The Coconino sun., 1920-07-23
WAR BILLIONS WASTED,
 CONGRESS PROBE SHOWS

and extravaganza during the war, which has just been made public by Representative William J. Graham, of Illinois, chairman of the house war in- vestigation committee. He sums up the important disclosures as follows:
 We expended $1 ,051 ,511 ,9SS for av- iation and airplanes, and up to the time of signing of the armistice not a single fighting plane was at the Amer
 As a result of our entire aviation program we obtained 213 De Haviland, 4 observation planes, all of which were lilly designed and constructed and ex- tremely dangerous, and 527 second hand foreign planes, which we either bought or borrowed from our asSoci- ates in the war.
 We spent $2O,OO0,OOO for 4,6Os Cur tiss motors, 1,616 Curtiss-type aero planes, and HOO Standard JN-1 aero planes, which we purchased from the Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Corpora tion, then sold them back to this com pany for $2,720,000. The war depart ment refused to sell these machines to aviators for less than $500 each, and provided in the contract by which they were sold to the Curtiss company that the Curtiss company should have the first opportunity to buy any other aer- oplanes which the war department might thereafter declare surplus.
 We spent $6,000,000 on Bristol planes and $17,500,000 on Standard-J planes, and got not a single machine that could be used for any purpose.
 We spent S206,632, ,920 for 16 Ma tional army cantonments, built by the cost-plus system. These could have been built for SIPS, ,101, ,399, or $7S,- 531 ,521 less.
 We expended S1 200, ,OOO 900 for the construction of camps and canton ments, largely by the ost-plus system, a system adopted by the war depart ment. By this system costs were in- creased, labor demoralized, the Jcom- pletion of the camps was delayed, sol diers called to the colors were subject to conditions that induced disease and death, and from 40 to 60 per cent of the money was wasted.
 Twenty-two million dollars was spent for fees to favored contractors on camps and cantonments, most of which would have been saved had this work been let by bids.
 We spent $60, 100000 to build pow der plant at Nitro, w. Va. It never produced pound of powder for the war. After the armistice there was stored at Nitro personal property worth at a fair cash value $10,000, ,O00. Both plant and property were sold af- ter the armistice for S8,551 900, most of which is in deferred payments.
 We paid the Hercules Powder com pany for operating the Nitro plant s11 ,293, 18TH. They produced no pow der that we could use in the war.
 We spent S2,900,000 in furnishing electric lines for the Virginia Power company at Nitro, w. Va, and after we had built them first-class system, giving them practical monopoly Of the Kanawha Valley, the government settled with them for $S1 ,000 and in addition gave them longtime con tract to furnish electric power for the naval armor plant at Charleston. w. Va.
 We spent approximately S90,000, ,000 in the construction and operation of a powder plant at Nashville, Tenn, call ed Old Hickory, and which produced no powder that could be used in the war.
 We spent many millions, the exact amount being unknown, for, the pro- duction of tanks, and did not produce a single tank that reached the front before the armistice. To complete our tank program we needed 1 200 tanks, which were to cost $25,000 each. To build these we started an immense steel and concrete factory in France, which was to assemble and turn out 100 of these tanks day, or the entire supply in 12 days. The British were to furnish the guns and armor and ship them to France for assembly, while we were to furnish the engines and running gear, and ship them to France for assembly. The British sup piled their part, but we supplied noth- ing. The factory was unfinished at the armistice. and never produced any thing.
 We spent s116,194, ,973.S7 on nitrate plants at Sheffield, Ala. Muscle Shoals, Ala; Toledo, Ohio, and Cincinnati, Ohio. These plants did not produce a pound of nitrate that could be used in the war.
 We spent $116,194, ,973.37 on nitrate. Not pound of American gas was ever fired in an American shell, and only about 100 tons of American gas loaded in shells, ever reached the field dumps.
 The government built three picric- acid plants and seven plants to make phenol and acid required by them. This was to furnish picric, acid for the French, who desired it for explosives. None of these plants produced pound of anything that was used in the war. The plants cost us s35,000,000. The French were to pay the whole bill, but the war department settled with France for S14,000,000.
 We spent Sl7,116,000 in construct