The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-11-07
DoIlar-a-Year Director Held UP
Spruce Production to
Build Road
s5,OOO,O00 FOR NOTHING
Delay Due to Plot, Congress COMMITTEES
Finds, Was Fatal to Production And
TO Thousands of Men at
Frort-PIans Altered.

had the extent of his patriotism
uncovered in an Investigation by a
congressional committee which re-
Gently published its findings. 1t
deals with an attempted 5000, 900
steal, whereby the Chicago, Mil
waukee & st. Paul railroad was to
get a road built by the govern
ment for war purposes.
The report of the committee dis
closes how John D. Ryan, presi-
dent of the Anaconda Copper Min
ing Company and appointed by the
president to head the aircraft pro-
duction board, used his position to
further his own interests, and &C
tuaIIy hampered the work of the
government.
According to the information tele-
graphed to Secretary of War Baker,
most of the 100000 was used in the
construction of a railroad in the Olym-
pic peninsula. Instead of building a
temporary logging road, which could
have been done economically in a few
months, millions were spent in con-
structing a line which would connect
with the Milwaukee system and later
could be bid in at low sum by that
line, as it would be of no use to any,
one else.
Failed to Get Spruce.
Because of these tactics the new
line failed to get out spruce timber
needed by the government during the
war The greed for money on the
part of the men who planned this line
prevented the United States from pro-
tecting it's troops properly with air
planes. Not one American bombing
plane or fighting plane reached the
battle front Lack of this protection,
it is admitted, cost the lives of thou
sands of American soldiers in the Ar
gonne forest.
John D. Ryan was named by the
congressional committee as the man
responsible for the startling steal that
was attempted. Ryans corporations
have been engaged in bitter fight
against the Nonpartisan league in
Montana and the copper trust news
papers have been charging League
farmers with disloyalty because they
objected to just such tactics as Ryan
has used.
Big Interests in Plot.
When the president named John D.
Ryan as head of the aircraft produc-
ton board, the Milwaukee road was
laying ambitious plans to exploit the
Olympic peninsula, which lies between
Puget Sound and the Pacific ocean.
The Milwaukee road is in the hands
now of three groups of financial in
terests, centering in Wall Street. The
Rockefeller group representing Stand
ard Oil, the Chicago packers, repre-
sented by J. Ogden Armour and Mon
tana interests, headed by the Anacon-
da Copper Mining Company.
The peninsula, on which the Mil
waukee road has had it's eyes, contains
thousands of acres of virgin timber.
Much of this already had been grabbed
by officials of the Milwaukee road,
who knew Of the plans for invading
the peninsula.
SONSTIttnCHl CCSOtNCC'
Secretary of War Baker approved
plans for 15-mile railroad, designed
to tap big spruce forests on the Olym-
pic peninsula. 1t is doubtful if even
this road, which could have been built
for 100000 would have been needed.
as existing logging roads could have
n 10 hot II
been taken out.
However, such a road would have
been of comparatively little use to the
Milwaukee line, and a 56-mile road
was built over the mountains in an
other direction, which would serve as
an important link in the Milwaukee
system IN invading the peninsula. The
report Of the Investigating committee
says:
What Committee Fount
Milwaukee road officials and Mil.
waukee engineers apparently con.
trolled the location and determination
of the road that has been built. The
route is not that approved by the
CuIOL SISAdI OHlC6E Vi Tie secretary CI
war, and cost eight times as much as
the maximum estimate for building 8
15-mile road to tidewater at Clallam
bay.
",Iohn d. Ryan was the government
director of aircraft from May to De-
cember, 1917, and in a position of su-
preme authority throughout that pc
riod, besides being a member of the
board of directors and executive of
the Milwaukee railroad Mr. Ryan
was president of the Montana power
company that holds valuable contracts
for furnishing electric power with
which to operate the western portion
of the Milwaukee system"
Mr.. Ryan was also responsible for
signing a s25,OOO,OOO spruce produc-
ton contract, under which only about
10 per. cent salvage is possible, the re-
port states,
The committee finds specifically
that the Tine was built not to carry