The Connecticut labor news., 1922-07-07
GIGANTIC CRAFT IN ALIEN PROPERTY
 SEIZURE CHARGED
Congressman Demands Stoppage of Practice That Has Cost Gov
 ernment Millions.

Practice That Has Cost Gov
 ernment Millions.
 Congressman Roy Woodruff, of Michigan, presented an array of amazing facts concerning the alien property custodian's office to the House of Representatives last week.
 On February I5, 1919, the alien property custodian estimated that the value ot the property then in his pos session was S7oo,ooo,ooo.
 The earnings of the seized proper ties during the following years would, according to conservative estimate, increase this sum to $500, 100000
 On December I2 last the present custodian told the committee on ap- prOprlatlons that all the property in his possession was worth only S575,- 900, 900, or, to quote Mir Woodruff. nearly quarter of billion less than we might reasonably expect to find there"
 MT. Woodruff wanted to know what had become of the quarter of a billion, and insisted that the only way to find out was to have congress sional investigation.
 After charging the alien property custodian who served under the Will
  larltles, involving vast sums of money, MT. Woodruff declared that the pres ent custodian-who, by the way. is one of the political pets of the Du Pont Powder Trust-had made a de liberate effort to have Congress put the stamp Of its approval on frauds committed"
 Who Got the Million?
 Woodruff told many interesting stories to show how lawyers and oth- CTS ''on the inside" had made vast sums by manipulating the properties seized by the custodian. The case of H. Upmann & Co. of Havana, is a fair example.
 The alien property custodian, Tn a report for the period ending Febru- ary I5,,IoIo described Herman Up German propaganda in the West In- dies. Upmann's holdings in this country amounted to approximately $3,ooo,ooo, according to the custodian, and every penny of 1t was seized by the government and turned over to A. Mitchell Palmer and his success sors.
 After the property had been in the custody of the alien property custo- dian for about a year, Francis Gar van, of Hartford, Conn, who sue ceeded Palmer, announced that the seizure was illegal, and the property was thereupon returned.
 One of the leading newspapers of Havana printed a story about the transaction and stated that Upmann & Co. had spent upward of $I,ooo, 900 in the United States in securing the return of the seized property. MT. Woodruff would like to know who got the million.
 How Patriots Prohted.
 If another war should come and another alien property custodian should be appointed for such emer- gency,' said MT. Woodruff, "every person who has the desire to be en- dowed with sudden wealth should be a lawyer and periodically volunteer to serve as one of the aids of the custodian.
 If you will read the report of one ending February E, 1oIo your inter est will be intrigu by the beautiful and touching encomiums which he piles lavishly upon himself and the patriotic members of his staff, par tlcularly the lawyers who served him at such manifestly pathetic sacrifice of their own private interests
 What has the alien property GUS todian done in appreciation of the services of these noble patriots who so freely volunteered their services to aid him in his work?
 You will find that five of the most conspicuous of these patriots received the insignificant sum of $6o7,ooo for their prodigious labors. This sum would pay the salaries of an equal number of Congressmen for between IS and Io years,
 "The amount received by these five men-who, by the way, were employ would exceed the pay of more than 1000 soldiers while fighting in France for a year.
 One lawyer received upward of $I7o,ooo, another SI37,ooo, another SI35,ooo, and two or three more each an amount exceeding $Ioo,ooo.
 "Others, either less patriotic or less favored, were forced to be content with paltry amounts each as $75,ooo, $73,ooo, $7I, 1000, $54,ooo, $43,ooo, and so on through a long list
 Too Shameful For Public View.
 "There is only one good reason that occurs to me at this time why we should not investigate these matters, and that is that the facts are too shameful to be exposed to the public view
 Every one of the lawyers who re- ceived the large fees to which 1 have referred repeatedly presented claim ants before the office of the alien property custodian, and in any num- Der of instances at the very time they were employed by the custodian.
 There are instances disclosed by the report where the lawyers who the custodian in connec- tion with the seizure and administra-