The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1922-06-21
WAR OPENING ON
THE WAR CRATER
NEW DIVISION IN DEPARTMENT
OF JUSTICE, BEGINS IT'S I'M
MENSE TASK.
SPECIAL GRAND JURY MEETS
Firms, Corporations and individuals
Who Attempted to Defraud he Gov
eminent Are Now Due to Be Ex-
posed and Punished.
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK

vi VI SdlilZSd III lhC 1CDui tlliClit
of Justice has begun its work. Its
duty will be to investigate and. where
the evidence is sufficient, to prosecute
cases against what briefly and perhaps
graphically may be called war graft
erS.
A special grand jury has just met
in Washington to consider the cases
of grating protiteers. The country
knows by this time what the attorney
general has promised to do about the
prosecution of firms, corporations and
individuals against which and whom
there is evidence leading to Il fair pre-
sumption that they attempted to de-
fraud the government during the prog
ress of the war.
Virtually every official in the cap
ital today realizes, and says so. that
there would be M necessity for pros
ecution of war protiteers, nor would
there be any bonus bill to worry the
country if a logical course had been
pursued at the time when the draft
law was framed. Men, regardless of
politics, say today that il capital, Ia
Dor. and everything and everybody
else had been conscripted, just as the
soldiers were conscripted, the financial
and court troubles of the United States
would be less today by ut least 20
per cent.
There is a vast amount of work to
be lone by the new war contract divi-
sion of the attorney generals office.
All sorts of frauds against the govern
ment have been charged. 1t Is said
that concerns of various kinds made
enormous profits, not only by over
charges but by skimping work and by
robbed the country, but imperiled the
lives of its soldiers.
Some Profiteers Can't Be Reached.
There are profiteers of other kinds
who probably cannot be reached by
the hand of the law. There were men
and concerns who took advantage of
the general war conditions to over
charge the ordinary consumers of the
land for the necessaIies of life, and
also for its luXuries, for during the
time of high wages for American work
men and low wages for American
fighters, persons who never INDUCED
in luxuries before struggled to get
places at the sales counters.
The writer of this was told at one
time by n merchant that he had sold
thousands of ~luxuries to girl workers
in munition factories, and that his
business had been booming, and that
therefore he felt he could afford at
last to take life extremely easy, at
least for IA season. 1t may not have
been that this man was q profiteer in
the ordinary sense, for possibly he
made a small profit only on each arti-
Gle sold, but the fact that high wages
were paid enabled certain workers to
some of which probably were useless.
After every war seemingly there
must be a harvest of scandal. In the
old days the country heard of wormy
biscuits, shoddy blankets, embalmed
beef and various other commodities
for which the taxpayers paid in money
and the soldiers paid in privations.
1t seems likely that before the at
torney generals office gets through
with its work this land will have
learned much about what some of its
citizens did to feather their nests while
other citizens were going up against
machine gun nests in the forest of
the Argonne.
Disclosures May Be Startling.
Washington does not know whether
or not q harvest of results is to be
reaped by the hands of the attorney
general and of his many new prosecut-
ing assistants, but the promise has
been made that wherever the evidence
is sufficient to present a case for
grating against the government, the
case will be presented and prosecuted
to the limit.
The country may as well make it.
self ready to receive some highly in
teresting disclosures. The charges of
graft and p~rofiteeTing have. been made
Gaily since the country entered the
war in April, 1917. 1t now is TO be
learned probably if the charges have
been justified by the facts. The SOL
diers who fought at IA dollar Il day
are particularly interested in learning
whether the gentlemen who took their
ease Mt home also were taking their
toll out of the peoples purses.
1t is recognized generally that the
meanest CRATER is the IA CRATER.
Every time that he puts out a bad arti-
Gle when he is supposed to put out a
good one, and is paid for n good one,
he puts in jeopardy not only the
safety of his country, but the lives of
its soldiers. Profteering, as the word
suggests, was profitable. 1t now is to
be found out whether or not 1t is to
be unpunishable.
Literary Gem From a Consul.
1t is not the custom today, as
once it was, to give diplomatic
appointments to Americans because
of their literary distinction. Other
factors, frequently politics, must en-
ter into the equation. George Harvey,