The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-01-27
STACKING, STEALING
AT MUSCLE SHOALS
EVIDENCE OF SHOCKING WASTE
IN BUILDING GOVERNMENTS
GREAT NITRATE PLANT.

widespread Stacking by the great in
dustrial army employed in the con-
struction of the Muscle Shoals nj
trate plant piled up today at the
hearing conducted here by the house
war expenditure committee. There
was no end of it, according to wit
nesses, who made no attempt to deny
the charge that erection of the plant
was held back while thousands Of
workmen moved about heller skelter
fashion with union scale carpenters
cutting underbrush and water boys
drawing down the pay of structural
iron workers.
The morale of the whole organiza-
ton, the witnesses said, was affected.
Man after man told how material
was wasted under the general poll
cy of finishing the job at any cost.
Waste Is Admitted.
Near the end of an all-day session
after half a dozen witnesses had testI-
fed concerning wholesale extrava-
gance such as "only Uncle Sam could
stand" Representative Garrett, of
Tennessee, broke into the tale of
waste by declaring that it was not a
question of dispute.
Everybody knows there has been
waste at the plant" he said.
In checking up the committee
found that one of the big causes OF
the constantly shifting labor army,
often running up to $4,000, was the
hired labor agent who went about
the country painting wonderful pict-
ures of high wages and cheap living
at Muscle Shoals, with gambling per-
mitted and a long vacation at the end
of the year.
Arriving by the thousands white
and negro workmen discovered gam
bling but went away, the witnesses
said. because of poor accommoda-
tions, poor food, trouble with the po-
lice and other things. AS the men
reached the plant they were turned
into a big pen to begin the tortuous
march to the pay check window. Ken
meth P. Smith, formerly in charge
of the labor adjustment bureau at
Muscle Shoals, told the committee
that it often took man thirty-slX
hours to be recorded after entering
the pen. Meanwhile he received no
pay. Smith ascribed the delay IN
opening the plant to the big labor
turnover.
AS to Wholesale Stealing.
Charges that somebody stole and
hauled away from the Muscle Shoals
nitrate plant enough brick in carload
lots to erect a two-story building on
the principal business streets of Shelf
field were denied.
Kenneth F. Smith, of Birmingham,
a war camp community worker, and
formerly in charge of the labor ad-
iustment bureau at Muscle Shoals,
testified that the general policy there
was to get the work done regardless
of cost Mules and horses were put
on the payroll at 25 cents an hour
each, he said. Water boys were list
ed as and paid the wages of structural
iron workers, while boys digging post
holes were given a carpenters pay.
Smith said that 100 kegs of nails,
worth Sc each. were buried by a
foreman because they were in the
way.
The Percentage Contract.
'This merely illustrated the care
less manner in which work was done
at the plant" declared the witness,
who added that one cause of whole
sale waste was a contract that gave
the builders a percentage on every
dollar paid out by the government
for the work.
According to William R. Watkins,
Of Birmingham, formerly a policeman
at Muscle Shoals, nobody cared how
things went because Of the general
feeling chat builders got commits
sion on every dollar paid the men"
give often told people," Watkins
testified, chat nothing on this green
earth could stand the stealing at Mus
Gle Shoals except Uncle Sam. 1t
would bust any corporation"
More Shipbuilding Frauds.
Frauds totaling perhaps $1,000
100000 in connection with the war
time building of ships in Pacific coast
wards of Oregon, Washington and
California have been unearthed.
What little information that has been
given out by the government tends
to show that at least seven large
ship building corporations are involv-
ed. Federal indictments and prosecu-
ton are planned.
Cost-plus contracts awarded by the
government for the construction OF
ships. by which the builders were al
lowed ten per cent over which they
figured as cost, are said to have been
the medium of the alleged frauds.