The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-06-03
GRAVE DANGER
IN PROBE OF
WAR FRAUDS
Effort to Revive Political
Mud Singing Will Bring
Glee to Camps of Radicals
Destroys Our Ideals.
AFFAIR UNFORTUNATE
nv MARK SrLLIXAN

for the prosecution Of the war frauds
much more than can possibly be
said within the space limitations Of
the present article. But there are a
Few observations which ought to be
made, and which, if the public will
accept them, should provide us with
issues for a political campaign this
year more wholesome and more useful
than now promises to be the case.
What the public should bear in
mind is the amount of politics involv-
ed in the situation. In the inspiration
OF the agitation. there is a certain
. amount of fanatic sincerity. without
doubt. But there is very much more
Of politics-politics of the least eIe-
yating kind, and on the part of both
parties.
First of all, the Democrats managed
the war. They were in office when
the war came and they took the re
sponsibility Thereupon, the Republi-
cans in the campaign of 1920. went
upon the theory that the war had been
managed badly. The charges the Re
publiCans made against the Democrat
ic management of the war. and which
they reiterated over and over during
70 do with the magnitude of their
success that year.
Dawes Ended Probe
Al the same time the Republicans.
who had come into control of con
gress. started a congressional fnvesti-
cation of alleged waste, and worse,
in the Democratic party's manage
ment of the war That investigation
int
concerned. in a single phrase of three
words. uttered by one of the most
prominent men in the Republican
party. Charles G. Dawes
General Dawes was in charge of the
supplies for the allies during the war
and is now by appointment from Re
publican preS lent. the director of the
budget
During the war Dawes had been in
a position to know as much as any
one man could know about how the
business part of it was managed. Aft
er the end of the fighting, and before
he took office in the Harding admin
istration. he had charge of the liqui-
dation of leftover material and con
tracts
When the Republican congressional
investigating committee was trying to
dig up scandal in the Democratic man
agement of the war, they called this
orthodox Republican incumbent of a
high office in the Harding administra
tion. TO testify. He came and he tes
titled, In the language of the con
temporary classics. he testified a
plenty. He talked for seven and q
half hours-literally. What he said is
nowhere on record completely. be
cause he talked so fast that the ste
nographers couldn't get it all down.
Dawes Was Mad
General Dawes per diem rate of vo
ciferation is high at all times, anC
when he is mad it runs up to some
thing like 200 words a minute. AND
on this occasion he was very mad, in
deed No human stenographer coulC
get down the full sum of his angel
at what he considered the effort Il
find material for political mud-sling
ing in Americas glorious part in tn.
war But there was one phrase which
by reason of the witness frequent re
iteration of it, the stenOgraphers go
down accurately. It was a crypt;
phrase. but it conveyed the speaker:
righteous indignation and cOntemp
with entire accuracy. That phrase o
Dawes ended the investigation Hi
seven and a half hours o. figures ant
facts, his angry justification of tn.
shortcuts which men of ability ant
initiative took TO bring an early enC
to a war that was costing Americ;
TWO million dollars an hour and NOR
than a thousand lives a day-all tina
was in his testimony, but the thint
that carried conviction to the publi
and ended the investigation was hi
Hell and Maria
Talk Died Down.
Thereafter, for time the tall
about war frauds died down But tht
issue was too attractive for the poll
ticians to let it go. 1t was too vel
adapted as an alternative to minds TOT
intellectually impoverished to inven
or discuss more worthy issues. AT
lime when the whole theory of OF
ganized society is in the melting pot
the politicians could not find anything
better than mutual charges of larCen,
IS 4 leading issue in a campaign 70
the control of the legislative ma
Chinery of the greatest nation in tn
world
The issue of waste and fraud wa
revived. and now the Democrats ar
pressing the same issue that the RI
pubiCans used in 1920, They hav
only changed it TO suit their own si1
uauon by, to speak in the terminolog
Of a popular indoor game, putting tn
reverse English" on it. In 1920, tn
Republicans charged that the Demo
Gratis had permitted or shared in frau
IN the management of the war; /
1922, the Democrats are charging tha
the Republican administration. an
the Republican attorney general pal
ticularly, are derelict in proseCutin
those who committed the fraud
charged against the Democrats.
Dig Up Old Stuff.
The present proposal for anothe
congressional investigation includes
demand for investigation of allege
frauds in connection with the arm
and navy contracts during the Demo
cratic management of the war, as we
as a demand that the Republican a
\ torney generals failure to prosecut
these frauds also be investigated. A
CONTINUED on Page Nine)