The wheels of war industry had not ceased to turn before the Government began to make advance payments in settlement of the industrial claims. If the contractors were generous, so was the Government. The first settlement made illustrated the War Department’s attitude right through. A New York contractor had submitted a claim for about $15,000. On January 20, 1919, he informed the New York District Claims Board that two days later he had to meet a note for $10,000, a debt incurred in prosecution of his war contract. A member of the New York Claims Board took this claim in person to Washington and next day secured its approval by the Ordnance Claims Board, together with an authorization to advance $10,000 to the contractor pending the final approval and settlement by the War Department Claims Board. The New York district finance officer paid over the $10,000 in time to save the note from going to protest. As the weeks went on the New York manufacturer’s plight was duplicated over and over again. The producers of ordnance supplies, after the termination of their contracts, faced enormous financial obligations which they would have to meet long before the machinery of liquidation could act upon their claims. To such producers the system of advance partial payments afforded great relief. The policy of advance payments not only saved numerous concerns from financial ruin, but it stimulated the general commercial reconstruction and resumption of normal business by releasing large sums of money and putting it again into circulation. And, it should not be forgotten, the system greatly aided the Government to secure favorable settlement terms from the contractors by offering the reward of early payments to those whose war business was quickly liquidated.