the light-equipment garage which he wanted to see. All the records in the lightequipment garage are kept in numerical and alphabetical order, and at the time Mr. Pirtle asked me for the particular record on June 16, 1941, I was the only one in the shop office who could have found it for him. I was terribly busy, and for this reason asked him if it was compulsory for him to have it immediately, and told him if it was not, as soon as someone came to the office to help me I would be glad to get it for him. He stated that his need for the record was not compulsory or immediate, and that it was quite all right for me to wait to get the record for him. When I got relieved I got the record out and upon his return, about 3 hours later, to the garage I went over this particular record in detail with him. About 2 weeks after, September 16, 1941, Major Brewer called and requested me to get John Taylor, superintendent of transportation, and W. H. Maxwell, superintendent of the light-equipment garage, and to be in his office within 30 minutes. This I did, and when John Taylor, W. H. Maxwell, and I arrived, I found L. E. Pirtle, Mr. Bouck, Captain Carlton, Major Atkins, and Captain Kibler already there. I had no idea what Major Brewer wanted of me, Taylor, and Maxwell before the meeting started. Major Brewer called the roll of all in attendance. Major Brewer then explained that the meeting had been called because L. E. Pirtle had reported to Major Brewer that I had refused on June 16, 1941, to give him a record of the light-equipment garage which he wanted. He then turned to Pirtle and asked Pirtle to explain why the record was refused. Pirtle said that when he asked for the record I refused to give it to him on the grounds Mr. Maxwell, the superintendent of the garage, had instructed me not to show the shop records to anybody without his approval. Mr. Maxwell has never given me any such instructions and I so stated at this meeting. I then proceeded to explain to Major Brewer and others at this meeting exactly what happened when Mr. Pirtle requested this record, which I have set out above in this my affidavit. Major Brewer then said, "I cannot see anything wrong in that and from now on when a Government employee wants any kind of record, regardless of what type, from the light-equipment garage, have him identify himself and sign for it." Mr. Bouck at this meeting made the statement the light-equipment garage and everybody connected with it had fully cooperated. A few days after this meeting Mr. Pirtle came to my office and I wanted his approval regarding some repairable units which were at the garage, and on which we could not proceed to work without his approval. Mr. Pirtle said, "You seem to be able to find out most anything you wish to know. Now, dam it, find this out"; and for several weeks after this he refused to consult with Mr. Maxwell or me on anything. Now, there are set out in here instance after instance of his refusal. I don't want to encumber the printed record with that-where they pressed on it. The CHAIRMAN. That is going to be an exhibit. Mr. MANIER. Where they brought the pressed stone and Mr. Pirtle obstructed their putting it in when there was danger of the thing freezing and finally said: I started this and I think I can manage it satisfactorily. And then finally said, Mr. Pirtle finally said this to McElyea : I don't know who instigated that but if they want that they can work it any way they damn please. I don't care if every unit on this project freezes and bursts. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Pirtle seems to have had a pretty good vocabulary of swear words; must have been an artilleryman; that is where I got my training. I understand you had some of that in the Navy. Mr. MANIER. I also had some in the Army; I ended up in the Third Division of the World War. Mr. Pirtle testified to the general effect about spark plugs, and there is much testimony in these affidavits to the effect that Mr. Pirtle insisted on cleaning spark plugs. They had a machine for them; at a time when it would have been very much cheaper to have bought one at a very low cost. The CHAIRMAN. That was true also of that carburetor; you would have been able to buy a carburetor for about a third of what it cost to put one on. Mr. MANIER. If I recall correctly, that was Mr. Pirtle again, testimony that he insisted on doing that and insisted on trying to repair shafts; a long affidavit here where he fiddled with it for an hour or two, and they finally had to do something else about it. In connection with that cleaning of spark plugs I further read from Mr. McElyea's record: I also know of my own knowledge that spark plugs are cleaned by our garage on the cleaning machine whenever we have the necessary sand for doing this, and then the spark plugs, after being cleaned, will give proper service. I know, however, that Mr. Maxwell in my presence has requested Mr. Pirtle time and again to order the necessary sand for operating the spark-plug-cleaning machine, which he has consistently refused to do. I have heard him say that he wasn't going to O. K. orders for sand, for we had already too damn much sand. The CHAIRMAN. This part of Tennessee is pretty sandy? Mr. MANIER. Yes, sir; down in the west part. Then here is the affidavit of Mr. Yeargin about some things and the difficulties of Mr. Pirtle and how he obstructed the operation. Mr. Yeargin says:1 I wish to state that I have never done or seen done in the garage any operation or repair to any equipment that was not absolutely necessary in order to keep the equipment operating. This work was done as efficiently as I have ever done any when I was in business for myself or have ever seen done in any first-class garage. The only delay caused was by reason of Mr. Pirtle complaining about jobs and operations of which he seemed to know very little. Now in that connection these affidavits show that Mr. Pirtle prior to going into Government employ was employed in the capacity he was in, had operated a small filling station and garage in Milan, a town near there of about 3,000 people; and another affidavit shows that he had a grouch on the whole situation here because he said the best thing that could happen was for the whole dam defense project to blow up. Then Mr. Pirtle also appears in this record and during his testimony, and this appears in affidavits, and I am abbreviating it, there was a long letter read about the Mills-Morris situation, and these affidavits show they were pets of his, and on one occasion, I have forgotten exactly what it was, something to be done at a regular cost with the people doing it and making prompt deliveries, and he arbitrarily insisted on it being given to Mills-Morris and said in the presence of the affiant that it would be "just your job now and you have to build a little bit less," and they actually did it for 10 cents less than the regular price of some $25 or $30, and at an additional delay of 2 or 3 days, which resulted in considerable cost to the Government. That all appears in the affidavit. Where I am abbreviating this way don't hold me too close to the facts. The CHAIRMAN. We are letting you make the record as you see fit, Mr. Manier. 1 See Affidavit No. 43, appendix, p. 3474. * See Affidavit No. 44, appendix, p. 3475. dix, p. 3476. See also Affidavit No. 43-A, appendix, p. 3475. Mr. MANIER. That sustains the point I am making. The CHAIRMAN. We will study the affidavits to support what you have to say. Mr. MANIER. Now, after all the light equipment garage was maintained for the purpose of producing cheap operation of this light equipment, which I think the affidavit shows consisted of station wagons, passenger cars, and pick-up trucks, and other similar things, and we have some affidavits on what that amounted to.1 There is an affidavit here of the cost of washing cars, and there was a good deal of testimony, as you will remember, by Mr. Pirtle to the effect of how long it took to wash cars, and Mr. William C. Davis. I will find his affidavit as quickly as I can, on that subject.2 I have kept a record of every vehicle which my men have washed and this record reveals that beginning June 11, 1941, up to and including November 20, 1941, my shift of men under me has averaged approximately 591⁄2 units per day, or 1 unit each 9 minutes, or a grand total of 7,325 units. This covers a period of 139 working days, and, of course, that is the test of the effective operation of a garage. Then we have here the affidavit of Mr. John H. Taylor as to the actual cost. Mr. Oman has testified to it but his is a little fuller than Mr. Oman's testimony, as to the actual cost of the operation of these cars, and he has attached to it the supporting data on it. Exhibit 14 is supporting data, shows 0.363 cents cost per mile as the total of all vehicles handled in my department, and that is the station wagons, the trucks, pick-up trucks, and passenger cars. This total operating cost plus gas, oil, batteries, tires, parts of all description and labor for installation, plus the overhead expense of garage, as superintendent, foreman, parts men, office help, and miscellaneous labor not chargeable to any one certain job. I wanted to emphasize that because of the testimony of Mr. Pirtle of the character it was. That pretty well concludes Mr. Pirtle's testimony, and as far as I have been able to study the record, it meets every insinuation contained in it with sworn affidavits. ROAD CONSTRUCTION Mr. MANIER. I will now go to the testimony of Capt. George N. Kibler. You will remember that he testified in some detail as to there being parallel roads. The CHAIRMAN. That is right. I went out and looked at those parallel roads and I still don't understand why it was necessary to have them. Mr. MANIER. I will have to read this a little more fully for you to understand it than I will most of it. The CHAIRMAN. You will have to read it very fully for me to understand it because I looked it over very carefully. Mr. MANIER. I think you will, and I had to have it explained to me, and I managed to understand it. I am sure if I did, the Senator will be able to. This is the affidavit of W. W. Turner, who is employed by the H. K. Ferguson Co., the architect engineers, as the highway designing engineer for the H. K. Ferguson Co. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Manier, when you get to talking about highways, I know something about them; I have laid them out, had them constructed, had much experience with them, and I hope you can ex 1 See Affidavits Nos. 38 and 39, appendix, pp. 3465 and 3466. See also Affidavit No. 34-A, appendix, p. 3453, See Affidavit No. 40, appendix, p. 3466. See also Affidavit No. 40-A, appendix, p. 3467. plain this to me satisfactorily, because I know what I am talking about. Mr. MANIER. I think I can.1 These roads were properly designed and necessary in the plan and operation of the plant, and likewise conformed to the instructions contained in the Manual of Instructions for the Administration of Contracts and Ordnance Safety Manual. The necessity for the two roads is understood from the following facts: One of these roads is one of the main arterial highways serving both the Wolf Creek ordnance plant and the Milan ordnance depot. This road is therefore used by thousands of employees traveling to and from home and back and forth over the two projects, and traveling on the road is and will be heavy. This road further runs from the administration buildings on the east boundary of the Milan ordnance depot gravel gate or entrance to both the Wolf Creek ordnance plant and the Milan ordnance depot on the west boundary of both projects. This particular road is further the boundary between these two projects. That means the Wolf Creek ordnance plant and Milan ordnance depot. The CHAIRMAN. I noticed that. Mr. MANIER (reading): The other road running parallel to the road described above is to the south of the main arterial and is enclosed by a heavy chain link and barbwire fence. The CHAIRMAN. What I couldn't understand was why the Sam Hill the road couldn't be built where the fence is and made wide enough to take care of both projects, and could have been done for at least a third less than the two roads cost. Mr. MANIER. May I make a little explanation? The one within the restricted area has little branches going off of it that bring the powder from the igloos to that road. The CHAIRMAN. I noticed that. Mr. MANIER. If each one of those little branches had gone to the main highway there would have had to have been a gate for every one of those branch roads in the wire fence around this, and the one inside the restricted area was a collecting road for the little ammunition roads that ran off of it. I am not sure I am using correct terms, but I think you get the idea. The CHAIRMAN. I understand the situation. Mr. MANIER. May I read the rest of that? The other road the one I have just been referring to parallel to the road described above is to the south of the main artery and is enclosed by heavy chain link and barbwire fence. So that if the outside road had been a collecting road for that, it would have been necessary to have 13 or 14 gates instead of 1, with guards for them. The CHAIRMAN. I still think the 13 or 14 gates would have been cheaper. Mr. MANIER. They have a guard at every one of those gates in that restricted area 1: The last road is a patrolled road 1 See Affidavit No. 5, appendix, p. 3373. See also Affidavit No. 5-A, appendix, p. 3374. the one inside, within the fence 1— and connected with the road or roads serving the igloos, which are used by the plant for the storage of high explosives. It is not only necessary but very practical that this road should be enclosed by the fence and that regular traffic should not be allowed within the fence. If the main artery, first described, was used for both roads, then these roads from the igloos would strike the main-artery road at regular intervals, not only requiring gates and guards— as I mentioned 1_ but creating a dangerous condition by reason of the traffic in the main highway. Patrolmen within the explosive area would be unable to patrol any area effectively unless within the area enclosed with a fence, and within which run the patrol roads. The workmen are not allowed to bring their personal automobiles, nor are they allowed to enter with cigarette lighters, matches, and so forth, or anything else that would cause an explosion. The plan of operation is that the workmen travel over the main artery to the administration area, where their automobiles are parked, and they are checked for matches, cigarette lighters, and so forth, and then transported in plant cars to their places of work within the restricted or explosive areas. There is no way to design one road to cover all purposes when ordinary travel and storage and handling of high explosives are involved. I quote below from the manual of instructions for the administration of contracts, War Department, office of the Chief of Ordnance, page 88, paragraph C: Important Protective Features. 1. Fencing around each manufacturing and explosive area. 2. Patrol roads located inside the fenced area. 3. Patrol cars equipped with two-way radios and operating on patrol roads. I further quote from the Ordnance Safety Manual, as follows: 1. Ordnance Safety Manual, page 27, paragraph 24 (d), subparagraph (3): Good roads for use by guards and fire fighters should be provided. Roads for traffic, 2, and from the safety zone should not pass through the magazine area. 2. Ordnance Safety Manual, page 9, paragraph 7, subparagraph (37): Road systems serving magazines or explosive operating buildings should be so arranged that trucks carrying explosives will not be isolated on dead-end roads in case of fire or explosion. That is, the feeder roads.1 All requirements of the above are met with the present design, which has received the approval of the Ordnance Department and construction quartermaster. It was further testified to by Captain Kibler that the roads parallel one another for about 41⁄2 miles. This is not correct. The patrol road parallels the main artery for a distance of 210 miles. The CHAIRMAN. I am not quarreling with the contractors or the fact that there are two roads there. I am quarreling with somebody for not using good, in my opinion, engineering ability in laying the thing out on an economical basis for the Government. Mr. MANIER. If they had only one road all the main traffic went through there and then the others were restricted areas, filled with high explosives, and it required that other road for the restricted area. Otherwise the main road would have had to have gone through the restricted area, which was really impossible when it is a munitions manufacturing plant. Mr. KINGSLEY FERGUSON. The high-powered experts of the Ordnance Department, our own organization, and Procter & Gamble Defense Corporation pored over that lay-out for a period of about 3 months and it was after the original lay-out of the Wolf Creek ordnance plant was established that we received the contract for the Milan ordnance depot; therefore the road system for the Wolf Creek ordnance plant was already an established fact at the time the Milan ordnance depot was brought into the picture. 1 See Affidavit No. 5, appendix, p. 3373. See also Affidavit No. 5-A, appendix, p. 3374. |