Norwich bulletin., 1918-11-01

months by Charles E. Hughes and Att i torney General Gregory, was placed | before President Wilson by the attor- ney general and immediately made public.
 Delays and wastes of the production program, the report declares, were due chiefly to the defective organization of the work of aircraft production and the serious lack of competent direction of that work by the responsible off cers, of the signal corps"
 No fault is found with the manage ment of aircraft affairs since the re- organization of last May, which placed John D. Ryan in charge. The civilian l personnel of the aircraft production board is eXonerated of any wrong doing.
 1 Attorney General Gregory in a letter transmitting the report to President | Wilson says he is "in substantial ac- cord" with the findings by MT. Hughes
 The report finds no graft in the 1 generally accepted sense but makes recommendations for proceedings against army officers held guilty of
 dealing with corporations in which they were interested
 The chief waste from the original appropriation of S691, ,S51, 866 the re- port says, was in the abandonment of 1 two types of airplanes-one of them the Bristol-and a failure to salvage, aggregating about $24,000,000. The figures show that last May, of that great appropriation, $134 100000 actu- ally had been disbursed and that up to Oct 1st the expenditures had reached about $40 ,000, GOO for all avia- tion purposes. This did not include expenditures of the sales department ,.a1 l1e, +n manufacturers and for advances for
 building plants Contracts let, how ever committed about $470,000,000 of
 the fund The figures are given in
 answer to the general charge that the
 sum had all been expended with prac- tically no results.
 The attorney general concludes in : his letter of transmittal that mo such
 profits have been allowed as to justify ; a charge of bad faith
 Colonel F. A. Deeds the storm cen .
 ter about whom ragged most of the charges which brought on the investi- gation, the report recommends, should
 be brought before a courtmartial fer
 sending confidential war department
 lnformatiC.. on the aircraft situation ? to former business associates in Day , ton, O., and for being sponsor last
 February for grossly misleading , statement to the effect that the. frs ! Am erican- built battle planes today art
 en route to the front in France"
 Criminal prosecutions of three army 3 officers are recommended on the ) ground that they transacted business l with corporations in which they were financially interested These officers !, .former vice president of the Packard
 Motor Car company, now in charge ot . the airplanc engineering division O. I the aircraft production bureau: Lieu I Ltenant Colonel George W. Mixter, { : stockholder in the Curtiss Airplane anC = Motor corporation, production manage, n of the aircraft bureau, and Second = Lieutenant Samuel B. Vrooman, Jr q inspector of propeller lumber anC = stockholder in the $. B. Vrooman com q pany of Philadelphia, which sold ma d hogany to the government for air
 planes.
 t MT Hughes concluded his repor o with the statement that "it is no . within the province of this report t. [. make recommendations with respect t = administrative policy, but it would b V said that under the direction Of MI :, Ryan and MT, Potter there has beel co improvement in organization an,
 progress has been made in gratifyin a measure"
 } William C. Potter. to whom MI s Hughes referred, is assistant directo = Of aircraft production.
 q The general conclusions and recon
 mendations by MT. Hughes follow:
 "The evidence discloses .conduc
 which, although of a reprehensibl T character cannot be regarded as af Q fording sufficient basis for charge - under existing statutes, but there ar
 certain acts shown, not only highl
 improper in themselves, but of espe cial significance, which should lead t n disciplinary measures. The evidenc f with respect to Colonel Edward 4 7 Deeds should be presented to the sec n retary of war to the end that Colont = Deeds may be tried by courtmartis = under articles 95 and 96 of the article , of war for his conduct CD in actin l' as confidential adviser of his forme
 business associate, H. F. Talbott, ( } the Dayton Wright Airplane compan, , and in conveying information to M Y Talbott in an improper manner, wit respect to the transaction of bushes 1 between that company and the divisio d of the signal corps of which ColonC
 Deeds was the head and CD in givin to the representatives of the commit tee on public information a false an
 
 the progress of aircraft production fC .- the purpose of publicat tion with tn \, authority of the secretary of war II "The absence of proper appreciate 4 of the obvious impropriety of trans | actions by government officers an
 agents with firms or corporations i I which they are interested comDelS th !. conclusion that public policy demand r that the statutory provisions bearir . upon this conduct should be strictl
 enforced. It is therefore recommends
 that the officers found to have ha
 transactions on behalf of the govern
 ment with corporations in the pecu D niary profits of which they had an ir F. terest should be prosecuted under sec 1f tioD 41 of the criminal code.
 d An exhaustive eXamination" sa, l. Attorney General Gregory's letter ( If tTansmittal, into the entire condut ,r of aircraft matters fails to show th; f any member of either board has ha of any desire to retard or delay produl m ton. or has done anything 10 accor re nlish that result or has intentional
 caused the waste of fln{s. or bee
 actuated by a disloyal motive, or bee
 I guilty cf dishonesty or malversatio unless there be truth in the spscif l. charges which will now he referred t lg (The charges against Colonel Deed y, and the officers charged with dealir D. with concerns in which they were ir os terested.)
 le q agree with the conclusion reacl ts ed by Judge Hughes that there is I
 evidence upon which it fairly can
 charged that any member of the ali It | craft boards, including Mr Howal
 Coffin, General Squire, Colonel K. ~