The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-25
DIR. Eva Harding Says Men at
Head of Government
Have Permitted Uncle Sam To
Be Robbed of Millions.
A HUGE SUM HAS been SPENT
In Building Up Army and
Navy, She Says.
Reports Indicate There Is Lit
tie to Show for 1t.

According to DIR. Eva Harding, who
has announced her candidacy for con-
gress, the newspaper and magazine
writer's and experts who are now
~muck raking'' Gas she terms it, the
American Way, in the interest of the
preparedness propaganda are grinding
good grist for her mill.
why, if half what these people say
is true" said DR., Harding, and if the
army and navy heads are sincere in
their statements, the great statesmen
who have been running our govern
ment have permitted us to be robbed
of hundreds of millions of dollars. And
if they have. it's time the people were
sending some of us women to congress
to correct the evils. Surely we couldn't
do worse.
why they tell US that our navy is
fourth in strength and efficiency. Be
fore the European war broke out they
said we We're second. And they make
so light of our army that they say it
would be dangerous 70 send it to Mex
leo for fear the 'greasers' would cap
ture it. Yet since the Spanish-Ameri-
can war 8 years ago, we have spent
over two and a half billion dollars on
our army and navy. Where has all
this money gomez Who got it Either
the navy is being systematically
libelled or our money has been thrown
to the grafters by the millions. We
are entitled to know the truth. If we
haven't got any navy, after the i'm
mense sums we have spent on it,
should know it ana know where the
money went.
Better Change the System
president Wilson wants US to spend
a half billion dollars in the next five
years. Roosevelt says this isn't
starter. We had better change the
present system entirely before we
in hay
since 1898.
1T is charged that certain United
States senators now in office own
stock in private munitions factories,
and that a coterie of army and navy
officers in Washington, who are on
the retired list or VINO have resigned
are connected with armament and
munitions plants as paid lobbyists. 1t
is charged that secl ct plans and de-
signs. worked out by officers of the
navy department, at public expense,
have been furnished to private ship
building concerns and by them used
il the construction of battleships for
foreign nations.
in congress to investigate all these re-
ports also the cost of government
owned armament and ammunition fac
tories as compared with private manu-
featuring establishments.
Should Interest the People
MS Is a IlldIleI the people S0OuIQ
become intensely interested in. The
government, it is said. can build a bat
tleship from two to five million dollars
cheaper than it can get it built by
private concerns. The president of
the Bethlehem Steel company ad-
mitted the other day on oath that his
company had taken contracts to
build battleships for foreign powers
at less price than it had built them
for the United States.
M IF we have been robbed on scale
nobody ever dreamed of, if army and
navy officers are being paid for agi-
tation for navy that can whip all the
other navies of the world combined, in
order to make the manufacturers
richer, If naval construction secrets
are being given to private concerns,
in order that they may manufacture
equally as modern warships as our
own, and thus keep the race for huge
navies at top speed, surely we should
know it, that tho guilty may be pun
ished and an honest system be substi-
tuted for the graft.
And repeat, if conditions are half
as bad as the muck-rakers paint them,
we women have a right to come for
ward and ask if it wouldn't be well
for us TO be trusted with some of the
work of government"