Evening star., 1924-02-07
BREWERS CHARGES
BRING HOUSE PLEA
FOR FULL INQUIRY
Continued from First Page:l


number Of bonds, or certificates.
which have been redeemed and can
celed.
"i TIE number or bonds Treasury
debtedness and the serial number of
each which have been redeemed and
destroyed The date. place and
method Of destruction of such cam
celed, or redeemed bonds, Treasury
certificates, or other certificates of
Indebtedness. and by whose order or
authority said bonds, Treasury GER
tificates or certificates Of indebted
ness were destroyed"
Secretary Mellon at the same time
reiterated that the Treasury. in its
long investigation Of the matter. had
found no evidence OF malicious ir-
regularity.
There has been duplication OF num-
bers on bonds" said MFR. Mellon, but
for every bond that has gone out its
face value has been paid into the
Treasury"
The Treasury has found nothing
alarming in its examination of
charges made by Brewer, Secretary
Mellon asserted. He added that there
had been no loss either to the public
or to the government found. Further
action by the Senate was promised
today by Senator Caraway, democrat,
Arkansas to a delegation OF the dis
charged employees Of the bureau who
called to report to him the failure Of
Secretary Mellon to carry out his an
nounced intention of restoring their
positions or others OF equal i'm
l'portance.
Treasury Plans Reply.
Brewers charges will be answered
in detail by the Treasury Immediate
ly upon completion by it of its inves-
tigation into the basis for the accu-
sations Court action instituted by
Mr.. Brewer. who still is on the De-
partment of Justice rolls. Will be an
swered by the Department of Justice
itself. since the Attorney General was
made party to the suit.
Mr.. Mellon said there had been
found isolated cases where two bonds
bore the same numbers, but that
when the indicated Irregularities had
been traced down Treasury investi-
igators had discovered that either the
next preceding or next following
number was missing.
! 1t was important to note. he said, that
so few mechanical errors had occurred
as have been found in the preparation
of more than 100000, 900 pieces Of fed
eral securities-the approximate num-
Der issued since the beginning Of the
| world war.
| Brewer has sued for an Injunction
! them from taking certain securities he
has been using in his investigation of
! bureau OF engraving and printing af-
fairs, and the report was filed with the
|
! case.
| Denies Harding Misled.
A denial that he had misled President
Harding into dismissing the twenty.
eight bureau employees was included by
Brewer. who said the President was
aware of conditions before seeing
Brewer, and that he was fully justified
in his action
| Some of the facts Brewer said he
expected to prove were:
| That conditions in the bureau of
engraving in March, 1922. were well
nigh appalling.
knowledge of duplicate bonds was
suppressed by Treasury officials and
the secret service.
! Secret service called off duplicate
bond investigation. December. 1919.
! '1nordinate number of duplicates
appear in certain listed lots" of sur
| rounded bonds.
Half Of the surrendered bonds
/; were destroyed and with them all
/ Surrendered bonds were destroyed
when known to be duplicates"
= Denies Mechanical Error.
Brewer said President Harding had
to twice order the stopping of the
bond destruction and that inspection
of the bonds showed the duplication
was not caused by slips of the num-
bering machines.
| Duplicates had been traced, Brewer
said. ito Treasury sources from sur
rendered bonds stolen from Treasury
! vaults: from 'unisSued stock (within
control of the Treasury); from 'allot-
! ment credit (within control of the
Treasury and reserve banks): from
! Treasury, and from. the Treasury's
bond purchase redemption fund"
| Bonds issued in lots from the
| Treasury, Brewer recited. had been
tion. he said, had been thwarted and
nearly blocked by the Treasury.
"The charge that duplicate liberty
bonds existed" Mr.. Brewer said,
| in April: 1921. from Representative
Royal G. Johnson, republican. Of
! South Dakota, who received them
from a constituent, J. w. McCarter
who was assistant register Of the
| tratton. McCarter, he said. COM
| planned that he was discharged for
| bringing the complaint to the notice
of Treasury officials
Warning Emphatic.
"McCarter," Brewer continued. twas
4
with large ramifcations, including
| the secret service, held sway in the
| Treasury, and extreme caution would
be necessary in any Investigation ex-
! pected to make progress"
Referring to the discharge Of the
| bureau Of engraving employees, Brew
! er said:
IT made a report to the Attorney
General on the duplicate bond situa-
| tion Of December 21. 1921, concerning
various divisions OF the Treasury. and
! incidentally in that report made ref
| erence. to the bureau of engraving in
several very questionable proceed
| ings, seemingly concerned with the
bond situation, as they had been re-
peated to me. But I ended the re-
port with the statement that there
was uncertainty and that injustice
nigh be done unless records were
examined. The President never saw
this report until August, 1922"
Came After Discharges.
This was after the discharges at
the bureau OF engraving.
| Brewer yesterday submitted some
Of his alleged duplicate securities to
members Of Congress. and 1t is ex-
pected the matter will be carried to
the floor of the House. Meanwhile
Treasury officials insist that Brewer
has failed to prove his case and that
investigation has shown there was
no dishonesty; that no bonds not au-
thorized were issued. The discharged
| employees have been ordered rein
| stated.
| The dismissed employees told Sena-
tor Caraway that Secretary Mellon