The Elk Mountain pilot., 1922-10-05

Money Spent for Shells That
Never Were Fired, and Airplanes
That Never FIew-Eieven Saddles
for Every Saddle Horse and Horse
shoes for Both Man and Beast
Capper's Weekly
America spent $4,000 100000
worth of public funds-your taxes. to
outfit our wartime army" says the
American Legion. ''who got it.
The boys who did the fighting on
the front know exactly how much of
| it they got. They received 81 day
and did theft fighting with French and
series of articles in the American Le-
gion Weekly the Legion men show
they have been doing little investi-
cation on their own hook to find out
why the president finds the treasury
SO depleted that no funds can be
found to meet the payment of a SOL
dier bonus
Senator Arthur Capper's speech in
the closing hours of debate on the
bonus bill pointed the way. Collect
bonus taxes from bloated war prof.
tee s." sGit. he AS If in cor, oho, alton
CT Scnat-r Capp a.g1me..t, tie Le-
gion divulses some interesting facts.
For instance, America spent $827.-
450.600 for. American-made shells and
fred only 10000 American-made
shells in battle.
Everyone can see the waste which
was caused in our sixteen national
army cantonments. which cost the
government s2O6, 100000 and should
have cost only $12s.OOO.0OO. according
to expert estimates.
In the spring of 1917, says Marquis
James. editor of the Legion Weekly.
America set out to win the war in the
air. At the time of the armistice the
government had spent s1051, ,511, 1888
in the aircraft section. Yet General
Pershing. himself. has this to say:
Not one battle plane. not one bomb
ing plane. not one American-made
fighting plane Of any character ever
reached the front"
The money poured out like water to
squabbling contractors to furnish air
planes and shells which never reached
the front would have gone long way
toward paying the bonus.
The present administration showed
its willingness to rip open the veil of
secrecy behind which the war profi-
teers were skullxing and the Senate
appointed an investigating committee.
Accountants were hired. and started to
work on the tumble of records. ac-
count books and reports. Before they
had made a dent in the. giant bulk of
expenditure accounts they discovered
shortages. due to frauds and chicanery
totaling over, s15.0oO.o00 and the In
vestigatione is now on in earnest.
Here are some sample problems
from prpfteer's arithmetic with So
lutions as discovered by these ac-
countants:
"A manufacturer bad two contracts
for the same p' oduct. In one he was to
| u
ether his owr. He used government
material in 10th, projecting the diff
f. rsnce. which amounted to 100000"
"A contractor purchasing supplies
and, delivering them on his own con-
tracts with the government was reim-
bursed on a basis of certificates made
by government inspector at the
point of purchase. The contractor sub
stituted forged certificates for the
originals furnished him by the inspec-
tor. thereby increasing the amount
paid to him by the Government
But the most ridiculous example of
waste and the oqfe which shows be-
yond any doubt the orgy of spending
which had come over the government
contractors is shown in the purchase
of equipment for army horses and
mules.
A total of 5sO.1s2 horses and mules
were on the army property rolls dur
ing the war
For these 1.637,19 brushes were
bought-nearly three to each animal.
The number of nose bags bought to-
tailed 2,0SS.204, or nearly four to each
animal. A total of 2.S50.S53 halters
were bought. nearly five to each ami
NAL
But the American Legion points
with special pride to the item cover
ing purchase of saddles. or the $780,
1872 horses and mules. $4,000 were sad
die animals. For these 945.0O0 sad
dies were bought. not quite eleven
saddles to each animal. No wonder