The fluctuations of markets sometimes made it possible for the Government to sell surplus to bidders at a profit. For instance, a ton or more of camphor, acquired originally for the Medical Department, brought a profit of 84 per cent, due to a post-armistice increase in the price of camphor. Medical supplies generally, although they were sold principally to public institutions, brought a 99-per-cent recovery of their war cost. General supplies--including hardware, kitchen utensils, brushes and brooms, rope, paper, office furniture, musical instruments, and athletic goods--sold at prices which brought back to the Government more than 72 per cent of their war cost. Apparently useless supplies--useless to civilians, that is--were purchased by bidders who had found unique uses for them. The nonbreakable eyepieces of gas masks were found to manufacture well into motorists’ goggles. The anti-dim paste used to keep the gas-mask eyepieces from fogging from the wearers’ breath had a practical use upon the windshields of automobiles during rainstorms. Trench fans were bought and used as aprons for cannery workers. Surplus leather was sold in auctions held in Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and elsewhere; and the cash recoveries generally were large, ranging from 71 per cent to 100 per cent of the war cost, and even, in instances, returning a profit. Harness did not sell well, because much of it was made of russet leather, which does not attract the commercial buyer, or else because the harnesses were of special designs not used by teamsters. The demands of other departments of the Government for surplus army motor trucks were so great that only a few were sold as surplus, and those few were neither new nor in good condition. Automobile tires, however, were placed on sale in the retail stores. The total sale of surplus materials acquired by the Division of Purchase, Storage, and Traffic amounted to $357,000,000 between the date of the armistice and January 31, 1920. The recovery was 77.57 per cent of the original cost. CHAPTER XVIII THE FOREIGN LIQUIDATION