Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1924-05-01
MONEY BLIND; TURN LIGHT ON
C CORRUPTION, SAYS VANDERBILT
Big Business Doesn't Like In
vestigations, He
Claims
By ALEXANDER HERMAN

w AO1114N0 AO4Ng May ~
though money talks, it is Otter
blind.
A realization of this prompted
Frank A. Vanderlip, former presi
dent of the National City Bank OF
New York, to cut loose from hi.
Big Business associates, resign hi
many directorships, come to Wash
ington, found the Citizens Federal
Research Bureau, and undertake
an expose of corruption and inefi-
ficiency i'll our government.
"For the best way to prevent a
rat hole from being used for rat
hole purposes" he believes, is to
tur a light on it."
In this exclusive interview, grant
ed to NEA Service and Times
Recorder, Vanderlip points out his
findings to date.
big Business" says Wander
lip, "does not like the investiea-
lions that are going on in Wash
ington.
What we know as Big Business
has slight, if any relation to the
corruption which is being uncover
ed here. That is not the cause Of
Big Business antipathy to this invcs-
tigation. The fear is that with the
uncovering of the true state of af-
fairs there will come uncertainty
into the political situation, aed
radical political tendencies may be
encouraged by revelations.
Big Business always wants q
continuance of the status quo. 1t
fears political change although
admitting existing political condi-
tons are bad. 1t would rather en-
dure than fly to evils it knows not
of.
I'm assuming this attitude Ri.
Business speaks but it does no;
see clearly, does not reason accu-
rately.
Capital is vitality interested, anC
rightly so, in the reduction of taxa.
ton; and so capital thinks it moro
important to forward the Mellon
Tax Plan than to permit that legis.
lation to be interferred with by q
disturbed political situation.
IF capital reasoned accurately
and with a better understanding of
political conditions it would range
itself solidly on the side of sound
bipartisan investigation.
There is little use attempting to
regulate the stream that flows into
a barrel if the slaves are separat.
ed and the barrel badly leaking. The
slaves of the public treasury are
permitting vast amount of the
money which we collect in taxation
to run away. Some of it is lost
through corruption. That being so
corruption must be the first leak
to stop.
Vastly more important leaks, sc
far as the amount of money involv.
ed, come from inefficiency.
There was collected in the
United States last year in mum.
cipal, county, state and national
taxes, more than the value of the
agricultural crop. Some of thai
was stolen through corruption. Far
more was lost through inefficient
government procedure. Both
causes of loss need investigation
and correction, but naturally the
loss through corrupt administration
ought first to have attention.
Notable examples of both cor
ruption and inefficiency are to DC
found, for instance, in the Veterans
Bureau.
A direct result of the corrup-
ton and ineffiency of the Veterans
Bureau is, first an expenditure Of
450 million dollars a year without
accomplishing the purpose for
which the money is appropriated
and second, the failure properly to
relieve the distress of disabled sol.
dlers has built up the demand for
soldiers bonus. That will cost the
country several billion dollars, if it
Is passed, as it seems likely to be.
The man who is interested in