The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-12
USED FUNDS OF VE'TERAMF0R
 HIS JOYR[DES
Forbes Paid $1O5,OOO For California Farm As
 Site For Hospital
tUuSrnued From Page D

tain who should have authority to sign contracts, the director of the bureau or the quartermaster generals department of the army. Which, in reason and common sense, should have exercised this function, no detached observer doubts. The director had little rough experience in building; the quartermas- ter generals department was staffed with experts. In the period between the armistice, and the information of the Veterans bureau, the quartermaster' s department, and it's allied departments had built 19 permanent hospitals with reasonable efficiency and with no hint of irregular practices. And the law, &C., cording to attorneys who had looked into this question might soundly have been interpreted either way.
 Forbes passed the matter up to the President, who, by executive routine, sent it on to the Attorney Generals department.
 Back came an opinion; the director of the Veterans bureau had authority to sign the contracts. This put Forbes into an excellent strategic position. He could sign, or he could let the quarter master generals department sign, ac- cording as it suited the diplomacies of the case. Now the quartermaster gen. erals department, as I have said, was full of building experts. They had plans and models already drawn for standard hospitals on the unit system. They were capable of supervising every detail of hospital construction-and without extra cost to the government since the experts were drawing salaries, work or no work.
 Paid Nearly $1OO,0OO
 Nevertheless, Matthew OBrien was appointed planning and supervising architect at fee of $64,O00. Extra items eventually raised the cost of this transaction to nearly $10O,000. Ac- cording to witness at the Senate en- quiry, OBrien, arriving at Washing ton, visited the Veterans bureau and asked to look over the standard govern ment plans. With the help of gov ernment draftsmen, he sketched the essentials of these drawings and blue prints and spent several days in con- ference with Charles H. Stratton, chief of designing.
 His own plans, when submitted, had strong family resemblance to those
 
 defective; and the Livermore hospital job stopped dead. Only last month, after nearly two years of delay, was ground finally broken. This was to be tuberculosis sanitarium. Mean time. the tuberculosis cases among our veterans have tended to seek milder airs and therefore to pile up on the Pacific Coast. And many of the "tem- porary hospitals, where they have been coughing their lives away and meditating on the gratitude of repub- lies, are unsanitary and unsuitable.
 Before Mortimer brought to the surface the inside workings of the veterans bureau, we catch only .gllmpses. At best there was wasteful- ness, and gross carelessness in the purchase of supplies. When General Hines, the new director, looked sketch fly over the affairs of the bureau, he found on hand enough floor wax and floor Cramer to last hundred years sor so. It had been purchased mostly from the Continental Chemical com pany in three or four large consign- ments. at a total cost of $7O,944. .45. The cleaner, which cost the govern ment about ninety-elght cents a gallon, was sent to the bureau of standards for analysis. This is a passage from their report:
 Sample is liquid soap very low in anhydrous soap and containing small amount of sodium carbonate If material represented by this sample is satisfactory for your purpose, it is sug- gested that a solution of about three ounces of chip soap and about four ounces of soda ash in a gallon of wa ter would approximate the material re- ported herewith and would be much more economical.
 GEORGE K. BURGESS. Director.
 Cost Three Cents a Gallon
 MaJor-General ORyan, attorney for the Senate committee investigating this case, brought out the fact that chip soap would cost 1.4 cents gallon, and soda ash 2.16 cents a gallon, making the cost exclusive of water 3.20 cents gallon. But the government paid 9S cents. As for the floor wax: in such enormous quantities it formed fire hazard. Finally, most of it was de- stroyed by order of the director. Fred E. Hamilton, investigator for General Hines. says in his official report |: f."'There are indications of favoritism if not actual collusioh or connivance in the placing of the order the Vet erans' bureau suffered a severe loss, if it was not actually defrauded.' He recommends that the department of jus tice take the matter up. It was taken up; not by the department of justice, however, but by the Senate.
 But these charges were only hints D and capital gossip when, in the summer of 1922, director of the Veterans bu- reau decided to swing round the coun- ] try, inspecting hospital sites.
 Ostensibly, but only ostensibly, he was choosing sites also. In reality, that choice, with two or three exceptions, had already been made and had been o.K'd by the President. And there seemed no disingenous reason why this information should not have been given to the public However, Forbes was to keep the list secret, and in commun- ity after community to receive some- what commercial hoSatality built on hopes of a hospital deal. Just strung 'en along!" says Mortimer.
 v Invited to Party
 Mortimer and Mrs. Mortimer were invited to join the party. Taking Forbes testimony before the Senate committee at it's face value, the inclu- sion of the Mortimers is hard to ex- plain. Forbes said that Mortimer abused his wife, was a character whom he never liked; had never talked busi- ness" with him, Forbes. Above all, he testified that Mortimer had not custom iarily paid. his (Forbes) hotel bills Mortimer bld a different story. From his first meeting with Forbes he had paid, paid, paid. There was a four day party at Atlantic City, for ex- : ample. He settled for that, to the last bottle of mineral water. In fact, he presented in evidence q sheaf of re-