The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-06-18
INVESTIGATION
 OF WAR EXPENSE
 DISMAL FAILURE
Costly Report Rejected Without Even Being Pre-
 sented To House.

Washington, D. C., June 1S.-An in- yestigation that cost many thousands of dollars, months of time and pro- duced a record of four thousand printed pages has come to naught be- cause the report made by the House Investigating subcommittee was such that not even the Republican mem bers of the full committee were will ing to present 1t to the House in the closing days of the session.
 The rejected report was that of Representatives Royal Johnson and Oscar Hand, Majority members of subcommittee No. 3 of the Select Committee on Expenditures in the War Department Representative H. D. Flood, minority member of the subcommittee, says the action of the full committee in refusing to approve the report was justified and he gives a bill of particulars showing the partisan nature of the investigation, the mass of irrelevant testimony talk en, and the refusal of the Republican members of the committee to sum- mon witnesses who might give per- tinent testimony.
 This subcommittee was named to investigate overseas expenditures of the War Department, but Represen- tative Flood shows it tried to handle
 
 ,Department. Giving reasons why the fill committee could not and did not approve of the narrow subcommittee report, Representative Flood includes the following: While the sub-com- mittee took evidence, beginning on June 18th, 1919, and continuing to April 18th, 1920, with the assistance of a $20,000 counsel, General s. T. Ansell, the Chairman failed to comply with my requests, made repeatedly on the record, to call witnesses who knew the real facts connected with our overseas expenditures and who could have given them accurately.
 ''Sub-committee No. undertook to deal with many matters beyond it's Jurisdiction They evidently did this under the advice of their $20, 900 counsel I protested against this pro- ceeding from the very beginning, but my objections were overruled. I then asked to have called officials of the, War Department and officers of thesArnny, including General Persh- ing and many other Generals whose regulations have been attacked by the report which the subcommittee desired to have made to Congress. These requests were never compiled with, and therefore the statement submitted by Messrs. Bland and Johnson are entirely ex parte.
 Instead of performing it's proper function, which was to investigate overseas expenditures, a. policy from the very beginning of trying to find something to criticize in our Army and the conduct of the war by our Government was adopted by the ma 1ority members of sub committee. It has reached out for those witnesses who had grievances, and has called this class of witnesses rather than those who could give intelligent and reliable testimony on the subjects of investigation.
 While the subcommittee was ap- pointed to investigate expenditures made during the war in France, Bel gium, England, Italy and Russia, l, has taken over 40O0 pages of printed testimony, more than 5000 pages o1 which have not the remotest connec- ton with the matter of expenditures
 'It has assumed to investigate the conduct of the war, both by the military authorities abroad and al home, and such testimony as 1t ha.