THE SUPPLY CORPS SCHOOL OF APPLICATION
By Lieutenant Commander K. C. McIntosh, S. C, U. S. N.
The beginning of the fiscal year 1922 saw the start of an enterprise which has for many years been a dream of many officers of the supply corps. Schools of Application have been held in the past but they were convened for the purpose of instructing assistant paymasters newly commissioned from the ranks or from civil life in the use of blank forms and the routine of their seagoing disbursing duties.
I have the honor to be a graduate of the first of these schools. Twenty-three officers were commissioned in the corps from civil life on the same day. The "seagoing office boy" method of instruction could not at that time be applied to such a large class; and the school was established August 1, 1905, the course continuing a little less than two months. The pressing thing was to give us some knowledge of the mechanism of a gunboat pay office, for we were all, of course, bound for sea at the first opportunity. At the end of the course we had acquired considerable practical knowledge on a small scale—of theory we had none. Such schools, like a certain well-known magazine, were convened "every little while" during the next fifteen years, as need arose. They fitted the new officer to understand what his more experienced pay clerk was talking about, and taught him how to check up his yeoman. Of his paramount duties in later years as a supply officer, practically no mention was made and no instruction was given.
The School of Application now in session is built upon an idea basically different. The business side of the navy surpasses, in its vastness, any existing corporation, and in its diversity, partakes of the nature of practically every enterprise in the commercial world. Modern business is not done by rule of thumb. More and more it is a matter of applied theory, of constant study of cause and effect and of application of the results obtained to conditions which, while ever changing, are constantly recurrent. Today there is a large and almost daily increasing number of industrial concerns who base their program for future activity upon the reports of economists. The business history of the last two years is the history of distress and failure of the manufacturers and wholesalers who plan from day to day; a history of success and increased business for those who knew and followed the invariable pendulum swing of the business cycle.
Commander Karker's brilliant article in January Proceedings stressed the importance of seasonal buying of dry provisions and tinned fruits and vegetables. In this one item knowledge of the proper time to buy next year saves the navy thousands of dollars annually; and yet provisions are but one comparatively small group of the navy's commercial activities. The standard stock catalogue alone lists over thirty thousand items. The standard stock catalogue itself is the product of theory well digested, for each item included therein represents careful standardization of probably ten or more sizes and patterns previously bought retail at full retail prices.
Store keeping at navy yards is a vastly greater thing than the mere placing of stock on the shelves plainly marked and accessible for issue. A balanced stock can be attained only by accident unless its need is foreseen, its amounts ascertained by careful comparison of past activity and future policy and its procurement timed to hit the bottom of the market. Through the painstaking study and self-education of some of the senior officers of the supply corps, the purchase and supply of the navy has become nationally known and respected; and business in general is now counting on the navy both as a safety valve and an index. Business knows that the navy buys at the bottom and the navy purchases are frequently sufficient to check a disastrous tumble after the sane normal bottom has been reached, amounting as they do to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
On many occasions the navy has been required to handle the financial affairs of foreign countries; and at such times invariably the fiscal and currency problems involved have been aggravated by revolution, inefficiency and peculation to an extreme degree. Knowledge of finance, taxation and revenue, banking and currency are demanded; and here a mistake in judgment causes distress to an entire people. The currency and exchange problems of Haiti, for example, were called insoluble by civilian experts, yet Captain Conrad was able to help Admiral Caperton solve them. In the future, such problems are bound to appear again; and only by knowledge and preparation in advance can the business corps of the navy prevent criticism of naval administration and serious loss to the people concerned.
Up to the beginning of the world war the individual effort of ambitious officers of the supply corps raised navy business to this level and held it there. War multiplied navy business, increased navy demand both in volume and variety, depleted the number of officers who were masters of their profession, and brought into the corps a large number of juniors who, although practical men, were mostly without comprehension of the fundamentals upon which their profession stands. The officers of the corps commissioned since 1916 outnumber those commissioned prior to 1916; and at this time the present standard of navy business demands that not half but all know the theories and fundamentals which shape the navy's business policy. The Supply Corps School of Application is for the purpose of indoctrinating these officers.
The first class of twenty-five officers was convened July 11 and was graduated October 29. This seems an excessively short period of time. However, in the schoolroom itself, seven actual hours per day are put in and two hours of reading are required at night. In addition the student must spend still further time arranging and classifying his lecture notes in collateral reading and in preparing a thesis on an assigned subject. A fair estimated average of the applied time of each student during the course is a thousand hours—the known minimum is nearly eight hundred hours.
Viewed on the basis of hours, the school's program is still a remarkably ambitious one. The definition of logistics—"that branch of military science embracing preparation for war and including all details of supply and transport up to actual battle"—is a statement of enormous scope. Back of accounting, purchase, supply, clothing, and commissary, must come office and plant management; back of disbursing must come banking and finance; back of transfer of men and commodities must come railway traffic and ocean transportation in all their legal and technical phases. And still further back of them all must come an understanding of business cycles and economics in its broadest sense. Naturally anything like a complete review, even in the most condensed form is impossible in one thousand hours. But it is possible to teach fundamentals, to renew habits of study and to create an enthusiasm and desire to keep on which will inspire each officer to continued study along sound and necessary lines.
Such concentrated instruction cannot be hastily prepared if it is to be of value. Foremost among our tools are those marvels of studious concentration—The Alexander Hamilton texts. In addition a carefully selected library is slowly growing. The great asset of the school, however, is the caliber of the lecturers from outside the navy who have heartily assisted and ate giving us of their best. The twenty-six lectures of the course in banking are written and delivered by presidents and officers of a dozen leading banks. Foreign commerce and transportation have been treated by railway officials, steamship company presidents, officers of the Pan-American Union and university professors. Teachers who are nationally and internationally known have contributed to make the school a success, such men as Dean Wallace B. Donham, of the Harvard Graduate School, Dr. C. W. Gerstenberg, of New York University, Dr. Jacob H. Hollander, of Johns Hopkins, Dr. Roy S. MacElwee, of Georgetown University, Dr. James Brown Scott, president of the American Society of International Law, and Dr. L. S. Rowe, of the Pan-American Union.
Broadly speaking, the course has been divided into three major subjects which run simultaneously through the entire period of lectures. Accounting is, of course, the first, and twenty hours are spent in lecture and laboratory work under the direction of Mr. John Berg, B. C. S., M. C. S., C. P. A., a member of the faculty of the Washington School of Accountancy. From this as a basis, officers and civilians, who have built up the navy's accounting system, extend the instruction along naval lines of title and appropriation accounting, cost finding and cost inspection. The second fundamental is banking. The base course is arranged by President V. B. Deyber, Second National Bank; Mr. Howard Moran and Mr. A. C. Flather, American Security and Trust Co.; Mr. Edward McQuade of the Liberty National; Mr. Joshua Evans, Jr., and Mr. Robert Fleming of Riggs National; Mr. Chas. Boyer, of the Federal National; Mr. F. G. Addison, of Security Savings; Mr. E. H Thomson, of Washington Loan and Trust, and many others. From this series of twenty-six lectures covering banking fundamentals grow a number of branches by bureau officials, collateral reading and talks by authorities on foreign exchange. The third major subject, transportation, extends from the actual shipping papers back to the legal precedents which require their use. Particular attention is, of course, devoted to military transportation requirements in peace or war both afloat and on the beach. Behind these three majors and linking them together there is a continuous study of economics and the fundamentals of finance.
At the end of the course in addition to submitting his thesis each student has visited and thoroughly inspected the activities of the navy yard, the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, Comptroller's office, Veteran's Bureau, a meat packing plant, at least one bank in the District of Columbia and the office of an investment company. In addition, his Saturday afternoons have been employed in inspecting the public buildings, historical monuments, libraries and art galleries of the Capital.
Altogether the course is no child's play, but it has been tackled with enthusiasm, and it is getting results. These results in the way of economy and business and military efficiency to the navy are not transient things; and the future benefits to the navy business and reduction of costs will be almost limitless.