New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1917-12-28
ROB GOVERNMENT
OF $4,000 IN Cloth
Conspiracy Uneartbed Following
Arrest Made in New York

New York, Dec. 2S.-A criminal
conspiracy. to defraud the United
States government, which, when all
the details are made public, may show
that hundreds of thousands of dol
lars worth of army uniform clothes
have been stolen, has been unearthed
by the secret service agencies of the
government. This fact was made
known yesterday following the ar
ra1gnment of Lopis~Davidson, propri-
etor of the Universal Cloth Shrink
ing and Refining Works, lat West
Twenty-second street, who was or
dered locked up in the Tombs on
charge of embezzlement Davidson is
alleged to be concerned in the misap
preparation of olive drab~ uniform
cloth valued at about $50, 900. Several
other arrests, it is said. will be made,
two of them probably today. T
Because of the fact that the fnvesti-
cation is not yet quite complete, the
federal officials in charge of the case
refused to make public all the de-
tails last night. At least two men,
in the employ of the government,
both connected with the army supply
service, are said to be under suspi-
cion. Public accountants are now
going over the books of these men.
The examination of the books will
prbably be concluded this morning,
and it will then be possible to esti-
mate the total loss which the govern
ment has sustained as a result Of
the disloyal actions of men IN its en-
ploy and Of others with whom 1t did
business.
Assistant United States District At
torney John c. Knox is in charge OF
the case for the government! Mr..
Knox following a conference with
officers of the quartermaster corps.
said the complaint on which David
son was held was based on the a!lego-
ton that Davidson had sold 100 butts
of stolen uniform cloth, the value of
the 100 bolts being in excess of $780,
900. Davidson, it is alleged, sold
it at a price lower than the whole
sale price paid by the government.
The investigation to date has located
$50 bolts of stolen cloth, the value
being about $4,000.
The government, it was pointed out,
purchases the olive drab cloth I'M
sponged and sends it for shrinkage
to private contractors. The cloth is
shipped direct from the mills to the
army warehouses and from these
warehouses it is sent to the shrink
age plants. The frauds began after
the delivery of the cloth to the army
warehouses and was made possible by
the classifying of the entries recording
it's transfer to the shrinkage plants ,
That the. government was being :
Systematically robbed first became
known about four weeks ago, when
officers of the quartermaster corps
discovered certain discrepancies IN
the accounts Of at least two auditors
employed by the government. Ser
xeant George Barnitz, of the army in
telligence service, was assigned to the
case. Barnitz, aided by several secret
service agents attached to the army !
service, finally found the
secret of the, disappearance of the
cloth and in every instance the theft
occurred in the course of the transfer
to shrinkage plant. His first
definite clue was when he found that
certain persons were obtaining the
cloth at 81 less per yard than the gov
eminent was paying for it at the mills
The wholesale price of the cloth,
such as figures in this case, is acou:
$2.75 per yard. -
Yesterday afternoon federal agents
questioned Isaac Crystal, cloth
sponger, and George Sherman. man
ager of garage, in West Fourteenth
street. 1t was explained that neither
CT these men was under arrest and
t5.a the Information they gave was
;ttisfa Glory.
One deal which the government
has blockc<; called for the sale of 297
bolts of the cloth for $4,000 snd an
ether for So bolts at $1,000. The
case, it was said yesterday, will go to
tho grand jury Immediately after
New Years.