BUSINESS AND NAVY FOOD
By Commander M. H. Karker, S.C, U.S. Navy
1. The current business depression and unsettlement has served to bring home to most of us the realization of how little we know about economic cycles and the factors of business organization and administration. Forces of tremendous power and unalterable determination work their will in business with greater precision and with more persistent pressure than in politics, religion or international relations.
2. Since the days of simple barter man has recognized the fact that presumably uncontrollable forces were at work but he invariably laid their results at the door of local politics or an unfriendly neighbor. The necessity for education in business functions has been recognized only within recent years but its results have been so remarkable as to make such education a fixture in the preparation of young men for all future time. Already we have learned what these forces are and much of how they work. The time is coming when we will be sufficiently enlightened to know that they may be controlled and then the rigors of depression and the excesses of "prosperity" will be abolished.
3. There is a law in physics called the law of equal and opposite reaction. It applies with equal force in economics. So applied, it means that times of feverish prosperity and extravagance are followed inevitably by periods of equally dull business and hard times. Society is so imperfectly organized that we humans are unable to "keep our feet on the ground" or the ship of business on an even keel and straight course. We of the navy need not now interest ourselves in the causes. It is enough to recognize the fact, and to prepare ourselves to act in harmony with the movements as they occur.
4. These periods of prosperous times occur about once in every seven years (on the average) and during such times the prices of all commodities are high—just as in hard times they are low. But between the high and low points of inflation and depression there are intermediate movements in prices and in the volume of business. Plotted on a chart these movements look like a series of mountain peaks, but the trend is either up or down. Now it is the function of business in commodities, such as food, to purchase at the lowest price practicable; to handle, store and ship with the least expense and to sell at the highest price obtainable. It is very easy to make money in times of prosperity and much easier to lose money in times of depression.
5. The navy is in business just as truly as are Austin Nichols or Washburn Crosby—the only difference being that we do not sell at a profit. In addition to the fact that we do not sell at a profit we are bound to maintain our stock on a basis of proper naval preparedness, a policy which forbids our working on reduced stocks in times of depression. But if we would be sure to gauge fairly the success of any supply unit we must secure affirmative answers to these questions:
- Is stock always available for issue?
- Is the amount of stock on hand reasonable, i.e., is it less than the average issues for eight months?
- Are the issue prices on a par with, or lower than, current market quotations?
If the answers to those questions are "yes," then we may know that the supply officer concerned has followed the economic trend has expended the government's money as he would his own and is prepared to meet the material needs of the navy. If the answers are not affirmative then something is wrong, either with the supply officer or with the policy under which he has been directed to work.
6. No large success is possible in navy supply work without the application of right principles. A constant study of the economic and commodity trends makes the storekeeper or purchasing officer efficient and valuable to the navy we serve. But business is burdened with ill considered and undigested writings on economics—writings replete with catch phrases and high sounding terms. It will be found something of a task to separate the wheat from the chaff but every grain of fact winnowed from the mass will return a hundredfold. Ultimate success will make this work pay.
7. "Business" is not a specialty to the supply corps. It is the basis upon which all supply functions are founded—the keel and ribs about which we build purchase, disbursements, supply and accounting. Business in food is a specialty, however, and one about which a reasonable amount of knowledge is required in the course of general supply work. Without a background of history and fundamentals storekeeping becomes a monotony and commissary work a pest.
8. Provisions and clothing are no more alike than saltwater soap and anchors. But we invariably name them together because they have been allied by tradition. The Bureau of Provisions and Clothing (among a number of others, some of which survive) was established by the Act of 31 August, 1842. That was the beginning of the present Bureau of Supplies and Accounts and the name was not changed for 50 years. The old-time paymaster aboard ship issued clothing to the crew; issued uncooked provisions to the berth deck messes and kept the pay accounts. In those easy-going days even our storekeepers ashore were civilians. But since then we have had the growth of purchase; sales; general storekeeping and accounting—to the present group of widely different professions making up the supply corps job and in which a supply officer is supposed to be equally and highly proficient.
9. From the establishment of the bureau in the navy department, food and clothing grew up together. Tradition and practice linked their names until the development of the navy forced their prime importance, and the necessity for specialization, upon the attention of the bureau. In the growth of our allied professions, the primary importance of victuals and clothes was relegated temporarily to a secondary position. With the establishment of the P. and C. Depot in 1907 the Department awakened to the fact that the old specialists had been retired and that no new ones had been trained to take their places. Courses of study were arranged with the Philadelphia Textile School and with the Department of Agriculture in Washington and a small number of officers was trained in the fundamentals.
10. With the establishment of the P. and C. Depot began the coordination of all P. and C. supply effort, including that of the naval clothing factory which had been started in 1879. Since 1907 one agency has undertaken the responsibility for specifications, upkeep, manufacture, inspection and distribution. Handled in detail by one agency, it is not surprising that the methods of handling food and clothing are almost identical—that reports of both are made in the same form—that a special requisition and invoice are used when the supply officer afloat needs stock—and that one division of supply departments ashore is "P. and C."
11. But there are differences in financing and accounting that push them almost as far apart as do the differences in physical characteristics. Provisions are purchased under an annual appropriation which also provides for many expenses other than the cost of food. The amount which may be spent in any one year, therefore, is definitely controlled and fixed by the Congress and it means that the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts must be careful—even niggardly—in expenditures for labor in handling provisions. Congress is extremely shy in appropriating money for the navy and it places upon the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts the proper business burden of seeing to it that food reaches the mess table at the lowest possible cost. One can readily understand the effects on the ration of the unit prices paid for food and of expenditures for handling. If the amount spent for labor in provisions storehouses was not kept to the very minimum there would be no money left for the purchase of food itself and for the payment of commuted rations. And if we paid an excessive price for pineapple no supply officer could afford to issue it and the men would lose variety.
12. The expenditure or use of food is likewise rigidly fixed by law. The quantity of each class of food allowed each man each day has been fixed and issues must be accounted for by rations—a sometimes intricate, but always interesting, proceeding. The allowed variations are legion and I know of no more absorbing occupation than the administration of a general mess and the preparation of its returns. The proof of success is the excellence and variety of bills of fare and the unit cost of the ration.
13. The purchase of clothing and small stores is financed in an entirely different way. The clothing and small stores fund is a revolving and self-supporting fund now amounting to slightly over $42,000,000. That is our capital. Its profitable employment means constant care to keep enough invested in actual stock to meet issue needs but not so much invested in overcoats that there is no money to buy undershirts. As the men pay (directly or through allowance) for all clothing issued to them, the accounting is a simple ledger return at fixed prices. For certain good legislative reasons the ledger prices are not fixed at this moment but it is only a question of a short time before uniform ledger prices will be re-established.
14. There is a general impression that men eat and wear the same things and in the same quantity year after year and that there is never any excuse for failure to have macaroni and gym shoes in stock. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Upkeep and distribution of food and clothing are not mere matters of mathematics. They depend upon climate, appetite and the distribution of naval forces. The problem in all storekeeping is not "always to have enough." That is the simplest thing to require of any human being and belief in it has caused some monumental failures. The real requirement of storekeeping is always to have enough without ever having too much—to meet legitimate naval needs without an excessive "inventory" and without the burden of losses by survey. To fulfill that requirement means hard work and close attention—attributes that lead to success everywhere and in every kind of job.
15. The office of P. and C. administration at the navy supply depot is charged (under the direction and control of the Bureau) with responsibility for food and clothing. That office probably exercises closer supervision over stocks in hand than is possible or in practice with any other class of navy materials. In working out the distribution of food and clothing it early developed that a record of all the stock in the navy would be impractical. So the control of quantities aboard ships and at the smaller yards at home and abroad is left almost entirely with the respective supply officers. Among the many continental yards and stations, however, there are seven which do the bulk of the navy supply work and these are termed primary points of distribution. They are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Great Lakes, Puget Sound and Mare Island. Even these points are subject to change.
16. In the office of P. and C. administration there is maintained an accurate record of the stock of each item of food and clothing on hand at these primary points. This record is posted from a regular monthly report rendered by each of the seven supply officers. By means of this record the bureau is always in touch with the quantities available and—by elimination—with the quantities being consumed at each point. If Boston runs low in beans we know immediately whether they can be supplied from some other yard or whether an additional purchase is essential. If the fleet should be moved suddenly from the Pacific coast, we would know exactly what food and clothing might be transferred from Mare Island and Puget Sound to the east coast yards and the shipments would be made to arrive almost simultaneously with the fleet. We depend upon this record—and it seldom fails—for essential information as to the quantities required to keep the navy supplied.
17. Each of the primary yards and stations is assigned a definite quota or proportion of the stock of food and clothing available for issue. These percentages are changed as the ships change home yards and as the appetites of the men develop. The work of P. and C. administration is not paternal to the extent of assuming all responsibility for the maintenance of stock but when the supply officer at Mare Island submits a requisition for tomatoes it is our job to recommend to the bureau a change in, or approval of, the quantity asked for and to designate a source of supply. When determining upon purchase and shipment, P. and C. keeps one object in view always—to get the food and clothing to the actual consumer with the least possible expense.
18. In the supply of food to the men of the navy no other bureau or office shares responsibility with the Bureau of supplies and Accounts. The supply corps of the navy must alone assume full responsibility for the quality, kind, price and service of the navy ration.
19. All supply officers who have been to sea are familiar with the general mess and the difficulties that beset the preparation and service of food. We all know that the ship's cooks rank with (but after) the engine room force in being difficult to handle properly and we know, to our sorrow, how quickly soup gets cold and ice cream melts. The commissary officer and the commissary steward have jobs that are envied by few—but jobs that are exceeded by none in their possibilities for the promotion of contentment and the making of a happy ship.
20. The supply officer who goes to sea is so in the habit of finding all his necessary dry stores forthcoming when he submits a requisition that he is apt not to think much about how those stores came to the storehouse or where they came from. He is apt to think of coffee as something he drinks in the morning and of raisins as a bunch of seeds in rice pudding. But somebody in the navy is continually thinking of coffee as a bean grown in Brazil and of raisins as grapes in California. It is that phase of provisions supply work that merits more attention.
21. The navy specifications for food are very rarely the product of entirely original thought and research. Most of the food we eat has been in common use for hundreds of years—only the standards of purity and grading change from time to time. But at the navy supply depot there is a force of officers and specialists engaged continuously in keeping abreast of the developments in the growing, handling and packing of food products and these men spend a very considerable part of their time in original research work in an endeavor to improve the quality or the grade or the packing of navy food without increasing ultimate cost. In all of this work the force on specification revision keeps in mind the ultimate consumer—the man aboard ship who answers mess call and who must eat what is put before him.
22. After the preparation of the specifications comes the question of how much to buy and where to keep it. The question of storage is a much simpler one than the question of quantity, for while all foods are perishable, some are more perishable than others and the stock of these must be replenished with greater frequency. No amateur would attempt to keep rolled oats for the same length of time as sugar and it becomes a nice question as to what length of time food may reasonably be expected to keep without deterioration. Some years ago the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts investigated this subject very thoroughly and published in the Bureau Memoranda a table of keeping qualities of food. A study of this table, and a careful compliance with its instructions, will pay the commissary officer many times over in the reduction in the cost of ration through smaller losses by survey. When you determine on your requisition to fill stock do not, by any chance, attempt to carry the more perishable items for the same length of time that you can carry tinned fruits and the standard vegetables.
23. All food is not harvested and marketed at the same time of the year. A number of the less important items are continuously available—perennials, as it were. But most of the items of navy food have their greatest period of production at the same time each year and the navy—like any prudent housewife—makes its purchase when the stock is in greatest supply and the price—theoretically— at the lowest point. To determine the time of purchase we must consider the variation in the time of pack. As an example let us consider the case of tinned peas. Peas mature at different times in different sections of the country. They are packed in Maryland in the months of June and July, the heaviest pack running from the 15th of June to the 15th of July. They are packed in the northern states during August, September and October, the heaviest pack running from the 15th of August to the end of September. They are packed in the western states during the same months as in the northern states but the heavy pack extends only during the month of September. It is quite impossible for the navy to restrict its purchase to the peas produced in any one section of the country so we submit the requisition on or about the 1st of May of each year and the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts opens bids on or about the 1st of July. By requiring delivery on the 1st of October the navy gives every packer of peas in the country an opportunity to bid and the chance of selling his product to the service and securing world-wide distribution in use.
24. In determining the quantity to buy it has been found undesirable to rely solely upon the regular monthly reports of peas on hand. Accordingly a special report is requested from each primary distributing point about two weeks before the requisition is due to be submitted and supply officers report the quantity on hand and their own estimates of the quantity required for the succeeding 12 months. These reports and estimates are tabulated in the navy supply depot and the estimated needs compared with the average requirements published by the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. As the navy prepares its requisition in May and as no new peas will be available until the following October, it is necessary to buy for 17 months ahead and not for 12 months. Every estimate is carefully considered and the quantity required determined—so far as human foresight makes this possible—on the basis of the men then in the navy and the authorized strength for the coming year. The determination of these quantities is not purely a matter of mathematics but involves climate, appetite and the movements of the naval forces. It is quite impossible for any human agency to foretell accurately changes in the appetite of the enlisted personnel of the navy or the preferences of supply officers in the preparation of bills of fare. We maintain stock largely on the basis of average past demands and this reliance on averages sometimes finds the navy with an over stock in one item and under the necessity of purchasing some other item or items before the regular pack season.
25. For a number of years the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts has been endeavoring to induce producers and packers to deal direct with the navy instead of through established brokers and wholesalers. It is very evident that the price to the consumer must be increased every time the product changes hands from the time it is packed. In the normal course of civilian food distribution, food passes from the packer to the broker, to the wholesaler, to the jobber, to the retailer, to the consumer. Each of the four intermediaries between the packer and the consumer takes his profit on the transaction. Ordinarily the navy succeeds in by-passing the jobber and the retailer but still too large a proportion of our purchases are made from the wholesaler and the broker. If we could only induce the packers of the country to deal direct, it would enable us to eliminate and save two profits on every transaction. This is not a discussion of the necessity for all of these intermediaries in civilian distribution nor must it be considered a claim that their existence is necessarily an economic waste. But so far as the navy is concerned their services are unnecessary and wasteful and we should eliminate them just as soon as it is possible to convince the producers, packers and canners that business with the navy requires no special influence and involves nothing more than integrity and a desire to sell honestly described merchandise at a fair market valuation.
26. After the contracts are awarded by the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, the navy supply depot undertakes to conduct factory inspection on as large a proportion as possible of the food for the navy. It is not possible, of course, to maintain an organization sufficient for the factory inspection of everything we buy but factory inspection is advantageous to the navy in that it demonstrates conclusively that the navy is interested in the conditions under which its food is prepared and it appeals to the seller because it eliminates the uncertainty of acceptance; expense of transportation on rejected material; and gives him payment for the material accepted within a few days after the shipment has been made.
27. All food is not inspected at the factory and in such cases, after material has been delivered by the contractor direct to the primary point which is in need of stock, the local supply officer withdraws representative samples from every delivery received and forwards such samples to the navy supply depot for analysis, grading and comparison with the sample under which the purchase was made. It is not until the report of acceptance is received that the inspection calls are passed and public bills prepared. Every delivery is painstakingly compared with the specification requirements and with the samples submitted at the time the bids were opened, chemical and microscopical examinations are made wherever applicable and all of the gradings are verified by recognized experts of long standing. "Doubtful food is bad food" and is always treated as such. Food which passes navy inspection must not only be wholesome but it must have flavor and appearance equal to the standard and of such quality as to appeal to the appetite of the present-day fastidious sailorman.
28. It is quite impossible to cover the details of procurement, storage, inventory, issue and accounting for food aboard ship. Most of these things have been laid down by the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts in unequivocal language. If the commissary officer will take the time to study these instructions he will never have trouble in obtaining food when he wants it but unless he does his part he can't expect the supply officer ashore to do his own job and the commissary officer's too. Give the supply officer as much notice as you can when you want stores; stow provisions aboard ship so that the oldest material is always available and is used first; stow everything in regular tiers so that it may be inventoried without being broken out; invariably issue the oldest stock first and keep a close watch on the remainder so that you may be sure that you know as soon as it begins to deteriorate.
29. The preparation and service of food aboard ship is one of the most interesting of supply corps jobs. It probably presents the greatest opportunity supply officers have for constructive development and the promotion of contentment. I have never yet seen a happy ship which did not have an efficient commissary officer and the rigors of many "mad houses" have been alleviated by a good mess. In a large measure the supply officer has the health and contentment of the crew in his custody and all of his work in preparing tasteful and varied bills of fare will be repaid many times over.
30. I wish that it might be possible to indicate some of the primary sources of navy food. Familiarity makes of a bag of beans a prosaic thing and of a can of salmon only "gold fish." But, really, they are uninteresting only if they are a detail. Coffee should mean more than a beverage. It should mean bushes in the mountains of Santos; mule trains to the coast; sweating stevedores; ships' holds; New York warehouses; expert coffee, tasters; blenders and roasters; milling machines; gas heated cylinders; stoners, grinders and the final aromatic, dark brown granules in air-tight containers for the ships of the navy. Vanilla extract is something beside a flavoring for puddings and cakes. It should mean a bean grown in Mexico; transportation of the crudest sort; and the expert services of chemists and artisans in the transfer of flavor and aroma from the bean to a glycerine base. Flour is more than wheat and tea more than green dried leaves. Tinned California fruits, Wisconsin peas and Maine corn have well been named "the miracle of your table." A study of the sources of food with its gradings, preparation and distribution will pay dividends in efficiency and large returns in interest. We should give commissary work the time it needs to the end that we may discharge with credit our obligation to the men we feed.