Evening star., 1934-01-17
Destruction Was Ordered by
Him a Year Ago, Says
. Ex-Secretary.
BLACK ISSUES SUMMONS
FOR GLOVER TO APPEAR
Witness Says Correspondence Was
Personal and Unrelated to
Airmail Contracts.
e.,
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
r. L. John, formerly personal secre-
tary to W. Irving Glover, Second As
sistant Postmaster General in the Hoo
yer administration told Senate investi-
gators today that all Glover's airmail
files were destroyed in January. 1888,
on Glover's order.
Chairman Black soon afterward is
sued summons for Glover to testify
before the committee.
John said Glover also had destroyed
all correspondence taken from Glover's
records from 1921 to 1925. when he was
third assistant. This was gathered up
with the later correspondence he said.
Admits Burning Letters.
He testified that it was customary
for copies of Browns official corre-
spondence to be sent to Glovers ONCE
for filing.
Shortly after the investigation start
ed, a Post Office Department stenogra-
pher told the committee he had burned
some Of the ofiicial correspondence OF
former Postmaster General Walter F.
Brown at the order of Browns secretary.
Glover's correspondence was de-
stroyed in the usual way John SAID
John said that much Of the corre-
spondence was Of a personal nature and
that none of 1t had anything to DO
with actual mail contracts" although
they related to mail routes.
Reveals Absence of Letters.
J. j. Doran. post Office inspector,
earlier had told the committee that
correspondence relating to airmail con-
tracts had disappeared from the hles
Of Glover.
File envelopes, bare of correspond
ence. were introduced into the record.
According to the notations on the en-
yelopes they referred to contract mail
routes from Chicago to San Francisco.
Chicago to New Orleans, Detroit to
Cleveland and many other important
routes.
Paul Branif Of Oklahoma City. inde-
pendent airline operator. told the COM
mittee that Brown. awarded mail
contract to Transcontinental & West
ern Air after telling him that his planes
of the same type as those used by
the T. q w. A.--were not satisfactory.
Says His Bid Was Low.
Braniff said lie had sought a con-
tract for a Chicago Oklahoma City
route on which he was operating a
passenger schedule. and that al House
committee hearing Brown told him his
mind was mot OPEN for single-mo-
tored planes such as he used.
Later he testified, T. &, w. A. got a
contract with the identical type of
plane
Braniff said he was operating his
planes at a cost of 1512 cents a mile
and he had offered to carry the mail
at one-haf the amount now paid.
The Governments subsidy over his
competitors route, Braniff testified, was
at the rate of approximately 80 cents
a mile
His own actual receipts, from passen-
gers only. averaged about l212 cents. he
said.
Braniff said he had started the first
regular passenger line in the South
west, from Dallas to Wichita Falls,
Tex, and to Oklahoma City.
Asserts Losses Jumped.
When control of the company was
sold to subsidiary of Aviation Corpo-
ration in 1929, he said, the lines losses,
which had been $4,000 in nine months,
jumped to $240.000 in six months.
Fundamentally, the difference was
between spending our own money and
somebody else's,'' he explained in an
swer to Chairman Blacks question.
Large sums we're spent for useless
purposes, he said, including payment of
big salaries.
Braniff said losses were so great he
sold $4,000 of his $500 stock in the
new company and traded the rest for
a desk and couple of chairs"
The committee heard yesterday how
a young mans $40 investment in avia-
ton stock turned out to be worth more
than $4,000 900 within four years. Be-
fore the day was out, however. that
same young man. Charles w. Deeds,
found himself confronted with the pos
sibility of q Federal investigation OF
his income tax returns.
Charges by William B. Robertson OF
st. Louis that Brown had gone back on
promise to give his company an air
mail contract and that Robertson had
been approached by Missouri politician
q contract award in return for cut OF
the receipts were heard at yesterday s
hearing.
Deeds, 81, who admitted having had
little aviation experience. told how he
made a $40 investment in Pratt d
Whitney Aircraft Co. stock in 1926 and
how it became worth $5,624 $40 in
May. 1929.
The stock-200 shares at 20 cents a
share-drew a 79-to-1 share stock divi-
dend and then was exchanged fol
34,720 United Aircraft shares in Feb
ruary, 1929, Deeds testified. when the
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