Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1920-11-26
A Shocking Document,

Board Investigators is one Of the
most shocking documents ever
laid before the American people.
In all the war orgy Of waste and
thievery, there is hardly any
thing to match its revelations of
sordid infamy.
When one stops to think how
the decent people of the country
have been pinching and scrimp-
ing, depriving themselves of this
and denying themselves that Il
many thousands Of them actually
hard pressed, at times, to obtain
the bare necessities Of life in
spite of the ever mounting bill
for living expenses while all the
time despicable crew of scoun-
drels, ranging all the way from
petty sgeak thieves to wholesale
swindlers and robbers, have
made unchallenged loot of the
millions upon millions of money
resultant from this patriotic self
sacrifice; when all this comes
home, as it does come home in
the Shipping Board exposure, it
is difficult to express in any
measured terms the indignation
which the revolution arouses.
1t is no campaign document,
this Shipping Board report. Not
an item in all the disgusting in
dictment can be charged off o.
discounted as an attempt to make
political capital. The election is
over. No partisan end can be
served by the revelations. 1t is
just q. s;old recital of carefully es-
tablished facts.
And such facts If that Ship
ping Board report may be taken
as a fair cross-section exhibit of
American standards of official
competence and of our average
business integrity, then-God
help America To analyze this
miserable mess which two spec
tally appointed Investigators for
the Congressional Select Com
mittee on Shipping Board Oper-
ations have spread before the
country, involves exploration of
almost every resort of CONNER
cial inquiry known to man.
Every crime in the calendar of
business yilliany seems to be in
volved, from mere sneak thiey-
cry to murder itself and a par
ticularly cowardly form of MUIR
der at that.
1T is a comparatively easy
thing" says the report, to &C.
cidentally drop bar or wrench
into a ships hold when a straight
time-keeper, or inspector is
standing under"
The reward of honesty under
Shipping Board Operations, in
other words, was that the hon
est mans brains were knocked
out. just how many of these
cold blooded murders were COM
mitted is unknown, and will re-
main unknown. Just how many
millions of the American peoples
money was stolen is unknown.
That, too, will probably remain
unknown. The best that the in
vestigators can say on this score
is that the amount will perhaps
run into the billions.
Just where official incompe-
tence leaves off and where official
criminality begins in the abomi-
nable business is a problem for
the future to solve. Barkeepers
paid $1,000 a year as book-keep-
ers; a private detective in a New
York hotel who never was aboard
a ship and who kept right on at
his hotel job drawing a Shipping
Board salary as sailor; com
mon laborers paid experienced
mechanics wages; selling mate
rial at ID cents on the dollar,
while buying precisely the same
material at so per cent above the
established wholesale market
price for it; a steward throwing
overheard an entire ships sup
ply Of food, bought five days be-
fore by his predecessor, in order
to make room for a full fresh
supply bought with the custom
airy stewards rake off" = these
may be counted among the hui
mors of the colossal orgy.
And then there was that spir-
tied little episode of a captain !
stealing his Shipping Board YES
sci bodily and hawking her
about foreign ports for sale. Tol
be sure, in this instance the cap |
tain had to go abroad. He had !
just engaged in a little 5000
bunkerage steal. Grapefruit |
knives at $50 each and straw
berries at so cents a quart We're
to every member of
forecastle crews. These are the
opera bouffe, Pinafore features
Of the magnificent debauch. |
Like the payment of sos for an
eight-dollar job of headlight re-
pairing, they are rather tighten
Ing and cheering than otherwise
as seen against the black back
ground of the really serious
stealings by fraudulent con-
tracts, in crooked sub-contra It
ing, etc.
And now what is going to be
done about it? Are these crooks,
official and pain, to go I'M
of justice with the mill
ions which they have stolen
rom the American people AreI
n. 49,