The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1922-07-05

free to proceed with plans for many
two steel combinations have been IN
nounced, one coal merger of impor-
lance has taken place in the Pitts
burgh district, one tobacco combina-
ton has been forced, and other com
binations of capital are projected.
The government has been in close
touch with all that has been going
on along this line and as far as OBJ
servers here are able to detect Is not
greatly concerned. 1t is true that the
Department of Justice is making in
quiries for the purpose of satisfying
Itself that the antitrust law is not
being flagrantly violated, and that the
federal trade commission is keeping a
watchful eye on the proceedings so
as to be sure that fair competition is
not stified. The congress is passing
the usual number of resolutions of
inquiry, but not much attention Is
being paid to Its activity in connec-
ton with the consolidation. What
the country would like to know and
what it probably will learn in due
time Is whether the Harding admin
~istration is disposed to hold a liberal
view in regard to the organization of
trusts, so called.
Especially Wants Business Progress.
The administration has made no
secret of the fact that above all else
it desires to see business go ahead
In the United States and also through
out the world. If the ruling minds in
the administration can be convinced
that prosperity will be advanced
through the consolidation of activi-
ties, it is reasonable to assume that
the government will not put any seri-
Gus obstacles in the way of the finan-
ciers who are interested in the vari-
Gus combinations that are taking
place. 1t is reasonable to assume also
that the administration has already
combinations some intimation as to
how it feels III the subject.
Some well-infofmed men here be-
lieve public sentiment has undergone
a radical change in its attitude toward
great combinations of capital. The
World war, it is asserted, is respon-
sible for this changed view.
After the War Profiteers.
Attorney General Daugherty now
has a special fund of 100000 at
his command which he is priv
ileged to use as he sees fit in the
prosecution of alleged war profiteers ;
he has a special grand jury in the Dis
trict of Columbia to serve him, and
he has an array of twelve or fifteen
special prosecutors, some of them dis
tinguished while others are not very
well known. Certainly if there are
men who deserve to go to prison be-
cause of frauds committed during the
armistice agreement, the government
ought to be able, with the machinery
it has set up, to put them where they
belong.
The public, it is reasonable to as
sumo, looks with favor on the turn
things have taken here in regard to
alleged frauds committed during the
war. 1t should be determined once
and for all whether crooks in high
places or in low places robbed the
government during the a The talk
to the effect that there was much
footing has gone OF systematically
since April, 1917. The strange thing
is that the whole truth was not
brought out long ago.
What Congressional Probers Found.
The house of representatives of the
congress which preceded the present
one, that is to say the Sixty-sixth con-
gress, through a special committee of
fifteen, ten Republicans. and five Dem
ocrats, under the direction of Repre-
sentative William J. Graham of ILL
nois, spent more than a year investi-
eating the conduct of the war with
the view to a%scertaining whether
there were frauds which would war
RAM prosecutions by the government.
This, select committee spent q total of
S147,2T8 in making inquiries both in
this country and in France. While 1t
was at work, the senate conducted
eight war Investigations in all, and
spent a total of $75.497. Thus the
lSixty-sixth congress invested a total
of $222.775 in Investigations Of the
conduct of the war.
The select committee of the house,
which came to be known as the Ora
han committee, submitted majority
and minority reports. The Republican
members of the committee alleged
gross eXtravagances in the conduct of
the war, and at least intimated that
there was graft though they never
specifically pointed out the alleged
profiteers. The Democratic members
took the position that under all the
circumstances the government was
~wairanted in spending money with a
lavish hand in order to bring the war
to a speedy end,
The. findings of the Graham COM
mittee were submitted to the DEPART
ment of justice in June two years
ago. A few prosecutions were started
by the department as n result of the
report, but the report as a whole was
not made the basis for government
action. The congress-, both Repub-
licans and Democrat, did not seem
inclined 70 protest because the De-
partmant of Justice did not begin the
prosecution of alleged profiteers in a
wholesale way. Indeed the Sixty-sixth
congress as a whole, as well as the
general public, seemed to accent the