New-York tribune., 1918-05-11
Continued from page


/ Just started the inquiry ordered by the
President into charges of graft, dis
loyalty and incompetchcy in the gov
crnment aircraft These charges, re-
ferred to first in Capitol cloak room
gossip, and finally or the floor Of the
Senate, have been attributed largely to
assertions of Borglum
With the Mix statement there was
filed to-day copy of q formal state
ment accusing Borgum made to the
military intelligence section of the
army General Staff late in January by
Henry Harrison Suplce, MiX's consult
/ ing engineer, and who participated in
many Of the conferences on the sub
ject Of the proposed corporation with
Borglum and Gibson described by his
chief. Mix Gays he became suspicious
when he visited Borglum in Washing
ton during january and was shown
President Wilson's letter authorizing
the investigation by the sculptor, and
! decided then to report the whole mat
ter TO government authorities.
There arc intimations that 3 great
deal of information bearing on Bor-
I glum's activities and motives has been
assembled by the army intelligence
service. There is an unconhrmcd re-
port in official circles that evidence Of
German influences in some form viii
he brought to light when the full story
is revealed.
Statement by Dodge Engineer
Henry Harrison Suplce, chief on
ginecr of the Dodge Manufacturing
Company, of Indiana, with whom
! Mr.. Borglum was to be associated
made this sworn statement:
"Mcn,orandu1n for the confidential
Information of the military GntelN-
9ence section Of the United States
army:
"UD That in all of the relations
concerning the matter Of promotion
of stock company for the manufact
urc of airplanes, during which was
present at several conferences with
the projectors of this enterprise, as
consulting engineer, ! desire 70
state that there never was any other
understanding of this project, but
that Mr.: Borglum was to be repre-
sented in the corporation by Mr..
Harris, and that his sole asset in
the transaction was to be, first, his
! with President Wilson, whom he
/ stated he could do anything he want
ed with.
"(2) AS Il further asset in this
commercial venture, Mr.. Rorglur1
stated and gave every one concerned
! in the matter to understand that his
position with the Aircraft Produc-
ton Board and the aerial section of
the Signal Corps, u. S. A., was such
that he could obtain for their use
plans and technical details which his
company could use, and thus save
considerably, both in time and
money, in beginning operations.
British Official 10 BE Partner
"jS) That orc o. the partners Of
q this concern was 20 have been SIR.
Hugo C.. Gibson, who is connected
with the British Ministry Of War in
the United States, offices at 1870
Broadway, New York City, who pro-
! posed that certain patents which he
controlled would he used By this
company. and who also stated that
he would be able to influence orders
or alrD!anes in such way tnat this
company might receive the benefit
! thcrefrom. #
"(4) That ! was given to under-
stand by Mr.. Borglum that the pres
was highly distasteful to him and
he was constantly criticising their
work. that he definitely proposed to
change this personnel by virtue of
his friendship with President Will
son, and that he asked me 10 sug-
! gest members for the new heard
! that would be more friendly to him in
his projects. That I avoided giving
him any definite answer along this
line. That in the event Of u newly
constituted Aircraft Board being
formed there would then be 10 diff
Guilty III securing advantage to the
/ proposed organization.
"Dated January 80, 1913.
"NENRY HARRISON SUpLEE.
"The aboue is Il true copy, made bu
'ay owN hard, OF the original state
jne,at 1rhich I dictated and signed on
January 80, 1913. of rhich state
nsent only tsco copies acere made and
signed; ore OF these 6eina dclircred
10 tho military Intelligence section
j lMted States army. and the other
TO Nh. f. S. Hordesfy, consultina en-.
g1neer, Of Washington, ID. c., dated
May z, 1913, signed Henry Hayriso,.
Suplee."
Meets Borglum and Gibson
statement by Mix, made, as was
Suplee's, to the Army Intelligence Bu-
reau, takes up his story of the proposed
aircraft corporation, when he encount-
| cred on train en- route to Washing
ton on December &, 1917, two men who
later turned out 10 be Borglum and
Gibson. He says he was attracted by
their conversation as to the progress
OF the Dayton Wright Aircraft Com
pany on government contracts and on
getting. into conversation with them
himself later told of the desire of his
own company, the Dodge Manufacture
ing Company, OF Indiana, to ente,
the field OF aircraft production. Mix's
statement continues:
"These two men intimated to me
that they could produce designs for
a plane which would be faster and
steadier in the air than the Albatross
and which would weigh less. (The
statement says the Dodge NIanufac-
turing Company had designs for the
Albatross machine, which it had in
tended to develop.)
Having at that time the interest
OF the Dodge Manufacturing Com
pany in mind. and being particularly
anxious to become part of any o,--
ganization which goes into the manu-
facture. Of airplanes having mono.
coque fusilages, led these gentle
men to believe that we would vel