The Elk Mountain pilot., 1922-05-18

statements have been turned over to
the Harding administration.
5. That up to date Daugherty has
done practically nothing to prosecute
the guilty.
AN OLD TALE
| The tale is an older one than it
seems, and there is much more back
of the dismissal than appears on the
surface.
Some understanding of Major
Watts real position may be had
when it is recalled that he is the man
responsible for exposing the abuses in
connection with army sales contracts.
As an army officer he tried in the
summer of 1919 to prevent huge guam
titles of harness from being sold un-
der special arrangement at ridicu-
lously low prices to the United States
Harness Co. of West Virginia, group
of former army officers, under the
gravest suspicion of having conspired,
while still in the service of the Unit
ed States, to pave the way for inde-
fensible contracts.
Following his efforts to prevent
the making of the harness contract,
Major Watts was discharged from the
army. Congressman Graham and his
subcommittee on war expenditures
took up Major Watts charges and on
evidence supplied by him and discov-
cred largely through him they con-
demned the harness contract and rec
commended cancellation. This action
was followed some time after by an
effort from the Attorney Generals
Office to have the War Department
cancel the contract Major Watts had
meantime entered the service of the
Department of Justice.
Finally, under pressure from Pres
ident Harding himself, the harness
contract was cancelled by Secretary
Weeks. The company protested, and
the Department of Justice seemed
unable to force decisive action
against it.. The case still hangs.
Major Watts was doubtless an. en-
barrassing person to have around a
government department.. sIe offered
absolute proof that the army, which
can do no wrong, had been at fault,
and he persisted in piling up evil
dence which the Department Of JUS
tice could use for civil or criminal
prosecutions. The Department of
Justice did not like him .-..l
WHAT WILL ANSWER BE?
1t is an entirely fair statement that
whatever offense may be charged up
to Major Watts he can not be accused
of having betrayed the public. All
his efforts were directed against the
enemies of the government. He saved
millions in the harness deal alone
He has gathered mass of evidence
that will enable the government to
save many additional millions, and
perhaps send the grafters, and crooks
to Jail. That certainly ought to have
commended him to the Attorney GEN
eral as the right sort of person to
have about, particularly if the aim of
the department is to see that crime
is punished
Evidently not, however, Major
Watts was kicked out with as little
ceremony as would have been given
to servant who had lun off with
the plate.
His disloyalty to the Service the
average citizen will construe as dis
loyalty to the crooks and grafters
who have been holding high reveI at
TIE expense of the public treasury.
If Congress is worth its salt it will
stand back of Major Watts and see
that he gets his vindicatioii with the
public. 1t is plain that he does not
belong in the Department of Justice,
and perhaps he would be ling to
return there. Two painful expert
ences such as he has suffered are
about sufficient for even a two-fisted
fighter. But it will be little less than
a calamity, and grave breach of the
american spirit of fair play. if Con-
gress desists until it has made full
use Of the information he has gath
cred and lends it's efforts to the work
of jailing crooks that temporarily
has been impeded.
LA TOILETTE EXPOSES SCANDAL
Congress is going to take the lid off
, the Teapot Dome oil scandal. The
Senate by unanimous vote sanctioned
an investigation after Senator La
Follette, in sensational speech,
charged that the leasing of Wyoming
and California oil lands to the Sin
clair Oil Co. was a. greater betrayal
of the public interest than was con-
templated when the Ballinger-Pin-
chot upheaval rocked the nation.
Among the charges made by Sena-
tor La Toilette was that SPECTATORS
in Wall Street had advance informa-
tion on the Wyoming lease that en-
abled insiders to clean up $50, ,O00, 900.
More than two weeks elapsed be-
tween the signing of the lease by'
Secretary Fall, of the Interior De-
partment, and the passing of this in
formation to Congress. During that
time specializing ran riot. declares
Senator La Toilette.
In the same connection the Wis
consin Senator says that the Interior
Department is the "sluiceway for 90
per cent of the corruption of this
country"
CABINET OFFERS CRITICIZED
Secretary Weeks, head of the army,
came in with Secretary Fall for an
equal share of condemnation at the
hands of Senator LaFollette. When
naval officers had refused to approve
the Interior Departments plan to
lease the oil reserves they were, ac-
cOrdinO tn Mr. To FoIIette removad