Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1915-09-06
The Wasting Of
Public Funds

ner in the Congressional Record.)
Why has the War Department
o been paying the ring $3.50 for
3.S-inch common shrapnel when
, can manufacture and is manufactur
, ing the identical article at Frank
ford for $7.94? Seventeen dollar
and fifty cents is more than twic,
1874. The government could manu-
facture two schrapnel for the price 4
has been paying the private manufac
turers for one and have $1.62 re
naming to the peoples credit OF
each transaction. Is it any wonder
we do not have as much ammunition
as we should have for the money that
has been expended? 1t is the public
funds that are being spent here, and
the people have right to have those
questions answered.
We are manufacturing a 91-second
combination fuse in the government
arsenal for 1922 for which we have
been paying the ring 81.
These illustrations are not eXcep-
tional, as | will endeavor to show by
the fact that on a contract given to
Frankford arsenal for ammunition
valued at $1,900,064 we are saving
$979,S40; or, in other words, we are
saving approximately $1,000,000 on
$2,000,000 order as compared with
what it would have cost had that
contract been awarded the ammuni-
tion ring. Does not a showing such
as this warrant policy of turning
the really big orders over to govern
ment manufacture instead of allow
ing the war traffickers to charge us
practically any price they may agree
upon between themselves?
In a recent speech before congress
President Wilson stated that like
good stewards, We should so account
for every dollar of our appropriations
as to make it perfectly evident what
1t was spent for and in what way it
was spent" Surely no such thought
was in the minds of the army and
navy officials who have been doing
the purchasing for those depart
ments.
The reason this matter deserves
the immediate attention of the Amer
ican taxpayers is that the cost of mil
itarism in this country has been
growing faster than the average man
even dreams. In 1890 the annual
cost of our navy was $4,000, 900.
Today it is 100000. There is
no use to ask the reader to stop and
try to realize how much money
$140, 100000 is, because it is an
absolute physical impossibility for
the human mind to do it.
Who the War Traders Are.
Because | believe it is my duty to
do so, | desire now to take the re-
sponsibility of directing the atten-
tion of the American people to the
fact that their money appropriated
for the army and navy is being vast
ed by the millions, and to take the
responsibility of identifying the war
traffickers, so that the taxpayers
may know where the millions upon
millions of their money that has been |
dumped into the bottomless pit of
have been going, are go
ing, and will continue to go unless
public opinion shall arise in its might |
and demand that further waste of
public funds shall cease.
To begin with, who and what is the
armor ring, if there really is such
an animal? Is the term "armor
ring" a mere figure of speech, some
hing invisible, or is it possible defi-
nitely to place our finger upon it?
Answer: 1t is possible.
The armor ring is the Bethlehem
Steel Company, the Midvale Steel
Company and the Carnegie Steel
These three firms, exclu-
tive of their subsidiary war-traffick-
ng auXiliaries, have drawn down
ince 1887 from the Navy Depart
nent alone contracts aggregating
;95, 5,62S,912, divided as follows
$42,321,237; Carnegie,
2,954,377; Midvale, $20,353.29S.
We will add to the ammunition
ing, for good measure, the DUPONT
'owder Trust, which has no competi
ors in the sale of smokeless powder
o the government for the reasons
hat will appear most remarkable
5hen explained. The Powder Trust
as obtained contracts aggregating
bout $25, 100000 since 1905. From
he army and navy combined the
ther three concerns-Bethlehem,
and Midvale-have OBJ
aimed orders since 1887 exceeding
$50, 100000.