The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-08
GRAHAM CHARGES PRESIDENT WITH
 VIOLATING LAW
Says Secret Government Determined War Legisla- tiOn Months Before U.
 s. Declared War
ey Assoe,at,d prss,

Washington, July 7.-Seven men | formed "secret government of the
 United States," which, working "be- | hind closed doors," determined all of the so-called war Legislation "veeks and even months" before war was de-
 cIared against Germany. Chairman Gra-
 ham of the house committee investigat- ing war department expenditures, I charged today after reading into the
 record digest of the minutes of the council of national defense.
 These seven men were named by MT. Graham as Hollis Godfrey, Howard E. Coffin, Bernard NJ. Baruch, Samuel Gompers. Franklin H. Martin, Julius Rosenwald and Daniel Willard, mem- bers of the advisory commission of the council. This commission, he added.
 was designed by law to act in purely
 an advisory capacity to the council
 composed of six cabinet members, but
 the President, he asserted, made them
 the real executives
 After Mir Graham had read to the investigating committee a digest de- signed to show that the military draft
 food control and censorship had been decided by the commission severa' weeks before war was declared, Repre- sentative Reavis, republican, Nebraska.
 interrupting asked if "all this was prior to the Presidents speech on armed neutrality, in which he said he was not contemplating war" The chairman answered affirmatively
 Later in the recital of the digest MT. Graham said that censure of the coun- cil and commission, uttered in Sem ate and House, led Mir Coffin to urge that definite channel of contact'' be established between the council and Congress. Tn other words" comment. ed the chairman, Congress ought tc be educated"
 In brief, MT. Grahams digest charged the President organized the council in violation of the law, and that in addi- tion to framing legislation dictated policies the country was to pursue, and befriended "hig business" Included in the report read into the record was a letter by Judge Gary advising the com mission 1t was disregarding the laws
 supposed to regulate business"
 ALL CHARGES DENIED
 Categorical denial of Chairman Gra- hams charges was made tonight by Gros- venor B. clarkson, director of the coun- Gil. in statement issued tonight
 My examination the other day before MT. Graham's committee Mir. CIarkson said, showed at the outset a tendency on the part of the majority of the con- mlttee to disclose that the administration had taken no preparedness steps before entering the war. Whereas the truth was that owing to the almost providenta: presence of the council of national de- fense, created by Congress itself eight months before, a great many far-sighted plans had been initiated by the council acting alone as well as on the advice of it's advisory committee.
 'The advisory commission of seven men was throughout the war composed of at least three and probably four republicans. as was the huge majority of the councils committees. The councils minutes. which I furnished to Mir Graham's committee with the hearty consent of Secretary Baker, chairman of the council and vol- untarily supplanted with those of the ad visory commission, disclosed beyond any question that the council had in the most constructive way looked far ahead into the immediate future to the end of pre- pairing the country for war.
 Tt is my deliberate judgment that if the council utilizing the greatest experts in the leading industries, and utilizing them in a wholly nonpartisan way, had not taken it's forehanded steps America would not have laid in time the founda- tion for mobilizng it's industrial resources which made possible the winning of the war.
 "The councils minutes having disclosed these facts to Mir Graham, he addressed l himself to the councils system of pro- curing supplies for the war department That matter was threshed out long ago before the Senate military affairs com mttee and the ntimations against mem bers of the councils S committee on SUD- plies died of their own weight at the end of the hearings more than year ago Council committee members under the stress of an unprecedented emergency were undoubtedly in some cases placed in | the position of apparently doing business with themselves, whereas that never was actually the fact, and not scintilla or wrongdoing was ever disclosed, and II is believed that the law was compiled with throughout nvN CHnDTAGE 1C