The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1920-04-30
THE OWOSSO TIMES
EDMUND o. DEWEY. PROP.
owossO. MICH. APRIL 80. 1920
WASTE SHOWN BY FACTS

washington, ApTH Go.-\oPSSio'
Observation-Disclosures of material
encouragement of idleness, and ex-
travagance in expenditure of money
by officials of the War Department
are demonstrated by the report made
recently by an investigating commit
tee of which Representative Roscoe c.
MCCULLOUGH, of Ohio, was chairman
Summarizing small portion of the
evidence Mr.. McCulloch said:
81 believe that a careful analysis
of the testimony by anyone who is UNI
biased and conservative will disclose
that from the beginning to the end
that is, from the ordering of the ma
terial to the final completion of the
work, taking into consideration the
lack of system in ordering and the
methods that were followed through
out the Observation-Disclosures was loss
in materials of at least 25 to so per
cent. 1t was a riot of waste at all
camps that has cost the people of this
country millions upon millions of dol
lars, and which is directly traceable
and results from the cost-plus sys-
TEN which was put into operation with
the approval of the Secretary of War.
"At Camp Sherman lumber was
burned in such quantities that the
men who burned it were compelled to
lay off frequently for the reason that
the fires got so hot they were afraid
of burning down the cantonment. On
an estimate made of 50,000,000 feet of
lumber used at Camp Sherman, testi-
money was to the effect that at least
12,500,000 feet were wasted. Finish
ing lumber and flooring in bundles
that were never united were, accord.
ing to the testimony, hauled away and
burned. At Camp Meade, Col. Curry
testified that there was enough lum-
Der wasted at Camp Sherman to build
another cantonment.
Roofing material was piled like
cordwood out in the sun and two
thirds became absolutely useless, for
the reason that it could not be I'M
lrolled. ,Unbroken rolls of roofing ma
terial were hauled away and burned
"Tons of nails were hauled to the
river and canal and thrown away.
No workman took the trouble to go
to the nail keg to empty his apron,
but just dumped the nails where he
stood. One witness testified that he
went to the scrap pile and secured a
truckload yof nails and supplied him.
self and his entire neighborhood
AUTOMOBILES were hired by the day
invoiced at less than $400, for which
the Government paid more than $500
each as rental. One and one-half ton
trucks were rated at tons and 5-ton
trucks were rated as tons, this
fraud costing the government an ad-
.ditional amount of a dollar per hour
per truck. The testimony showed
that they had 70 trucks and $50 teams
on the pay roll at Camp Sherman,
and that they had no use at all for $50
of the teams. These teams were kept
on the pay roll, but were hidden away
in the gravel pit, or ordered to drive
around the camp to make it appear
that they we're being used.
"The methods followed in the hand
ling of workmen from the time of
their employment and during the en-
tire construction of the camps was
such as to bring about a condition
which has become notorious through
out the country, namely, that there
was idleness and willful waste of
time which resulted in delaying the
construction of the camps, and caused
loss to the Government of millions of
dollars in wages"