The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-12-21

Inside fact was that almost nobody wanted this trial to take place = least of all the govern ment. Too much dynamite was likely to be touched off in high places.
 That was why Frank Speicher, the star witness, although first arrested in New York in 1884, was not called upon to testify for four years. That also may have been why the prosecution handled the defense with kid-glove court eSy. CCC Kit-BagS
 Behind -the-scenes story of the Army contract trial is better than fiction, and illustrates the advan- tage of two-party system. The New Deal had no effective op- position in 1883 and the pur- chase of supplies sometimes was free and easy matter of dinner table conversation. Thus Basil O'Connor, law partner of the President, was able to walk in to see the late Louey Howe and sell the eco, on behalf of Brooklyn client, a quantity of toilette kit bags at a price considerably high- CT than the army was paying.
 Naturally this annoyed Quar-
 termaster General John l.. De-
 Witt, who called up Senator Da-
 vid A. Reed of Pennsylvania,
 ex-Republican chairman of the Senate Military Affairs com
 mittee and an old classmate of
 DeWitt's at Princeton. Dewitt
 told him what the Democrats
 were getting away with.
 Senator Reed thereupon leaked the story to the Republican New York Herald Tribune, following it with an investigation by the sen- ate military affairs committee.
 At this point there enters upon the scene Joe Silverman, sec ond-hand clothing dealer in more army underpants, raincoats, shoes and tents than almost any man in the country.
 Two Apartments
 Joe Silverman had two apart mentS at the Wardman Park ho- tel, one of which he rented to Senator Carey of Wyoming, Re- publican member of the military affairs committee. And by listen- ing at the closet door in the ad- joining apartment, Joe overheard senate strategy discussed by Sen- ator Carey and Assistant Quar- termaSter General Gibbons, sup piled this advance strategy to the Democrats and thus contributed to the washing of the en- tire kit-bag deal.
 Silverman previously had pur- chased from the War Department 500,000 raincoats for $105 each and 100000 for 5 cents each. He had also purchased a large quan- tity of army underwear, with the understanding it would be sold only in foreign countries. This was in the Hoover days of dis armament, when the army was dumping its surplus supplies.
 But now under Roosevelt, the
 army began to buy new supplies
 for the eco, including rain- coats, for which it was paying
 as high as $2.47. So Silverman
 offered to sell back 5000 army raincOats-which he had never taken out of War Department
 warehouses-fOr 67 cents each.
 General Dewitt, still irked, re- fused to buy them. He got an order from Harry Woodring. then assistant secretary of war, for bidding the repurchase of army supplies except at their previous price.
 No Sale for Underwear
 Silverman also had tried to sell his Army underwear to Halle Selassie in Ethiopia and to Bo- livia and Paraguay in the Chaco, but got nowhere. The world market for underwear was low. Meanwhile a Boston firm, equal ly stuck with army underwear. had hired a Democratic national committeeman from New Hamp- shire, Bob Jackson, and a secre- tary of Governor Curley of Mass achusetts.