Norwich bulletin., 1920-02-17
Reports on Aircraft
 Production Conflict
Two Republicans Declare It Was "a Riot of Waste
 Democrat Says They Att tempt to Discredit Govern ment.

| Washington, Feb. 16-Reports of the
 long. continued investigation of the
 aircraft production programme were 1 presented today in the house from the
 special committee inquiring into war expenditures.
 l Representatives Frear and Magee, l the two republicans of the sub com mittee which conducted the investi- i gation characterized the aviation pro-
 gramme in their report as "a riot of waste and Representative Lea, the
 democratic membr of the sub commit i tee, declared in his report that the re- publican members had sacrificed facts for sensationalism in an effort to dis credit the government.
 Both reports contain thousands of wards. They differ entirely in the record of achievement of shipping Am
 erican airplanes abroad and in the performance of the aircraft produc- ton generally.
 A prominent part of bath reports is given to the controversy over the con-
 nection of John D. Ryan, former di- Irector of aircraft production, with the
 construction of government built
 railroad, which, it has been charged,
 redounded to the benefit of the Chica- go, Milwaukee and St, Paul road of
 
 Disclaiming any attempts to de-
 termine motives, the majority report
 on that point says:
 If MT, Ryan's statement of disinter-
 estedness is true, he has been most
 unfortunate in handling a public mat
 ter that in the judgment of your com
 mittee covered a flimsy effort to pro
 mote large private business interests
 and was accompanied by blundering
 explanations from beginning to end"
 In contrast, the minority report by Representative Lea says:
 The evidence shows that MT. Ryan
 practically abandoned his own busi-
 ness affairs and devoted himself un- remittingly to the service of his off,
 cial duties. Without directly charging it, the report of the majority insinu- , ates that Ryan used his power as head of aircraft to cause selection of the Lake Crescent route for the benefit of the Milwaukee railroad The pur- pose to construct a railroad from Lake Pleasant, connecting with the MilWau-
 kee at some point on its line, was de- . termined several weeks before MT. Ryan was connected with the aircraft : service. The Lake Crescent route was
 selected over the opposition of the Mill waukee road up to the moment the decision was made. The Milwaukee . contended for the surveyed extension ' of,its own route which served its in terests far better than the present
 route The Lake Crescent was dis i tinctively the best route the go@ern- 1ment could have selected to serve its < purpose
 Beside MT. Ryan, the majority at- lacks his assistant, William c. Pot ] ter, Colonel Edward A. Deeds, who 2 preceded MT. Ryan in aircraft produc-
 tion, and Secretary. Baker as respon- sible head of the aircraft production ; programme. It describes the pro- gramme as "an appalling record of
 orders and counter orders, ignorance and diekerings, waste and extraya- gance evidence of self-interest and improper practices
 In detail the majority report takes
 up the alleged waste and extravaganza
 in the early aircraft appropriations the alleged failure of the DeHavi1and
 planes, the alleged failure to get suf- l ficient American planes to the battle n front, the spruce production project h in the northwest, millions of alleged wastes on cost-plus contracts, an6 ,, many specific charges of ineffeciency y and squandering of millions of dollars In turn Representative Lea1s minor. . ity report replies to the majority find. 2 ings as intenpeFate, biased and vi. \ imperative, an exaggeFation of alleged U mistakes and misstatements," a "grat. uitous reflection upon men who faith Q fully served the government during thu
 war" and a repetition of defamator. if charges admittedly unsustained b. = evidence"
 e Answering the charge of the minor Is ity report that only 213 planes hat hQoT1 Chinnad tn frD f !. IT armistice and that these were De Hay = Hands, dangerous and known as sfly = ing coffins," the minority report quot l. ed Brigadier General M A. Patrick
 director of construction and forestr, d operations of the American expedi d tionary forces, as saying that no larg j. CT percentage of De Havilands cam l. down in flames than other types. MI u Lea asserted that only B De Haviland out of 417 sent over enemy lines wer
 lost.
 ss The greater part of the majority re z. port was taken up with an indictmen Y of conditions in the spruce forest ., where thirty thousand soldiers wer ii assigned for civilian duty under Col % l onel DiSque, a former warden of tn ', Michigan penitenttiary. It was charg le ed that Disque illegally spent $4 300, % Id of government funds in 1918 when h l. "farmed out' 10000 soldiers to cost
 plus operators, the government pay
 ing contractors, who charged pc
 tcent. cost-p1us profit on the soldiers NJ pay. Secretary Baker was charge
 with direct responsibility flor this un ts precedented practice.'' Thirteen log 2 ging railways were said to have bee ;h started, none of which was complete m before the war ended, and five cos l. $S, 325, ,194, the majority asserting tha
 some roads took round about cours r. "in order to touch summer resorts. 1" ss There were not enough skilled log ,- gers in the country to carry out tn Ia governments spruce production pro a, grafnme, said the minority report, de l. tending the use of soldiers.
 "a Statements by John Q. Ryan. Ie John D. Ryan tonight issued tn ,e following statement:
 Y. q have not seen the report, no " have I been apprised of it's content! ,a I am, however, familiar, so is the pub ,N lie, with the character of the investi gation conducted and the bias an . partisanship that marked the iendeav 0' or of the two majority members of tn
 i sub committee to capitalize for pett
 political purposes, the unwnrrante( S and unjustified attack upon men wh
 did heir best to help in the war an J. do whatever work they were called up n on to do.
 es .sThe chairman of the sub-committe j. having, as shown by his record in con i- gress. assumed position hostile to tn 'e assertion of American rights durin IS the pre- war period, and having vote d against the declaration of war wit