The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-30
TELLS OF WASTE
Sins of q. s.. War Department
Recited Before Day Banquet.
Congressman Reavis Gives
Startling Facts to Kansans.
TO BLAME FOR HIGH PRICES
o. s. Deliberately Directed
Supplies to Other Countries.
Acres of Spoiled Food and
Junked Machinery in Nation.

Junked Machinery in Nation.
Congressman Reavis of Nebraska,
top line speaker at the Kansas Day
club banquet, brought to Kansas the
! record of the high cost of living I'M
der the Democrat administration in
Washington. The Reavis speech was
full of facts and figures and findings
and names and dates and places-and
| each summed an indictment of the
official Washington's extravagance
and misconduct of the war.
There are profiteers and hoarders
abroad in the world during these dark
days. Reavis told the dinner crowd,
but the greatest of these is the Amer
lean war department. Extravaganza
and waste amounting to billions of
1 dollars was charged to the powers in
| charge of the war. Foodstuffs val
were deliberately permitted to spoil,
Reavis charged, while shiploads of
| supplies bought in this country at
peak market prices, were sold abroad
at astounding discount.
| America-Easy Mark.
Thus America came to be known
as the easy mark of the world"
Reavis declared. 'It may interest you
to know that twenty odd million dol
| lars worth of food was taken from a
| Baltimore warehouse at government
expense. shipped to the docks in New
freight, transported to France with the
government paying the bill. unloaded
i and shipped to warehouses where we
had $200,000.000 worth of the same
| food and no army to eat it,
| Reavis charged that millions of dol
| lars worth of supplies rotted and were
never offered for sale in this country
| for fear such a course might interfere
with normal production" He charged
that this country at no time had more
| than 100000 horses, yet it bought
| 945, 900 saddles. a million sets of dou-
| BILE harness and SO much additional
equipment that when the war ended
| America had 100000 pounds of black
harness leather on hands, while
| leather consumed under war depart
ment orders amounted to 100000
more hides than were ever produced
| in this country in a single year.
| Ordered 195. 900 Branding Irons.
For the branding of 100000 horses
the government ordered 1876, 900 brand
ing irons which were delivered many
weeks after the armistice was signed.
The metal was resold to the manu-
facturer at a loss of % cents a pound
for the copper.
i Many thousands of motor trucks
were accepted by the war department
/ long after the war ended. These ma
chimes are now mere scrap iron, the
congressman asserted, and are piled
! five high at environments and are
! practically unprotected from the ele-
ments.
! Transports which brought over seas
men homo returned to France with
i cargoes of supplies for the men. But
there were no men in France to con-
sumo the supplies. So they were sold
! to the French government at discounts
far below current American prices and
on ten year terms of payment. The
supplies were not offered in America
! and were not used by the government
| to break the high cost of living under
| the plea that such course would in
terfere with Industrial conditions.
/ Within a few weeks after the last
| of American army motor vehicles were
hshipped to France, the war department
sold the supply valued at SS1O,OOO,OOO
to the French government for twenty
| cents on the dollar and accepted in
payment deprecated French bonds
| payable in ten yearse. at is thus" de-
clared Reavis. that we have kept
| from breaking the heart of the world"
Sell Sugar in France.
| Then Reavis recalled the American
sugar rationing. He made mention of
the regent scarcity and prevailing
high prices. Yet the war department
only recently disposed of 100000
pounds in France. The sugar was
sold for two cents a pound on ten
years time. Later the sugar equa1iZa-
i ton board took vast quantities of SUI
/ gar out Oh the general MARKET anu
turned it over to the army. This was
because the American supply had pre-
viously been sold in France.
High prices were maintained in this
country Reavis charged, because this
country deliberately directed its army
4 supplies abroad when there was no
! American army over seas to feed or
clothe.
Notwithstanding the great distress
that was abroad in the land because of
/ the high cost of living and regardless
/ of the fact that the sale of this food
would have put millions of dollars in
the treasury, the war department did
absolutely nothing until June with
reference to selling these supplies"
Acres of Spoiled Food.
Reavis quoted from a letter of an
army officer to an American Gamer
assuring him mo canned vegetables
1 will be put on the domestic market
during this season. At that time
there were many millions Of cans of
vegetables in possession of the army.
These supplies spoiled or were shipped
abroad and sold at low prices with
long terms for payment.
THE loss the government suffered
thru deterioration will never be
known Reavis said. Among the
larger items will be noted the destruc-
ton of 100000 pounds of ham at
Baltimore and 100000 pounds at
Norfolk. 1t was my privilege to see
warehouse in Baltimore. In the early
part of July. 1919, there were acres
of ground which were covered with
spoiled food supplies several feet deep
1 was told by one of the employees that
he with others had been enga ged in
carting food to this dumping ground
since February before"
1