The Republican., 1919-02-20
WANTON WASTE IN
OUR ARMY CAMPS
Millions Are Thrown Away And
Negro Soldiers Are Enslaved.
BY SMELL SMITH

SlnCe the signing OF the armlStlce,
through extravagant expenditure and
carelessness in handling property, and
systematic enslaving of negroes in the
South under guise of military discipline,
have been proven in unimpeacbable evil
dence presented by Representative Dill
lon, of South Dakota, in a sensational
speech before the House.
Declaring that the most fragrant case
of the kind uncovered by him was that
in the vicinity of Newport News, Va,
he said that the government had built
there, and without the slightest neces-
sity, cement highway six miles in
length, in the construction of which
negro soldiers had been employed: that
numerous buildings had been built for
the Morrison Aviation Field there and
on low ground which had to be aban-
doned; that 500 cottages and other
dwellings of the most modern design
were built for workmen who do not and
never will occupy them; that arrange
ments are even now being made to build
800 more such houses there; that though
the streets are impossible because of
mud and water and the town of Hilton,
as it is now called, lies in swampy
ground. it is the intention to fill in
around the houses. pave the streets and
build fifteen miles of sidewalk: and that
large bitches are being dug by negro
soldiers at $50 month each. 'a
Dillon said he had found in his per-
tsonal investigation made on the spot
that mile out of Hilton. in stevedore
camp now part of Camp Alexander,
he bad found many open-air storage
buildings, 20 by 1873 feet in dimension
and costing 81, $50 each, and in them
were supposed to be stored 400 cater
pillar tractors and fourteen armored
tanks, each costing S55. 900, but that the
latter were lying IN the mud and rain.
to become hopeless waists. A little
further on were twenty-four covered
warehouses. $50 by $50 feet in dimen-
sion, with nothing in them. Nearby he
found corrals, operated by the animal
embarkation division of the army, and
containing several thousand horses and
mules, stanking in several inches of mud
and with nothing but mud to lie in. 1t
was reported to him that some of them
had been there since August, 1918. and
had cost the government $240 each.
At old Point Comfort, in the same
vicinity, Dillon disclosed several hun
dred cantonment buildings built on such
impossible sites that a pumping plant
had been constructed to pump sand into
the water about them. Several hundred
ammunition trucks and tractors he
found exposed to the salt air and the
elements in such way as to assure
their speedy ruin through rust.
In explaining the sinister meaning of
all this, Dillon explained to his col
leagues that "in Newport News are ten
apartment houses built by the War De-
partnent. All of them contain eight
apartments of four rooms each and are
used by the officer clerks of the port
authorities and by employees of the
Shipping Board. They are said to be
built on land owned by the Newport
News Shipbuilding and Drydock Com
pany. They are stucco buildings with
slate roofs and have all modern i'm
provements. The president of this COM
pany is Homer l.. Ferguson. He is q
brother OF Gen. Frank K. Fergus n, the
commanding officer of that army district.
Capt. L. G. Thorn is assistant to the
executive officer and in charge of the
labor department. He is brother-in-
law of one of the Fergusons. 1t will
thus be seen that this family controls
practically the commercial and govern
mental activities at Newport News. and
also the military activities in that entire
army district. Thus they cooperate
among themselves and with various
government activities and have mutual
interests in the upbuilding of that COM
munity, including the phantom city,
Hilton, in the swamp"
Dillon went on to zeal that eighty
acres of this swamnk land was pur-
chased from straw company set up
for the purpose for $40, 100. 80 help
me God," exclaimed the white haired
South Dakotan, 81 would not pay $40 an
acre for that landp' Yet SO, $50, 600 OF
the money of the taxpayers was turned
over to this straw company for develop
ment, with the land and improvements
as security. Street cars were purchased
at cost of S11. 400 each and leased to
the railway company at five per cent on
the investment for no other purpose
than carrying imaginary workmen from
the phantom Hilton to Newport News,
and it was agreed that later the COM
pany should be allowed to purchase them
at reduced cost. Four companies sta
tionedlthere had nine captains, fourteen
first lieutenants and eight second lieu
tenants. Negro soldiers. worked in con-
'stIuction beside laborers making SO per