The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-12-05

for eight 7,5OO-ton concrete tank and U
cargo ships. 1t persuaded the Ship S
ping Board to spend nearly a million
for a shipyard. AS the work pro- 8
crossed, the contract was cut to three l
vessels, for even the densest officials
| soon saw that the concrete ship
dream was due to be shattered as
completely as the ships themselves
were when they grounded.
The Shipping Board paid all the
officers and all the men, met every
expense, and assumed all responsible
ity, while the company which held
the contract acted as superintendent
When the contract was cut to three
ships, according to the testimony OF
A. j. Frey and other Shipping Board
officials before the Congressional
Select Committee on Shipping Board
operations, these San Francisco gen.
tlemen lost interest. They were, ap-
~parently. not so much interested IN
the war as they were in the money
to be made out of concrete ship
building, if Mr.. Frey, later a $4,000
a year aide to AL Lasker, is to be
believed.
The next appearance of the Fleisch-
hacker influence was in what was
known s the "Bardee contract"
"Jack" Bardee, Portland, Oregon,
suddenly appeared in Washington
and began to bid on ship steel left
over from the construction program.
He outbid the other Jewish junk deal
ers and secured the contract. For
= some of the steel he was to pay $40
a ton. for some $50. For fabricated
70 steel he was to pay $25 a ton, and
so on. The steel market was high
RI then.
to Everybody thought Bardee was
p "stuck."
us Resigns-ReappOinted
N, The next development was whel
an H. H. Weaver, steel expert on tn
oh Shipping Board Claims Commission
ar resigned and became an official o
the Bardee Steel Products Corpora
-or ton.
he Then Mr.. Weaver was r~eappointe
Os- at a ~dollar-a-year to the Claim
inc Commission of the Shipping Boar
idy as steel expert-and thus retaine
ms both positions.
ro- Following that, Bardee secured a
ific Interpretation and amplification"
his contract which resulted in certai
co changes. Among these was one th'
;s a clause specifying that all steel "le'
i+b than Is feet in length shall be col
II. sidered fabricated "steel" should
GRO interpreted to mean "15 feet or less
zoo In other words, under the contraC
do a sheet of steel IA feet, II u inch
,oc. in length would come within the S;
a ton class but another quarter
- an inch-or exactly Is feet-put
in the higher priced class. Und
. the change, the steel had to be
Fps quarter of an inch more than Is fe
'i'" long or it fell in the lower-pric
'' class. Owing to the standard lengt
" of ship steel as cut, that quarter
an inch meant many hundreds
thousands of dollars loss to the Shi
ping Board.
Another change was as to st'
Gu" pieces bolted or rivited together. U
was less these were taken into the d.
-, as fabricated steel, the governme
would be left with scrap, practical
worthless on the market except
metal junk, while the contract
would get the crea of the materi
Bardee secured the changes
con former Shipping Board offici'
CA vince when they say how much
government lost by this deal.
Ae' Bardee then came forward with
10 other proposition in which he "
use backed by the Feischhackers to ia
over all the surplus supplies-ma
millions Of dollars worth, on t
- Pacific Coast. Probing by the Wa
committee and over-much publici
however, caused this deal to be aba
doned.
L. The next appearance of the Hot
Ouis of Fleischhacker was when Al Las
fer, ar brought Herbert Feischhacker
to have a talk with the president r
uch, alive to the formation by Fleis'
The hacker of a gigantic corporation
may the Pacific Coast to take over I
government ships.
ract Then, after this scheme was W