New-York tribune., 1918-06-08
Grand Jury Investigates AL.
legged Manipulation Of La
Dor Items at Todd Yards
Worker Exposes Plot
Federal Agents Seize Five
Truck Loads of Records
in Three Raids

A special Federal Grand Jury in
Brooklyn began investigation yester-
day of charges that the government
has been defraudcd of hundreds of
thousands Of dollars through manipu-
lation of labor items on naval repair
work done at yards controlled by the
Todd Shipyards Corporation under
cost plus profit contracts.
Evidence relating to the charges was
gathered in three raids by Federal
agents-two at the works of the Tebo
Yacht Basin Company, at the foot OF
Twenty y-third Street, Brooklyn, and one
late yeste rday upon the Offices of the
Todd Shipyaris Corporation at -
Whitehall Street, Manhattan.
These raids yielded Eve motor truck
loads of labor time sheets, time books
cost and material accounts and work
slips. The mass Of books and papers
was stored in Offices specially rented
for the purpose and a corps Of expert
accountants sent here by the Depart
ment of Justice from Washington went
to work upon them at once.
Half Million Involved
Melville France, United States At
torney for the Eastern District Of New
York, said that evidence already col
lated tended to show frauds amounting
to perhaps half million dollars. His
assistant, Henry Ward Beer, who has
charge of the case, said there were so
many angles and so many ramifcations
TO the alleged conspiracy that the in
quiry would occupy four weeks or
more.
Besides the Tebo Yacht Basin Com
pany, the Todd Shipyards Corporation
owns or controls dry dock and boat
building concerns and iron works in
New York, Hoboken, Seattle and Ia
coma. Its naval contracts here alone
are said to amount to $4,00O,00O, most
ly for mine sweepers and smaller war
craft
William II. Todd, president OF the
concern, issued a statement yesterday
| afternoon, immediately after the raid
upon the corporations general office
IN Whitehall Street, in which he as
serted that the accounts of The Tebo
company were regularly audited and
were constantly under the scrutiny of
government officials
Raids Due to Three Affidavits
The raids and the grand jury investi-
cation were the result of a.iidavits filed
both in Manhattan and Brooklyn BY
Lieutenant John McNulty, of the con
yerted yacht Niagara William Green
of 3S8 Fifteenth Street, Brooklyn, {
1 former employe Of the Tebo company
who alleged that he had been "black
listed for protesting against the al
legged fraud, and by James G. Brophy,
Federal special agent, who has been a
work on the case for several months.
Green, who is twentyfour years ole
and an electrical worker. swore tha
James Sloathc, Tebo foreman, ordered
him on several occasions to take tn,
time of men employed on private work
and have these men charge their labo
to repair work on the Niagara, which il
March last was being RENTED for sea
Workmen, he alleged, were assigned t.
on payrolls charged to government
craft being repaired under the tcos
| plus profit" contracts.
When ne protested, with remark t.
some Of the men that it was shameful
to impose on the government, he wa
reported he declared, to Sloathe, VIII,
thereupon shifted him to another de
partment, where he was paid 40 instcat
OF 48 cents an hour and the workda.
was ten instead OF eight hours.
Green quit last March, shortly afte
this, reduction, and when he applied TO
work at other shipyards he found, &C
cording to his affdavit, that he hat
been blacklisted.
L. S. Flag Used as Gun Swab
Green asserted he found evidences O
pro-Gcrman sympathies among tn,
foremen of tae Tebo yards. One O
them, he declared, never saw a man il
the American uniform without making
an opprobrious remark, and the same
foreman, he added, condoned the of
tense Of Russian gunner aboard tn.
Russian cruiser Diana who used al
American flag as a gun swab and thel
threw the soiled ensign overheard
The Diana, it was stated YESTERDAY
at the Todd Offices, is still tied up nea,
the Tebo yards, under another nam,
and under the American flag, WITH
crew OF United States blueiackets
Lac Russian gunner, according tt
Green, was arrested on the order of al
American naval officer to whom he re
ported the flag incident.
Further in his affidavit Green ALLEGED
that gangs of workmen frequently re
ported on board the Niagara while tha
vessel was undergoing repairs, re
mained few minutes only, until thei
time cards could be checked ant
charged against the government, where
upon they would report for duty OF
some private contract, or else loaf
the rest Of the day. In another case
ne asserted, he was sent aboard tn,
Niagara to take off some carbon lam,
bulbs. which were never returned.
Lieutenant McNulty's affidavit Sc
forth that OF February 13. when tn,
Tebo labor sheets charged the Niagar;
wlth 1873 workmen, there had beel
actually 139 men on duty.
We are going straight to the bot
tom OF this case" said Mr. Beer las
night Eve know that, while there ar,
honest and decent men doing their bcs
to help the government, there arr
others who are loating on the lob o
robbng 1T while boasting of patriotism
and desire to help win the war An,
we are going to get those fellows if W.
can"
World Safer Now Thar
Year AGO. Edison Saw,