For some years prior to the war, however, the Government had adopted the policy of encouraging the manufacture of Army ammunition in private plants. This was done by placing with various concerns small annual orders for this type of ammunition. These orders were usually in the neighborhood of 1,000,000 rounds each. The purpose of such orders, insignificant as they were, was to scatter throughout the principal private ammunition factories the necessary jigs, fixtures, gauges, and other tooling required in the production of cartridges for Army rifles and machine guns. These small orders might also be expected to educate the operating forces of the private plants in this manufacture. By this means the Government hoped to have in an emergency a nucleus of skill and equipment which could be quickly expanded to meet war requirements. As a further means of stimulating interest in this peace-time undertaking the Ordnance Department conducted each year a sort of competition among the private manufacturers of small-arms ammunition. The output of each factory accepting the Government orders was tested for proper functioning and accuracy; and those cartridges which won in this competition were used as the ammunition shot in the national rifle matches. Thus the winning concern could use its achievement in its advertising. But these educational efforts on the part of the Government failed to create a capacity that was anywhere near to being adequate to meet the demands of such a war as that into which we were plunged in the year 1917. We had built up no large reserves of ammunition, and the orders placed with private manufacturers had been so small that they had resulted in virtually no factory preparation at all for great quantity production. To all practical purposes the entire ammunition manufacturing capacity of .30-caliber cartridges in 1917 was encompassed within the walls of the Frankford Arsenal. There was, however, in the ammunition industry a fortunate condition existing when we entered the war. For some time numerous American concerns had been working on the manufacture of cartridges for both the British and the French Governments. The cartridges being turned out under these contracts were not suitable for our use, being of different caliber than those taken by American weapons, and this meant that the machinery in existence could not be converted to the production of American ammunition without radical and time-consuming alteration of tools, etc. However, cartridges are cartridges, regardless of their size; and the manufacture which was supplying France and England had resulted in educating thousands of mechanics and shop executives in the production of ammunition. Consequently, when we went into the war, we had the men and the skill ready at hand; we needed only to produce the tools and the machinery in addition to the raw materials.