The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-10-05


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FRAUD IN WAR
CONTRACTS Q CHARGE
The acumen Of q junior officer of the
army, poring over records of the gov
ernment back in 1919, led to the un-
covering of fraud and criminal con-
spiracy practiced against the govern
J ment on gigantic scale by contractors
during and after the world war, Mar
{ quis James declares in the third of the
series Of articles captioned, @Who Got
the Money, which he has written for
the American Legion weekly. The
complete article will appear IN that
{ magazines issue of September Ri. Z
The startling discovery by the jlni-
4 or officer led, the article says, to the
7 secret establishment in fourteen cities
of units of. the contract audit section
Il Of the finance department of the war
department.. That was in June, 1920.
j; No publicity was given the investiga-
ton of these units, nothing said con-
cerning their establishment. For
months they worked. And in the first
authorized public concerning their act
ivities, Brigader General Kenzie w.
I Walker, chief of finance of the army,
furnished Mr.. James with the follow-
ing figures: ..>s s'.1 ~ ~ g.. e. y.
With pnly 1900 out Of 150, 900 war
contracts audited approximately $46,-
O00,O00 has been found to be due the
United States from war contracts. ="
OF this sum SIS, $4,000 has been
collected and returned to the Treasury
by the War Department. 80
Claims totalling7 $4,4OO,O0o. have
been referred to the Department of
Justice and the general accounting
office. 5~.,,r ~ y, ,.z..~ j.
The balance Of $2e, 100000 is in PRO-
cess of effort at collection by the adult
section. 4: ----t.@.,' : s4Flss., t.. ia
So startling were the disclosures
made in auditing the few of the many
war contracts, that Congressman Roy
O. Woodruff. Of Michigan was moved
to explain in a speech in the house:
"The findings of the contract audit
section form positive and tangible
basis for action by the Department of
Justice" and to predict that there
would be eventually a recovery by the
army auditors of "at least $750, 0,00O,-
900 which was wrongfully and fraud
ulently taken from the government by
those war contracts whose operations
have, incident to the audit Of their con-
tracts, Indicated unmistable criminal
dishonesty H..
Some typical instances Of discovered
ssassss srsi itaaxin eitase
having been handled BY the contract
audit section i'm. it's investigations-a
manufacturer using government mat
erial on contract calling for, use OF
his own material, and pocketing the
difference Of 100000 and like cases.
Contracts connected with the building
of the war cantonments sixteen in all
lat a cost of $2065632, ,920, also are
scrutinized and considered in detail,
with some of the testimony given be-
fore the House committee on war ext
penditure, headed by Representative
William j. Graham of Illinois, included.
The sixteen camps should have cost,
it was figured by this committee, not
more than s128, ,O00, ,000or $78,5OO,-
600 less thar was paid under the cost
plus" system that obtained. .<4
z Witnesses testified that on canton
ment contract jobs there were fifty to
sixty percent too many men employed
the more money expended the great
er the percentage Of profit TO the con-
tractor. That valuable lumber and
other materials, worth millions, were
wasted or destroyed; thai at Camp
Sherman, for instance, ito quote: from
the testimony of Joseph p. Poole, 2
foreman under Contractor. "a. Bentley
. & Sons, who was working On the hos
pital at the time, with the weather
a2O or 28 below zero" 'sIn the wards.
they had absolutely no heat except
from oil stoves. have seen boys
suffering III there and the steam-fit-
tiers shooting Grape and cooking hot
dogs in those diet kitchens. ! report
/ ca 1t to Arons, the block boss and he
told me afterwards: It was the worst
/ have ever seen. They would shoot
craps and they would play freeze-out
and then eat hot dogs standing around
gasoline torch, while the soldier boys
4 were sick in those wards suffering
with the cold. Actually pinched blue,
their finger nails blue. ]" ~ sss
s And many other testified that the
1 cantonments were built by the con-
tractors Oh the principals of athe more
Il you spend the more you get" and
B Get while the gesting is good And
the government, spured on by the
L great need Of cantonments at once
~ house the fast growing army, was
4 svictirnized, mulched Of nlillions.
quarter Of million oIlars was
lost, II il charged, in the governlnents 3
settlement with the American Can
Company, which landed contracts for
\ SO, ,000, 900 bread cans BIT 5 ITO 10 IS 11a
cents apiece though other makers were
trying u get the job for to 5 cents
apiece. The article says, When the