, 1922-06-14

hid and lost papers for the purpose of keeping
members Of the committee and officers Of the de
partment of justice from examining them. 1 am not
saying that the prosecution oaght to be delayed,
but i say that a reasonable time ought TO be given
Tor Investigation, and then the law ought TO be en-
forced as quickly as possible under the circum-
stances. A great deal is being said about the fail
ure of the department of justice to prosecute. No
lawyer, / care rot what his ability o. standing
could have gone into the department of Justice
when this administration did and, out of the utter
confustion that reigned there, had any of these
highly important war-fraud cases ready for trial
before this time. But the country now expects Wig
orous action, and 1 have all confidence that the de
partment of justice will respond readily and fully
to that demand.
1t should be borne IN mind that the Investigation
referred TO was conducted by the Republican
congress elected in 1918 but was conducted during
the last two years Of the Wilson administration
when A. Mitchell Palmer was attorney General,
Newton d. Baker, secretary of war, and the Demo
cratic administration was in control of all Of the
administrative offices.
Representative Graham charged that over one.
half of the money expended in the war, raised by
sale of Liberty bonds and taxes was undoubtedly
squandered. He showed that under the administra.
ton of the war department $116 ,194.9 74 was spent
on nitrate plants which produced no nitrates; $50,
100000 on by-product coke ovens that produced
nothing; $4,000 900 on picric acid plants that pro
duced nothing; untold millions on tanks and yet no
tanks were constructed; 100000 900 for poison gas
and no poison gas was obtained; 100000, 900 for
powder plants that produced no powder; Si27,-
100000 for port terminals that docked no ships; 81,
O5l ,512,OO0 for aeroplanes and no aeroplanes were
produced; $1,000 00, 900 for the construction Of
army canton-ieuts in which it is capable of dem
onstration that one-half was graft and waste.
AS If this vast expenditure OF money which pro
duced nothing in the way of war material before
the war was over and the armistice signed, was not
a sufficient waste and scandal, the Democratic ad-
ministration went to tho extreme of entering into
contracts for war material after the armisticc was
signed and expending hundreds of millions of dol.
lars for all sorts of munitions and war equipment
after peace had been declared.
This cannot ne excused or explained away by the
statement that IL was impossible to close all war
activities instantly upon the signing of the arn.iE-
tice. Even after July 9, 1919, eight months after
the signing of the arInSstice, munition factories
under the orders of the war department turned out
tremendous quantities of shells and ordnance. One
order OF 300 howitzers, costing approximately So,
0rj each, was accepted after July 3, 1919. Orders
of expensive shells running into the hundreds of
thousands were accepted after that date.
Not only were American plants kept busy manu-
featuring war munitions eight months after peace
had been declared but factories in England and
France were kept running on contracts which our
war department would not cancel. France made
a delivery to this country after the armistice was
signed of 94 guns and carriages of an old model of
1897, which had absolutely no military value what
ever. She also delivered under contract another or
der of 1913 guns and carriages, and still another
order of 700 guns and carriages. England deliver
ed 200 %60pound gums, 100 six-inch guns and 355
~eightinch howitzer guns and carriages. When it
is stated that the cost of one howitzer gun and car
riage is approximately $1,000, it can be appreci-
ated what enormous waste the war department per-
httttA itt& thO Dlibt Who EuC Ii
was every incentive for economy.
The explanation given by the Democratic admin
~istration at that time for their permitting English
and French factories to continue the manufacture
of war material for this nation months after peace
was declared was that they desired to maintain
friendly relations between this country and Eng
land and France and they though that it would best
be done by permitting those countries to continue
the manufacture of munitions for the United States
in order to keep their factories busy. None of the
product of these plants is of any use whatever to
the United States.
There are thousands upon thousands of cases
of war graft that never will be prosecuted because
of the fact that although they were outright steals
they were made legal by the acts of the Democratic
administration. Taking advantage of the tremen-.
dous and almost unlimited autocratic war power
granted it, at its own request by congress, the adj
ministration a~brogated all laws which were on the
books for the protection of the American people.
The statute requiring all government contracts to
ibe let by bidding and to be made in writing was sus-
pended by the secretary of war six days after the
declaration of war.
Not content with this, after the armistice was
signed, the Democratic congress enacted tie motor
ious Dent law. This piece of legislation was en-
acted under the pretense that it was necessary in
order to permit Secretary of War Baker, Attorney
General Palmer aEd others to make a speedy settle
cent of war rlanrs and contracts, but after tic
Passage of tho act it was found that thousands of
claims existed for which there was not even SO
much as a scratch of a pen as evidence.
Over 10000 such claims were filed before a board
created by Secretary of War Baker and a half a
billion dollars was paid out on these claims with
ont any accounting and without any legal ~justifica-
ton at all except in the language of the Dent act
itself. The Republican congress elected in 1918
protested upon various occasions against the ac-
ton of war department in the settlement of these
claims but these protests had no effect upon the
Democratic administration. After the elections
in 1920 various Democratic administrative officials
and employees proceeded to destroy or sequester
records and to so tangle up the books and docu-
ments connected with the administration of the
government under the Wilson regime that to this