Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-07-07
Judge Gary Answered.

Judge Gexy Answered.
commission. Mr.. Graham said, that it
was operating in disfeEard of the
Sherman law, the Clayton law and
"all other statutes that are supposed
to regulate business. particularly big
business" When the attorney general
was called upon bv the commission
to answer Judge Gary. Mr.. Graham
referred to as violation OF law we're
matters of national policy"
Afterwards" Mr. Graham de-
clared. when there was evidently a
decision in congress ;assto the illegal
ity Of members of the. committees on
the council buying from themselves,
the council decided this general policy
barrassment might be revised by tho
plan Of the committee reorganization
now under. consideration"
THE minutes show that OF account
Of this so-called embarrassment the
war industries board was created, and
committees were appointed by h ma
tional chamber of commerce, so the
with. but by which scheme no part of
the method of buying was changed in
the slightest degree so far az 7 can OBJ
serve" 10y
Citing cases in which. you said the
council formulated LEGISLATION before
war was declared which lsSislatiqn
later was considered by congress. MIR.
Graham declared that on FebruaryS15,
1917, the council discussed the draft
system and considered. a reporta4kroIn
Commissioners Samuel G~ondperssand
Howard E. Coffin relative tosthe te1-
clusion Of labor from military*serv-
ice:-on the same day related that Her
bert Hoover be employed by the gov
eminent in connection with food con-
troll. and on March 3. endorsed the
daylight saving scheme and recon-
mended a federal censorship Of the
press. \
Made Communication Easy.
about the first thing the commits
sion did was to take up the matter
of arranging an a method Of COM
m~unication between the manufacture
ers and the government" Mr.. Ora
ham continued. "In several meetings,
long before war was declared, the
commission me with the representa-
tives of the manufacturing industries
and formed an organization of them
for selling supplies to the government.
This method consisted Of having
the representatives of various business
producing goods which the govern
ment would have to buy, form them
selves into committees so they might
be able to sell to the government di-
rect. When war was declared, this
machinery began to love.
Although the scheme was supposed
to enable the industries to deal with
the government as n a the gov.
eminent was at nc time able to deal
with the industries through one man
and on the contrary. throughout the
war numerous federal bureaus were
bidding against each other for the
same supplies with greatly increased
ministrations of the council. big bust.
ness was highly organized while the
government remained wholly disor.
ganized and incapable of protecting
itself against fragrant profiteering."'
Mr.. Graham concluded his state.
ment by saying sc far as he had beer
able to observe from the minutes Of
the council. there had not been an act
of the so-called war legislation which
had not been discussed and settled
upon by the councils advisory III
mission before the actual declaration
Of war. At times, he said. "the activi'
ties of the commission were such az
greatly to- embarrass the cabinet and
it became necessary for the cabinet tt
protest against Them
New York, July President VII
son will be met down the bay by al
official reception committee and NOR,
than one thousand residents of Slater
Island and relatives of homecoming
soldiers; fellow passengers of the pres
ident. He will 20 immediately tt
Carnegie hall, where he will speak.
Frequently Interrupted.
Chairman Graham frequently wa:
interrupted. After he, had read thu
minutes referring to the militar,
draft, food control and press censor
ship. Representative Reavis asked i
all this was not prior to~the presi
dents speech-on armed neutrality eli
which he said he was not contemplat
ing war;" and Mr.: Graham answered
~anrmatively.
The minutes showed that Philil
Patchin, chief Of the state depart
ment's division of foreign intelli
gence, first suggested a press censor
ship. He vas described by Chairman
Graham as "a free lance news CORE
spondent."
Details Of the plan for military, ex
emption on Industrial grounds, out
lined by Mr.. Coffin and Mr.. Gompere
were not disclosed by the minutes
Mr.. Graham said.
After Chairman Graham had toll
the committee hat the minutes h
had read into the record were un
official, but "substantiaMy correct,
the committee decided to call Groe
venor Clarkson, director Of the coun
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