The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-05-31

OraDDlng During War Excuse Tor
Money Grabbing via Soldier Bonus
Now-But Few Practice Fraud.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Especial Despatch to The Reformer)
Copyright 1922.
WASHINGTON, May 31.-Shivers
of fear and worry have replaced the
smiles of prosperous satisfaction on the
faces of many a those lawyers and cap
tains of industry who swarm the ma
tional capital from time to time in pur-
suit of business relations with the gov
eminent.
The cloud Of impending gloom, raised
by the appropriation of a half million
dollars by congress to prosecute frauds
in war contracts and settlements made
since the armistice hovers about the hO-
tel Hobbies of Washington. 1t is as un-
miStakable as inevitable. For four wears
those who had business with the gov
eminent which might be made the sub
! ject of legal dispute have worried along
| with the hope that the whole mess would
! be shelyed and byegones would be bye
| cones.
The innocent suffer with the guilty.
| Government prosecutions are not always
| conducted by men who know what they
are about In the desire TO make a rec
! ord indictments will undoubtedly be re-
| turned and regulations besmirched. The
cases themselves viii be the subject Of
| prolonged trials Thousands upon thous-
ands of persons handled war contracts.
! They are scattered far and wide. Tech
nical men who advised their superiOrs,
| subordinateS with whom oral under
! standings were made. army officers no
| longer in the army, dollar year men,
| back in business again doing business
/ h.,
will be under fire-all these and a CON
| glomeration of party politics will make
! effective prosecution so difficult as 10 be
! Intellectual in many cases.
Neither Party Wants 1t.
| As for the politics of it, if the truth
were known. both Democratic and Re
| publican parties would welcome truce
J which would quietly and summarily dis
| pose of the whole war inVestiga-
ton. Both sides viii get their fingers
| burnt before the prosecution is COM
| pleted. 1t is an acknowledged fact that
| Republicans galore sat in responsible pO-
| sitiOns here during the war. That was
natural. Most of the business men, in
| the larger industries at least. are Re
| publicans. 1t was war of industry.
/ Democrats had the power of appoint
ment but many a contract was made by
| a Republican subordinate. To prose-
! inside the Republican party. 1.-THE RANT
| fications are so deep that again and
| again in the past the administration has
| Hoped some providential circumstance
| would wipe the slate clean of the whole
| nasty mess.
As for the Democrats, they, too, had
their friends, political and personal.
| Wartime Washington involved a hectic
mixture of personal friendship and pa
triotism with no uniform standard of
ethics. What to one man may seem a
| fraud will be indifferently character
lied by another as simply sharp bar
gain" The all-inclusive word cost is
! susceptible of a million variations.
! Many Personal Spites.
Personal recriminations, spite and re
venge will play their part. DepOsed Off
cials of one administration will testify
| eagerly against those who ousted them
| from Office. Already much of this has
come to the surface. That millions of
dollars were extorted from the American
government under the guise of patriotic
cooperation cannot be doubted. Euro
pean countries had the same experience