The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-12-01
FORBES Holds
KEY TO LUR|D
PLUMBER TALE
Promised Revelations May
Clear Up Mysteries of
Harding Regime.
INNER CIRCLE HABITUE
Close Friend Of President;
Center of Tense Drama
in Capital.
BY JOHN M. GLEIssNER

BY JOHN M. GLEISSNER
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1. Col.
Charles R. Forbes may explain
many mysterious and unexplained
things that happened during the
presidency of Warren G. Harding
when he returns to Washington.
Forbes, just released from Leav-
enworth prison, where he was sent
after conviction of having con-
spired to defraud the United States
in connection with the awarding of
contracts for construction of vet
Grams hospitals, promises revela-
lions.
His intinaates in the Capital be-
lieve he can tell much, if he
chooses.
If Forbes speaks freely, say his
friends, we shall have stories of the
betrayal of public trust and of
plumber through politics, the whole
of it intershot with the human
drama Of tangled personal relation
ships, love and jealousy.
Might Tell of Smith
Forbes, say his friends, might tell
why he believes Jess Smith, agent
of the diScredited Attorney Gen
eral Harry M. Daugherty, was muir
deued. Official records say Smith
killed himself.
He might tell of political pres
sure brought to bear on him dur
ing the time the Government was
spending millions to buy and build
hospitals for veterans of the war,
when he was director of the Vet
Grams Bureau.
Forbes was in Honolulu when
Harding, as a senator, went there
on a jllnket. It fell to his lot to
entertain this visiting celebrity.
They became good friends.
Harding wanted his friend Forbes
in Washington in later years, when
ne had attained the White House.
Forbes, a successful constructing
engineer On the west coast, con-
Sented-unwillingly, his friends say
when the president was insistent.
Forbes is reputed to have been Of
fered a place on the Shipping
Board and offered the governorship
Of Alaska.
Charged With Graft
Finally Forbes took the Job of
director of the Veterans Bureau.
The attention of Congress early
was drawn to the independent de-
partment over which he presided.
There were charges that disabled
veterans were neglected; that there
was graft and profitable favoritism
in the organization that had more
than 100000 men receiving voca-
tional training.
An investigation was ordered, and
made by a committee of Congress.
Forbes indictment and conviction
followed.
Forbes resigned before the inves-
ration. His friends say he quit
acsuse he disobeyed the Presidents
arJcr to approve the purchase of a
hospital, in the sale of which a
leader in the House was interested.
Forbes enemies will say he quit
because sales of surplus property at
Perryville, Ind, continued after the
President had ordered them stopped.
Own Life Is Drama
Forbes own life is a drama-his
enlistment in the Army, his mar
riage, his divorce, his remarrriage-
service as a private, as colonel Che
won the distinguished service medal
and declined the distinguished serv-
ice cross, as friend and confidant
Of the first citizen-and finally, as
a convict.
And through the whole panorama
Forbes was but an individual in a
gigantic and grotesque circus. The
performers knew each other well.
In the show is Brig. Gen. Charles
=. Sawyer, that strange little man
from Ohio, the Presidents family
physician, country practitioner
who suddenly found himself in the
uniform of high officer. The
chief co-ordinator" of the vast
machinery the Government had
tried to erect to care for the un-
fortunates of the great war, who
uarreled with Forbes.
Drama Behind Scenes
And Charles F. Cramer, chief
counsel of Forbes bureau, who
killed himself. Cramer, whom
Forbes did not know, but yet ap-
pointed when pressure came from
higher authority.
Elias H. Mortimer, who lived at
Wardman Park Hotel, another per-
former. Mortimer, who accused
Forbes, and who more than any
one else, was responsible for
Forbes imprisonment.
And behind these scenes, the
tangled skeins of human relation
ship. revenge. Meantime, Forbes is
free. What he has to tell, and
what he will tell. remains to be
seen.