The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1919-04-04
Washington Letter.

tration in Washington, comes in tn,
form of charges of extravaganza anC
inefficiency in the administration O.
the bureau of War Risk Insurance
Such a tremendous amount of evi
dence has been introduced and Sc
much pressure brought to bear that 6
rigid Congressional investigation has
been promised. In this connection il
is reported in official circles that 6
resolution will be introduced as soor
as Congress convenes providing fol-
the complete merger of the war risk
bureau with the pension bureau of the
Interior Department.
The greatest amount of criticism OF
the war risk bureau has resulted from
the so-called investigation of Class B
allotments. These allotments which
are made in favor of either parent
sister or brother, were all placed un-
der an expensive investigation under
the assumption by the heads of the
bureau that too much money was be-
ing expended. The result was the
cutting off of many of these allow
ances and in thousands of cases a re-
fund was called for. This brought
about hardship in hundreds of cases
where men in the service had to pay
back not only what was taken from
their pay but also the allotment made
by the government because their de-
pendants were unable to do so. The
tremendous outcry which came from
all over the country as result of this
order caused the bureau to suspend all
of these cases for another investiga-
tion with the result that thousands of
cases have been suspended since De-
cember 1918 with no decision in sight
at this time.
The last charge against this bureau
comes from Thomas Robinson Dawley,
Jr, who until recently was connected
with the bureau. His charges are set
forth in letter to Secretary of the
Treasury Glass. Mr.. Dawley was an
examiner of claims, starting work in
October and he was dismissed from
his office February %, because, as he
puts it, 81 proved too efficient for the
bureau" In his letter to Secretary
Glass he says: During my short ten
ure of office never have I seen such a
display of executive incapacity, eth
er at home or abroad, in business
and professional career extending
over many years. Examiners, steno-
graphers, messengers, went about the
building holding conversations when
ever and wherever they pleased. STEM
ographers employed at relatively high
salaries, in some instances mere
school girls and boys, in other instan-
ces matured women, assigned to take
dictation from me, in some instances
were unable to read their own steno-
graphic notes, and some did not under
stand the rudiments of punctuation.
Young men employed as examiners in
some instances turned their work over
to their stenographers while they alb
sented themselves from the building,
the specific instance Of one being call
ed to my attention VINO made weekly
trips to Baltimore.
"There was no supervision Of either
the examiners or the stenographers,
and my various complaints because of
the inefficiency of the service which l
was obliged to depend upon went un-
needed. Further than that, upon ad-
dressing memorandum to M. G. Hou-
lihan, chief of the division, with the
view of getting better service, an un-
justifiable attempt was made to find
fault with one of my cases, and l was
abused in cowardly and uncalled for
manner"
Mr.. Dawley closes his letter by stat
ing that he attempted, upon the ad-
wise of Congressman Campbell, of
Kansas, to bring the matter to the
attention of the chief Of the bureau,
Colonel Henry D. Linsley, and that
two days after this attempt he was
notified that his services had been dis
continued.
Washington, March 29-The Repub-
lican Publicity Association, through
its President, Hon. Jonathan Bourne,
Jr., today gave out the following
statement from its Washington Head
quarters:
Mayor Rolph, OF San Franlsco,
wants to know why the Administra-
ton has turned it's back on Pacific
coast shipbuilders and workmen
while encouraging japanese shipbuild-
ers employing japanese workmen to
go ahead with the construction of
ships for the Government. The rea-
son is not far to seek. 1t is but an
other example of Wilsonian interna-
tionalistic altruism. In this instance
it is Japan first
at is the same idea which prompt
ed Secretary Redfeld, Chairman Hur-
ley, and the War Trade Board not
long ago to suggest that the United
States should be careful not to COM
pete seriously with the Allies in for
eign trade, but should give them free
way, lest we be charged with greedi-
ness and bad faith in grabbing trade
which was asserted to belong to them.
There it was Europe first
"This policy of trucking to foreign
nations, to the disadvantage of the