New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-04-12
Impeachment
OF Dauggherty
Is Threatened

N''' """'
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer.
His outstanding complaint against Mr..
Daughcrty was that he has failed to
prosecute contractors for the govern
ment guilty of acts CLEARLY calling for
action by the Departm lent Of Justice"
Ovcrpayments running into millions
of dollars in individual cases have
been made, he said.
in the auditing of war contracts the
$1,000 out Of the total Of 100000,
which have been reviewed, have de-
veloped information upon which the
government may base recovery Of
approximately 100000 if action can
be obtained from Mr.. Daughcrty, Mr.
Woodruff said
Cites Sale TO Palmer Client
He cited individual cases where gross
irregularities were found running into
millions Of dollars and alluded to the
sale Of the Bosch Magnetic Company by
the alien property custodian to Martin
E. Kern for $4,1500OO. Kern, he said
was friend and client of A. Mitchell
Palmer then custodian, and served
three terms in prison for felonies, and
was Of German birth. The sale, he de-
clared was a direct violation of the
trading with the enemy act.
mo prosecutions have yet occurred,
and although newspaper activity some
time ago seems to have stirred the
Department of Justice to some show Of
activity nothing has yet been done
about it," he declared.
The property, he asserted. was worth
twice the amount received and the
facts would indicate that gross fraud
was committed against the government
A reorganization was effected and one
Of the chief actors in the transaction,
he continued, was the firm Of Horn
blower G. Weeks, a banking firm Of
New York and Boston. The profits. he
. said, we're probably more than ST.
0O0 900
Kern sailed for Europe some time
ago, added Mr. Woodruff. and later
wrote letter from Paris to one Of
his attorneys in which he said:
"Why doesn't MURRAY and all the
interests take John w. Weeks to
Daugherty and put a quietus on this
thing?"
"Hundreds Of cases of fraudulent
war contracts and contracts for the
sale of surplus war property and the
settlement of claims we're found by
the special Investigating committee Of
Congress, headed by Representative
Graham, Of Illinois, who was chairman
and which terminated on March 4, 1921,
Mr.. Johnson said.
Says Weeks Refuses to Cooperate
"Herc we have the spectacle of the
Secretary Of War-who is holding his
position to-day largely because of the
resentment OF the soldiers of the late
war who knew they had suffered un-
necessarily. and citizens who knew that
there had been graft and extravaganza
taking the attitude that the time for
exam alton had expired and refusing
to cooperate with the Congress of the
| United States is developing the facts
which we knew were in existence" he
said.
In discussing the UNLIMITED oppor-
tunity for graft in the sale of surplus
property" Mr. Johnson asserted that
official reports on the value Of the
property were so conflicting that stuff
estimated by General Bulard, of the
Eastern Zone, at S6000000,000, was
listed by the War Department on De-
cember 13. 1920, at S130,0O0,00
THE facts which | am going to show
indisputable prove that the War De-
partment has sold property and is to-
day selling property at ridiculously low
prices to favored customers, concealing
the facts from Congress and deliber-
ately misrepres enting the facts" he
said. They also show that the War
Department is trying to control the
Department of Justice by putting men
who ought to be in the penitentiary on
the Department of Justice pay roll and
! asking Congress to appropriate for it,