The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-09-25
A WILSON WAY OF HOSTING
THE HIGH COST OF LIVING
The Typical Carnival of Waste That
Went On at Nitro, West Virginia

West Virginia
There has been $5O,O0O,OOO, or
more, of the governments money
wasted in my district within the last
two years. Such miserable extrava-
gance, l regret to say, is still going
on there. When I came here to at
tend this session of Congress, the ad-
ministration was expanding at Nitro
$25O,00O per month furnishing auto
mobiles to scores of employees, and
paying hundreds of clerks, steno-
graphers and typists extravagant sal
aries for sitting around in offices of
that comparatively deserted village
looking at each other. There was not
one single thing being manufactured
or produced at Nitro by the govern
ment. The employees were doing no
thing there except unloading about
forty-five carloads of empty shells per
day. This service should not have re-
quired the labor of more than 100
men, yet there were on the pay roll
at that time 2,10O people receiving
compensation far in excess of that
now being paid thousands of postal
clerks who really render valuable ser
vice to the government.
There was then at Nitro $1O,OOO,-
900 worth of cotton, most of which
was out in the fields exposed to the
weather, rotting, and no effort upon
the part of the government to dispose
of it. There were 10000 tons of sui
phur that had cost the government
$31 per ton piled on the ground by
the sidetracks, and there appeared to
be no effort upon the part of the ad-
ministration to protect or dispose of
it. There were thousands of feet of
lumber and hundreds of trucks, auto
mobiles, wagons and dump carts scat
tered around over government prop
erty going to ruin, and no effort upon
the part of the administration to take
care or dispose of them. Since COM
ing here, I have been informed that
thousands of feet of such lumber
have either been burned or dumped
into the Great Kanawha River. In
addition, there were tons of copper
wire, nails, iron, steel rails, and hogs
heads of dishes destroyed or buried at
Nitro.
A specific illustration of admins
tration destruction of property is
found in this-when the government
took over the land upon which this
plant is located, there were rs or 100
acres of corn, and at maturity 200
men were put to work cutting the
corn and carrying it and the fodder
off the field, when it was piled and
burned; and at the same time the ad-
ministration was shipping in carloads
of feed for the subsistence of the live
stock it had there.
When horses were tired and tagged
out, instead of giving them rest they
were taken up the branch to the Gre
piled upon their carcasses and burned.
Finally, after the armistice was sign
ed, and construction slowed up, some
of the horses were advertised for sale
at $50 per head Citizens offered SIS
for such horses, and instead of max
ing the sale the government employees
at Nitro killed them and burned them
in the manner above stated. Millions
of dollars worth of government prop
erty going to waste, while hundreds of
idle employees, at extravagant prices,
sit around and perform no service
whatever for the government.
Employees at Nitro went to CALI
polls, Ohio, SO miles away, got drunk
were arrested and locked up, and
stayed away from Nitro as long as Ia
days at time, yet they drew compen-
sation for the entire time they were
absent. Men who were in Gallipolis
ing on at government expense at Nj
tro.
Any man who came along with {
hammer and saw and told the govern
ment agents he was a carpenter wa:
put on the pay roll at carpenter
wages-I think 81 per day. Any MAI
who came along with soldering irol
and monkey wrench and told TIL
government agents that he was
plumber was put on the pay roll a
plumbers wages-as recall SO pc
day, with time and half time for over
time, Sundays and holidays in
creasing his wages to $3.50 per day
while West Virginia boys from thi
very locality fought in the battl
trenches of Europe at $50 month.
Thousands of dollars were spent i
putting in work at the instance o
some incompetent engineer, only t
be torn out by instructions of som
other engineer who perhaps was les
competent.
I make no charge of criminal az
ton, but it would be interesting to tn
public if it could be ascertained VIII
the only serious fire sthat occurred g
Nitro burned only the buildings ths
contained the public records. My il
formation is that this plant was COZ