The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1919-01-29
this as well as all other respects"
ORDINANCE BREAKDOWN IN.
VESTIGATED.

las q Gaming lOE
IN investigation of the Ordinance De-
partment. A special effort is being
made in some quarters to forestall
This investigation by the propaganda
certain publications anil thru
the Division of Films Of the Commit
Tee on Public Information, which pro-
poganda will purport to show
the work of the Ordinance Department
was of the highest character and was
and efficient.
Congress is also going to be asked
to make a thorough inquiry into the
of the War Department in
handling conscientious DIRECTORS. It
is alleged that evidence is in exist
ance that officials of the War Depart
.ent have practically upheld con-
cientious DIRECTORS, even going so far
as to write letters to certain of them
at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, consol-
ing them and assuring them that the
would do every thing in
their behalf that public opinion would
stand for.
SOLDIERS MAIL UNDELIVERED
The most recent development of the
breakdown of the War Department
was furnished the Senate Post-Ofice
Committee on January 9th by Second
Assistant Postmaster General, Otto
Praeger. He informed the committee
"that thousands and probably millions
of letters" addressed to men overseas
had never been delivered to them, and
that there are at present in France
from eight to ten carloads of first
class mail for American soldiers that
are undelivered and that this mail will
be returned to this country and sent
to the dead letter Office. Mr.. Praeger
specifically stated that this trouble
was due to the inefficiency of the War
Department. He said that the War
Department had no system of keeping
names, and that the same ~inefficiency
which had brought about this condi-
ton with the soldiers mail, was also
resonsible for the War Departments
delay in sending out their allotments
to soldiers and their families, and in
reporting casualties.
The question of allotments to SOL
diers' families and pay to the soldiers
themselves is another problem which
the War Department has not met, and
which is causing such a storm of pro-
test to come from practically every
section of the soldiers themselves, as
to warrant an investigation of that
phase of the War Departments work.
On top of all this, the New York
World, an administration paper, has
issued a sensational expose of what it
terms a breakdown of the shipping
board. It charges that our entire
shipbuilding organization has failed
to function, and that the output of the
shipbuilding yards of the United
States in the year 1918 was less than
one-half the output that was scheldul-
ed for 1918, despite the fact that the
expense on these various yards ex-
ceeded many millions of dollars the
estimate.
FORD's eagle BOAT PLANT
In this connection, Senator Lodge,
of Massachusetts, had placed in the
Congressional Record of Jan. 2nr,
reprints of articles appearing in the
DAILY IRON TRADE, a technical
trade paper, published at Cleveland,
Ohio, in which it was alleged that the
Henry Ford "eagle boat" plant, which
has been the "show" plant of the Ma
WV noportroon ho, Loo~ rI.->
from the standpoint of it's output, de-
spite the fact that it has been amply
financed.
Presidents Roosevelt and Taft is
sued to the country, just prior to the
last Congressional elections appealing
for the election of a Republican Con-
gress, occurs the following:
"The debts which have been
created by this war the people
will be paying to the third and
fourth generation. They have a
right to know how these enor-
nous sums have been expended.
Only a Republican Congress will
have the courage to exact a de-
tailed and accurate story of that
stewardship"
The response of the American peo-
pie to this appeal commissioned the
REPUBLICANS in Congress "to exact a
detailed and accurate story" Of the
Democratic stewardship. All these
Investigations and activities which
are row going on would indicate that
the day has arrived when the present
Administration will have to render an
accounting to the American people for
its management of the war.