Norwich bulletin., 1918-06-19
A Reserve Army | Officer Arrested
CHARGED WITH ACCEPTING |. MONEY FOR A CONTRACT
LIEUT.. JAMES C. sTALEY
Arrest Was Made By Federal Agent. Who Had Followed the Officer Dur. ing inspection of Plant of the True. fit R=incoat Company.

Washington. June 1s.-The trail U. the governments pursuit of illeS;L protiteers on war contracts today ieJ to ihe arrest in New York of Iieutcn. ant James C. Staley, a reserve army officer on charge of accepting money from the Trueft Raincoat Company Q: New York for a contract which ht promised to procure.
 Ip e arrest was made by depert. ment of justice agents who had follow cd the officer during his inspection oi the plant of the raincoat company whose propr etors acted in co-opera- ton with the government to detect the fraud.
 Had Received Money.
 The secret agents arrested him i'm mediately after he was said to have received a sum of money from Joshua Rosenthal and Louis Wener, proprie tors of the plant. It was charged that he had told them he would expect more money as soon as they got the contracts which they sought for 50,0eC 1 raincoats costing nearly $250,000. | Lieutenant Staley is about 90 years old and came originally from Iowa. After being arrested today he made a complete confession of his part in the transa ction. department of justice officials said. and gave much valuable l information which may lead to the de- lection of other cases of fraud. He. will be tried by courtmartial.
 An Extensive Scheme.
 The shadow of complicity in the ex- tensive scheme hv which commission agents made millions out of govern ment war orders by acting as middle men in obtaining contracts for manu lecturers today extended to scores of business men an attorneys in Wash ington New York, Boston and 'other cities and even to few secretaries of Iraer15ers of congress.
 Many of the Men Were Amateurs.
 These men. many of whom were ann ateurs in the game of soliciting Wal : contracts. promised to use their inf1u- erce with government officials, army
 officers or members of congress to as-
 sure the awarding of contracts to spe- cal concerns, and in turn were to re- I ceive cornpensation if the contract: : were landed.
 A large proportion. of these cases j disclosed by correspondence and othe . documents seized in the simultaneous s raids yesterday on offices of severa t hundred manufacturing plants and for
 warded today to the department 0
 justice, were not prompted by sinistei P motives. officials believe, and proSecu, tions will not follow. Many others s however, appear the result of carefull'
 planned plots to squeeze millions iron
 contractors who in turn were to adt | the contingent fees to prices which tn T government was required to pay.
 Other Arrests May Be Made.
 Officials intimated that other arrest o may be soon made in connection witt V the charges on which four men ar f now under indictment here-conspira l. cy to violate federal laws forbiddini
 the sub-letting of contracts and pay 1t ment of contingent fees.
 l. Secret agents of the department 0 e justice, treasury, war and navy de l. partments were at work today on ney
 phases of the disclosures in Washing
 ton and elsewhere, while 6 corps of in a vestigators under the direction of As 0 sistant Attorney General Husto ,r Thompson digested the evidence con = tained in the thousands of seized doc
 uments.
 Attorney General Gregory took th al latest information on the raids to th of cabinet meeting, and cabinet member is and heads of al lexecutive department IS making contracts received the attoi
 ney generals recommendations, ap
 proved by President Wilson. for 1T T. sertion in future contracts of a clau: of binding the contractor not to pay cor d. tingent fees nor employ middlemen le negotiating war order.