The Washington herald., 1918-12-31

junk these men formerly were COM
PEELED to wear"
He spoke of the exaggerated stories
about sending over airplanes by the
thousands told by those in authority"
and continued:
Here we have Gen. Pershing's own
statement that within three months
before the armistice was signed, that
Is. August Z, the first American avia-
ton squadron crossed the German
lines. And yet we were led to believe
by the statements of those in author
ity as far back as February 20. 1916.
that we We're sending over planes by
the thousands. y
If America had gotten to work
and had done the things that were
necessary to be done. we would have
had the air simply swarming with
aircraft and would have saved thou
sands and tens of thousands of Amer
ican lives"
Denies Partisan Spirit.
Senator Chamberlain diverted atten-
ton for a moment to the subject of
partnership, and denied vigorously
that there had ever been any partisan
spirit in any of the activities of the
committee of which he is chairman.
so help me, God" he declared with
dramatic emphasis, "as long as have
been serving on that committee,
through all that investigation, never
saw Republican indicate a desire to
take partisan advantage of what was
transpiring. / have had Democrats
upbraid me for indulging in criticisms,
and L want to say here and now that
II the time ever comes when / cannot
put my finger on the rascal in my own
party and improve my party / want
10 get out of public life"
Taking up the subject OF the hospi-
tai facilities. Senator Chamberlain
said:
we knew when we assembled these
men in cantonments," he said, that
they were going to be sick, but there
were no hospitals prepared There
were thousands of deaths that ought
TO have been avoided. We have not
any hospitals prepared now. to accom-
modate all of these wounded men who
are coming back here.
IF the War Department would
pay one-half the attention to pre-
pairing to receive these boys as IL
does to trying to get legislation
through Congress to protect con-
tractors who made contracts over
the telephone in violation of the
law 1t would not take long to get
something done"
Reading from letters relating
failure to receive pay and family al
Iotments. Senator Chamberlain said ::
1T is all right to talk about fur
nishing these men with money when
everyone knows better They have
not haan fnr tel II
only be furnished it when those in
authority have been criticised for
not doing it and are made to un-
derstand that they will be pushed
by the Congress of the United States
to a point where they will do their
duty. The War Department does
not need any new legislation to do
it; all it needs is to get move on
and do the work"
Would Blame President.
Senator Poindexter, of Washington,
interrupted the Senator to insist that
the President is responsible for the
failures charged to the War Depart
ment.
"A word from the President would
stop it" persisted Senator Poindexter
THE President is given credit for all
the successes of his administration
and. by the same rule, he ought to be
held responsible for the failure
Yes. and one word from the Sec
retary of War would stop it," re-
Joined Senator Chamberlain. and il
is that one word that l am trying to
get"
Senator Chamberlain went on 10
say that if il took five men to do
the work that one man is now doing
in order to get the pay and allot-
ments to the soldiers. these extra men
should be put to work.
1T is not an impossible task" he
added. Let them get to work and
see that these soldiers are paid"