The Penn's Grove record., 1914-06-26
5000, 900 Appropriation For Indian
Head

Wn6n the naVal dppTOpIldCiO VII
passed the House of Representatives the
proposition to appropriate $500, 900 with
which to enlarge Government powder
plant at Indian Head on the Potomac
river was eliminated, on a point OF
order. The Senate restored that
amount to the bill. The conference
committee of the two Houses reduced
the amount to 5000, 900 last Friday.
Making more powder by the Govern
ment means a less demand for the
powder made by the dupont Powder
Company, the pioneer and greatest
makers of powder in America.
Senator James MARITIME, of New Jer-
sey, forming his opinion upon an article
in Harper's Weekly, favored the appro-
priation. The article in Harper's
Weekly has been declared maliciously
false.
SOME TRUTHS SET FORTH
Col. E. G. Buckner, vice-president Of
the DUPONT Company Oh Friday wrote
to Senator MARITIME the following
letter:
E. I. du Pont de Nemours Powder
Co.. Wilmington, Delaware, Room 1894
DUPONT Building, office Of E. G. Buck
ner, vice-president, June Is, 1914
Hon. James E. MARITIME, United States
Senate, Washington, D.. C.-My Dear
Senator: 1 can assure you that ] am
pleased to receive your favor Of the 18th
instant, in which you state your will
ingness to read the article which will
appear in Harper's Weekly next week,
meeting and refuting the charges made
against our company i'll this publication
several weeks ago. When l read the
remarks in the Congressional Record l
deeply regretted that | had not had ALI
opportunity to explain to you how
wickedly false ard unfair the article
which you quoted from was.
l am sure that had you known that
the contract which we made with the
German company was made at the re-
quest of our own government and, in
deed, that the government was a party
to it, in that it assumed the burden of
paying the royalties specified, you
would not have been so severe in yOur
criticism.
In your remarks you stated that the
''German government are every hour
of the day and every day Of the year III
possession of the quality of powder and
number of pounds of powder which We
have in every magazine"
AS applying to tile present, this
statement is ali error. The contract we
made with the Germans came to ali
end III 1898, during the Spanish. Amer
lean War. Under 1t no sInokeless pow
der was manufactured. There was no
way of keeping the Germans from
knowing the amount of powder manu-
featured under that contract, for the
royalty the government paid them, was
on a pound basis.
Every time we made a payment on
the royalty we had to, of course, give
them the number of pounds of powder
manufactured.
Since 1898 we have been selling the
government smokeless powder and
there is no way for foreign nations to
get information al to tue amount OF
powder the government has on hand
save thru the Congressional hearings,
or the debates, they Can easily keel
themselves informed OH all such points,
L want to say TO you, too, that the
DUPONT Powder Company has never
sold a pound of powder to any foreign
government without consulting with
the officers of our own government,
Indeed, when our army went to Mexico
recently and orders came to us which
we felt were for shipments to Mexicans
l went at once to Secretary Daniels and
told him the situation and asked him
what l should do. l had reason to
believe that some of these shipments
were to go to the Constitutionalists and
others to the Federalists. He said he
did not know how to advise me-.
took the matter into my own hands and
promptly turned down every order, not
being willing to take chances on the
ammunition being used against oul
soldiers.
While the dupont Company is a large
concern, yet l want to assure you that
III all its dealings with the government
l have neve heard anyone acquainted
with the facts intimate that it pursued
a policy that was either unfair, extor-
tionate OF unpatriotic.
After you read the article which will
be published in Harper's Weekly under
my signature, if there is any feature of
our dealings with the government
which you feel you ought to have ad-
ditional information on, 1 will gladly
answer any inquiry you may make or
respond to your call to come to Wash
ington and talk with you or with tile
naval affairs committee. There is
nothing we desire to conceal.
] feel, in view of the fact that Har-
per's Weekly's assault on this company
played such a CONSPICUOUS part in the
recent discussion, it would be no more
than fair that my REPUTATION of all the
charges contained therein should also
be printed i'll the Record. DO you
think this unreasonable?
Thanking you for your kind letter, l
remain,
Very truly yours,
(Signed) f. q. Buckner.