New-York tribune., 1918-03-23
An Amazing Publication

An Amazing Publication
Apparently the "lynchng" al Hog
Island, as we then termed it, is to be
repeated on the Aircraft Production
Board
THE New York World" of yesterday
gave full publicity to the confidential re-
port of Mr.. Gutzon Borglum to the
President, which it had given in outline
and by nnuendo the day before. 1t suf-
fees to say that no such scandalous doc,l-
ment has been given light since the war
began. SO ashamed is "The World" Of
this performance that it issues a dis
claimer in advance. 1t says:
"'The World prints it with no attes-
tation to its accuracy but solely with
the view of permitting the public to be
Informed of conditions regarded as suf1i-
GENTLY serious to justify investigation.
BY full publicity it is certain that the inn
preston will be gained that there is moth
ing to conceal. If good the public should
know it, if bad, the right to the knowledge
is equal"
In other words. abominabc charges
against the members of the Aircraft
DUdIu ctlc " UC gwen lllc WlUSSC pun
licity, while the accused men have no
redress.
In effect the report charges that the
whole aircraft work is honeycombed with
graft and inefficiency and pro-Ger-
manism.
Howard f. Coffin, chairman OF the
board, is held up as "a man with no
trained knowledge or sense of production.
or what it really involves.' And with no
veracity.
Gle has issued and is daily causing to
be issued statements harmful, untrue,
unfounded, deceiving our own people, es-
ceptng those who understand, but not
deceiving allies or enemies"
But the attack centres chiefly upon
Colonel Deeds, who was at that time di-
rectly in charge Of aircraft production
work.
"At this point" says "The World" in
terpolating, "Mr. .Borglum goes into de-
tails regarding Colonel Deeds and de-
votes about 1900 words to an attack
upon him, much of which has been found
to be unsupported by fact and most of
which is libellous, if not untrue. The
writer adds that deliberate retardaton
and pro-Germanism have emanated from
the corps of which men he names arc
officers
OF all this there are only few words
to be said.
If Mr.. Borglum's charges are true,
some Of them ought to be subject to re-
view by the criminal courts. To quote
from the Presidents famous letter re-
garding the charges made at Hog ISL
and: "If they are substantiated, a
criminal process should be instituted"
No such action has been taken. The
inference is that no substantiation of
these charges has been found.
Meanwhile more important matter
is that this attack upon the character of
the men composing the Aircraft Board
is published in the chief o-Admin;s-
tration paper of New York, and in that
paper alone, and from a correspondent
accredited with special access to official
sources Of information.
How did "The World" come in pos
session Of this document, and by whose
authority and connivance was it pub
lshed?
1t was "A confidential report, made to
the President alone. Could it have teen
made public without his knowledge or
permission?
Did "Thc World" have that permis-
sion? If not, whence came the document,
and what was the purpose of it's pubica-
tion now?
/ We kno" that frorn the beginning of
the war there has been an unconcealed
7 antagonism on the part Of official Wash
ington-and especially of the Army and
Navy departments~tow the so-callcd
"civilian INVASION; that is to say, tow
ard the various boards formed mainly Of
business men, outside the regular govern
mcnt for the purpose Of aiding in the
war work
Perhaps the chief and foremost was