The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-11-04
Contractor Tells of Wilful
Negligence ON Part of
8 Workmen
- Hsfs
GAMBLED DURING
WORKING HOURS
Warmed Themselves Over Gasoline
Torches While Soldiers Suffered from
Cold = Great Wastage of Material
and Money at New Base Hospital.


CAMP SHERMAN, o., Nov. 4-Charg
es that wilful negligence. on the part of
steam filters employed in the eonstruc-
ton of the base hospital at Camp Sher-
the zero weather prevalent in late Octo-
Der and aliiof November 1917 Of sick sol |
diers confined there,-s were among the |
startling disclosures made before the con
gressional subcommittee by Joseph Poole. |
Chillicothe contractor, late yesterday. The
evidence given by Poole will be followed
up to fix the responsibility for the suf
| tering Of the men, according to Chairman
John c. Mckenzie and Chief Examiner
| Roscoe {. McCulloeh, of the committee
While sick soldiers were pinched and
actually blue to their finger tips with the
bitter cold, steam filters supposedly equip
ping the hospital wards with steam heat
were gambling and warming themselves
over their gasoline torches, Poole told the
committee. lie asserted that the weather
was so cold that nurses wore their furs
| when they tended the sick and the doc
the patients had no heat whatsoever.
Poole, who was employed by the a.
Bentley Sons company, of Toledo, as a
carpenter foreman at the base hospital.
characterized the attitude al the steam
filters as *disloyal and as the worst
he had ever seen.
flames OF chance were worked among
the men, the witness declared Two or
| DAYS :
come around and have the men buy
shances on automobiles, wrist watches and
,ther things. he said That was graft
worked by somebody" he declared.
Other witnesses corroborating Poole's
testimony as to the idling Of the men and
the wastage of material and money agreed
hat the work could have been done more
satisfactorily and in quicker time By from
swo-thlris to one half the pumher. Of r,er
N a given job Tavfor Thornburg. a Chill
icdthc laboror. told the committee that
MS foreman told his gang to hide in the
corntield' and that from Is TO 20 Of then
'pent from a week to 10 days in the corn
He said he drew pay from the Y NJ. C
\ and from the government for the same
week and that he did not dare say any
hing about it because they weren't al
owed to-
''Iou might as we'll have some of the
extra time the other men are getting.
was the Statement Jesse Brandon testified
foreman made to him. On the followin!
0ay day he said his pay envelope con
aimed Sl3 extra When he spoke of it t,
he paymaster he declared the latter tolC
him he couldn't count" On another oc
casion he said there was So extra in hi
nay. He said he was hired to "watel
gravel wagons and that as a rule no
more than three wagons appeared wher
he was on a given day and sometimes IA
aid there was only one For this h
said he was paid S5l 60 weekly
When the men could not get anythn
else to do they chiseled pieces out of tn
loor so that they would have to cut am
TT new pieces, was the assertion made b
T. D. Ferguson, Chillicothe carpenter. RI
told Of a man spending three days at tn
nay window to collect 30 cents he VA
hort in his pay all the while drawing hi
regular paw Of GO cents an hour as cal
renter Other witnesses related how me
hired as carpenters were utilized to carr
water.
That collection was made to buv
mantelpiece for Mai. Gen. f. F. Glenn
chillicothc home. was the statement mad
hv Poole He said he knew of about 81
200 that had been collected and that
the rest of the workmen had contribute
nronortionately fund of from s. 600
$4,000 must have been available. He d
| clared that the men never heard anvthir
more Of the mantel Concluding its tai
| ing of testimony the committee ret,Fnc
20 Columbus late last NIGHT and will .
to Camn Grant. Rockford. M, to inst
ute a similar investigation.