Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-02-05
PLAIN TALK AT WASHINGTON.

PLAIN TALK AT WASHINGTON.
About the best thing that has come from
Washington since the war ended is the straight
talk being handed out to the Graham War In
vestgaton Committee by Charles G. Dawes in
his testimony on expenditures made in con-
nection with the winning of the war. Dawes
had been mentioned as Secretary of the Treas
ury in Mr. Harding's cabinet, but after reading
his testimony it is very safe to say that he will
not be named.
Brig Gen. Dawes, as was his title during the
war. was head purchaser of supplies for the
American Expeditionary Forces in France. He
is a Republican and a banker and has served as
comptroller OF the currency. He hasn't any use
for all this fault-fnding, pickering and petty
PARTISAN undertaking into the way the war was
conducted and he does not hesitate to say so.
He has a very picturesque way of expressing
himself to be sure. but he has succeeded in
making himself understood.
1t is all well enough for us to sit back now
and criticize this or that action in connection
with the war, but we all know that at the time
it was a case of win at any cost. Money was
nothing time everything. When the United
States went in the British were standing with
their backs against the wall; France was bled
white; the Germans were all keyed up to what
they had been led to believe was their final
spring drive that was to carry them into Paris.
We well remember the saying at the time that
it was race between Ludendorf and Wilson.
The United States was utterly unprepared.
We needed men, arms and ammunition, and
trained officers to handle them. We needed
ships 10 carry them to France and we needed
~
them there. There was no time to go through
the usual government red tape of advertising
for bids and farming around to see where
things could be secured a little cheaper than
they were being offered the government. I'm
fortunately. there were men who were ready
and willing to bleed the government at every
turn for personal gain. Gen. Dawes pays his
to them in his characteristic way Asked
about grafters who followed the American
army to France, Dawes said:
'Yes, they were there-some of the most
despicable characters on earth-trying to help
the army by selling it things it needed at ex-
orbitant figures There was one caught
and deported. What's his name? oh, what's
the use? 1 am not a muckraker He a
traitor and wish we could have shot him."
the war. When asked if excessive prices had
not been paid for materials and equipment,
Gen. Dawes said:
Sure we paid. We didn't dicker. Why. man
alive, we had to win the 1t was a mans
job. We would have paid horse prices for
sheep If the sheep could have pulled artillery to
the front. Oh, its all right now to
say we bought too much vinegar and too many
cold chisels but we saved the civilization of
the world
II bitterly resent this effort to reflect upon
the entire army" said Gen. Dawes in another
outburst of patriotism. because some poor
devil blundered in Switzerland. You cannot
put a blotch on the army What the hell did
we go in for? To steal money? 1t was not a
Republican or a Democratic war and yet as
a rule these committees try to bring in partisan
politics"
This is point that a great many seem to
have forgotten now. 1t was an American war
Dawes said he was Republican but was broad
enough to give the War Department full credit
for its work in getting more men to the front
than Great Britain and France there in the
same period. This, after all, was the object
and all this pickering some waste and ex-
travagances is done merely to besmirch, If pos
sibe, the administration of Woodrow Wilson.
Yes, they will even go so far as to discredit the
army and the nation itself in their effort in this
direction.
The doctor who prescribed a long rest for
Lenin may be jailed for sedtion by the reds.
The cut which restaurant owners gave their
prices could not be called major operation.