Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-08-27

en- u n ter1ng, DAVID Lawrence.
then Congress might well begin to
re-examine Government expenses
to see what the non-war items are
that are costing even more than
they did in the acute days of de-
preston.
Today comes a letter, for example,
from prominent man in Okla
homa who tells of what appears to
be a new kind of political racket"
growing out of the alleged needs of
the national defense situation. He
writes:
Through w P. A. Administrator
Harrington, Oklahoma was offered
100000, available July l, for the
purpose of making white-collar
project to survey the defense re-
sources of the State. The State
Chamber of Commerce and the
Oklahoma City Chamber of Com
merce and Oklahoma University
were approached as being the most
likely co-Sponsors. The matter was
referred to committee of the Okla
homa Chamber of Commerce. How
ever, before this committee was
named, the officers of the State
Chamber of Commerce raised a
question as to whether such large
sum was necessary and State Ad-
ministator Stephens Of w. P. A. said
they would consent to cut it down
to S274,0O0, with a proviso that the
amount could be increased later.
Surveys Already Made.
1.-THE project calls for four months
work which was to have begun July
I and end November /, which, by
strange coincidence, happens to be
Just before the election. Even after
the cut was made, the plan called
for about 1900 workers and an ex-
penditure of large sums of money
and thousands of dollars, for files,
cabinets, electric fans, supplies, etc.
When the committee got into action,
one of its members became SUI
spicious and investigated through a
number of sources and found that
two very complete surveys OF war
resources had been made, one by
the War Department and the other
by the United States Census
Bureau. Each of them sufficient in
all respects. Besides that, there is
information in the files of the State
petroleum industry, the State Geo.
logical Survey and other public or
official organizations.
when this information was pre-
sented to the committee, they de-
cided to drop the whole matter
and our last information is that the
project is dead. assume, however,
that similar offers have been made
by the w. P. A. authorities to other
States and assume some of them
have been accepted.
This is a bare-faced political
racket involving the squandering of
taxpayers hard-earned money for
q 100-per-cent useless project, and
this at q time when people are
asked to sacrifice for defense"
Strategic Distribution of Funds.
While the w. P. A. presumably
Is banned under the Hatch Act
from engaging in political activity,
there is no law against the strategic
distribution of funds among the
citizens to build up political
strength. The mere ALLEGATION of
funds is regarded by candidates for
public Office as warranting an ex-
preston of gratitude by voters and
in many instances individuals will
electioneer among their friends in
ways that cannot possibly be po-
Iced under the Hatch law-some-
thing the practical politicians will
not be slow to point out, especially
since the Department of Justice of
the Roosevelt administration did
not prosecute anybody in the Demo-
cratic party for violations OF the
Federal Corrupt Practices Act in
1896 in connection with the illegal
sale of the campaign book to cor
porations which, since 1909, have
been forbidden to contribute to po-
litical campaigns.
The Importance of the w. P. A..
cannot be underestimated in a po-
ftical campaign. In 1896, the
statistics show that when the w.
P. A. expenditures were divided
into high, medium and low-these