Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-02-19
H+eoins;'H 8 Ese"i"e 7estsSday ssSx 14116
A Beautiful Smelling" Report.

A Beautiful Smelling" Report.
The first of the sub smelling" commit
tses appointed by the Republican House
of Representatives to find out why the
World War WAS won under Democratic
administration, has reported.
1t is interesting to note that the chair
man Of the avistfon subcommittee, James
H. Frcar, of Wisconsin has a war voting
record of the type popularity termed
pro German. He favored the McLemore
resolution forbidding Americans to take
passage on ocean liners, and also the
resolution favoring an embargo on the
sale of munitions; and he voted against
the war with Germany, conscrption, the
espionage act and the first revenue bill,
among others. 1t was Frear whose
methods of conducting examinations
in the Paei6c northwest were termed of
the bullying, police court" type by
influential men and newspapers of has
own party The tenor of the majority,
OF Republican, report was indicated by
the. opening paragraph of the minority
report submitted by Representative Clsr-
cnce +. Les of California, as follows
The intemperate, biased and vitupers-
tive language in which the majority of |
the report is oouched; its sacrifices of |
facts TO sensationalisrn; its exaggeration |
of alleged mistakes and mismanagement, /
its gratuitous reflection upon men who
faithfully served the government during
the war, its repetition of defamatory
charges admittedly unsa,stained by evi-
dence, ita resort to innuendo and inference
to cast reflections which should be posi-
lively asserted, and responsibility there
fore boldly assumed or the publication
thereof withheld: it's attempt to deny
and ignore worthy accomplishments of
the air service, its failure 10 find any
thing worthy or commendahle IN all the
funds that were spent, or the services
of the thousands of men who self-sacri-
ficingly devoted themselves to the cause
of their country in the greatest of wars, ;
is an index to the worth of the report :
that at once impesches it's merit and
excites incredulity as to it's reliability" ;
This Democratic indictment of the ms
jority report was privately indorsed by !
a Republican member, who declared the |,
majority report was "a monstrosity." /.
The minority report states what the
majority reports omits-the interallied :
agreement of December q, 1917, that the
European Allies should manufacture the :
necessary pursuit planes, the increased
production being made possible by ,
materials furnished by America. In this
way much tune WAS saved, the latest .
approved fighting models were obtained
and the greatest efficiency made possible. :,
America received 1877 pursuit planes :
IN this way
In the course of their iunket to the
spruce forests of the northwest the :
''srneIers' issued a vicious >,
attack upon John d. Ryan of New York,
who had been head of the aircraft pro-
1uction department when the armistice !,
was signed, all of the echarges-admittediy :,
of substantiation. These .t
.harges included the assertion that Mr.. =
RYAN had used has aircraft position In !.
'sS>u q Vas DC W e1oc- siiI tOiiStt IoS
# a spruce logging railroad so that it a.
,ouid be used later by the Chicago, Mil
vaukee & st. Paul road, of which Mr..
Ryan WAS a director. Messrs Frear and
dagee weakened In writing their report,
nd instead of direct charges, INDUCED Al
q innuendoes. The facts Of the investi- ei'
alton had made it plain that the plan VI
Or the logging road was determined weeks A'
efore Mr.. Ryan was connected with the al
ircraft production; that officers of the "
Milwaukee railway system opposed the "a
,ute selected, and had advocated the pc
arrying out of it's own extension plans
iough futiiely. iis
And this is the unfair, unreliable and ie'
artisan result of only one of the post W
ar investigations upon which the Re- W
Iblican Congress has been wasting a AN
eat deal of time and a great deal of iS''
oney. The others viii be equally futile ,s =.
cept that they viii multiply the waste. dii
, here we have striking material for e''
the record of this Republican 'i''
,ngress for presentation to the people
The coming campaign. 'o'
49,