The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1919-01-31
wANTON WASTE OF 1918
BURNING NATIONAL ISSUE

Nnen tne armlStlce enu1ng the
world war was signed, North Caro-.
lima had three completed canton.
ments, upon each of which approx.
mately five million dollars had been
expended. The Improvements in
Guided complete water, sewage and
! lighting systems, many permanent
buildings, paved streets and improv-
ed highways
I These three camps are now about
to be "salvaged," with probable
return to the government of one mil
lion dollars of the fifteen million ex-
pended. WHILE FIFTEEN MIL
LIONS MORE ARE TO BE SPENT
ON THE NEW CAMP AT FAYETTE-
VILE, ~. c., constructing there just
such improvements on hundred
thousand acre site, as are to be de-
stroyed at the three other North Car
olina camps Camp SEWER, at
Greenville, Camp Green, at Charlotte
and Camp Wadsworth, at Spartans-
burg.
The answer made by the war de-
partments to complaints concerning
this outrageous waste is that II is
really economizing, because it was
originally intended to spend thirty
million dollars at Fayetteville, and
now only fifteen million will be spent
"a net saving of fifteen Millions!
This permanent camp is being built
at Fayetteville, in violation Of the ex-
pressed will of Congress, at time
when administration partisans are
proclaiming that President Wilson ex-
poets to end the necessity of war pre-
parations at the Paris peace table!
The Senate Military Affairs commit
tee, after hearing, refused to APP
propriate money for the purchase of
the cantonment site at Fayetteville,
expressing a preference for the lease
of the tract. After the Senate had
rejected the proposal of purchase the
War department proceeded to buy a
hundred thousand acre tract anyway.
This site is almost entirely waste
land. Only seven per cent of it is
under cultivation. Most of it has
been a game preserve. Most of it is
said to have been bought by the own
ers from whom the government is
acquiring it, at one dollar an acre.
The average price being paid by the
War department is said by North Car
DINA papers to be ten dollars an acre.
Upon this million dollar site, marked
up from something like a hundred
thousand dollars, two and half mil
lion dollars in permanent rOadways
are being built. The contract for
these roads was let after the armis-
tice was signed.
Some of these days the whole truth
will come out as to the procedure
in connection with the construction
of these cantonments. Those in
North Carolina are said to have cost.
under, the cost plus system, fully
twice the amount that would have
been necessary under the system of
direct government construction or
competitive bids. II is rather re-
istration has been demanding the
right TO operate and direct the rail
ways, telephone and telegraph lines
and other industries, it refused to
uild direct, through the utilization of
its trained army experts, the military
camps and other great construction
projects undertaken in its own behalf.
The explanation seems TO be that in
both instances the methods adopted
meant the highest possible degree of
that extravagrance and waste for
which the present national admins
tration has become notorious.
North Carolina is. OF course, not
the only state in which such extrava-
gance and waste has been carried on
at time when the people generally
were making great sacrifices in order
that the money might be provided to
carry on this orgy, not yet by any
means stopped. The people of this
Countrywide every day. working
people, too, not merely the. rich, as
the demagogues contend-will be car
rying the burden of this colossal car
nival of wicked waste upon their
backs for years. The next year will
serve to bring to the light of day
the full proportions of this unprece-
dented public profigacy, despite the
natural effort of the politicians in
power to change the subject.