man were not possible; yet, for rapid
fire, it was necessary to have more than fifty cartridges on the
person, and it was too cumbersome to carry two belts.
At the expiration of Mr. Gilbert's contract I entered into a contract
with my brother-in-law, Mr. T. C. Orndorff, by which he was to devote
his entire attention to building up the factory and perfecting the
belt. He agreed that by diligent application and industry there
was a fortune in the prospective improvements of the web belt and
equipments and substitutes for leather, and entered heartily into the
spirit of the work. He took over ten looms from Mr. Gilbert and the
contract for furnishing the sporting trade from the Winchester Arms
Company. I agreed to pay him an annual salary and ten per cent of the
net profits. During the first three years, owing to difficulties with
the trade and the Winchester Company, there were no profits; indeed, I
advanced the factory a large sum of money. But he never lost courage.
Mr. Orndorff employed Captain Henry R. Lemly, U. S. A. (retired),
to canvass the South American republics, and he obtained sufficient
orders there to increase the net receipts. I was gradually regaining
the money invested when the unexpected happened. The difficulty with
Spain arose, and, on the passage of the "Fifty Million Bill," we
received telegraphic orders from the Chief of Ordnance to equip a
factory capable of turning out at least a thousand belts per day. The
department wanted three hundred thousand belts as soon as possible.
Orndorff contracted for equipping the factory for day and night work
at a large expense, for which we had to go into debt.
We had about completed the order, but had delivered only two hundred
thousand, when notice was sent that no further belts would be
received. The ninety days' war was over! This put us in a practically
bankrupt condition, a hundred thousand belts on hand and no market for
them, and a large indebtedness. But we had no written contract and
could not compel the government to take or pay for the belts.
Two Canadian regiments were assembling at Quebec to leave for South
Africa and the Boer War. Orndorff and I concluded to make the two
regiments a present of our belts. Hurriedly packing sufficient belts
to equip the two regiments, he started for Quebec, October 28, 1899,
consigning the shipment to Colonel Otter, commanding the contingent
steamship "Sardinia-Quebec."
Arriving two hours before sailing, the colonels commanding the
two regiments made much of Orndorff, gave him a dinner, and formally
accepted the belts with many thanks in commendation of the "blood that
is thicker than water."
[Illustration: U. S. INFANTRYMAN, WITH COMPLETE MILLS WEB
EQUIPMENT, FRONT VIEW.]
[Illustration: U. S. INFANTRYMAN, WITH COMPLETE MILLS WEB
EQUIPMENT, BACK AND SIDE VIEWS.]
In 1898 Mr. Hiram Maxim, of London, England, manufacturer of the
one-pound automatic gun, wanted seamless belts for feeding his gun
with large cartridges. He came to our factory, examined the looms and
furnished riveted models for Orndorff's guidance.
During this visit I took Mr. Maxim and his wife to the Springfield
armory and introduced them to the officers, whom Maxim hoped to get
interested in his gun.
Then Maxim contracted with Orndorff to introduce our belts into the
British army. Furnished with a number of samples to present for trial,
both he and Mrs. Maxim went before the Army Board at Aldershot, of
which Colonel Tongue was president, but the British army authorities
were so wedded to ancestral methods that he failed in spite of eleven
years of effort.
A Mr. Leckie, associated with Maxim, obtained some small orders for
belts for the colonial troops in Australia, and Captain Zalinski, a
retired artillery officer, tried to sell the belts in Europe, but in
spite of energetic efforts, he failed. Orndorff visited Europe and
applied at the British War Office before he ever saw Maxim, Leckie or
Zalinski, but received no encouragement.
Orndorff bought much cotton yarn from Mr. William Lindsey, of Boston,
who became familiar with our belt by visiting General Shaffer's army
at Montauk. Seeing an opportunity, Lindsey solicited a contract to
manufacture and sell belts to England, with exclusive rights.
We told him we had a tentative agreement with Messrs. Maxim and Leckie
and, as they might claim compensation for any orders he might get, we
expected him to stand between us and any claims presented by Maxim
and Leckie, or either. Lindsey visited England and saw Maxim and
Leckie, after which we contracted with Lindsey, binding him to expend
a certain sum of money of his own in establishing and promoting the
business. We loaned him a loom, furnished a skilled weaver, and sold
him sufficient material to keep it going. On October 25, 1899, he
sailed for England.
He possessed indomitable energy. Practically all his small fortune was
invested in this undertaking of storming the British War Office, an
impregnable fortress to most Americans.
The War Office soon learned that the Boers were equipped with our
cartridge belt, save that they were sewed. The British troops were
being defeated principally by the cumbersome, inadequate and heavy
British equipment. By June, 1901, Lindsey had orders to equip the
300,000 British troops in Africa. The equipment gave such satisfaction
that the War Office adopted the belt for universal use, and by the end
of the year Lindsey established a large factory in London, and small
ones in both France and Germany, making his venture as well as ours a
complete financial success.
These factories have since been much enlarged, the buildings of the
Worcester establishment now covering over two acres of ground.