The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1920-07-10
HOW LIBERTY BOND
MONEY WAS SPENT
REPRESENTATIVE GRAHAM, OF
ILLINOIS, DISCUSSES THE EX-
TRAvAGANCE AND WASTE OF
THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION

WASHINGTON, July, 6.-"What we
got for our money! is the title of an
expose of the Democratic administra-
tons waste and extravaganza during
the war, which has just been made
public by Representative William ].
Graham, of Illinois, chairman of the
house war investigation committee.
Hesums~ up the important disclos-
ures as follows.
We expended / 1861, 511, 1888 for av-
iation and airplanes. and up to the
time of the signing of the armistice
not a single fighting plane was at the
American front.
AS a result of our entire aviation
program we obtained 213 De Haviland,
four observation planes, all of which
were lily designed and constructed
and extremely dangerous, and 527
secondhand foreign planes, which we
either bought or borrowed from our
associates in the war.
We spent $780, 900 900 for 1908 Cur
tiss motors. 1916 Cutriss-type aero
planes, and 100 Standard JN-1 areo-
planes. which we purchased from the
Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Corpora
ton, then sold them back to this COM
pany for So. 720, 900. The wal 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 COM
pany that the Curtiss company should
have the first opportunity to buy any
other aeroplanes which the war de-
partment might thereafter declare
surplus.
We spent $4,000, 900 on Bristol
planes and $17, SOC. 900 on S~tandard-J
planes, and got not a single machine
that could be used for any purpose.
We spent s206, 632, 920 for sixteen
National army cantonments. built by
the cost-plus plan. These should have
been built for 1928. l01 1893, or SIS.
531.521 less.
We expended 1,200. 600, 900 for the
construction of camps and canton
ments, largely by the cost-plus sys-
TEN, a system adopted by the war de-
partment. BY this system costs were
increased. labor d~emoralized, the
completion of the camps was delayed.
soldiers called to the colors were sub
jected to conditions hat induced di-
sease and death. and from forty to
sixty per CEN of the money was
wasted.
Twenty-Five 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 $50. 100. 900 TO build a
powder plant at Nitro, West Virginia.
1t never produced a pound of powder
for the war. After the armistice
there was stored at Nitro personal
property worth at a fair cash value
$40, 000. 900. Both plant and property
"tiS ooiu dlACi tht dIiliSllCt IOT 90
551. 900. most of which is in deferred
payments.
We paid the Hercules Powder Com
pany for operating the Nitro plant
$11. ,737.11. They produced nc
powder that we could use in the war
We spent $500. 900 in furnishing
electrical machinery and building
electric lines for the Virginia Power
company at Nitro. West Virginia. and
after we had built them a first-class
system, giving them q practical
monopoly of the Kanawha Valley, the
government settled with them for
$81 900 and in addition gave them a
longtime contract to furnish electric
power for the naval armor plant at
Charleston, West Virginia.
We spent approximately 500. 600, 900
in the construction and operation OF
a powder plant at Nashville, Tenn,