Evening star., 1924-01-26


Of national bank in his home town
OF Canton. Pa.
Confronted by the statements OF
these three men - Brewer himself,
Mr. Crissingcr and Representative
McFadden-the President deemed that
lie had no alternative but To act.
Act he did. on March 81, promptly and
forcefully. Twenty-nine heads. in
Guiding that of Director Wilmeth.
were Summarily cut off at the great
establishment where Uncle Sans
money and securities are engraved.
The present writer recalls vividly the
gravity and reserve with which
President Harding discussed the sen
sational episode in his conference
with the newspaper men few hours
later. No explanations could he oh
tanned at the White House except
that the "dismissals We're for the
good of the service There were
guarded hints about irregularities in
the production of government bonds.
No attempt was made by the Pres
ident to minimize the seriousness Of
the situation. But exactly what had
happened, or what was alleged to
have happened. was not divulged
Method of His Entry Unknown.
Just exactly how Brewer got him
self into the bureau affair and oh
tanned the fiimsy pieces Of document
airy .evidenCe" with which he sailed
forth upon his great adventure is not
known. Investigation would have
disclosed that his record as an in
quirer into alleged governmental
scandals was not one to give promise
of dependable results. In 1919 and
1920. as special attorney in the
Department Of Justice under \.
Mitchell Palmer's attorney general
ship. Brewer had conducted an in
Vestigation into the alleged mis-
doings OF American raincoat manu-
facturers. His purpose was To eN-
pose their frauds" on the War and
Navy departments during the war.
Brewer received carte blanche at the
Department of Justice to conduct the
raincoat crusade. He resorted I"
methods which lamentably failed TO
stand the test when his princlpai
cases were brought to trial tthe
so-called Kenyon and RoSenwasser
suits).
Both trials resulted in acquittals'
following vigorous charges to the
juries by the presiding judges RreW :
er's methods We're subjected botn DE
the bench and the jury 70 scathlhs
criticism. and. in the Rosenwasser
case, the jury declared as its opin-
ion that "as to none of the defend
ants was there any Justihcatlon Tor
indictment or trial. In tne Same
case. the presiding Judge. after in
structing the jury to acquit all the
nineteen defendants, further IN
structed the district attorney to take
steps to have the government chlef
witnesses indicted for perjury. The
Kenyon and Rosenwasser cases were
tried in Brooklyn.
Claimed Prima Facie Evidence.
Evidently the past career Of Brewer
as a Sherlock Holmes was not known
to the federal officials whom he i'm
pressed when he managed to make his
way to President Harding's office at
the White House. What he had to
offer, Brewer claimed, was prima facie
evidence of duplication of liberty bonds.
During the Wilson administration, due
to the extraordinary exigencies of the
war. the number of pieces of govern
ment currency and securities printed at
the bureau of engraving aggregated
fabulous figures, bonds. bank notes
greenbacks, gold certificates, war saw
ings stamps but primarily liberty and
victory bonds, for financing the colos-
sal war costs There had never been
ANYTHING like such a deluge Of govern
ment obligations in the history of the
country-probably not even in the his
tory of the world-though the printing
presses which drip rubleS and marks in
FrIrope. meantime, have outdone it.
Large numbers of automatic num-
herring machines were required in the
bureau for the production OF this
stream of government issues. Ordi-
narily, these numbering machines are
SUBJECTED to the most exhaustive
tests for the insurance of absolute
accuracy, Under war conditions 1t
was found necessary to procure
machines wherever they
could be had. Necessarily, tests as to
tbeir accuracy either were omitted or
were not made with the usual care.
The machines were obtained either
from reliable manufacturers or from
other engraving plants which had
them in regular use. The conse-
nuence was that there was a certain
nnmber of applications of numbers
among the temporary war bonds.
How Machines Went Wrong.
Suppose you were operating a num-
herring machine. 1t reaches 1899.
Functioning properly, the next num-
her the machine would stamp would
be 1000. But suppose the disc in the
900 column stuck-did not turn. The
next number, then, would be 1,001
Won already have a 1901. That would
make a duplication of numberS-tw o
bonds numbered 1,001. That is pre-
cisely what occurred at the engraving
bureau with some bonds-nothing
else. If the disc in the 1000 column
remained stuck until five bonds had
heen stamped you would have five
duplicate numbers, the last being
1905. Then. the disc in the 1000 col
umn releasing, your next bond would
be numbered 2,006, so that for the
duplicate numbers 1,001 to 1,006 there
would be deficiency of numbers
from 2OO1 to zoos. The total count
Of bonds would be accurate, although
YOU would have five bonds on which
numbers were duplicated.